Sexy Tanaka-san Mangaka Dead in Suspected Suicide After Live-Action Uproar

Only days after writing a blog post on the matter and subsequently wiping her social media history in a seeming breakdown, Sexy Tanaka-san mangaka Hinako Ashihara was found dead by suspected suicide at the Nikko Kawaji Dam in Tochigi Prefecture. She was 50.

According to police sources, she was filed as ‘Missing' on January 28th, with her body being found today on the 29th, with what is suspected to be a suicide note also found. Police are still investigating the case.

Ashihara suffered a great deal during the production of the live-action drama series adaptation of her hit manga Sexy Tanaka-san, trying to wrest back her plot and characters from the massively altered version produced by the production committee at Nippon TV. Despite adaptation faithfulness being one of her conditions for giving the green light, she relayed to the scriptwriter via the producers (her only point of contact) the changes she wanted to be made to the adaptation, only to find them rebuffed and unchanged.

Ashihara was then hit by complaints about the shoddy adaptation, not helped by the series scriptwriter Tomoko Aizawa, who pointed out that Ashihara wrote the script for the final two episodes. After detailing everything in her blog post as an explanation, social media users used it as fuel to add to the fire and attack other members of the production, seemingly leading Ashihara to wipe her Twitter and blog, with her now-final Tweet posted on the 28th saying: “I didn't mean it as an attack. I'm sorry.”

Nippon TV commented on the mangaka's death via their online news outlet, saying:

We would like to express our deep sadness and regret at receiving the news of Hinako Ashihara's passing. The adaptation of the October 2023 Sunday drama ‘Sexy Tanaka-san' was proposed by Nippon TV, and through Shogakukan management we discussed and took Ashihara-san's opinions on the scriptwriting into account, leading to the approval and green light for the script and the broadcast. We thank Ashihara-san for giving her best in the production of the show.

As expected, the topic of the mangaka's death and Nippon TV's response immediately caught fire and continues to burn others in its heat, with Aizawa privating her Instagram account. Other mangaka have spoken out about her death, with Nodame Cantabile mangaka Tomoko Ninomiya saying, “This hurts… This hurts too much.”, while mangaka-turned-politician Ken Akamatsu said, “This is something that should never have happened”, though he warned not to let this matter turn into a hate train aimed towards Aizawa.

Apart from Sexy Tanaka-san, Ashihara was known for Sand Chronicles, which also received a successful live-action adaptation by TBS.