Kagami Yoshimizu is a Japanese manga artist born in 1977 in Satte, Saitama, Japan. He is best known as the original creator of the multimedia franchise Lucky Star. He is also credited for creating Comptiq magazine’s mascot character, Comp-chan. Yoshimizu occasionally works under the pen name Tsukasa Suina.

Yoshimizu developed an interest in drawing from a young age, and while in high school, he began drawing manga featuring his classmates as a member of the animation club. After graduation, he attended a technical school and worked as a graphic artist while pursuing a career in manga. A significant connection was made when he met Gō Katō, who would later become an editor at Comptiq. This relationship led to commission work for spot illustrations and anthology stories, eventually paving the way for his own series.

His most significant creation, Lucky Star, began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten’s Comptiq magazine in December 2003. The manga is a four-panel comic strip that follows the daily lives and conversations of a group of schoolgirls, most notably the otaku Konata Izumi and her friends. The series became highly popular, leading to a successful media franchise. After being on hiatus since 2014, Lucky Star resumed publication in Comptiq in November 2022.

Yoshimizu has been involved in numerous works within the Lucky Star universe. He wrote and illustrated the spin-off manga Miyakawa-ke no Kūfuku, which focuses on the financially troubled Miyakawa sisters and was later adapted into an original net animation. Other manga spin-offs set in the same world include Lucky Star: Pocket Travelers and Lucky Star Boo Boo KagaBoo. He also contributed the original character design for the anime series Maesetsu!.

His artistic identity is closely tied to the yonkoma format and slice-of-life comedy centered on otaku culture. Lucky Star is renowned for its rapid-fire references to other anime, manga, and video games, often presented through the perspective of the character Konata. The series became a major phenomenon after its 2007 anime adaptation by Kyoto Animation, which significantly boosted the franchise’s popularity and helped solidify the “moe” aesthetic in mainstream anime. The show’s success also led to a notable increase in tourism to real-life locations depicted in the series, such as Washinomiya Shrine and his hometown of Satte.