Ogino was born as Anna Gaillard in Naka-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, to a Japanese mother and a French-American father.

[5] Ogino began writing in 1983 as text author for comic strips about mermaids.

Her 1991 book Watakushi no aidokusho (私の愛毒書, My love-hate affair with books), a critical novel that compares eminent male Japanese authors to different types of foods, has received scholarly attention for its subversive use of parodic language.

[6][7] In 2002 she received the 53rd Yomiuri Prize for Horafuki Anri no bōken (ホラ吹きアンリの冒険, The Adventures of Henri the Braggart).

In 2008 she received the 19th Itō Sei Literature Prize for Kani to kare to watashi (蟹と彼と私, The Crab, Him and Me), "a tour de force of parody and trauma chronicling her partner’s struggle with, and eventual death from, cancer.