Artist’s body was discovered drifting in ocean.

Last Wednesday, the body of Kazuo Takahashi, better known by his manga artist pen name of Kazuki Takahashi, was found floating in the sea off the coast of Okinawa Prefecture. On Monday, the Japan Coast Guard released the result of Takahashi’s autopsy.

Takahashi, creator of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga and multimedia franchise, had been vacationing alone in Okinawa at the time and was wearing a T-shirt, swim fins, a snorkel, and a diving mask when his body was recovered near the town of Nago. Multiple reports mentioned bite marks on his legs and lower abdomen, and none mentioned any clothing on the lower half of the 60-year-old artist, with Nikkan Sports reporting that he had no swim trunks or underwear on.

This led some to wonder if Takahashi had been attacked by some sort of hostile marine wildlife, but the Coast Guard’s autopsy has determined that this was not the case, as medical examiners concluded that the cause of death was drowning.

On the morning of the day Takahashi’s body was found, the agency he had rented a car from had contacted the police, saying that he had not come in to return the vehicle and their attempts to reach him had been unsuccessful. The car was later found parked along a farm-access road near the beach in Onna, a city roughly 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) away from where Takahashi’s body was recovered. It’s now believed that after Takahashi’s drowning, sharks bit at his body in the day-plus it spent drifting south to Nago, causing extensive posthumous injuries.

Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the drowning, but at this time believe the likelihood of foul play is low.

Sources: NHK News Web, Mainichi Shimbun, Nikkan Sports, Nitele News
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