Yu Honda is an animator, translator, and manga creator best known as the co-original creator of the Ninja Slayer franchise. Working in collaboration with Leika Sugi, Honda played a foundational role in developing a transmedia property that began as a unique digital publishing experiment before expanding into novels, multiple manga series, and an anime adaptation.

The origin of Ninja Slayer is closely tied to Honda and Sugi’s creative approach. While the works are officially credited to fictitious American authors Bradley Bond and Philip Ninj@ Morzez, library records and publishing notes clarify that these names are characters created by Yu Honda and Leika Sugi. The two are listed as the Japanese translators who first brought the story to an audience. They initially published the story piecemeal on Twitter, where it gained an underground following in Japan. This grassroots success led to a print novel publication by Enterbrain in September 2012, followed by a wide range of manga adaptations. In these projects, Honda and Sugi are credited for original work, adaptation supervision, or script contributions.

Honda’s professional background extends beyond this franchise into the animation industry. Prior to the rise of Ninja Slayer, Honda worked as an animator at Studio Khara, the studio founded by Hideaki Anno known for the Rebuild of Evangelion films. In 2011, the studio announced the release of Honda’s first illustration and original artwork collection, a two-volume boxed set published by Kadokawa Shoten. That same year, Honda illustrated the cover for the June issue of Newtype magazine featuring the character Asuka from Evangelion and participated in a studio interview feature alongside Anno and other key staff.

The Ninja Slayer franchise includes several manga series that Honda helped oversee. The manga Ninja Slayer: Machine of Vengeance features art by Yuki Yogo with a script by Yoshiaki Tabata, while Ninja Slayer Kills is illustrated by Koutarou Sekine. Both series were published in English by Vertical Comics and Kodansha International respectively, maintaining the original Japanese right-to-left reading format. The stories are set in the dystopian future city of Neo-Saitama, where a cybernetic ninja syndicate terrorizes the populace and a vengeful spirit known as Ninja Slayer rises to eliminate them. The property is described as a brutal, sci-fi pulp action story with dark, violent, and cyberpunk themes.

Beyond the Ninja Slayer universe, Honda continued to develop original manga concepts. In 2021, it was announced that Yu Honda and Leika Sugi would partner with artist Jun Hanyunyū on a new manga titled Arata no Kemono (Arata the Beast). The series, which launched in Kadokawa’s Comic Beam magazine, was described by the creators as brutal paranormal pulp action entertainment, indicating a stylistic continuity with their earlier work.

The collaborative partnership between Honda and Sugi is central to their creative identity. Together, they are credited as the driving force behind a franchise that subverted traditional publishing models by leveraging social media to build an audience before moving into print and animation. A twenty-six episode net anime adaptation produced by Studio Trigger aired in 2015, further cementing the series’ place in modern anime and manga culture. Through animation, translation, and original storytelling, Yu Honda has demonstrated a versatile career that bridges studio production and independent creator-owned work.