Masaoki Shindo is a Japanese manga artist born on August 3, 1998, in Kagoshima Prefecture. Shindo is best known as the creator of the manga series RuriDragon, which began serialization in 2022. Shindo made their professional debut in 2016 with the one-shot Twin Peach, which received an honorable mention and won the Grand Treasure Award at the 109th Jump Treasure Newcomer Manga Award. The one-shot was published in Shueisha’s Jump X magazine in December 2016 alongside their second one-shot, Sky Claw. In September 2017, Shindo’s next one-shot, Joreishi Rentaro no Yakusoku, was published in Weekly Shonen Jump as an entry for the 12th Gold Future Cup, where it was announced as the grand prize winner that December. A fourth one-shot, Count Over, was published in Weekly Shonen Jump in May 2018. Prior to their serialized success, Shindo gained industry experience as a staff member on Eiichiro Oda’s long-running series One Piece, serving as an assistant and learning from the legendary creator of the manga.

The one-shot for RuriDragon was released in Jump Giga in December 2020. Following a favorable reception, the series was greenlit for full serialization and began running in Weekly Shonen Jump in June 2022. The story follows Ruri Aoki, a high school student who discovers she is half-human and half-dragon, forcing her to navigate the surreal challenges of developing dragon-like traits alongside the ordinary anxieties of adolescence. Shindo has stated that the central message of the series is that being different is interesting, a theme drawn from their own personal struggles with feeling different from others. The creator strives to write character dialogue as if it were being spoken naturally rather than sounding scripted or overly fictional, aiming to capture a slice of the characters’ lives. Shindo has cited Chapter 4 of RuriDragon, titled Starbucks is Scary, as a personal favorite and a chapter that defined the tone and direction for the rest of the series.

The serialization of RuriDragon was put on an indefinite hiatus in August 2022 due to Shindo’s health issues. After a break of nearly two years, the manga resumed publication in March 2024. Upon its return, the series moved from the weekly printed magazine to a biweekly digital release schedule on Shonen Jump+ and the digital version of Weekly Shonen Jump. This change allowed Shindo to work under less stringent deadlines. Beyond manga, Shindo provided the character designs and concept art for the 2023 roguelike adventure video game Arcana of Paradise: The Tower, having been involved with the project since July 2021. Despite the interruption caused by health concerns, RuriDragon ranked first in the 2023 Nationwide Bookstore Employees’ Recommended Comics survey in Japan and placed second in the Web Manga category of the 2024 Next Manga Awards, reflecting the series’ strong reception among readers and industry professionals.