Akira Saso is a Japanese manga artist and educator born in Takarazuka, Hyogo, Japan, in 1961. After completing his secondary education at Ikeda Senior High School in Osaka, he attended the Faculty of Literature at Waseda University, graduating in 1984. He made his professional manga debut the same year with the work Shiroi shiroi natsu yanen, published in the seinen magazine Young Magazine.

Saso is best known as the original creator of several award-winning manga works that have been adapted into live-action films. His most acclaimed work is Shindo, serialized in Manga Action from 1997 to 1998. The story follows Uta, a young musical prodigy who rejects her gifts following her father's disappearance. For Shindo, Saso received the 3rd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and a Japan Media Arts Award for Excellence. In his statement upon receiving the latter award, he explained that he attempted to convey sound through narrative, a significant challenge for a silent medium like manga. A live-action film adaptation of Shindo, directed by Koji Hagiuda, was released in 2007.

Another notable original work is Maestro, published from 2003 to 2007, which follows an unorthodox conductor who restores an orchestra's confidence. Maestro won a Japan Media Arts Award for Excellence in 2008 and was nominated for the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. A film adaptation directed by Shotaro Kobayashi was released in 2015. Saso also created Kodomo no Kodomo, a controversial series about an 11-year-old fifth grader who becomes pregnant, which was adapted into a film in 2008.

Beyond his original works, Saso has contributed manga adaptations of existing films, including an adaptation of Yojiro Takita's Academy Award-winning film Departures, serialized in Big Comic Superior in 2008. He has also created works such as Toto's World, about a child who cannot speak, and Fujisan. In June 2014, he was among twenty artists to collaborate on a special Godzilla manga commemorating the character's 60th anniversary.

Recurring themes in Saso's work include music and the challenges of artistic expression, as seen in Shindo and Maestro. His works often explore complex or socially challenging subject matter with a delicate artistic touch. The Japan Media Arts Council noted that his delicate illustrations express tempestuous emotions while creating a rhythm for the music within the narrative.

In recognition of his contributions to the medium, Saso became a professor in the Department of Manga at Kyoto Seika University in 2006, indicating his significance as both a practitioner and an educator within the Japanese manga industry.