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'' () (Poplar, 2018) - 23 short stories *''Bieru koten serekushon 3: Kaidan, Kidan'' () (Sayusha, 2019) - Boys' love stories adapted from

Lafcadio Hearn , born Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (; el, Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χέρν, Patríkios Lefkádios Chérn, Irish language, Irish: Pádraig Lafcadio O'hEarain), was an Irish people, Irish-Greeks, Greek-Japanese people, Japanese writer, t ...

*''Kimi no rokugatsu wa kōru'' (Asahi Shimbun Publications, Inc., 2023) - two novellas

Novels

*''Moujuutsukai to oujisama - Kiniro no fue to midori no honou'' () (Hifumishobo, 2012) *''Ayakashi risutorante Kimyou na kyakujin no tame no arakaruto'' () (Shueisha Orange Bunko, 2015) *''Tantei shousetsu (misuterii) ni ha mukanai tantei'' () (Shueisha Orange Bunko, 2016) *''Baba Yaga no yoru'' () (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2020)

Essays

* ''Douse karada ga meate deshou'' () (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2019)

Manga

* ''Sakana ni natta Satsun no hanashi'' () (Shukan Big Comic Spirits, 2022 Issue 1)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Otani, Akira 1981 births Living people 21st-century Japanese women writers Japanese lesbian writers