Lily Franky is the professional name of Masaya Nakagawa, a multifaceted Japanese creator born on November 4, 1963, in Fukuoka Prefecture. A graduate of Musashino Art University, he has built a career as a novelist, essayist, illustrator, and designer. His most famous literary work is the autobiographical novel Tokyo Tower: My Mother and Father, a bestseller that became a cornerstone of the so-called crying novel genre. However, his role as an original creator in anime and manga is firmly established through the character and world of Odenkun.

The Odenkun series represents Lily Franky’s most significant direct contribution to manga and anime as an original creator. The property began as a picture book published by Shogakukan in 2001, which he authored. The story is set in a fantastical Oden village, which exists inside the bubbling kettle of an oden food cart. The residents are various oden ingredients who spend their days waiting to be eaten by customers. The protagonist, Odenkun, a simple and kind-hearted oden skewer, dreams of one day meeting his own mother and performs one good deed each day.

This original work was first adapted into an anime television series titled Odenkun, which aired for 156 episodes from 2005 to 2009. Lily Franky is officially credited as the original creator for this series. A second anime adaptation, Ganbare! Odenkun, followed, airing for 102 episodes from 2013 to 2014, with Lily Franky again receiving sole credit as the original creator. The existence of two distinct anime productions based on his picture book confirms his lasting authorship of the property.

The artistic identity of Lily Franky as a creator is inseparable from his broad background in visual arts and writing. Having graduated from art university, he personally illustrated his own picture books, including the Odenkun series. His creative style often blends a simple, almost childlike visual aesthetic with narratives that carry subtle emotional weight and whimsical philosophy. The premise of Odenkun, where food items await consumption while forming a small society, reflects a playful yet poignant perspective that characterizes much of his work. Unlike many manga authors who work within a specific genre for serialized comics, Lily Franky’s approach is that of a multimedia artist who uses manga and anime as one of several outlets for his personal expression, alongside novels, essays, and design.

Within the Japanese entertainment industry, Lily Franky holds a unique position as a crossover figure. While he is widely known as a beloved actor in films by directors like Hirokazu Kore-eda, his role as an original manga author is less prolific but nonetheless significant. The adaptation of Odenkun into two separate long-running anime series demonstrates the commercial and creative viability of his picture book work. He is not a traditional manga artist producing weekly serializations, but rather an auteur whose distinct narrative voice and drawing style have successfully translated into the medium of anime. His industry significance lies in this versatility; he is a respected creator who moves fluidly between highbrow literature, popular cinema, and children’s anime, with Odenkun serving as a pure example of his original vision as a storyteller and illustrator.