Legendary manga creator Masakazu Katsura, best known for Denei Shojo (Video Girl AI), I”s, ZETMAN, and also Tiger And Bunny (worked as Original Character Design in anime), revealed recently that all his manuscripts for Denei Shojo (Video Girl AI) have been stolen and are being resold on auction sites
Yoshihiro Togashi, the creator of the popular manga, HUNTER×HUNTER, stepped up and shared an illustration of Amano Ai (main character from denai shojo) on his official X Account:
Togashi has published an illustration, expressing his hope that “May all the manuscripts return to Katsura-sensei.” The illustration depicts Amano Ai from “Video Girl Ai” in the style of Togashi.
What Actually Happened?
On November 26, Daily Shincho had reported that Legendary Mangaka Masakazu Katsura‘s entire manuscript for his manga Denai Shoujo had been stolen. Katsura came forward and revealed the details of the incident, saying, “I have my eye on the culprit.“
The original drawings of this popular work are currently being bought and sold one after another on the auction site “Yahoo! Auctions.” Each drawing is being traded for approximately ¥100,000 to several hundred thousand yen, with some even going for over ¥1 million.
“All of these are original paintings that were stolen. They were taken away in the confusion when we moved studios last October.” Katsura himself, the artist of the work, spoke with anger and rage.
“There’s no way I would have accidentally disposed of the original drawings for Video Girl Ai, which I’d put my life into. In fact, even before I started moving, I had put each volume in an envelope and stored them securely in a locker. I was lucky enough to have kept the original drawings for other major works, such as Wingman, in a different location, but I had kept all my other valuable items in the locker,” said Katsura.
When Katsura moved, he spent about a month sorting through his large collection of personal belongings, but he kept a close eye on how his original drawings were handled.
“I personally inspected each and every item that I sold to buyers, and I also told the waste disposal company, ‘Please do not throw away personal items such as watches and cameras, especially my original drawings.’ I even opened my locker and gave detailed instructions to the moving company, saying, ‘Please move these original drawings to the appropriate place in the warehouse.’ Of course, I never gave permission for the items I threw away to be sold to recycling companies.“
Despite this, he suddenly noticed that only the original drawings for Denai Shojo had disappeared. The original drawings for the one-shot works are said to remain in good condition.
Although the police station refused to accept the complaint, Katsura received numerous tips. Nao Sakai, a lawyer at Sun Sogo Law Office who represents Katsura, said:
“After carefully examining the information, we found that the company that was present at the move was likely to have been the one that committed the crime. We also discovered the existence of a secondhand goods dealer who was likely an accomplice of this company. Furthermore, when we requested information disclosure from the website through the bar association, we discovered that one of the accounts that had listed the stolen original drawings had actually been created by the secondhand goods dealer in question.“
Now that the “suspects” are beginning to be identified, Katsura is reportedly preparing to go to the police again.
“On paper, the suspects will remain unknown, but we are gathering evidence related to the suspected businesses and secondhand goods dealers and plan to file criminal charges of theft and other crimes,” he said.
There are a total of about 2,500 original drawings for all 15 volumes. If each drawing costs over ¥300,000, the total damage amounts to ¥750 million.
Masakazu Katsura was born in 1962. In 1980, he won an honourable mention at the 19th Tezuka Award for “Tsubasa.” He made his debut in 1981 with “Tenkosei wa Hensosei?!” in “Weekly Shonen Jump.” He has produced many hit works such as “Denai Shojo,” “I”s Pure” and “ZETMAN,” and is also active in genres outside of manga, such as working on the original character designs and hero designs for the anime “TIGER & BUNNY.” Bookmark Otaku Mantra for more updates!
Source: Oricon
