Renowned Manga Artist Hinako Ashihara’s Tragic Passing Shrouded in Controversy

Controversy is brewing over the tragic decision made by Hinako Ashihara, the famous Japanese manga artist known for her popular manga, “Sexy Tanaka-san.”

On the 29th of last month (local time), it was revealed that Hinako Ashihara, the manga artist of “Sexy Tanaka-san,” had suddenly passed away.

At the scene of the incident, a note presumed to be a suicide letter was found, leading local authorities to believe the cause of death was suicide. A dispute with the station over the ending of the dramatized “Sexy Tanaka-san” was cited as the cause of her death.

In October of last year, a 10-episode drama titled “Sexy Tanaka-san,” based on the manga of the same name, was aired on Japan’s Nippon TV.

The issue arose during the final episode broadcast on the 24th of last month. As the episode received widespread criticism, scriptwriter Tomoko Aizawa claimed on her Instagram that “the original author insisted on writing the scripts for episodes 9 and 10” and that “it’s a difficult situation I have never experienced before.”

He continued, “I had to think deeply about the way dramas are produced and the purpose of a scriptwriter” and “I will use this tough experience as a stepping stone to ensure that such a thing never happens again.”

In response, original author Hinako Ashihara refuted on her blog, “I asked for the drama to be faithful to the manga when it’s produced as drama and said that the original author would prepare everything from the plot to the dialogue. However, scripts and plots that greatly changed the manga were submitted every time,” and “The original conditions were not kept. I had no choice but to write episodes 9 and 10 myself.”

However, Ashihara soon deleted her blog post. Then, on the 28th, he left a message on her X account saying, “I didn’t want to offend; I’m sorry,” and was found dead the next day.

The public believes that Ashihara’s active clarification was due to the drama scriptwriter’s initial offense to him via social media.

Currently, in Japan, there is growing criticism that the broadcasting station and scriptwriter were involved in the author’s death. In response, Nippon TV expressed condolences on their official website.

Nippon TV further explained, “When proposing the adaptation, we proceeded with the script production work while listening to the opinions of the original author, Ashihara, through the representative of the original work, Shogakukan (publisher).”

They also stated, “We decided on the script that we had received permission from (the original author) and have been broadcasting it.”

Meanwhile, in Korea, there has been a recent truth dispute between the original author and the broadcasting station over the development of KBS2’s historical drama “Korea-Khitan War.”