Marino Satoh was a prolific doujinshi artist active from approximately 1986 to 1998, with the most active period falling around 1989 to 1995. She began in the Shojo genre (comics for girls and young teens) in 1986, but soon switched to BL, with a clear preference for long-haired prettyboys. An early BL work (at least, I think it is) is called TeenBeat, and was made in 1986. Intriguingly named "Last Issue", but that might just be a name, and not an indication this one is the last in a series!

At least, I'm assuming Marino Satoh is female, because most BL artists are, and especially back then. "Marino Satoh"* is also the name of a male F2 driver, though his name is spelled "佐藤万璃音", as opposed to "佐藤真理乃". Also the F2 driver was born in 1991, so it is somewhat difficult for him to have been making doujinshi in 1989.

*-Alternative spellings: "Satō" or the literal "Satou"

I first discovered her work while browsing the late, lamented Oranda, an extremely crammed bookshop near Hankyu Takatsuki station. Namely, I discovered this beautiful pencil-coloured cover:

The chapter of this story being called a "round" initially made me think this was a boxing story. Because that guy looks so much like a boxer. Anyway, surprise surprise, he isn't. He's the heir to a huge business conglomerate in Hong Kong. His pale skin and red eyes are due to a form of albinism. As he is heir to a big business empire, there's a lot of dark intrigue and fawning flatterers trying to get close to him. Apparently there's an arranged marriage in the works, but he has eyes for only one beloved... and that's not a woman!

Something about this wonderful cover, and the look of the book (and the very little I could read / find out about it online) really spoke to me. Next chance I got, I went back to Oranda on another hunt for original doujinshi, but this time I was also after Marino Satoh in particular! I found some more Red Dragon (other covers are painted, or rushed or maybe even computer coloured, not pencil. One I've seen online is a filtered photo of the Hong Kong skyline!). As Oranda was extremely crammed, there were huge stacks of doujins I never even got to look at, which may have contained more Marino Satoh goodness. I'll never know, now. Last time I went to Oranda the interior was blank breeze blocks - entirely cleared out! I have an unpleasant suspicion all the unsold stock went in a skip.

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Fans online consider Red Dragon to be Marino Satoh's "signature" series. It's certainly the longest! But she made plenty else, including a short series (maybe only two books) called You Give Love A Badname, which it took me an embarrasing length of time to realize was a Bon Jovi reference. So not only does she like prettyboy buttsecks, she likes fist-in-the-air stadium rock, too!

It's not about the IRL members of Bon Jovi engaging in buttsecks backstage... which is something that is not entirely out of the question in the world of Doujinshi. I've seen plenty of books about the members of two-piece band B'z down the years... and, doubtless, in the 90's there was plenty about the members of Boyzone and Take That. imagine that happening in the west! Japan's doujinshi culture really must be defended at all costs.

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Another series was called Mirage of the Blaze (there was also Mirage of the Flame, which may have been a prequel or sequel), which she worked on with Ryouko Mube. I should add at this point that she didn't work alone. In common with many doujinshi artists, Marino Satoh was part of a "circle". Her one was called Sugar League (sometimes spelled Suger League), and had other members who contributed to books, often writing the stories while Marino did the art. Red Dragon was absolutely her own baby, though!

Sugar League even had a "magazine" of sorts, regular anthology doujinshi which the different members contributed to. Marino Satoh also contributed to numerous other anthologies, both doujinshi and properly published ones! Actually, it seems like some of her earliest work in 1986-7 was in published anthologies, and not on the amateur circuit! Though there had been a regular BL magazine since at least 1975 (imagine a "gay comic" being openly sold to teens, in regular newsagents, in the UK back then!) called Jun (later renamed June), I guess she preferred the freedom to do what she wanted in self-publishing, once she gave up on the shoujo.

Angel Wars (title inspiration obvious! was another early work)

She didn't entirely eschew professional publishing, though - putting out a series called Dear Friend through some obscure Kobunsha Shoujo / BL imprint. According to a review I saw, "it" never happens. A BL disguised as a more innocent Shoujo? Either way, it ran to only 3 volumes, and is a bit of a rarity now. It's also the only thing by Marino Satoh in the Kyoto International Manga Museum. Which is still three times more representation than the entire British industry!

There was another series (or maybe just one book!) called Scratch of the Sun, which, from it's thickness, also appears to have been a professional job, published by Rapport Comics. A taller and more manly brunette holding a frail blonde to him... she certainly had a type!

And here's some other stuff I found kicking about the net...

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Red Dragon in Doujinshi form possibly ended around 1997 or 1998. It was then collected and officially published by a publisher called Hit Comics, occasionally under an imprint called Seraphim Comics (it seems like the use of this imprint was inconsistent).

Hit Comics is a very wierd publisher to be putting out a BL comic, especially one with a focus on business intrigue, which doesn't even have "action" in every chapter. That is because Hit Comics is a porn publisher! And a porn publisher aimed at men, at that! Most of their stuff is straight or "graphic lesbian" (as opposed to Yuri, which is aimed at female readers and focuses on the romance, though is still fappable. also 99% of it is put out by just one publisher!). For some strange reason, in the late 90's they decided to make a pivot to BL, officially publishing doujinshi series by Marino Satoh, Belne and a few others.

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It was in this form that Red Dragon really found an audience, though it remains but a footnote in the manga world as a whole. In fact, Hit Comics' version of Red Dragon was popular enough that it was reprinted in South Korea! ...though I've since lost the link to the evidence I had of that (which was a finished auction on a Korean bookselling website).

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Have some Japanese auctions of sets instead

Unfortunately, Red Dragon wasn't finished in this form, as apparently Hit Comics went bust. Though I'm sure I've seen Hit comics newer than 1998/99! Maybe they just decided to stop publishing BL and left the creators in the lurch. Either way, it seems after that, Marino Satoh just disappeared off the face of the earth! Maybe she was burned out of making comics, got a "real job", or got married and was too busy raising kids (who'd be adults now, mind you!) to draw any more. She still has a small fanbase, who have made some posts online wondering where she is, and what she's up to now. Apparently many of them only own Red Dragon as the Hit Comics version, and want to read the ending - which only appeared in the rarer doujinshi.

Red Dragon, among others, advertised on the dust jacket of a Belne book from Hit Comics

On another page I found once, but can't find any more, it was hinted that a "Marino Satoh" has done some more recent BL doujinshi about the series Yuri On Ice (or Iec, as one cover has it!), as part of a circle named Omegaverse. As "our" Marino Satoh did almost entirely original stories, this is likely to be somebody else.

Oh, also once upon a time I thought I had FOUND Marino Satoh! A woman doing bit-parts on TV, who was born in 1967, lining up her age perfectly to make her publishing debut at 18 or 19... but that person wasn't "佐藤まりの", the page title was "佐藤まりの", which is totally different. Her name is just "Mari Sato".