Hiroya Oku is a manga artist who is the creator of Gantz, Zero One and HEN, all of which have been serialized in Young Jump. He is finished working on his most renowned manga, Gantz, which began 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. The author lives in Tokoyo Japan.