Crayon Shin-Chan's Creator: In Memoriam

[arniejolt]

I'm not very familiar with the anime series but do know it had a good run on Adult Swim...

On Sunday, authorities have identified the body discovered at Arafune mountain as that of missing Crayon Shin-chan manga creator Yo****o Usui through dental records and other means.

The body was discovered 120 meters below the mountain's Tomoiwa cliff and reported at about 10:25 a.m. on Saturday by a male climber. Usui's backpack, camera, and other items had fallen about 50 meters away. Inside Usui's backpack was his mobile phone, wallet, and clothes. A police helicopter from Gunma Prefecture airlifted the body on Sunday afternoon. Police from the nearby town of Shimonita concluded that the 51-year-old creator died from collapsed lungs and other injuries sustained across his entire body sometime in the afternoon of September 11.

According to Usui's family, Usui had said that he was "going hiking for a day in Gunma Prefecture," as he often did, on the morning of September 11. His mobile phone was last detected in the vicinity of Karuizawa, a town about 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) northwest of his Kasukabe home, on Monday. Karuizawa is located in the mountainous eastern part of Nagano Prefecture, near the border of the equally mountainous Gunma Prefecture.

In particular, Usui was said to have expressed his intent to climb the Arafune mountain, which towers 1,422 meters (4,665 feet) high at the border between Nagano and Gunma Prefectures. According to Gunma Prefecture's police, there are no guardrails near the top of Tomoiwa cliff, but the established climber's trail is too far from the cliffside for someone to fall. Authorities had been searching this area since his wife reported his disappearance on September 12, after he did not return the night before.

More info at Anime News Network...I'm sorry, but I can't directly link to the url because the forum's auto censoring of the artist's name which is part of the url. The only thing I can do is offer up the url to the main site, You'll have to scroll down to News for Sunday, September 20th, 2009, and look for the article that has the name Crayon Shin-Chan in its title.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/

[kiggidykev]

What an awful way to go.

Also sad that not many people will have heard of his work in North America.

[Zetsumeisuna]

When my sister told me about this I looked it up in disbelief, and then seriously shed a tear. It was such a sad way to go, too :/ I loooooved Shin-Chan, but was unfamiliar with all his other works, unfortunately.

Live long and prosper, with your naked buttocks dancing in the air, Mr. Yo****o Usui

[a21schizoidman]

The show was hilarious. This is sad...

[Runesmith]

I'm generally not a big fan of anime (especially comedies), but this was one show I loved.

RIP, sir.

[folkeye]

I can't stand the cartoon, but it's awful to lose a creative mind.

[FloodOne]

I love Shin Chan. This is sad news.