Junya Kotani is a Japanese manga artist, anime creator, and film producer born in Osaka in 1980. He is known primarily as an independent creator who writes, directs, animates, and produces his own works, taking on multiple production roles that are typically divided among large teams in commercial anime.

Kotani is best recognized as the original creator of the animated film Despair of the Monster, which was released in 2019. For this project, he served as director, screenplay writer, storyboard artist, original creator, art director, producer, animator, color designer, editor, photographer, sound designer, and lyricist for the theme song. This level of creative control across nearly every aspect of production distinguishes him from most anime creators, who usually specialize in a single discipline.

Before creating Despair of the Monster, Kotani gained experience working in the background art department for the anime series Hellsing. Despite having no formal animation production experience at the time he began his independent project, he pursued the goal of creating a twenty-three minute animated film on his own. In 2016, he launched a crowdfunding campaign on the Japanese platform CAMPFIRE to raise funds for the production, with a target of 5.7 million yen. At that stage, he had already completed a one minute and forty second opening sequence, along with completed scripts and storyboards, all produced by himself over a period of one and a half months. The voice work for the project was sourced from volunteers on the Japanese voice actor爱好者 website Koebu.

As a mangaka, Kotani is recognized by the Japan Media Arts Festival archive, though no published manga works have been documented in major databases. His artistic identity is defined by a do it yourself approach to animation, where a single individual manages everything from initial concept through final sound mixing. This approach represents an alternative model to Japan's mainstream commercial animation industry, which typically relies on specialized studios and large production committees. Kotani himself has expressed the view that if projects like his succeed, it could usher in an era where independent animators freely organize and distribute their own works. His significance to the industry lies in demonstrating the possibilities of low budget, solo driven animation production, challenging conventional assumptions about the resources required to create a complete animated film.