Shinohara Kenta

Kenta Shinohara (篠原 健太, Shinohara Kenta, born 9 January 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 9 January 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 both June and September 2003, Shinohara was a finalist for the monthly JUMP 12 Outstanding Rookie Manga Award (ジャンプ十二傑新人漫画賞), though he did not win either awards.

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 14 July 2007 in Weekly Shōnen Jump.

In the fifteenth volume of Sket Dance, released on 1 September 2010, Shinohara announced that he would be getting married. He is the brother-in-law of fellow manga artist Kentaro Yabuki.