Kanae Hazuki is a Japanese manga artist and illustrator, born in September 1980 in Chigasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. She began her professional career in 2003 with the one-shot story Koishite Ii desu ka, published by Takeshobo. In the years that followed, she created a substantial body of short stories and single-volume works, often exploring romance and relationships across several Japanese publishers, including Ohzora Shuppan, Akita Shoten, Bunkasha, and Shodensha. Her early catalog includes titles such as Himegoto, Ai no Koe, Love Kare, and contributions to the anthology series Love Kare: Gokujou Men's Dokuhon.

Hazuki is best known as the creator of the long-running shōjo manga series Say I Love You. (Suki-tte Ii na yo.), which was serialized in Kodansha's Dessert magazine from February 23, 2008, to July 24, 2017. The series was collected into 18 tankōbon volumes and became her breakout hit, achieving significant commercial success in Japan and gaining a wide international audience. The story follows Mei Tachibana, a solitary high school girl who has avoided friendship since being betrayed as a child, and her evolving relationship with the popular Yamato Kurosawa.

The popularity of Say I Love You. led to multiple adaptations. A 13-episode anime television series produced by studio Zexcs aired from October to December 2012, followed by an original video animation (OVA) episode in 2013. A live-action film adaptation, directed by Asako Hyuga, premiered in Japan in July 2014. The manga has been licensed for English release in North America by Kodansha USA, while the anime was licensed by Sentai Filmworks.

Hazuki's artistic identity is characterized by clean, well-defined linework and a particular attention to detail in character design, especially in facial features and hair rendering. Her stories are predominantly romantic dramas that often carry an underlying sense of melancholy, and she is noted for developing secondary characters as thoroughly as the main cast. Her thematic focus consistently centers on interpersonal relationships, emotional scars, and personal growth, frequently within a shōjo or josei framework. After completing Say I Love You. in 2017, Hazuki announced in October 2018 that she was preparing a new serialized manga, indicating her continued activity as a creator. Her significance within the industry rests largely on the international success of Say I Love You., which remains her most widely recognized work and a representative title of early 2010s shōjo romance.