Hiroya Oku

Hiroya Oku (奥 浩哉) is a mangaka who is the creator of Gantz, Zero-One and HEN, all of which have been serialized in Young Jump. He is currently working on Phase 3 of Gantz, due to be released in October 2009. His manga often contain explicit violence and gore, as well as sexual situations.

He won the second prize of the Youth Manga Awards in 1988, under the penname Yahiro Kuon.

He designed a character for Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 fighting game, Soulcalibur IV named Shura.

Favorite things
"I would say my favorite things right now are girls in manga with girlish faces and huge tits that just jump out at you!"

Most hated thing
He has stated his hatred of cat ears on a girl.

Works

 * Hen - There are two series of Hen; the first, with kanji, ran for 13 volumes -- the first three are short story collections, and the remaining ten are a romantic comedy in which both leads are male. The short stories were later repackaged as "Aka" and "Kuro."
 * The second series, 8 volumes, with the title only in romaji, is a romantic comedy in which both leads are women.


 * Zero One
 * Ran from 1999-2000, for only three volumes, about a video game tournament. It was not successful, and ended abruptly.


 * Gantz - Currently 27 volumes. The first eight have been adapted into the two seasons of the Anime, with the final episodes of the Anime consisting of a different story that the manga follows.
 * Me~teru no Kimochi, Love Laughs at Locksmiths - 3 volumes in all, about a shut-in or hikikomori falling in love with his young stepmother after the death of his father.