Ashihara Hinako, a 50-year-old\u00a0Japanese manga artist, has been found dead near Tokyo. Japanese media report that the police are treating the matter\u00a0as a possible suicide\u00a0after finding a note at her home on Monday.<\/p>\n
Ashihara was the author of the \u201cSexy Tanaka-san\u201d manga, which was initially published by Shogakukan.\u00a0Nippon Television\u00a0began airing a 10-part live-action adaptation in October of last year, starring Kinami Haruka in the lead role.<\/p>\n
The story depicts a 40-year-old woman accountant who has a secret life as a belly dancer. When her secret is discovered by a co-worker, the two polar opposites manage to bring the best out in each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t miss this rom-com that is guaranteed to leave you in stitches constantly, with an occasion[al] dash of tears,\u201d says the blurb for the show on NTV\u2019s content catalog.<\/p>\n
Ashihara, however, was not amused and earlier in January used X (formerly Twitter) and her own blog to criticize the NTV adaptation. She said that the live-action show had not stuck faithfully to her manga, which had been a condition of its production.<\/p>\n
Ashihara, who has other credits including \u201cForbidden Dance\u201d (available in English), \u201cBitter \u2014 Nakechau Koi Monogatari,\u201d \u201cYubikiri\u201d and \u201cGirls Lesson,\u201d subsequently deleted the postings.<\/p>\n
She posted an apology\u2013 \u201cI didn\u2019t mean to attack. I\u2019m sorry\u201d \u2014 in the early afternoon on Sunday but was reported missing the same day. She was found dead at home on Monday.<\/p>\n
As foreign media and without membership of a Japanese press club,\u00a0Variety\u00a0<\/em>does not have access to Tokyo police reports. However, details of the case havSe been reported by mainstream Japanese media including the Japan Times and Nippon Television\u2019s own NTV News service.<\/p>\n The Japan Times\u00a0has likened the social media outcry to the furore that followed the death in May 2020 of\u00a0\u201cTerrace House\u201d participant Kimura Hana.<\/p>\n The publication explained that Ashihara had complained that the Aizawa Tomoko-drafted screenplay of the adaptation had deviated too far from her original work. Ashihara stepped in to take over the scripts for the last two episodes. All 10 parts received strong ratings, with over 5% audience share.<\/p>\n After the full show had finished airing in December, Aizawa used Instagram to explain the strange plot deviations of the final two, albeit without directly naming Ashihara.<\/p>\n Social media apparently erupted. Some fans sided with the screenwriter and called Ashihara too precious. Others labeled Aizawa a \u201ccrusher of original works.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the announcement of Ashihara\u2019s death, one X post calling Aizawa a murderer has over 8,000 likes. Another with over 13,000 likes blames Nippon Television for not supporting Ashihara and says that the company\u2019s statement on her death is inadequate.<\/p>\n Nippon Television, which is the owner of Hulu Japan and is also in the process of buying a controlling stake in Studio Ghibli, has not replied to\u00a0Variety\u2019s enquiries.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Ashihara\u2019s family issued a brief statement through Shogakukan. \u201cWe have lost our beloved family member and are in a state of bewilderments,\u201d it said before explaining that they would not be accepting media requests for comment.<\/p>\n If you or someone you know is in crisis, call\u00a0or text\u00a0988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline\u00a0or chat live at<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>988lifeline.org<\/em>. You can also visit\u00a0<\/em>SpeakingOfSuicide.com\/resources<\/em>\u00a0for additional\u00a0support.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ashihara Hinako, a 50-year-old\u00a0Japanese manga artist, has been found dead near Tokyo. Japanese media report that the police are treating the matter\u00a0as a possible suicide\u00a0after finding a note at her home on Monday. Ashihara was the author of the \u201cSexy Tanaka-san\u201d manga, which was initially published by Shogakukan.\u00a0Nippon Television\u00a0began airing a 10-part live-action adaptation in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1255,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/1255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/headlinegram.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}