Ken Akamatsu

Ken Akamatsu

Aliases	Awa Mizuno
Birth Date	July 5th, 1968
Age
Zodiac Sign	Cancer
Blood Type	B
Residence
Affiliations	Cu-Little
Occupation	Mangaka
First Work	Hito Natsu no Kids Game

Ken Akamatsu (赤松健 Akamatsu Ken) is a celebratory mangaka (Manga author/artist) from Tokyo. He is credited for the creation of such manga series as Itsudatte My Santa!, A.I. Love You, Love Hina, Negima! Magister Negi Magi, Hito Natsu no Kids Game, and Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan.

Biography[]

Born July 5, 1968, in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, Akamatsu applied himself to Film Study when in his teens. Eventually, he became famous as an illustrator featured in Comiket (a comic convention held bi-annually in Japan) during which he used the pen name Awa Mizuno (水野亜和 Mizuno Awa).

Akamatsu then proceeded to win the Weekly Shonen Magazine award twice while still in college studying the Department of Literature Country Literature course in Chuo University. Soon after he graduated, his creation, Hito Natsu no Kids Game, was awarded the coveted 50th Shonen Magazine Newcomer's Award.

After a big hit with A.I. Love You, his following manga, Love Hina, was a grand success. The series appeared in Weekly Shonen Magazine and has been collected in eleven volumes (with fourteen volumes in total), which have sold over 6 million copies in Japan, and received the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen in 2001. Akamatsu had added elements of his own life experiences to the story, including his failure to get into Tokyo University, and this was said to have induced a unique feeling to the manga especially for Western readers, whose lack of familiarity with Japanese culture for the most part added to the effect. The series, published in America in 2002, was especially well received in many overseas countries.

Now married to Kanon Akamatsu, who was previously a Japanese pop singer/idol. He is currently working on his latest manga series, Negima! Magister Negi Magi, which is his longest running manga so far, which, like Love Hina, has also been made into an anime series.
A second independent retelling of Negima was made called Negima!?. The first anime adaption was produced by XEBEC, and the second retelling produced by Shaft. Shaft also produces all of the OVAs for Negima! Magister Negi Magi and is currently making a new Negima! OVA , Negima! Magister Negi Magi ~Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba~.

Assistants[]

Ran Ayanaga (former assistant)
MAGI (chief assistant)
MAX (background art)
Minoru (language and classical design)
Yamashita (3D Modeling)
Mitsuhashi

Works[]

Hito Natsu no Kids Game (manga)
A.I. Love You (manga)
Love Hina (manga)
Love Hina (anime)
Itsudatte My Santa! (manga)
Itsudatte My Santa! (anime)
Negima!: Magister Negi Magi (manga)
Negima!: Magister Negi Magi (anime)
Mao Chan (manga)
Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan (anime)
UQ Holder (manga)

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Sailor Moon was Akamatsu’s introduction to anime and manga fandom.
Akamatsu makes guest appearances in the Love Hina anime, Spring and Christmas specials as a characterized version of himself; a mangaka popular for the creation of A.I. Love You.
Despite its popularity in Japan, Akamatsu was surprised that even foreign readers found Love Hina to be "cute" and to their liking.
A frequent cosplayer, Kanon's costumes have been the inspiration for some of the outfits Naru Narusegawa wears.
Akamatsu has admitted that Motoko is the character he likes the most. Because of this he decided to give her more appearances in the last portion of the manga, starting with volume 13. However, he received a lot of criticism for this, particularly amongst fans who wanted to know where Mutsumi had gone.
Akamatsu's favorite secondary character is Tsuruko. Specially because of her seiyuu, Miki Nagasawa, who also did Maya in Evangelion.
The part where Keitaro gets trapped on a "desert island" is based on an episode of Doraemon. Doraemon is a great influence for Akamatsu.

External Links[]

Akamatsu Ken Wikipedia Japan
doujinshi list