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Locke the Superman Manga Creator Yuki Hijiri Passes Away at 72
posted on by Alex Mateo
The official Twitter account for Shonengahosha's Young King Ours magazine announced on Friday that manga creator Yuki Hijiri (Locke the Superman) passed away from pneumonia on October 30. He was 72 years old.
The funeral ceremony is for family, and there will also be a memorial event at a later date.
Hijiri had announced in 2020 that he had Parkinson's disease. Hijiri was diagnosed with a chronic sinus infection in November 2018, and he went to a hospital for surgery that December. He collapsed at the hospital and went into cardiac arrest. He was resuscitated, went into a coma, then underwent heart surgery. He was hospitalized for two months. He had to undergo rehabilitation every day because he was still unable to move his body as before.
Hijiri is known for the Chōjin Locke (Locke the Superman) manga series. Hijiri was also the character and mechanical designer for series such as Voltes V, Fighting General Daimos, and Future Robot Daltanious.
The Locke the Superman manga launched in Sakuga Group's dōjinshi in 1967. The series then made its commercial magazine debut in Minori Shobō's Monthly Out in 1977. The manga ran in Shonengahosha's Shonen King magazine from 1979 to 1988, when the magazine ceased publication. Works in the series then appeared in various magazines, and the manga launched in Monthly Comic Flapper in 2007. The manga inspired an anime film in 1984. The franchise also inspired a novel in 1984 and radio dramas in 1996.
Hijiri launched the Chōjin Locke: Chaos Bringer (Locke the Superman: Chaos Bringer, pictured left) in Young King Ours in November 2019. Shonengahosha published the manga's first compiled book volume in September 2020.
Hijiri had serialized the Chōjin Locke Kagami no Ori (Locke the Superman The Mirror Chamber) manga in Young King Ours and the Chōjin Locke Gaia no Kiba (Locke the Superman The Fang of Gaia) manga in Kadokawa's Monthly Comic Flapper magazine. Locke the Superman The Fang of Gaia celebrated the 50th anniversary of the original manga.
Sources: Young King Ours' Twitter account, Comic Natalie
