Masaki Yamada was born in Nagoya, Japan, on January 16, 1950. He studied economics at Meiji University before embarking on a prolific writing career. Yamada is primarily known as an author of science fiction, crime fiction, and fantasy, having written over one hundred forty works across various genres. He first gained recognition in the speculative fiction community with his debut novella Kamigari, which won the prestigious Seiun Prize in 1975, a Japanese equivalent to the Hugo Award. He would go on to win the Seiun three more times, for Chikyū Seishin Bunseki Kiroku, Hōseki Dorobō, and the novel Kishin Heidan.

Yamada’s work is notable for its blending of hard-boiled crime, cyberpunk, and mythological themes, often incorporating elements of alternate history and recursion. One of his major works, Kishin Heidan, is an alternate history series in which aliens attack China in 1937, leading to the development of mecha technology. This novel was adapted into a seven-hour anime television series titled Kishin Corps, marking one of several instances where his prose work has been translated into a visual medium.

In the realm of manga and anime, Masaki Yamada is best known as the original creator of Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls. This project is a sequel to the original Basilisk series, which was itself based on a novel by Futaro Yamada. For The Ouka Ninja Scrolls, Masaki Yamada wrote a two-part serial novel that was published by Kodansha in November and December 2015, with illustrations provided by Masaki Segawa, the artist of the original Basilisk manga. This novel serves as the source material for a subsequent manga adaptation and an anime series. The manga adaptation of The Ouka Ninja Scrolls was illustrated by Tatsuya Shihira and serialized in Weekly Young Magazine from 2017 to 2019. The anime television series adaptation, produced by Seven Arcs Pictures, aired for 24 episodes from January to June 2018. Through this work, Yamada extended the legacy of the Basilisk franchise while working alongside the original manga’s artist to ensure visual continuity. His role as the originator of this new chapter in the ninja saga represents a significant contribution to the seinen genre and demonstrates the ongoing collaboration between prose authors and manga illustrators in the Japanese publishing industry.