Kenjirō Hata is a Japanese manga artist born on October 19, 1975, in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Before establishing his own career, he worked as an assistant to the manga artist Kōji Kumeta.

Hata is best known as the creator of the long-running series Hayate the Combat Butler, which was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine from October 2004 to April 2017. The series, which follows a teenage boy who becomes a butler to a wealthy young girl, was collected into 52 volumes and has spawned multiple anime adaptations and a film.

His next major work, Fly Me to the Moon (also known as Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You), began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 2018 and is ongoing. The story centers on a teenager named Nasa who, after being saved from an accident by a mysterious girl named Tsukasa, confesses his love to her. She agrees to date him on the condition that they marry, and the series depicts their daily life as a young married couple. The title has been adapted into an anime series, with Hata noting that his own marital status has influenced the manga's depiction of married life.

In an interview, Hata explained that while Hayate the Combat Butler emphasized comedy with at least one funny scene per page, Fly Me to the Moon was an intentional shift toward a romance-focused story with deeper conversations between a smaller cast of characters. He has stated that the characters of Nasa and Tsukasa were not designed to be consciously different from his previous work, but rather emerged from considerations of which designs would best convey emotion.

Hata has also produced several other works. The short stories God's Rocket Punch! (2002), Heroes of the Sea Lifesavers (2003), and Thunder Goddess Sofia (2003) are among his early publications. From 2011 to 2017, he collaborated with voice actress Masumi Asano, whom he later married in 2018, on the dōjin (self-published) manga Seiyu's Life!, for which Asano wrote the story and Hata provided the art. This work was released under the circle name Hajimemashite and was later adapted into an anime. He also began the series Ad Astra per Aspera in 2015, which remains on hiatus.

Hata's body of work is characterized by romantic comedy elements, frequent pop culture references, and an interest in the dynamics between small casts of characters. He has expressed that he prioritizes creating characters who express their true feelings and that he does not worry when his jokes do not land with all readers. His industry significance is marked by the commercial and critical success of Hayate the Combat Butler, one of the prominent manga series of the 2000s, and the ongoing popularity of Fly Me to the Moon, which has found an international audience. He has also contributed to anime in roles beyond the source material, including providing opening storyboard for the second season of Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You and script and storyboard work for the Hayate the Combat Butler film.