Mia Ikumi, the manga artist known for her work on the popular anime and manga series Tokyo Mew Mew, has died. Ikumi passed away on March 7, 2022, due to a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage. The artist’s close friends and family held a private funeral. She was 42 years old. [Thanks, Oricon.]
Ikumi was born in 1979 in Osaka, Japan. At the age of 18, the artist won Nakayoshi magazine’s Newcomer’s Award in 1998 for her debut manga, Usagi no Terasu Hoshi. Kodansha later serialized another one of her manga, Super Doll Licca-chan, in 1998. In 2000, she co-created Tokyo Mew Mew with screenwriter Reiko Yoshida. Tokyo Mew Mew ran until 2003 and received an anime adaptation in 2002. Ikumi later released a two-chapter sequel to the original manga series, Tokyo Mew Mew Re-turn, in 2020.
A reboot of the anime series is set to begin in July 2022, which Ikumi supervised. Alongside the new anime, Kodansha also announced a re-release of the original manga series in February 2022. The re-release will feature new illustrations and cover art from the artist herself.
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— なかよし編集部 (@nakayosi_manga) March 14, 2022
Nakayoshi magazine’s editorial division broke the news that Mia Ikumi had died in a press release. In it, the magazine revealed that Ikumi had supervised the anime’s production for over two years, and she was reportedly excited for the series to begin alongside the new manga’s release. Furthermore, the production team stated that they hope to fulfill Ikumi’s last wish and continue working diligently towards the anime’s release.
