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Kazuo Koike

Lone Wolf and Cub’s Kazuo Koike passes away, final tweet is a salute to his manga rival

Unabashed lifelong otaku’s final online words express admiration for another recently departed anime/manga legend.

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Sushi chef kicks woman out of restaurant for asking him to hold the rice, manga author approves

The legendary creator of Lone Wolf and Cub has no patience for such affronts to fine dining.

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Although he’s one of the most respected figures of all time in the manga industry, Kazuo Koike isn’t typically associated with the otaku subculture. When his most popular creation, Lone Wolf and Cub, was translated into English it attracted as many international fans from among Western comic readers as from those who favored Japanese manga, and in general his works have a gritty, somber tone to them, unlike the brightly colored daydreams and self-insert power fantasies that are often associated with otaku-pandering fare.

There’s also the fact that Koike was born in 1936, and being old enough and of the corresponding gender to fill two-thirds of a “grumpy old man” bingo card, you might expect him to have harsh words for Japan’s legions of hobby-obsessed individuals, like those that often sputter forth from Studio Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki.

But it turns out that not only is Koike accepting of the otaku life, but he thinks that being an otaku from the cradle to the grave makes for a beautiful life.

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