Ken Akamatsu

Ken Akamatsu (赤松健 Akamatsu Ken) is a manga artist, born in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, on July 5, 1968. Most of his works involve ecchi, often having a male protagonist being surrounded by numerous girls.

In his teenage years, Akamatsu failed the entrance exam to Tokyo University, and applied for Film Study instead (it is speculated that this is where he got the idea for Love Hina). Eventually, he became famous as an illustrator featured in Comiket (short for Comic Market, a comic convention bi-annually held in Japan). He used the pen name Awa Mizuno (水野亜和 Mizuno Awa). Akamatsu, still in college, then proceeded to win the Weekly Shonen Magazine award twice. His "A Kid's Game for One Summer" was awarded the coveted 50th Shonen Magazine Newcomer's Award soon after he graduated.

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. Akamatsu had added elements of his own life experiences to the story, and this was said to have induced an 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 and is currently working on his latest manga series, Magister Negi Magi, which, like Love Hina, has also been made into an anime series.

Manga Works

Anime Works

Love Hina
Magister Negi Magi
Ground Defense Force! Mao-chan (story, character designs)
Itsudatte My Santa!

External links

Ken Akamatsu's homepage (in Japanese)
Ken Akamatsu Forum (Fan Forum)
AnimeB Love Hina/Negima/Anime Forum (Fan Forum)

Manga artists

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Ken Akamatsu

Manga Works

Anime Works

External links