“Sexy Tanaka-san” mangaka Ashihara Hinako’s family releases a statement

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Following the passing of Ashihara Hinako, the original author of the drama series “Sexy Tanaka-san”, which aired on Nippon Television in October-December last year, her bereaved family released a statement through Shogakukan on the 31st.

The statement is as follows, “`We suddenly lost our beloved family member and are in a state of shock. Even if we receive a request for an interview, we are not in a position to talk. Also, under these circumstances, we are afraid of being approached by strangers. We would appreciate if you please leave us alone for now and watch over us quietly. Thank you for your support”.

Ashihara was found dead, days after she took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to write about the problems she had when her manga “Sexy Tanaka-san” was adapted into a drama and how there were conditions that the live-action drama would have to be faithful to the manga series, but it wasn’t met and she would voice her suggestions but they were not taking her voice as consideration.

Ashihara tweeted, “I came to the conclusion that I had no choice but to write the script for episodes 9 and 10 of this drama adaptation. The original manga was unfinished and had no set ending, so the conditions were that the work be ‘always faithful to the manga’, but this was apparently not met”.

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