The author, Hekiru Hikawa
Hekiru Hikawa was born in 31.1.1975, in Tokyo. From early age, Hikawa was influenced by American popular culture. From foreign dramas, Hikawa names Knight Rider, Airwolf, MacGyver, The A-Team, Remington Steele, Bewitched, Family Ties and Sledge Hammer! as his favourites. From movies, Cannonball and Police Academy movies. Hikawa had a MSX growing up and he got hooked up with TRPGs in middle school, playing them almost every day. In high school, he became addicted to all kinds of games, from PC games to fighting games. After quitting system engineering vocational school, he started working part-time at Shinseisha. There, he would learn about anime, manga and special effects. After he became a writer and an assistant to manga artists in the company, he started making doujins with his assistant. (From Pani Poni Volume 1)
 Hikawa began his doujinshi career in 1996, mostly writing and drawing doujins about visual novels like Welcome to Pia Carrot, To Heart and Comic Party, but also from games like Street Fighter, Sakura Wars and Variable Geo. His circle name was "Spicy Operation", a wordplay to "Spy Operation", the Japanese title of Mission: Impossible TV show. His pen name, "Hekiru Hikawa", which he considers as the worst pen name in the world, was born around this time. One of Hikawa's friends gave it to him. Hikawa was unaware it was a wordplay of voice actress Hekiru Shiina's name. Before the final pen name, Hikawa had used pen names "Aoi Otono", "Heki Kotozuki", "Plasma Hermit" and "Hekio Hikawa". He has continued making doujins to this day, latest being a retelling of Pani Poni in a fantasy setting from 2020.
After Shinseisha went out of business, Hikawa moved to work at Enix, where he worked with illustrating postcards. A person in charge saw Hikawa's comic in a ONE anthology fanbook and gave him a request to draw a comic. After drawing 4komas, Pani Poni manga would be picked up and serialized in Square Enix' G Fantasy magazine starting from November 2000.
Works by Hekiru Hikawa
 | Pani Poni, serialized in G Fantasy from November 2000 to October 2011. Half-Japanese half-American Rebecca "Becky" Miyamoto becomes the hometeacher of Momotsuki Academy's 1-C Class and antics ensue. The story follows different characters and their plotlines, with the academy serving as frames for the narrative. Adapted into anime in 2005 by Gansis and Shaft. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and Shin Oonuma |
 | TG Angel Jaiko-chan, serialized in TECHGIAN from July 2001 to June 2008. Story focuses around Hikaru Nikaido, a student from Momotsuki Academy's 1-A Class, and her daily life inside and outside the academy. It has same absurd and surreal style similar to Pani Poni, but in a 4koma manga format. Hikaru was cut from the anime, making only one cameo. Her one manga volume was titled as "TG Angel Jaiko-chan DX". You can read a preview of chapter 1 on Bookwalker. |
 | Maro Mayu, serialized in Dengeki Daioh from March 2002 to June 2008. Kurumi (from Pani Poni) accidentally breaks the window of Cafe Etoile, in where she needs to work as a waitress to pay up the costs. Trouble ensue when the cafe manager doesn't think Kurumi as moe enough. Rei from Pani Poni had her own sideplot in the manga, called as "Rei-chan from the Chinese Restaurant". Anime episode 18 focused on Maro Mayu's characters and sideplots. A drama CD was released on 22.9.2006, with different voice actors than in anime. |
 | Momo-gumi!!, serialized in Ace Momogumi from June 2003 to December 2004. Yuna (from Pani Poni), Tsubasa and Makapon (original characters) form the idol group Momo-gumi, which has the catch phrase "Aim to the Ace!". But something always goes wrong. Whether it's Tsubasa's destructive powers or Makapon's un-idol-like behaviour and speech. In the manga, Momo-gumi members often visit Cafe Etoile, where Kurumi is working. Due to this, all Momo-gumi chapters have been compiled within Maro Mayu volumes. |
 | New Sensation Healing Magical Girl Behoimi-chan, serialized in G Fantasy from August 2006 to June 2008. An alien grants Behoimi powers to become a real magical girl, who has to fight against invaders from outer space. However, there's another Magical Girl Behoimi, who is elementary school student. Together, they battle to protect the Earth. One of the final Pani Poni spin-off manga Hikawa worked on before the main manga ended. |
 | CANDY POP NIGHTMARE, serialized in Big GanGan from November 2011 to July 2016. After transferring to a new school, Asuka Yagami is instantly dropped in the middle of a tsundere discipline committee member and monsters. There are a lot of things the characters and the readers won't understand. |
 | Highschool Girls VS, serialized in Dengeki Daiouji from 2015 to October 2016. Shy highschool girl Kaede Sato and her friends are actually idols, who are destined to save the world. In the 2nd volume, they split up and gather new members to their idol groups. |
 | Pandora Channel, serialized in Dengeki Daiouji from May 2017 to May 2018. Amateur tuber Pandora is locked into a secret room, where she is ordered to do a certain mission, while livestreaming. She tries to start her "Mootuber" career and go through the mission, with the help of cold-blooded maid Towa. |
 | Pureppa!, serialized in Dengeki Daiouji from September 2018 to August 2019. Marimo Seto is a highschool girl who finds it relaxing and fun to prevenet disasters and prepare for emergencies. She likes to visit the disaster prevention department, where also the unique and a bit stranger seniors gather. |
 | Our Everyday Life Has Just Only Begun, serialized in Morning Two from May 2019 to October 2020. One day, Eiji, a manga artist who lacks motivation and is currently a NEET, comes across a mysterious blonde girl, Robin. As Robin becomes a NEET as well, their fun everyday life begins. The story was originally called Momo Biyori, which ran from July to August 2018 in Big GanGan. The first chapter is available on Comic Days. |
 | Even if Kaori-san is reincarnated, she still wants to fight, serialized on Morning Two since August 2021. Ryusei Narukami, a NEET, who spends his days reclusive and playing game, is actually a demon king from another world. One day, the hero who once slayed him, comes to his current world in the form of highschool girl Kaori Meteor. First two and the latest three chapters are available on Comic Days. |
Image sources and info are from Hikawa's homepage and his Amazon page. Also good ol' Wikipedia in some cases.
Aside from drawing manga, one of Hikawa's hobbies has been building mecha models.  The image is from an archived post.
Last update on 3.1.2024
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