Woman Arrested for Sketch Theft

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Mike Ferreira (Editor) — April 15th, 2009 — 11:19
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Tokyo police officers arrested 26-year-old Yumi Hara in Tokyo's Nerima Ward on April 10. Hara allegedly broke into the office of late manga artist Masamichi Yokoyama in December 2007, and stole 800 pages of original artwork from Yokoyama's Yaruki Manman erotic manga.

According to the authorities, Hara stole the art because "she wanted the money." The 800 pages of art are currently valued at 4 million yen (roughly $40,316US). Hara became a suspect when she tried to sell a number of the original drawings at a used book store in Jinbo-cho.

Toei Animation produced a 3-episode OVA series based on Yaruki Manman that was released between August 11, 1989 and August 10, 1990. The series was released on DVD in Japan on May 20, 2006.

Jinbo-cho is a neighborhood of Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward that is best known as Tokyo's center for used book stores and publishing houses. Both the Tokyo Book Binding Club and Literature Preservation Society are located in Jinbo-cho. The neighborhood is also within walking distance of several major universities, including Nihon, Senshu, and Meishi.