Ken Akamatsu

Ken Akamatsu

(赤松 健, Akamatsu Ken?, July 5, 1968) is a Japanese mangaka from Tokyo.

In his teens, Akamatsu applied himself to Film Study (it is speculated that this is where he got the idea for Love Hina). Eventually, he became famous as an illustrator featured in Comiket (a comic convention held bi-annually in Japan). He used the pen name Awa Mizuno (水野 亜和, MIZUNO Awa?). Akamatsu, still in college (Japanese literature course at Chuo University), then proceeded to win the Weekly Shonen Magazine award twice. Soon after he graduated, his "A Kid's Game for One Summer" was awarded the coveted 50th Shonen Magazine Newcomer's Award.

After a big hit with A.I. Love You, he finally made a grand success with his new manga, Love Hina. 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, 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 - Akamatsu was surprised that even foreign readers found Love Hina to be "cute" and to their liking.

He is now married to his wife 'Kanon' Akamatsu, who was previously a 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~.

Along with working on the Negima manga, he was also helping with the live action Negima! series.