Makoto Raiku

Makoto Kawada (河田 誠, Kawada Makoto, born 23 August 1974 in Gifu, Japan), known by the pen name Makoto Raiku (雷句誠, Raiku Makoto), is a manga artist known for creating the Zatch Bell! franchise. Starting off an assistant for Kazuhiro Fujita on his manga Ushio & Tora, he began creating several one-shots for the Weekly Shōnen Sunday shōnen manga anthology such as Bird Man (about a young pilot), Hero Ba-Ban (about a cheerful, but weak superhero) and Genmai Blade (about a teenage medicinal exorcist, of which he created both a one-shot and a two-part story). By 1999, he had created the series Newtown Heroes, which was published in Shōnen Sunday Super, a seasonal publication featuring upcoming manga artists and one-shots from the main Sunday book.