Kazuma Kondou is a Japanese manga creator best known for his collaborative work with writer and artist Jinsei Kataoka, with whom he shares credit on the series Deadman Wonderland. Born in 1980 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Kondou began his career as a freelance illustrator and worked as an assistant, a period during which he deepened his professional relationship with Kataoka, whom he later married. The duo’s first major success came in 2005 with the manga adaptation of the Bones anime studio series Eureka Seven, titled Eureka Seven - Poèmes de la planète Eureka Seven. This six-volume series, which blends mecha action with the story of a teenage protagonist, marked the beginning of a lasting partnership.

Kondou is most widely recognized for Deadman Wonderland, a manga serialized in Kadokawa Shoten’s Monthly Shōnen Ace from April 2007 to July 2013 and collected in thirteen volumes. The story takes place ten years after a devastating earthquake has reshaped Tokyo, following a teenager named Ganta Igarashi who is wrongfully convicted of massacring his classmates and sentenced to a unique prison that doubles as a gruesome tourist attraction. In this setting, inmates are forced to fight in deadly spectacles for the amusement of the public. The series was a commercial success, with millions of copies in circulation, and received a twelve-episode anime adaptation in 2011.

Kondou and Kataoka’s working method differs from the typical division of labor in manga. Rather than one serving solely as writer and the other as artist, they develop the story and characters together. Kondou is specifically responsible for the final character designs and illustrations, a role he assumes because his wife and collaborator considers his visual sense more refined and original. The duo continued their partnership with Smokin’ Parade, serialized from 2015 to 2021, a story about heroes who must make sacrifices to achieve their goals. They have also worked on Livingstone, based on an original script by Tomohiro Maekawa, and other titles such as Retropolis Scratches and Higa Shimai.

Thematically, Kondou’s works often feature dark, brutal imagery and morally complex settings that blur the line between shonen and seinen demographics. The premise of Deadman Wonderland—a prison designed as an amusement park—originated from a joking suggestion Kondou made to Kataoka to make her story about a detention facility more distinctive. Recurring elements in their collaborative output include post-apocalyptic environments, intense action, characters forced into impossible choices, and a focus on survival and the search for meaning in life. Within the industry, Kondou is noted for his detailed and expressive art style and for having mentored assistants who later became independent creators, including Aka Akasaka. His consistent partnership with Jinsei Kataoka represents a notable example of a married couple successfully co-creating commercially and critically successful manga across multiple series.