This week, Japan misplaced a legend. Nikkei Asia experiences that famed manga creator Fujiko A. Fujio died on Thursday morning at his residence in Tokyo’s Kawasaki. He was 88.

Fujiko A. Fujio, whose actual identify was Motoo Abiko, was a part of a manga artist duo with Hiroshi Fujimoto, aka Fujiko F. Fujio. Collectively they have been generally known as Fujiko Fujio, and have been the manga world’s equal of Lennon–McCartney. Childhood buddies, the 2 shaped a collaborative partnership in 1951 and went on to create a few of Japan’s most iconic manga, which have been later tailored into beloved anime which are nonetheless watched at present. Fujiko F. Fujio, who handed away in 1996, is credited with being the driving power behind Doraemon, which is also known as the Mickey Mouse of Japan. Their inventive partnership was dissolved in 1987.

In 2008, the Japanese authorities awarded Fujiko A. Fujio with the Order of the Rising Solar, which is without doubt one of the nation’s highest honors.

Fujiko A. Fujio created quite a few beloved manga, together with Ninja Hattori-kun and The Laughing Salesman. Ninja Hattori-kun, which follows the adventures of a boy who befriends a ninja child, debuted as a manga in 1964 and as an anime in 1981. As Nikkei Asia notes, The Laughing Salesman is a few salesman who goals to “fill the vacancy in individuals’s souls,” however his gives usually come at a worth to those that don’t comply with his directions precisely. The Laughing Salesman is way darker than Fujiko F. Fujio’s kid-friendly Doraemon, and exhibits how the duo’s inventive temperaments differed.

Even in his later years, Fujiko A. Fujio remained energetic. His last serialized manga, Parman no Jounetsu-teki na Hibi (Parman’s Intense Every day Life), was a memoir that launched in 2007 and went on hiatus in 2015.

Fujiko A. Fujio was one in all Japan’s really nice manga creators. Could he relaxation in peace.