Angel Beats! anime’s creator needs heart transplant

”I can’t go on living with my own heart.”

If you’ve watched much anime or played many visual novel video games over the past 15 years, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Jun Maeda’s works. A scriptwriter and composer, Maeda’s credits include such high-profile series as Charlotte, Clannad, Kanon, Air, and Little Busters.

One of Maeda’s most broadly popular hits is Angel Beats! At the risk of spoiling part of a six-year-old anime, a pivotal plot twist in the teens-in-purgatory TV series involves a heart transplant between two of its key characters. Now, in a tragic case of life imitating art, Maeda himself is in need of a new heart.

At the end of February, Maeda tweeted a brief message to his followers, telling them:

今から入院することになりました。また元気な姿を見せられるよう治療してもらってきます。

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麻枝 准【天鳳配信専用】 (@jun_tenhou) February 29, 2016

“I’m just about to check into the hospital. I’ll be receiving treatment so that I can once again stand before you healthy.”

Several months later, Maeda announced his discharge from the hospital. On July 2, he tweeted that he’d just been released after receiving treatment for idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, in which his heart’s left ventricle had become enlarged and weakened. “It’s a miracle that I was saved,” he added.

However, Maeda’s medical woes are ongoing. On July 28, he sent out another tweet, saying:

診察行ってきました。最終目標は心臓移植というのは変わらないそうで、自分の心臓じゃ生きられないみたいです。お金もかかるし、手術するのも入院するのももう嫌だな～…なんてことを考えながらvitaで朧村正をプレイしてました！　牛鬼と馬鬼ってボスより強くない！？　ぜんぜん勝てないんだけど…

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麻枝 准 (@jun_tenhou) July 28, 2016

“I’m back from my medical examination. Seems like what the doctors told me before, that I’m going to need a transplant, still holds true. It looks like I can’t go on living with my own heart. It’s going to cost a lot, and for the surgery I’ll need to be hospitalized, which is something I’m so tired of now.”

Despite the bad news, Maeda seems to be in good spirits. In the very same tweet, he also talks about playing the PlayStation Vita game Muramasa Rebirth, and how he just can’t beat some of the tougher enemy characters. It’s a startling contrast in tones for a single tweet, but perhaps not entirely unexpected, given that many of the games and anime Maeda has had a hand in creating contain heartbreaking developments which nonetheless lead to uplifting, almost purifyingly soothing results. Hopefully this difficult chapter of his own life will also come to a positive conclusion.

Source: IT Media, Anime News Network
Top image: Angel Beats! Official website

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