Kazuya Konomoto
Description
Kazuya Konomoto is a Japanese manga artist and screenwriter. He began his career as a manga creator in 2010 with the work Spinner Bait. His first major success came with the manga Setoutsumi, which started as a one-shot titled Kumo wa Kanarazu Ame o Furu before being renamed and serialized in 2013. The story, which unfolds entirely through the conversations of two high school boys sitting by a river, was nominated for the 18th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize Readers' Award. The series proved popular enough to be adapted into both a live-action film in 2016 and a live-action television drama in 2017.
Konomoto transitioned into scriptwriting for live-action projects in 2019, working on the film, television drama, and Hulu original story for Black School Rules. His most significant work to date is the original anime television series Odd Taxi, which aired in 2021. He wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed series, which was directed by Baku Kinoshita. Following the anime, he contributed to the franchise by writing the script for its compilation film, Odd Taxi: In the Woods, released in 2022, and co-writing the spin-off manga RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi, which was published from 2023 to 2024.
Konomoto reunited with director Baku Kinoshita for the original animated feature film Housenka (also known as The Last Blossom). Konomoto is credited as the original creator and scriptwriter for the film, which was selected to compete in the Feature Film Competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2025. The story focuses on an elderly yakuza reflecting on his past from his prison cell. In an interview, Konomoto explained his choice to focus on middle-aged and elderly protagonists, noting that while young protagonists are common, fewer creators attempt to update that model, and he wanted to tell a story about emotions validated by time rather than external measures of correctness. He has stated that he sees the medium of animation as a means, not an end, for expressing a story.
In addition to his screenwriting, Konomoto continues to create manga. In 2025, he began the series Kami Kill, a story about two brothers running a barbershop in a struggling shopping district, with illustrations by Ryo Yamazaki.
Konomoto transitioned into scriptwriting for live-action projects in 2019, working on the film, television drama, and Hulu original story for Black School Rules. His most significant work to date is the original anime television series Odd Taxi, which aired in 2021. He wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed series, which was directed by Baku Kinoshita. Following the anime, he contributed to the franchise by writing the script for its compilation film, Odd Taxi: In the Woods, released in 2022, and co-writing the spin-off manga RoOT/Route of Odd Taxi, which was published from 2023 to 2024.
Konomoto reunited with director Baku Kinoshita for the original animated feature film Housenka (also known as The Last Blossom). Konomoto is credited as the original creator and scriptwriter for the film, which was selected to compete in the Feature Film Competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 2025. The story focuses on an elderly yakuza reflecting on his past from his prison cell. In an interview, Konomoto explained his choice to focus on middle-aged and elderly protagonists, noting that while young protagonists are common, fewer creators attempt to update that model, and he wanted to tell a story about emotions validated by time rather than external measures of correctness. He has stated that he sees the medium of animation as a means, not an end, for expressing a story.
In addition to his screenwriting, Konomoto continues to create manga. In 2025, he began the series Kami Kill, a story about two brothers running a barbershop in a struggling shopping district, with illustrations by Ryo Yamazaki.
Works
- Topics: Anime overview