Fujiko A. Fujio, co-creator of “Doraemon” passed away

Fujiko A. Fujio, co-creator of “Doraemon” and “Little Ghost Q-Taro” has passed away at the age of 88.

At around 8:40 a.m. on April 7th, a call to Kanagawa Prefectural Police Tama Station that a man has collapsed on the premise of Fujiko A’s home.

Police officers rushed to the location and confirmed the man’s death.  The cause of death is unknown and prefectural police were investigating the situation in which he had died.  There was no sign of trauma and the death was reported before 1 p.m.  Fujiko Studio announced the obituary after 6 p.m.

Tanaka Kikuo (87), a golf companion of Fujiko A, said, “I just played golf together with him in the middle of March.  He said he was sick, but he was scheduled to enter the competition on the 25th”.

Fujiko A. had no major illnesses until his late 70s, but in his later years, he has fought illnesses such as colorectal cancer in 2012 and he continue to work through age 80 but hasn’t drawn any manga since suffering heart failure in 2015.

Fujiko Fujio is the name used by two manga artists, Fujimoto Hiroshi and Abiko Motoo and the two used the name until 1987, when the decided to end their partnership as Fujimoto (aka Fujiko F. Fujio) discovered he had liver cancer and heart disease in 1986, so both wanted to resolve issues of copyright and finances (Fujiko F. Fujio would pass away in 1996).

Both were friends who met during the fifth grade of elementary school and both of them longed to be like Tezuka Osamu and aspired to be manga artists.  Both created their first manga “Tenshi no Tama-chan” serialized in a elementary school newspaper everyday in 1951, while attending high school.

While Fujiko A would work for Toyama Shimbun in 1952, Fujko F. invited him to become a manga artists and move to Tokyo.  The both would create “Obake no Q-Taro” which began serialization on “Weekly Shonen Sunday” in 1964 and was a bit hit and was made into an animated series.

Both were a combined power, but while Fujiko F. Fujio was more into fantasy, Fujiko A. Fujio was more into black humor. And wanting to prevent readers from being confused with their two different styles.

While Fujiko F. Fujio would be known more as the driving force for “Doraemon”, Fujiko A. Fujio would be known for his work on “Ninja Hattori-kun”, “Kaibutsu-kun”, “Mataro ga Kuru!!”, “Puro Gorufa Saru”, “Shonen Jidai”, “Uratora B” and “Warau Salesman”, to name a few.

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