Japanese cartoonist Kazuhiko Kato, better known by his penname of Monkey Punch, passed away on April 11, 2019 at the age of 81, following a battle with pneumonia. Kato was best-known for his creation of the manga Lupin III, which remains one of the longest-running anime and manga franchises ever.
Kato was born in Hokkaido, Japan in May 1937. His interest in art began at a young age, and by the time he was in junior high school he was regularly drawing comic strips for his school newspaper. Though he went to technical school following his high school graduation, he continued drawing for fun, eventually joining a dojinshi group with other artists in Tokyo. He was soon recruited by a publisher, Futabasha, to draw yonkoma (four-panel comics) professionally.
Kato made his debut in 1965 with a series called Playboy School, but it was the 1967 debut of Lupin III that shot him to manga stardom. The series debuted in the first issue of Weekly Manga Action magazine, which also featured a cover drawn by Kato, now operating under the name Monkey Punch. Lupin III follows the exploits of the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of the original Arsène Lupin from Maurice Leblanc’s novels. Lupin III has been extremely popular since its debut, with multiple manga series, several anime seasons, numerous theatrical films and even live-action stage and film productions. Kato himself directed the 1996 film, Lupin III: Dead or Alive.
He produced numerous other stories and one-shots over the course of his career, with some standouts including Cinderella Boy and Musashi Gundoh, both of which were turned into anime series.
Kato would eventually win several awards for his work, including the Inkpot Award in 1981, and the special Tokyo Anime Award in 2015. His later years were spent teaching as a professor of manga animation at Otemae University in the Kansai region of Japan.