Tetsuya Chiba, the legendary manga creator behind the boxing classic Ashita no Joe, has died at the age of 87. He passed away in a Tokyo hospital on October 22 due to a myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of cancer that affects the blood cells in the bone marrow.
Tetsuya Chiba (Credits: Tetsuya Chiba’s blog)
Tetsuya Chiba’s Final Years and Health Struggles
Chiba had been battling declining health for several years. He put his autobiographical short essay manga, Hinemosu Notari Nikki, on hiatus on September 25 due to poor health. The series had launched in Big Comic back in December 2015.
His health troubles stretched back further still. In January 2022, he underwent heart surgery to place a stent in his coronary artery, and he later revealed he had also undergone eye surgery. In November 2021, he admitted himself to a Tokyo hospital after feeling unwell, later explaining that problems had appeared one after another in his heart valve, coronary artery, and throat, followed by treatment for a tumor in his throat.
The Legacy of Ashita no Joe
Born in Tokyo and raised partly in what is now northern China, Chiba debuted as a professional manga creator at just 17 years old in 1956. But it was Ashita no Joe, which ran from 1968 to 1973, that made him a household name and a permanent fixture of Japanese popular culture.
The boxing manga inspired two television anime series in 1970 and 1980, plus two anime films in 1980 and 1981. Its story was later reimagined in a sci-fi setting with new characters in 2018’s Megalobox, which credits the original manga as its origin, followed by the sequel Megalobox 2: Nomad in April 2021.
Ashita no Joe received its first official English release under the title Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow in December 2024, bringing the classic to a new generation of readers worldwide.
A Trailblazer Honored by Japan
Chiba’s contributions to Japanese culture earned him some of the country’s highest honors. In 2022, he was nominated to the Japan Art Academy as one of its first two manga creators, alongside Yoshiharu Tsuge, and he also served as chair of the Japan Cartoonists Association.
In 2024, he received the prestigious Order of Culture award, becoming the first manga creator ever to be given the honor, which recognizes those who have made outstanding contributions to developing Japanese culture.
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Source: Anime News Network — read the full story there.
