Kenta Shinohara

Kenta Shinohara (篠原 健太, Shinohara Kenta, born January 9, 1974) is a Japanese manga artist. He is best known for his manga series Sket Dance, which was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 2007 to 2013 and won the Shogakukan Manga Award in 2010.

Shinohara was born on January 9, 1974, in Chiba Prefecture. Starting his career as a salaryman, Shinohara decided to drop out of his white-collar job for two years while preparing for his debut as a manga artist.

Shinohara worked as an assistant under Hideaki Sorachi on Gintama for a short time using the alias Shintaroh Nakae (なかえ しんたろう, Nakae Shintarō), an anagram of "Kenta Shinohara". During his stint with Sorachi, Shinohara called him a "teacher" who taught him necessary skills.

In June and September 2003, Shinohara was one of the final candidates for the monthly JUMP 12 Outstanding Rookie Manga Award (ジャンプ十二傑新人漫画賞) both months, though he failed to win either award.

Shinohara wrote two one-shots for Sket Dance in the winter and summer of 2006, submitting them to Akamaru Jump and Weekly Shōnen Jump respectively. The second one-shot was a pilot arranged in a book volume format, similar to the eventual first chapter of the main series. Serialization of Sket Dance began on July 14, 2007, in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

In the fifteenth volume of Sket Dance, released on September 1, 2010, Shinohara announced that he would be getting married.

• 2005 - Debuted in Akamaru Jump's Winter Issue with the article "Red Panda Puppet Show".
• 2006 - Wrote the Sket Dance one-shot for Akamaru Jump's Winter Issue. Shinohara rewrote the one-shot in August as an pilot chapter for a potential series in Weekly Shōnen Jump Issue No. 39.
• 2007 - Began serializing Sket Dance in Weekly Shōnen Jump Issue No. 33 as a weekly series.
• 2010 - Won the 55th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shōnen (Boys') category for Sket Dance.
• 2011 - An animated television series for Sket Dance by Tatsunoko Productions began airing.
• 2012 - Wrote the lyrics for Water Color (ウォーターカラー), a track within The Sketchbook's first original album, Sketchbook. Shinohara stated that this was the first time he had ever written song lyrics, and that he had based them off of his feelings about the "coolness" of the music.
• 2013 - Completed serialization of Sket Dance, with 288 chapters.
• 2014 - Worked on the original character designs for the anime Battle Spirits: Burning Soul.
• 2016 - Began new sci-fi manga, Astra Lost in Space, currently published online in the U.S. edition of Weekly Shonen Jump.

• "漫画の部屋 - ジャンプの部屋・赤マルジャンプ2005 WINTER感想" [KTR's Comic Room - Weekly Jump Room 2005: Akamaru Jump 2005 WINTER Impressions]. KTR (in Japanese). 29 December 2004. Retrieved 3 November 2015. 
• "55th Shogakukan Manga Award Winners Announced". Anime News Network. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2015. 
• "篠原健太が「SKET DANCE」から生まれたバンドに詞を提供" [Shinohara Kenta is providing lyrics for his "SKET DANCE" inspired band]. Comic Natalie (in Japanese). 18 June 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2015. 
• "Sket Dance's Shinohara Designs Next Battle Spirits Anime". Anime News Network. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2015. 
• "Sket Dance's Kenta Shinohara Launches Astra Lost in Space Manga". Anime News Network. Retrieved 16 August 2016. 
• https://twitter.com/SASAKI_Hisashi/status/765207761424572416

• Red Panda Puppet Show (レッサーパンダ・パペットショー, Ressā Panda Papetto Shō) (2005)
• Sket Dance (スケット・ダンス, Suketto Dansu) (2007–2013)
• Battle Spirits: Burning Soul (バトルスピリッツ烈火魂＜バーニングソウル＞, Batoru Supirittsu Rekka Tamashī (Bāningu Souru)), Original Character Design (2015)