George Morikawa shared on his Twitter account on March 14, 2024, his plans for a new project following the conclusion of the Hajime No Ippo manga, which involves creating a manga focused on chipmunks.

In his tweet, Morikawa expressed surprise at his deteriorated skills in drawing chipmunks, a subject he had not tackled in quite some time. He revealed that despite dedicating ample time to practice in anticipation of creating a chipmunk themed manga following the conclusion of Hajime no Ippo, his efforts were met with disappointment when he presented the concept to his editor.

Reflecting on his past experiences with chipmunks, particularly his pets Joeichiro and Rumi, Morikawa expressed a sense of nostalgia and longing for their presence.

“After drawing a chipmunk for the first time in a while, I was surprised at how bad I had become. I practiced a lot because I wanted to draw a chipmunk manga once the serialization of ‘Hajime no Ippo’ ended. However, when I showed the storyboard to my editor, their expression clearly said, ‘That’s not what we want,’ which made me sad. The chipmunks I lived with, Joeichiro and Rumi, lived for 8 and 14 years, respectively. They were so cute. I already miss them.“

Furthermore, Morikawa shared a four-panel manga featuring a chipmunk named Shimanta on his Twitter account. Concluding the post, he teased, “What lies ahead for Shimanta? What surprises await him? Stay tuned for the next episode to find out!“

It can be viewed below:

George Morikawa is a Japanese manga author known for the long-running series Hajime no Ippo. Born in Tokyo, Morikawa was inspired to become a manga artist upon reading Tetsuya Chiba’s Harris no Kaze in elementary school.

He was previously an assistant to Shuichi Shigeno.

His manga Hajime no Ippo has been serialized by Kodansha in the shonen manga magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine since October 1989, with its chapters collected into 138 tankobon volumes as of July 2023.

Morikawa won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1991 for Hajime no Ippo.

A 76-episode anime adaptation produced by Madhouse aired on Nippon TV from October 2000 to March 2002. A television film and an original video animation (OVA) were released in 2003. A second series titled Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger aired from January to June 2009. A third series Hajime no Ippo: Rising aired from October 2013 to March 2014.

Source: Twitter (1, 2), Oricon