On September 2, multiple Japanese media outlets reported that Masami Kurumada, the famous Japanese manga artist known worldwide for Saint Seiya, appears to have been severely betrayed. He has sued his former agent for embezzling huge sums of company funds, seeking damages totaling 2.89 billion yen.
·Once this case was publicly disclosed, it quickly caused a major upheaval in the Japanese manga industry. The person involved, Masami Kurumada, is extremely well-known, and the amount of money involved is substantial. The plaintiffs are three affiliated companies, including Kurumada's own studio. The general manager, who is the actual person in charge of the companies and a former agent, embezzled huge sums of company funds without Kurumada's knowledge to use for other companies he had privately established, gradually earning massive illegal profits.
·According to statistics, from 2018 until it was exposed by the National Tax Agency of Japan in 2024, the total amount of embezzled funds reached 4.68 billion yen. Of this, approximately 1.8 billion yen has been recovered, while 289 million yen remains unpaid.
·The suspect had long served as Masami Kurumada's agent and shared a "deep friendship" with him for over 15 years. After the incident came to light, Kurumada lamented, "I have never encountered bad people in the world of anime and manga, and I truly cannot believe (this reality)."
