Naru Nanao(七尾 奈留,Nanao Naru) (pseudonym) is a female Japanese artist from Okinawa, Japan. Nanao's choice of her pseudonym stems from the Circus' game Aries; one of the characters was named Runa Nanao(七尾 留奈,Nanao Runa). She is a free illustrator and thus is not affiliated with one single company; she is primarily a character designer. She began working with video game developers in 2000, but she is most well known for providing original character design for three heroines in the original D.C.: Da Capovisual novel by Circus released in 2002. Other works include Canvas 2: Niji Iro no Sketch, Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two., and Sola. At one point, she only went by her given name Naru. She is the supervisor of her dōjinshi circle known as "Ice and Chocolate"(あいすとちょこ,Aisu to Choko). She often collaborates with another circle named "Poteneko"(ぽてねこ). She even provided the front-cover illustration for the Comiket 70catalog for August 2006.
