Naoshi Arakawa (Japanese: 新川 直司, Hepburn: Arakawa Naoshi) is a Japanese manga artist, known for his work Your Lie in April.

Naoshi Arakawa grew up in the countryside of Japan with an older brother.^[1] They used to get manga magazines like Weekly Shōnen Jump and Monthly Shōnen Magazine often, so he was exposed to manga from a young age.^[1] That, along with his love for Fist of the North Star and Kinnikuman was what ultimately made him decide to become a manga author.^[2] However, he elected not to tell anyone due to the conservative nature of his hometown and his shy personality.^[1]

After getting advice from a friend at college, Naoshi Arakawa decided to enter for the Monthly Shōnen Magazine Grand Challenge. The one-shot he submitted would become the basis for Your Lie in April.^[2] Afterwards, he then worked as an assistant before making his serial debut with the manga adaptation of A School Frozen in Time.^[2] It ran in Monthly Shōnen Magazine from December 2007 to April 2009, and was published in four volumes.^[3] At the time, he was also working on a one-shot manga prototype, which would eventually become his second serial, Sayonara, Football.^[2] It ran in Magazine E-no from June 20, 2009, to August 20, 2010,^[4][5] and was published in two volumes.^[6][7]

After finishing Sayonara, Football, he wanted to try something new.^[1] He eventually decided on doing a music-focused anime, however, his first attempt was turned down.^[8] To find inspiration, he decided to go back to the original one-shot he entered in the contest.^[2] He eventually created Your Lie in April. It ran in Monthly Shōnen Magazine from April 6, 2011, to February 6, 2015,^[9][10] and was published in eleven volumes.^[11] It won the award for Best Shōnen manga at the 37th Kodansha Manga Awards.^[12] He also made a spinoff manga for the Japanese blu-ray release of the anime adaptation and was later published in tankōbon format.^[13] He also did the illustrations for the light novel spinoff.^[14] Around this time, he also did an illustration for the endcard (the drawing at the end of the episode) for the fifth episode of Occultic;Nine.^[15]

For his next series, he decided to make a sequel to Sayonara, Football in the form of Farewell, My Dear Cramer. It ran in Monthly Shōnen Magazine from May 6, 2016, to December 4, 2020,^[16][17] and is being published in volumes, with fourteen having been released as of August 2022 (last release April 2021).^[18] A volume zero to Farewell, My Dear Cramer was also given out to people who saw the movie adaptation of Sayonara, Football in theaters.^[19]

On September 21, 2022, Arakawa released a preview for his new manga series, titled Atwight Game, in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine.^[20] It was serialized from September 28, 2022,^[21] to April 12, 2023.^[22]

Arakawa's next series, Orion's Board, began serialization in Weekly Shōnen Magazine on January 10, 2024.^[23]