Ume Aoki (
Japanese: 蒼樹 うめ,
Hepburn: Aoki Ume, born August 3, 1981) is a Japanese
manga artist,
illustrator and
dōjin artist from
Hyōgo Prefecture. She officially romanizes her name as aokiume.[1][2][3] She illustrates under the pennames apricot+ for many of her
dōjinshi,[4] and Apply Fujimiya (藤宮 アプリ, Fujimiya Apuri) for the visual novel Sanarara.
Aoki provided the voice for her
Metapod persona in the
Shaft anime adaptation of her
four-panelcomic stripHidamari Sketch.[5] She later created the original character designs for Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a Shaft anime production;[6] and has been involved with the franchise—spanning several films, mobile games, manga, novels, and further television anime series—since then.