is a Japanese science fiction and fantasy light novel

Light novel

A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...

 author. He originally began in a career in IT.

Life and career

Sakurazuka made his debut in 2002 at the second Super Dash Novel Rookie of the Year Award

Super Dash Novel Rookie of the Year Award

The is an annual award given by Shueisha's Super Dash Bunko imprint for the best new light novel of the year. The award was first presented in 2001. Submissions are accepted until October 25 each year, and announced on April 25 of the following year....

 with the novel Mahō tsukai no netto, which was later published in December 2003 under the name Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahō

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Maho

is a Japanese light novel series by Hiroshi Sakurazaka, with illustrations by Miki Miyashita. As of March 25, 2009, six volumes have been published by Shueisha under their Super Dash Bunko imprint. A new edition of the first light novel was released on April 25, 2008. A manga adaptation started...

. This work has subsequently been expanded into a series of light novel

Light novel

A is a style of Japanese novel primarily targeting junior high and high school students . The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called or for short...

s and has also been made into an anime. In 2004 he was presented the S-F Magazine Readers Award

Hayakawa Award

The Hayakawa's S-F Magazine Reader's Award is an award chosen annually by the readers of Hayakawa's S-F Magazine for the best Japanese short story, illustrator, and foreign short story. The honor has been awarded since 1989...

's best short story award for . His 2004 novel All you need is kill

All You Need is Kill

All You Need Is Kill is a Japanese science-fiction light novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka with illustrations by Yoshitoshi ABe. The novel was Sakurazaka's breakthrough science-fiction novel, earning wide praise from fellow novelists including Yasutaka Tsutsui and Chōhei Kanbayashi and was a entered in...

, received high praise from other authors in Japan and has subsequently been published in English by Viz Media

VIZ Media

VIZ Media, LLC, headquartered in San Francisco, is an anime, manga, and Japanese entertainment company. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media LLC, which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan and Shueisha, and...

.

Sakurazuka has an interest in computer

Computer

A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

s and video games. He is quite knowledgeable about computer culture, can program in Perl

Perl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...

, and is able to use specialized text editor

Text editor

A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files.Text editors are often provided with operating systems or software development packages, and can be used to change configuration files and programming language source code....

s such as Meadow

Meadow (programming)

Meadow is an open source programming project to port the popular GNU Emacs text editor for UNIX-based operating systems to Microsoft Windows with some added functions...

, SKK and TeX

TeX

TeX is a typesetting system designed and mostly written by Donald Knuth and released in 1978. Within the typesetting system, its name is formatted as ....

.

Recently he has collaborated with cultural critic

Cultural critic

A cultural critic is a critic of a given culture, usually as a whole and typically on a radical basis. There is significant overlap with social and cultural theory.-Terminology:...

 Hiroki Azuma

Hiroki Azuma

, born May 9, 1971 in Mitaka, Tokyo is a Japanese cultural critic.-Biography:He received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1999 and became a professor at the International University of Japan in 2003...

 on the works and and has written a critique of Yasutaka Tsutsui

Yasutaka Tsutsui

is a Japanese novelist, science fiction author, and actor. Along with Shinichi Hoshi and Sakyo Komatsu, he is one of the most famous science fiction writers in Japan. His Yumenokizaka bunkiten won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari...

's novel Dancing Vanity.

Awards

• 2004: S-F Magazine Readers Award
  Hayakawa Award
  The Hayakawa's S-F Magazine Reader's Award is an award chosen annually by the readers of Hayakawa's S-F Magazine for the best Japanese short story, illustrator, and foreign short story. The honor has been awarded since 1989...
  
  Best Short Story for

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahō series

(2003; ISBN 4-08-630163-6)

• • Revised version: (2008; ISBN 978-4-08-630421-4) (2004; ISBN 4-08-630184-9) (2004; ISBN 4-08-630204-7) (2005; ISBN 4-08-630221-7) (2005; ISBN 4-08-630236-5) (2009; ISBN 978-4-08-630475-7)