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Pierrot-Man, Shonan Seven Manga Artist Shinsuke Takahashi Is in Vegetative State After Cardiac Arrest

Manga artist Shinsuke Takahashi's family posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account on Monday that Takahashi has been hospitalized and is in a vegetative state ever since suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest on September 7. Takahashi is currently breathing and circulating blood without the aid of machines, but his brain has otherwise suffered from severe injury due to hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (injury from reduced oxygen supply).

The statement noted that Takahashi experienced arrhythmia that led to a cardiopulmonary arrest on September 7. He immediately received treatment from an automated external defibrillator until an ambulance could arrive to take him to the hospital, but he could not recover from his arrhythmia. He then spent three days in the hospital ICU, but doctors eventually concluded that the damage to his brain due to lack of oxygen was too great. He underwent a tracheotomy in mid-September, and was transferred out of the ICU into the hospital's general ward in October. 

Takahashi is known for the Shonan Seven and Pierrot-Man manga. Takahashi and Tohru Fujisawa launched Shonan Seven in Akita Shoten's Shōnen Champion magazine in February 2014 as the  "true sequel" to Fujisawa's GTO: The Early Years (Shōnan Junai-gumi) manga, which ran from 1990 to 1996. The manga ended in July 2019. Takahashi and Shingo Honda launched the Pierrot-Man manga in Nihonbungeisha's Manga Goraku magazine in August 2022, and ended it on May 30.

Some of Takahashi's other manga include the table tennis manga FAKE MOTION: Takkyuu no Ōshō, and Teppen - Nasukawa Tenshin Monogatari, a biographical story based on Japanese boxer Tenshin Nasukawa.

Source: Shinsuke Takahashi's X/Twitter account via Hachima Kikō