TOKYO — Kazuki Takahashi, the creator of the worldwide smash hit manga and buying and selling card recreation Yu-Gi-Oh!, was discovered lifeless in southern Japan, the nation’s Coast Guard stated Thursday. He was 60.
His physique was found on Wednesday floating off the coast of Nago in Okinawa Prefecture. Mr. Takahashi was touring alone in Nago, a preferred trip vacation spot, and had apparently been snorkeling when he died from unknown causes, a Coast Guard spokesman stated.
Kazuo Takahashi was born on Oct. 4, 1961, and started working as a manga artist within the early Nineteen Eighties. But it surely wasn’t till 1996 that he started his rise to worldwide fame with the story of a spiky-haired boy who challenges his enemies to duels involving magical video games.
The story began as a one-off however ended up working for almost eight years within the pages of the favored Japanese boys’ comedian journal Weekly Shonen Bounce. Alongside the way in which, it impressed motion pictures, tv exhibits, video video games and a collectible buying and selling card recreation, which rivaled Pokemon as one among Japan’s most recognizable cultural exports.
The collection and its spinoffs grew to become a advertising and marketing goliath that offered itself: Motion pictures and TV exhibits featured the characters enjoying a card recreation similar to the one followers may buy of their neighborhood passion outlets. New playing cards have been launched frequently since, persevering with to replace even after the manga and anime completed.
Yu-Gi-Oh! manga have made frequent appearances on best-seller lists, and the buying and selling card recreation has generated billions of {dollars} in income for its writer, Konami. A brand new online game model, launched in January, was downloaded 30 million occasions in its first three months.
Native firefighters found Mr. Takahashi’s physique at 11:27 a.m. Wednesday, following a report from native vacationers, the Coast Guard stated, including that it’s investigating the reason for his demise.
Information of his demise broke within the late afternoon in Japan and was met with an outpouring of grief on social media, each in his residence nation and all over the world.
Rhymestyle, a YouTuber with greater than 1,000,000 subscribers, stated on Twitter that Mr. Takahashi had given him the “best childhood ever” and that he nonetheless performs Yu-Gi-Oh! right now.
One fan, Liam Burchell, 23, of Nova Scotia, Canada, stated on Thursday morning that he was already wanting over a few of his outdated Yu-Gi-Oh! playing cards. He was launched to the collection as a 4-year-old.
After years of accumulating as much as 2,000 playing cards, a few of that are saved in binders and others stored in a field in his closet, Mr. Burchell stated he had stepped away from the sport with no concrete plans to return.
However, he admitted, “Each on occasion, it’s enjoyable to get some associates collectively and play and relive these older reminiscences, whether or not it’s enjoying with the precise playing cards or enjoying one of many on-line simulators.”
Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.
