Author of popular manga 'Crayon Shin-chan' goes missing
KASUKABE, Saitama -- Yoshito Usui, author of the popular manga "Crayon Shin-chan," has gone missing, prompting his family to file a search request with police, it has been learned.
Police said that Usui, 51, left his home in Kasukabe on the morning of Sept. 11, saying he was going to the mountains in Gunma Prefecture. However, he failed to return home the same evening as planned, prompting his wife to file a search request with Saitama Prefectural Police the following day. Usui's cell phone was ringing, but there was reportedly no response.
Usui's family told police that the manga author had often going climbing in the mountains. Police in Saitama have sought assistance from Gunma and Nagano prefectural police in searching for him.
"Crayon Shin-chan," which is carried as a serial in "Manga Town," published by Futabasha, is Usui's most well-known work. The main character is Shinnosuke Nohara, a kindergartener living in Kasukabe. The manga has been made into popular television and film anime. On Sept. 5 the film "Ballad Namonaki Koi no Uta," based on an animated Crayon Shin-chan film, opened at theaters across Japan.
The popular Japanese manga artist of “Crayon Shin-chan,” Yoshito Usui, was found dead in the mountains of Gunma prefecture after apparently falling to his death off a cliff. Usui had reportedly gone missing on the 11th of the month after telling his family he was going for a day-hike in the mountains.
The body of 51 year old Yoshito Usui was discovered by a hiker yesterday, September 19th (JST), at the bottom of one of the steep cliffs of Mt. Arafune, about 90 miles northwest of Tokyo. The incident appears to have happened on the north face of the mountain about 100 meters (330 feet) from the summit of a popular hiking trail. Mt. Arafune is famous locally for its colored cliffs which run between 200 to 300 meters tall (about 650 to 1,000 feet), and is considered to be one of the top 200 mountains in Japan. While there are no guard rails along the cliff edges, accidents on the mountain are reportedly rare.
I was terribly saddened when I hear it. What a coincidence that I was just reading up my collection of Shin Chan books that I collected together with Doraemon and other japanese manga since I was small.
But I have to say that the newer volumes are more dramatic and the drawings are getting more detailed whereas in the old ones it was the simple drawings and the lightheartedness that contribute to its unique humour.
I was terribly saddened when I hear it. What a coincidence that I was just reading up my collection of Shin Chan books that I collected together with Doraemon and other japanese manga since I was small.
But I have to say that the newer volumes are more dramatic and the drawings are getting more detailed whereas in the old ones it was the simple drawings and the lightheartedness that contribute to its unique humour.
Author of Shin Chan K.I.A. *update*, found dead in mountain 
Sep 16 2009, 06:16 PM, updated 17y ago
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