Tetsuya Chiba, the artist who co-created the manga series Ashita no Joe, has passed away at 87 years old. Chiba died on October 22 in a Tokyo hospital from a myelodysplastic syndrome.
Myelodysplastic syndrome is a kind of cancer which affects blood cells in the bone marrow. Due to his poor health, Chiba went on hiatus in September, pausing production on his manga Hinemosu Notari Nikki.
Chiba had a decorated career. He was nominated for the Japan Art Academy in 2022 and was chair of the Japan Cartoonists Association. Additionally, he received the Order of Culture award in 2024, recognizing “outstanding contributions in developing” Japanese culture. He was the first manga artist to receive the honor.
Chiba illustrated the Ashita no Joe series, which was written by author Asao Takamori and serialized from January 1968 to May 1973 in Kodansha’s Weekly Shonen Magazine. 20 volumes were released in Japanese. Kodansha began releasing an English translation, titled Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow, in December 2024.
Kodansha describes the first volume as follows:
A young drifter named Joe Yabuki wanders through the slums of Tokyo, but when the local ruffians try to give him a hard time he teaches them a rough lesson with his fists. The spectacle sparks a gleam in the eye of an old drunk who happens to be watching—Danpei Tange, a failed boxer and former coach who sees something special in the boy. He pleads with Joe to train with him off, but the cocky young fighter brushes him. Later, though, when Joe is arrested and put in a juvenile detention facility, he realizes that he’s going to need to hone his raw fighting skills if he wants to survive. Thus is born a partnership that might just take Joe all the way to the top…
