Keiichi Arawi (あらゐけいいち, Arawi Keiichi, born December 29, 1977) is the creator of Nichijou and CITY. He is a mangaka known for his creative storytelling style and unique way of constructing comedic scenes, characterized by frequent intercuts, inner monologues, repeated flashbacks, and unexpected surreal events.
Despite being a relatively famous mangaka, Arawi maintains a low public profile and does not make public appearances. He rarely does signings with fans, but requests that no photos be taken. He once drew a Nichijou-style self-portrait in an old publication, but otherwise only depicts himself as various cartoonish creatures, especially a green slime golem. The Japanese Nichijou Anime Blurays included rare bonus videos of Arawi discussing his manga, but with Sakamoto's face pasted over his own.
Style
Arawi's work uses a colorful blend of surreal and realism, and has a reputation for capturing the paradoxical absurdity and mundanity of human life. His work is also characterized by little details that are full of whimiscal meaningless iconography, out-of-place items, unusual books and signs, and little creatures that defy categorization—colloquially known as kamakura.
He often parodies common manga tropes and archetypes by taking their formulas and blowing them up to ludicrous proportions, then subverting them with deeper character writing that reveals a more realistic human being behind the caricaturish surface. Nichijou was known for its creative and heartfelt takes on manga and anime tropes such as the "Energetic Dumb Girl + Quiet Smart Girl + Average Normal Girl Trio," "Genius Child Inventor and Caretaking Robot and Talking Pet," "Tsundere," "Rich Aristocratic Student," and more. CITY continues the trend, albeit to a lesser degree, taking on tropes such as the "Headstrong Wannabe Delinquent," "Convenient Mindless Mob of Extras," and "Infinitely Wealthy Philanthropist who Bankrolls the Plot."
Arawi pursued a brief foray into more complex narrative structure with more mature themes in the early volumes of CITY, but as the weekly serialization wore on, soon returned to episodic gag-focused manga. His post-CITY work tends to be much less grounded and more surreal and fantastical, even dreamlike at times. His current style is very round with bold uniform linework, and first began to emerge late in CITY's serialization.
While Nichijou and CITY are his most well-known works, Arawi has created others, including the frequently referenced (in Nichijou) Helvetica Standard, and new surrealist manga Amemiya-san.