Hiroya Oku

Hiroya Oku (奥 浩哉, Oku Hiroya, born September 16, 1967) is a Japanese manga artist who is the creator of Gantz, Gigant, Hen and Inuyashiki, the first two of which have been serialized in Weekly Young Jump. Originally influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo and Ryoichi Ikegami, his manga often contain explicit violence, sexual depictions, and matters that are considered taboo by the public, and he is known as a pioneer in the use of digital processing for manga backgrounds. His debut manga Hen was a runner-up in the 1988 Young Jump Youth Manga Awards. The pseudonym he used at the time of its serialization was Kuon Yahiro (久遠 矢広). Oku designed a character for Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 fighting game, Soulcalibur IV named Shura.