Warning: This article contains statements about suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide or has suicidal thoughts, please contact your national suicide prevention organization.
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© Hinako Ashihara, Shogakukan
Shogakukan announced on Friday that it will release an eighth volume of the late Hinako Ashihara's sexy manga Tanaka-san on October 10. The publisher stated that out of “respect for Ashihara's wishes” and “out of respect for the story that continues,” the publisher will not label the manga as the final volume.
The new volume will include the 15th chapter of the manga (first published in January), a separate one-shot titled “Winter Fool” by Ashihara published in the November 2016 issue of Flowers magazine, and a four-page color gallery.
Ashihara died in an apparent suicide accident in January. Two days before she was reported missing, Ashihara posted a blog post about the live-action adaptation of Sexy Tanaka-san. In the blog post, she said that she had set a condition that the live-action adaptation be faithful to the manga and said that NTV did not uphold that condition. Ashihara later deleted the blog post after the film's screenwriter began receiving backlash online, saying that she had no intention of attacking anyone and that she had apologized.
NTV, the producer of the adaptation, issued an apology in February, apologizing to all involved and expressing condolences to Ashihara's family. The network added at the time that it was taking the situation seriously and would conduct its own investigation with an internal team. NTV has been cooperating with Shogakukan and an outside investigation team, including an outside lawyer.
The investigation concluded that although Ashihara stated in a blog post shortly before her death that she had initially set a condition that the live-action adaptation would remain faithful to the manga, due to miscommunication early in negotiations and production, that message was never conveyed to the staff of the film adaptation. The investigation found that there were differences between the two parties during the production process from the beginning, including confusion surrounding the film's ending.
NTV then unveiled new guidelines in July for live-action adaptations of original works following an internal investigation. The new guidelines cover production processes, safety, social media policies, and human resources.
Ashihara launched the manga in Shogakukan's Anikei Petite Comic magazine in 2018 and has yet to complete it. The live-action film adaptation premiered on NTV on October 22 and aired for 10 episodes.
Ashihara debuted as a manga author in 1994. Viz Media released Ashihara's 10-volume Sand Chronicles manga in English. The company also released Ashihara's SOS manga, which is a one-volume collection of short stories. Tokyopop released Ashihara's four-volume Forbidden Dance manga in English.
Source: Shogakukan Comic , Natalie Comics
