Koji Inada

Koji Inada is a Japanese manga artist best known as the illustrator of the massively popular *Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai*, a series he co-created with writer Riku Sanjo. Born on March 14, 1964, Inada graduated from the Tokyo Metropolitan College of Aeronautical Engineering before entering the manga industry. His collaboration with Sanjo began in 1989 with *The Adventure of Dai*, which ran until 1996 and became one of the best-selling manga series of all time, with over 50 million copies sold worldwide. The duo later reunited for *Beet the Vandel Buster*, which debuted in 2002 and has sold over 4 million copies. Inada’s art style is noted for its dynamic action sequences and clean, expressive character designs, perfectly suited for the fantasy-adventure genre. He served as the primary artist and inker on the English-language comic adaptations of *Beet the Vandel Buster* from 2004 to 2007. Inada’s work remains influential in the shōnen manga landscape, and his long-running partnership with Sanjo produced two of the most enduring manga franchises of the 1990s and 2000s. He has not received major individual awards, but his collaborative works have earned lasting commercial and critical success.