Makoto Kobayashi (小林 まこと, Kobayashi Makoto) is a Japanese manga artist. Kobayashi's professional career in comics started in 1978, when he won the 'Shōnen magazine New manga artist' award for his work Grapple Three Brothers. Over the years Kobayashi has published a number of sport manga, specifically about Judo, starting from his first serialised work Sanshiro of 1, 2 (1981-1984), winner of the 1981 'Kodansha Manga Award'. However, his best known comic book, especially in the West, is What's Michael? (1984-1989), a humour strip about an orange cat, for which Kobayashi won another 'Kodansha Manga Award' in 1986.