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Akira Otani (王谷 晶, Ōtani Akira, born 1981) is a Japanese fiction writer born in Tokyo. Known for a sharp, economical style, her work often subverts genres like mystery and noir and focuses on characters that exist outside the gender archetypes of Japanese fiction, which she has described as "stiff and lacking reality." Her novel Baba Yaga no yoru (The Night of Baba Yaga), a yakuza thriller concerned with sisterhood, has been compared to Thelma and Louise and was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of Japan Award. Otani is lesbian. In December 2021, Big Comic Spirits published a short manga entitled "Sakana ni natta Satsun no hanashi," for which Otani wrote the text and artist Ayumu Hida did the drawings.

Selected works

Story collections

• Kanpeki janai, atashitachi (完璧じゃない、あたしたち) (Poplar, 2018) - 23 short stories
• Bieru koten serekushon 3: Kaidan, Kidan (BL古典セレクション③　怪談 奇談) (Sayusha, 2019) - Boys' love stories adapted from Lafcadio Hearn
• Kimi no rokugatsu wa kōru 君の六月は凍る (Asahi Shimbun Publications, Inc., 2023) - two novellas

Novels

• Moujuutsukai to oujisama - Kiniro no fue to midori no honou (猛獣使いと王子様-金色の笛と緑の炎) (Hifumishobo, 2012)
• Ayakashi risutorante Kimyou na kyakujin no tame no arakaruto (あやかしリストランテ　奇妙な客人のためのアラカルト) (Shueisha Orange Bunko, 2015)
• Tantei shousetsu (misuterii) ni ha mukanai tantei (探偵小説（ミステリー）には向かない探偵) (Shueisha Orange Bunko, 2016)
• Baba Yaga no yoru (ババヤガの夜) (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2020)

Essays

• Douse karada ga meate deshou (どうせカラダが目当てでしょ) (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2019)

Manga

• Sakana ni natta Satsun no hanashi (サカナになったさっつんの話) (Shukan Big Comic Spirits, 2022 Issue 1)

References

1. "著者別インデックス 王谷晶". Sayusha Website. Retrieved 10 December 2021. エッジの効いた文体で最注目の小説家
2. "ガールミーツガール 冷静な当事者が生み出す、夢のように刺激的な物語" [Girl Meets Girl: A Cool-Headed Account of Firsthand Experience, Told through Dreamy, Stimulating Stories]. Bungei. Shueisha. 28 September 2018. Retrieved 10 December 2021. ―フィクション上の女性像が、いくつかのパターンがあるだけの、固定的でリアリティがないものだと感じていて
3. "The Night of Baba Yaga". Japan Book Bank. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
4. Otani, Akira (17 October 2018). "DA YA THINK I'M LUCKY?". i-D Japan. Vice Media. Archived from the original on 22 April 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
5. Otani, Akira (6 December 2021). "Sakana ni natta Satsun no hanashi". Shukan Big Comic Spirits. 2022 (1).

• 1981 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Japanese women writers
• Japanese lesbian writers