Tow Ubukata, born on February 14, 1977, in Gifu Prefecture, Japan, is a novelist and screenwriter whose career spans light novels, manga, anime, and video games. His real name is Mineo Fujino. Ubukata spent a significant part of his childhood abroad, living in Singapore until the age of eight and then in Nepal until he was fourteen, before returning to Japan for his secondary education. He briefly attended Waseda University's literature department but left before completing his degree after winning the Kadokawa Sneaker Award for his debut novel, Kuroi Kisetsu, in 1996.

Ubukata is known for a transmedia approach to storytelling, often developing a single concept across novels, manga, and anime scripts, making it difficult to identify a definitive original version of his works. His early career included writing for video games, notably contributing to the script for the landmark sandbox game Shenmue (1999).

One of his most significant original creations is the cyberpunk series Mardock Scramble. The story, which follows a teenage girl transformed into a cyborg assassin in a high-tech dystopia, began as linked short stories before being compiled into light novels and eventually full-sized novels. The first three volumes, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, The Second Combustion, and The Third Exhaust, were published in 2003, and Ubukata later continued the series with Mardock Velocity and Mardock Fragments. He wrote the screenplays for the three anime film adaptations of Mardock Scramble, which were released between 2010 and 2012.

Another notable original novel is Bye Bye, Earth, a fantasy story first published in two volumes in 2000 with illustrations by Yoshitaka Amano. The story is set in a world of anthropomorphic animals where the protagonist, Belle Lablac, is the only human. A new edition of the novel, with illustrations by Hyung-Tae Kim, was released in four volumes between 2007 and 2008. This property was later adapted into a manga series running from 2020 to 2022 and subsequently into an anime television series that premiered in 2024, with a second season announced for 2025.

Ubukata has also served as the original creator for the anime series Heroic Age, which he also developed as series composer, and for the Netflix original anime Moonrise. Moonrise is a space opera directed by Masashi Koizuka at Wit Studio. Set in a future where Earth and the Moon are in conflict, the series began streaming in 2025. Ubukata had previously released a prologue novel for the project.

Beyond his original works, Ubukata has been a prominent series composer and scriptwriter for established anime franchises. His extensive writing credits include Sōkyū no Fafner: Dead Aggressor and its sequels, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Ghost in the Shell: Arise, Psycho-Pass 2, Psycho-Pass 3, and RWBY: Ice Queendom. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2019 film Human Lost, an adaptation of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human.

A recurring element in Ubukata's fiction, particularly in Mardock Scramble, is a cyberpunk sensibility influenced by the work of William Gibson. However, he has also demonstrated range beyond speculative fiction. His historical novel Tenchi Meisatsu, which dramatizes the development of astronomy in samurai-era Japan, won the Booksellers Award and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for New Writers. He has also authored instructional books on narrative craft, including Ubukata-shiki Story Sōsaku-juku and Ubukata Tō no Light Novel Kaki Kōza.

In August 2015, Ubukata was arrested on suspicion of assaulting his wife. He was released without charges the following month, and the case was dropped in October after his wife expressed a desire not to press charges. He and his wife later divorced.