Masatoshi Usune is a Japanese manga artist born on March 10, 1961, in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. His professional career began in the mid-1980s with the publication of his early works. His initial output includes the manga Killer Boy from 1985, followed by Metal Box in 1989, and Eater in 1991. While these works established him as a creator in the industry, Usune is best known for his long-running post-apocalyptic series, Desert Punk.

Written and illustrated by Usune, Desert Punk began serialization in Enterbrain’s Comic Beam magazine on August 5, 1997. The manga is set in a future wasteland known as the Great Kantō Desert, where the former Tokyo metropolitan area once stood, and follows a mercenary bounty hunter known as the Desert Punk. The series is noted for its lengthy publication history, which included several hiatuses. After a four-year pause, Usune resumed the manga in 2004 with a new story arc focusing on a different protagonist, a young girl named Kosuna, but the series went on hiatus again in 2005. It returned in 2009 for another year, went on hiatus again in 2010, and resumed publication once more in 2013. The manga ultimately concluded on October 12, 2020, after a total of 23 years of serialization, with its chapters collected into 22 bound volumes.

The success and distinct identity of Desert Punk led to its adaptation into an anime television series. In 2004, the animation studio Gonzo produced a twenty-four episode anime adaptation directed by Takayuki Inagaki. The series aired from October 2004 to March 2005 and was subsequently licensed for North American release by Funimation. This adaptation brought Usune’s creation to a wider international audience, cementing Desert Punk as his most recognized and significant work. Beyond Desert Punk, his series Eater was published in France as a four-volume manga, indicating some international distribution of his other works as well.

Masatoshi Usune’s artistic identity is strongly tied to action-oriented narratives. His most famous work, Desert Punk, is characterized by a blend of post-apocalyptic science fiction, dark comedy, and mercenary action. The manga’s long, intermittent run demonstrates a creative process that is not always bound by a regular weekly or monthly schedule, yet maintained a dedicated readership over decades. While his earlier works like Eater also fall into the science fiction and action genres, Desert Punk remains the primary pillar of his career and his most significant contribution to the manga and anime industry. His work has had a lasting impact as a cult classic within the post-apocalyptic genre, with the anime adaptation continuing to be discovered by new audiences well after its original release.