Okazaki made her debut in 1983 in Manga Burikko, a manga magazine primarily aimed for adults. Deviating from the traditional notions of love and romance in girl-mangas, such as innocence and the ethereality, Okazaki’s characters are bold and freewheeling, holding unconventional sets of values. In the 1990s, she begins to engage in more dense themes, depicting the multifarious dimensions of society with a more objective and unflustered perspective, leading her to produce one of her greatest works/pieces, River’s Edge. The story takes place in a suburban housing area, constructed during the period of high economic growth, and features a high school student. A relatively conventional setting at first glance, betrays the reader’s expectation as the manga follows the character’s blank gaze on a corpse found in the grass of a nearby riverbed, without neither signs of fear nor reality. The emergence of the new generation – the so called “Shin-Jinrui” (new human species), the bubble economy and its burst/destruction, the Miyazaki Tsutomu incident,* are some phenomena of the period which signified the disintegration of the social cohesion, until then held together by the universally shared vision and values in reconstructing and modernizing the nation. Okazaki firmly established her position as a manga artist by acutely depicting the emptiness that was prevalent at the time and the everyday of people who live by the pleasure of the moment. HELTER SKELTER, features a beautiful model, whose body underwent a total cosmetic surgery, and illustrates the accelerating derailment of her success. Here, she exposes with much reality, the obsession, jealousy, and deprivation caused by the desire to acquire “beauty” and the overpowering economic and commercial circumstances surrounding such desire.

* Miyazaki Tsutomu killed 4 young girls by between 1988 and 1989, and became to be known as the ‘otaku’ murderer.

1983年，岡崎在一本主要面向成人的漫画杂志《漫画ブリッコ》（Manga Burikko1）中初次献艺。不同于少女漫画中对爱和浪漫感情的传统观念，诸如纯真、轻妙，岡崎的人物大胆奔放，持有的是非传统的价值观。在1990年代，她开始介入更厚重的种种主题，以一种更客观从容的视角描述世态万象，创作出其代表作《河之边》(『リバーズ・エッジ』, River’s Edge) 。故事发生在一个经济高速成长期开发的郊外住宅区，讲的是一位高中生的故事。乍看是比较习见的场景，但是，当这部漫画跟从主角对附近河床草丛中一具尸体既无恐惧感亦无真实感的茫然凝视，漫画的发展背离了读者的预期。新一代人——所谓的“新人类”（「新人類」，“Shin-Jinrui” ）的出现、泡沫经济及其崩溃、宫崎勤事件（Miyazaki Tsutomu incident）2，是这一时期的一些现象，它们表征了社会凝聚力的瓦解，这种社会凝聚力，直到当时都是由国家重建和国家现代化所共通的目标与价值观支撑、聚拢的。通过敏锐地描绘当时盛行的虚无感和靠刹那欢愉过活的人们的日常生活，岡崎坚实地奠定了其漫画艺术家地位。《仓惶》（『ヘルター・スケルター』，HELTER SKELTER）以一位美丽的模特儿为主角，她的身体经历了一次全身整形手术，她的成功加速脱轨。这里，艺术家揭露了由求“美”的欲望导致的迷恋、嫉妒和丧失，和围绕在这一欲望周围的压倒性的经济和商业环境。