Akifumi Kaneko is a Japanese creator known primarily as the co-creator, original author, and main scriptwriter for the Senki Zesshō Symphogear anime franchise. His full name in Japanese is 金子彰史. Kaneko began his career in the video game industry, entering the field in 1991. He is widely recognized for his work on the Wild Arms role-playing game series, where he served as lead designer and scenario writer for several installments, including the original Wild Arms in 1996, Wild Arms 2, Wild Arms 3, and Wild Arms 4.

Kaneko’s most significant contribution to anime and manga is the Symphogear franchise. He is credited as the original creator alongside Noriyasu Agematsu, with Kaneko responsible for the series composition and scripts across all five television anime seasons. These seasons are Senki Zesshō Symphogear (2012), Senki Zesshō Symphogear G (2013), Senki Zesshō Symphogear GX (2015), Senki Zesshō Symphogear AXZ (2017), and Senki Zesshō Symphogear XV (2019). In addition to the anime, he also wrote the script for the first Symphogear manga adaptation, which began serialization in 2011. His involvement with the anime extended to the production level, with reports indicating he served as a supervisor and that his original concepts for the series were shaped by production constraints, leading to ideas being revised or repurposed for later seasons.

Beyond Symphogear, Kaneko’s creative identity is strongly tied to his earlier work in video games. His background in game design, particularly the Wild Arms series, has been noted as a recurring influence on his later anime work, with elements such as specific terminology and character archetypes carrying over between the two bodies of work. He founded a company called Witchcraft in 2008 after leaving Media.Vision, the studio where he developed the Wild Arms games. In later years, he held an executive role at Aria Entertainment.

His industry significance stems from his successful transition from a prominent video game scenario writer to the original creator and main writer of a long-running, multi-season anime franchise. He remains active in anime production, with credits as an original planner for the Princession Orchestra anime series that began in 2025.