[3] Tokyopop has published English-language translations of his short story collection Calling You, the novel Goth and the comic adaptations of both.

Otsuichi was born on October 21, 1978,[4] in Tanushimaru (now part of Kurume), Fukuoka Prefecture, as the eldest son of a family of four with his parents and two older sisters.

[5] Despite calling the 5 years at the college "the gloomiest in all of his life,"[5] during summer vacation when he was around 15 years old, he read the first volume of the light novel series Slayers by Hajime Kanzaka which he borrowed from a friend and discovered his love of reading, and began dabbling into the world of light novels and manga.

[6] For the next year and a half, Otsuichi read as many light novels as he could get his hands on either from friends or his older sisters, while also encountering mystery novels such as Takemaru Abiko's Satsuriku ni taru Yamai, Yukito Ayatsuji's The Decagon House Murders and Sōji Shimada's Detective Kiyoshi Mitarai series.

[9] At that time, Otsuichi was invited by an editor to watch the sound editing of Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

[5] In his early career, Otsuichi's works could be described as mainly short stories with interesting ideas[10][8] and heartwarming light novels.

[11] In addition, he adopted movie scriptwriting techniques from a book called Shinario Nyūmon (シナリオ入門) shortly after his debut.

[12] His wife, Tomoe Oshii, says that Otsuichi is "not obsessed with [using] either novels or movies [as a medium in telling a story].

"[14] This is connected to how light novels are perceived as lesser compared to other forms of literature, a fact which Otsuichi only learned after becoming active in the publishing industry.

The novel proved difficult to complete; in Kono Mystery ga Sugoi 2004, Otsuichi claimed to have written over 2000 pages, but thrown them all out.