Kazurou Inoue is a Japanese manga artist born on May 1, 1972, in Sano, Tochigi Prefecture. He began his career in the manga industry by drawing four-panel comic strips before becoming an assistant to Kazuhiro Fujita, the creator of series such as Karakuri Circus, a position he held for five years. Inoue earned recognition early on when he won the 40th Rookie Comic Award for his work Dream Security Mao. His first regular serialized manga was Heat Wave, published in 2001 in Shonen Sunday Super.

Inoue is best known as the creator of Midori Days, also known as Midori no Hibi, which became his first major success. The manga was serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine from September 2002 to July 2004 and was collected into eight tankobon volumes. The series follows a high school delinquent named Seiji Sawamura, who wakes up one day to find that his right hand has been replaced by a tiny girl named Midori Kasugano, who is in love with him. The series was adapted into a thirteen episode anime television series produced by Studio Pierrot in 2004.

Following the success of Midori Days, Inoue continued to create manga, primarily within the romantic comedy genre. His next notable long-running series was Ai Kora, also known as Love & Collage, which was serialized from 2005 to 2008 and spans twelve volumes. Other works include the short series Ane Comi, published from 2009 to 2012, and Mahō no Iroha!, which ran from 2009 to 2012 as well. He has also produced several short story collections and one-shots, including Aoi Destruction in 2007, Haru Ranman! in 2007, and Undead in 2008. Later works from Inoue include Maria-san wa Toumei Shoujo from 2014 and Outrage Girl Shiomi, which was serialized in Shonen Sunday Super from 2016 to 2018.

Inoue's artistic identity is characterized by cute and lovely character designs combined with intensely strange or surreal central premises. While his work is rooted in light comedy and harem-style romantic comedies, he often introduces bizarre situations that are treated with a degree of sincere human drama rather than being played purely for gags. His art is noted for its stability and dynamic motion, reflecting the influence of his mentor, Kazuhiro Fujita. His work occasionally features interconnected elements, with minor characters or references from one series appearing in another. Inoue holds a significant place in the manga industry as the creator of Midori Days, a series whose unique and memorable concept has made it a lasting example of early 2000s romantic comedy manga, and whose successful anime adaptation brought his work to a wider international audience.