On January 1, 1968, Weekly Shonen Magazine began publishing Ashita no Joe, known in Spain as Joe of Tomorrow, the story of an amateur boxer who little by little keeps moving up the ranks until he becomes one of the sport’s stars in Japan. It lasted only five and a half years and 20 volumes, but it was enough to create a masterpiece that is still remembered to this day. So much so that when its artist, Tetsuya Chiba, died today, people looked back on his masterpiece.
Boxing his way to the top
Joe of Tomorrow has been reprinted again and again over the years, and it has had an anime and even four films (two animated and two live-action), with an ending that is still being debated even now. It’s only natural that Chiba’s death at 87 has rocked the manga world, as it loses one of its icons.
Chiba worked on many more manga before and after Joe of Tomorrow. In fact, in 2026 he was still working on Hinemosu Notari Nikki, but he’s better known for writing and drawing, for 25 years, Notari Matsutaro, about a sumo wrestler. At the same time, the author was illustrating other writers’ stories and working on another series, Ore wa Teppei. Quite a genius, really.
It’s always a tragedy to see geniuses leave us, especially in the age of artificial intelligence, and of course he’ll be missed. We’ll always have his enduring masterpiece to revisit. Fortunately, it will live on.
