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Tokyo Mew Mew Artist Mia Ikumi Passes Away Due to Hemorrhage

The official website of Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine announced on Monday that manga artist Mia Ikumi passed away on March 7 due to a subarachnoid hemorrhage surrounding the brain. Her family held a private funeral.

Ikumi debuted with the Super Doll Licca-chan in Nakayoshi magazine, where it ran from 1998 to 1999.

Ikumi would later draw the art for her most iconic work, the magical girl manga Tokyo Mew Mew with writer Reiko Yoshida. The pair serialized the manga in Nakayoshi from 2000 to 2003, and Kodansha published seven volumes for the manga. Tokyopop published all seven volumes in English. Kodansha Comics released the manga in three omnibus volumes with a new translation in 2011.

Tokyo Mew Mew inspired a 52-episode television anime series from 2002 to 2003, and 4Kids Entertainment aired the anime with the title Mew Mew Power in 2005. Ikumi also serialized a sequel manga titled Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode from 2003 to 2004, and Kodansha Comics published the manga in English. Yoshida and Ikumilater published a new short manga titled Tokyo Mew Mew 2020 Re-Turn in December 2019.

Tokyo Mew Mew New (seen left), an all-new anime based on the original manga, will debut this July.

Kodansha will re-release all the previous Tokyo Mew Mew manga in a new 10-volume edition with new covers, with the first three volumes slated for May. Kodansha stated that Ikumi already drew the new cover art for all 10 volumes, as well as retouched art and all new manga shorts for the new edition. The announcement added that Ikumi had been overseeing the anime production and the work on the new manga edition for the past two years, and that the anime production will continue, carrying with it Ikumi's wishes.

Update: Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode's credit corrected. Thanks, Mew Berry

Source: Nakayoshi