is a Japanese graphic artist who works predominantly in anime and manga. He first gained fame in his work on the avant-garde anime Serial Experiments Lain. He is also responsible for the concept and character design for the series NieA_7. He is the creator of the dōjinshi Haibane Renmei, which was also adapted into an anime. He is a colleague and friend of Chiaki J. Konaka, with whom he collaborated on the series Serial Experiments Lain and Texhnolyze. He usually uses the romaji form of his name instead of the kanji, with the "B" in "ABe" capitalized, as a reminder of his early works, for which he used the pen name "AB". Abe first began his career as a teen in Tokyo who was first recognized as a graffiti artist, who regularly got into legal problems with his art. His concepts for all his later works are said to be inspired by this time of his life and has projected a dark theme into his anime character designs. He is known to be a fairly tech-savvy manga artist, drawing a sketch with just his finger and an application on an iPad. He released self-published dōjinshi on digital support bypassing the traditional print publishers with Pochiyama at the Pharmacy in 2008 aimed at iPhone and iPod Touch and I am an Alien, I have a Question in 2010 for Kindle. Personal life On November 11, 2011, ABe married artist Sasaki Yukari, his manga assistant since 2010. Their daughter was born on September 21, 2012. Works Anime Serial Experiments Lain (1998) (original character design) NieA_7 (2000) (original character design, scenario) Haibane Renmei (2002) (original creator, original character design, series composition, screenplay) Texhnolyze (2003) (original character design) Welcome to the N.H.K. (2006) (original character design) RErideD: Derrida, who leaps through time (2018) (original character design, screenplay for episodes 4, 8, and 10) Housing Complex C (2022) (original character design) Despera (TBA) (original character design) Music Love Song (2005) (cover art and booklet illustrations) Video games Wachenröder (1998) Phenomeno (2012) Printed works Dōjinshi Furumachi (August, 1996) Shooting Star (December, 1996) White Rain (July, 1997) Sui-Rin (August, 1998) Charcoal Feather Federation (Haibane Renmei) (December, 1998) T.Prevue Version 0.9 (August, 1999) Faces (December, 1999) K.S.M.E (July, 2000) Sketches (December, 2000) NieA Under 7 - Under (August, 2001) Haibane Renmei - The Haibanes of Old Home (Ch.1) (August, 2001) Haibane Renmei - The Haibanes of Old Home