Death Note Authors

Takeshi Obata
Takeshi Obata (Obata Takeshi, born February 11, 1969) is a Japanese mangaka. He generally works as the primary artist in collaboration with a primary writer. He has also mentored several mangaka, including Kentaro Yabuki of Black Cat fame and Nobuhiro Watsuki.

He is most well-known as the artist of Hikaru no Go and Death Note. Obata is rare among shōnen artists not only for the detail of his drawings, but in his penchant for fashion; the characters he draws often wear stylish clothes and trendy items like the latest fashionable scarf, tie or handbag.

On September 7, 2006, he was arrested for possessing an army knife in his car. He was originally pulled over for driving his car with the headlights off at 1 a.m., and reportedly said he keeps the knife in the car for when he goes camping.


Tsugumi Ohba
Tsugumi Ohba (Ōba Tsugumi) is a manga writer. As Death Note, the author's only work to date, is suspiciously well-written for a debut work, it is suspected that "Tsugumi Ohba" is only a pen-name for a more famous author.

The VIZ English graphic novels profile Tsugumi Ohba as:Tsugumi Ohba.
Born in Tokyo.
Hobby: Collecting teacups.
Day and night, develops manga plots while holding knees on a chair.
Some believe that Tsugumi Ohba is actually Hiroshi Gamou, author of the JUMP series Tottemo! Luckyman. It is speculated that he chose to hide his identity due to the fact that the Death Note series is very different from his past work. However, the manga does contain subtle hints that point to the author's true identity: for instance, the cram school that the main character attends (as shown in the first chapter) is called 'Gamou Seminar', a kind of inside joke not uncommon for many manga authors.