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Anpanman Creator Takashi Yanase's Last Märchen Ehon Story Published
posted on by Egan Loo
The Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun paper published the final story in Märchen Ehon (Fairy Tale Picture Book), a series of short stories by the late Anpanman creator Takashi Yanase, on Monday.
The editor-in-chief received the manuscript for this story on October 8. Even though it was not written as the final installment, Yanase had written "The End" on the last page. Five days later, Yanase passed away.
Yanase launched Märchen Ehon in April of 2010 as a weekly series in Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun (Asahi Elementary Student Newspaper), a daily newspaper for children. He turned his songs such as "Tenohira o Taiyō ni" (The Palm of Your Hand Towards the Sun) into short stories, about 1,200 characters long, each with an accompanying illustration.
The title of the final story was "Kona" ("Powder"). "It was the tale of a young girl who suddenly disappears, leading a young boy to call out, 'Please come back.' That leads to powdery snow falling, which eventually turns into the boy's tears."
"I am close to death, so I don't want to trouble anyone," he would always tell people, so he submitted manuscripts one month in advance. Märchen Ehon ran for 146 installments until Monday, and Yanase never took a break.
