Norifusa Mita is a Japanese manga artist born on January 4, 1958, in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture. He graduated from the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Meiji University. Before his career as a creator, Mita worked for the Seibu department store and later returned to his hometown to manage a family business. After the business failed, he was encouraged by his friend, manga artist Motoka Murakami, to enter the manga industry. At the age of 30, he was selected in the general category of the 17th Chiba Tetsuya Award held by Kodansha, marking the beginning of his professional career as a self-taught artist.

Mita is best known as the original creator of the manga Dragon Zakura. The series was serialized in Kodansha's Weekly Morning magazine from 2003 to 2007 and received the 29th Kodansha Manga Award in 2005. The work has sold over eight million copies and has been widely adapted. It was turned into a live-action television drama in Japan, and a separate adaptation was produced in South Korea, where it achieved high viewership ratings and was broadcast in more than ten countries. Mita also wrote a sequel, Dragon Zakura 2, which was serialized from 2018 to 2021. He created a spin-off series titled Angel Bank: Dragon Zakura Gaiden, which also received a live-action television adaptation.

Beyond Dragon Zakura, several of Mita's other manga have been adapted for the screen. The user specifically mentions Kurokan, a baseball manga serialized in Weekly Manga Goraku from 1996 to 2002, which is among his notable works. His manga Investor Z was adapted into a live-action television series in 2018. Similarly, The Great War of Archimedes was adapted into a live-action film released in 2019. The recurring theme across Mita's bibliography is his focus on serious societal and economic problems. His works frequently explore practical systems and strategies within fields such as education, test-taking, business management, investment, and recruitment. In the sports genre, particularly baseball, he is noted for innovating by placing the coach as the protagonist to allow for long-term team-building narratives, as seen in Kurokan, or by introducing psychological thriller elements, as in Suna no Eikan.

Mita is recognized for his unique path as a manga artist who started late and without the traditional experience of being an assistant. He cites masters like Tetsuya Chiba, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Naoki Urasawa as major influences on his artistic style. His practical background in corporate work and business management is often cited as a key influence on the realistic and strategic tone of his economically-focused manga. He is also a co-founder of an association dedicated to preserving the Theodora Ozaki residence, a historic Western-style building in Tokyo, turning it into a space dedicated to manga. His industry significance is marked by his ability to use the popular medium of manga to discuss serious real-world issues, a talent that has garnered both critical acclaim and consistent commercial success across multiple publishers, including Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Shueisha.