Did Joe Yabuki die? It’s unclear but there are some comments by creators
April 20th, 1973, Tokyo
Once the issue of the magazine featuring the final episode of “Ashita no Joe" was released, all telephones in the editorial department began to ring at once.
“Did Joe die?"
“Does Joe live?"
The chief editor repeated all through the day,
Never say 'dead’. Never say 'alive’.
You can only answer 'as shown in the picture’."
The last page of “Ashita no Joe" is so famous that a child who does not read the original comic even knows.
Ashita no Joe (20) P259 (c)TakamoriAsao ChibaTetsuya 2012
We, in Japan, discuss it even today despite everyone knows that no one knows it.
It is unknown whether Joe lived or dead, but there are some comments by creators.
Creators of Ashita no Joe are two, the author Takamori Asao and the artist Chiba Tetsuya.
Contents
Takamori Asao interpreted that Joe died
Takamori Asao (Kajiwara Ikki), the author of the original comics passed away in 1987.
He wrote in his autobiography “Manga Ichidai (漫画一代)" which was published in 1979.
“Ashita no Joe" ended with the death of Joe Yabuki on the ring.
He got burned out (thus, the story does not have a sequel).
The author thought that Joe was dead.
The last scene was created from an idea of Chiba.
Normally, we think “If the author says so, Joe died." but, “Ashita no Joe" has a slightly different circumstance.
The artist Chiba Tetsuya was allowed to modify the story by Takamori because of his outstanding works.
In fact, the legendary last scene was created by Chiba.
To be precise, Chiba changed the ending made by the author.
Click here for details about Takamori’s ending
The words by Takamori were his interpretation of the ending thought by Chiba.
Then, how does Chiba think of Joe in the last scene?
He has given readers several comments.
Comment by Chiba on 1973
Adults would understand that Joe died and children would seem that he slept.
I think the last page I drew can be seen so.Children might know after their growth what happened to him.
However, I believe that they can see his satisfaction for his own life.
He avoided the declaration, but it sounded like he thought that Joe died.
Chiba found that Joe is alive from a medical examiner
In 2001, the medical examiner Dr. Ueno published a book about corpses.
In the book, doctor Ueno appraised that Joe is alive.
He explained,
A deceased person cannot support his own body sitting on a chair.
And he added
I think that Joe could go down from the ring by himself.
Joe is alive. Specialist judged – Half a century has passed – | BuzzFeed
The doctor’s verdict was that Joe was alive and he could walk by himself.
Chiba heard it and said,
I’m very glad to know that Joe is alive.
Was the fate of Joe updated by a man other than the creators?
It was a wonderful comment by Chiba.
He gave us the possibility that Joe is still going well somewhere.
The latest comment by Chiba on 2018
In 2018, Ashita no Joe was celebrated on the 50th anniversary.
And Chiba Tetsuya won the special prize of the Tezuka Osamu Comic Award.
The opportunities for Chiba to appear in mass media have increased, and he was questioned every time, “Did Joe Yabuki die?"
Today, Oct 20th, 2018, I attended an event of Chiba held in Tokyo.
His latest comment at the event was as follows.
While I was drawing that scene, I didn’t think whether he was dead or alive.
I tried to express pure white Joe as a burnt-out man.
The essence of that page is not whether he lives or dies.
We know that Joe closed his eyes without thinking whether he would die or wake up.
He simply thought “I burnt out", and completely satisfied.
It’s not a sad ending anyway.
Applaud for Joe Yabuki, such a fighter.