Hiroya Oku Confirms He Wrote Thunder 3 as Yuki Ikeda
The confirmation turns years of reader suspicion about shared art style into a stated fact, and it lands while Oku is telling interviewers he plans to retire after The Sweet Sixty Princess.
Reporting from 1 source: Animehunch.
Hiroya Oku revealed on X that he is Yuki Ikeda, the pen name credited as the author of Thunder 3. He said the alias protected the twist in Episode 1, so first-time readers would be surprised. Oku thanked the anime staff and said he watches every episode. Thunder 3 ran in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine, concluded in June 2026, and its anime streams on Netflix.
The pen name was not a mystery to everyone. Oku said readers had long speculated about who was behind Thunder 3, with the manga's artwork and character designs repeatedly compared to Gantz, and some assumed the author was a former assistant or a dedicated fan. Oku has used an alias before: his debut manga Hen ran under the name Kuon Yahiro after placing as a runner-up in the 1988 Young Jump Youth Manga Awards. Thunder 3 follows Pyontaro and his friends Tsubame and Hiroshi as they try to rescue his younger sister Futaba from another world.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.