Akihiro Ononaka, born December 19, 1991, is a Japanese manga artist and original creator from Showa Village in the Tone District of Gunma Prefecture. He is a graduate of Bunsei University of Art in Utsunomiya, where he has also served as a part-time lecturer in the manga program. His professional career began after he won the Bronze Dragon Prize at the 16th Ryujin Awards in 2015 for his one-shot Kumika no Mikaku. This work later became his first serialized manga, The Flavours of Kumika, which was published in Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Ryu from August 2015 to July 2018. The series is set in a world where aliens and humans coexist, following an alien office worker who discovers the joy of eating human food.

Ononaka is best known as the creator of Gushing Over Magical Girls, also known as Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete. The manga began serialization on Takeshobo's Storia Dash website on March 29, 2019, and is ongoing, with twelve tankobon volumes released as of February 2026. The series reimagines the magical girl genre by centering on Utena Hiiragi, a shy girl who admires magical girls but is transformed into a villainous general who discovers a sadistic enjoyment in tormenting her heroes. A notable feature of the work is its combination of magical girl tropes with dark comedy and ecchi elements. An anime television series adaptation produced by Asahi Production aired from January to March 2024, and a second season has been announced. The manga went on hiatus in March 2024 due to Ononaka's health issues but resumed serialization on October 17, 2025.

Ononaka's artistic identity is defined by his subversion of established genre conventions, particularly the magical girl archetype. Rather than celebrating traditional heroism, his work explores themes of hidden sadism, obsession, and the blurring line between admiration and domination. This approach has made Gushing Over Magical Girls a distinctive and commercially successful title within the ecchi and comedy subgenres. Beyond his manga work, Ononaka has contributed to the anime industry as an end card illustrator for the second season of Made in Abyss and has supported local events in his hometown, such as providing prize illustrations for a summer corn maze. His industry significance lies in his ability to attract a broad audience through a provocative twist on familiar storytelling, demonstrating the continued commercial viability of genre parody in the modern manga and anime market.