There are
betrayals that hurt the soul, but the one that Master Masami Kurumada has
just suffered borders on the shameless. The legendary creator of Saint
Seiya (The Knights of the Zodiac) confirmed at a press
conference in Tokyo that he has filed a formal lawsuit against a former
director of his companies and former personal agent for the unauthorized
diversion of approximately 2,800 million yen (about 19 million dollars).
The
defendant was no stranger to the author. He is a close collaborator who worked
as his personal manager for more than fifteen years, managing the accounting
and actively participating in the founding of his main production company.
According to Kurumada's legal team, between 2018 and 2024, unauthorized
transfers and diversion of payments for license fees to accounts in the name of
other companies were executed.
The total
amount involved in this fraud amounts to the astronomical figure of 4,600
million yen. Although 1,800 million have already been restored, the legal
appeal seeks to recover the remaining 2,800 million to compensate for the
damage caused to three of the firms that administer the copyrights of their
works.
The
embezzlement came to light in early 2024 after a review by the tax authorities.
At the time of the discovery, the company's funds were practically at zero,
which put the company on the verge of bankruptcy and prevented it from complying
with tax obligations on time. This delicate situation caused the cancellation
of a large exhibition of original art that the author had planned for the
middle of that same year. During the press conference, Kurumada confessed that
he blindly trusted his manager to be able to dedicate himself fully to his
creative work, expressing that in more than half a century of career he never
imagined experiencing a stab in the back of this caliber.
Created
by Masami Kurumada in 1986, Saint Seiya positioned
itself as one of the great pillars of manga and anime internationally, managing
to sell tens of millions of copies worldwide. The epic adventure of Seiya and
the Knights of Athena has expanded over the decades with multiple adaptations
for television, films, and spin-offs. After finishing Saint Seiya: Next
Dimension - The Myth of Hades in July 2024, the mangaka showed that
his passion for ink is still intact by launching his new Saint Seiya
Tenkai-hen series in the pages of Weekly Shonen Champion magazine in
May 2026.
Despite the
bitter pill to swallow that almost forced him to retire from the drawing
tables, the master promised to continue creating stories for his followers
around the planet
