Lupin III Creator Monkey Punch Passes Away at 81

Manga artist Kazuhiko Kato, better known by his pen name Monkey Punch, has passed away on April 11 due to pneumonia. He was 81 years old.

Kazuhiko Kato was born in Hamanaka, Hokkaido in 1937 and resided in Sakura, Chiba. He made his major debut with Playboy School (Playboy Nyuumon), writing under the name of Eiji Gamuta in Futabasha’s Manga Story magazine in 1965. He then took on the pen name Monkey Punch at a manga editor’s recommendation during the mid-1960s who discovered him from that magazine. At first, he didn’t like the name but agreed because it was his boss’ idea and his next project was only supposed to be a three-month project.

Lupin III then launched in Futabasha’s Manga Action magazine in 1967 and became popular so he decided to stick with the name.

In April 2005 he became the professor of Manga Animation at Otemae University, in their Faculty of Media and Arts. On April 21, 2007, Monkey Punch participated in a series of lectures on the “interaction of manga and culture throughout the world” at the Freer Gallery of Art. In 2008, Monkey Punch was a judge at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Second International Manga Awards.

He was also a visiting professor at Tokyo University of Technology in May 2010. He received a special Tokyo Anime Award in 2015.

He designed the characters for the pachinko game CR Ginroku Gijinden Roman in 2012. The following year an anime adaptation of the game began airing on January 7, 2013, with Monkey Punch’s designs adapted by Satoshi Hirayama. He also participated in the writing of the 2014 live-action film adaptation of Lupin III.

Source: Comic Natalie