Kenichi Sobu

**Kenichi Sobu** (蘇部(そぶ) 健一(けんいち), *Sobu Kenichi*) is a Japanese author, mainly of mystery stories. He is notable for being the third winner of the Mephisto Prize. He is also involved in Ryuusui Seiryouin's English publishing company, The BBB.

## Biography

Sobu was born in 1961 in Tokyo, Japan. He graduated from the Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Education, Waseda University, and made his debut in 1997 with the third Mephisto Prize winner *Six Slices of Tonkatsu*, a series of stories featuring Yuuichi Ono, an insurance investigator. The above work was strongly criticized for being "ridiculous and unreadable," "trash," and "trivial," but was also praised for being "supportive".

He has been called a genius in the mystery world and a writer of unusual ability. In addition to the idea-oriented mystery short stories that belong to his debut work, he has also written longer, sentimental science fiction works, which he admits in his afterword are more highly regarded.

His first full-scale mystery short story in print was *Salty Sea Breeze ⑰ 49th Wall*, which was selected for inclusion in *Honkaku Reasoning (7)*, edited by Tetsuya Ayukawa in 1996. At the time of publication, his pen name was **Tatsunari Azuma**.

He is a good friend of Kenji Kuroda, another Mephisto Prize winner. Kuroda is also in charge of the commentary for *Mummy Man*. Kuroda also once wrote on his homepage that his niece is a fan of Kenichi Sobu.

He has also published novels for children's labels such as Bluebird Bunko and YA Entertainment, such as the *Ordinary School Series* series and *Love Rain*.

## External Links

* Sobu's Japanese Wikipedia page
* Sobu's profile on The BBB website

## Trivia

* Sobu's surname is written with the characters for "revival" and "department", while his first name is written with the characters for "health" and "first".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Six Slices of Tonkatsu (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Rokuton 2 (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Rokuton 3 (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Rokuton 4: One Slice of Tonkatsu (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Ordinary School: Mr. Inazuma's Gallant Entry!! Volume (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Ordinary School 2: The Brassiere Theft Case Volume (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Ordinary School 3: Moderate Morning Reading Volume (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 The Four Hour and Thirty Minute Barrier in the Nagano-Jouetsu Shinkansen (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Irrefutable Evidence (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Mummy Man (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Unfulfilled Wish (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Love Rain (in Japanese). Published by Kodansha.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Red String of Fate (in Japanese). Published by Hayakawa Publishing.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 The Old Watch: If I Could Have Met You Yesterday... (in Japanese). Published by Tokuma Shoten.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Love Has Yet to Start... (in Japanese). Published by PHP Institute.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 I Believe in Nothing but Fate! (in Japanese). Published by Shogakukan.
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Novel X: I've Been Looking for You (in Japanese). Published by Shogakukan.