Thrown into grief over his lifelong friend’s violent death and unable to draw for weeks, a manga artist has found solace by putting his pain to the page.

The disturbing event left manga creator Koichi Nagata, 45, who is now famous for the popular work "Kimongai," deeply depressed and unable to work for weeks on end.

Events unfolded for Nagata on Nov. 23, 2013, when he received a call from a friend at his home in Tokyo during work.

“Ma-kun was found unconscious and taken to a hospital,” his friend said.

“Ma-kun” refers to Masahito Ota, then 39, who had been friends with Nagata since their nursery school days in Nagoya.

The caller said Ota was involved in an incident. It was actually a fight.

Nagata did not understand. Ota, a licensed physical therapist with a level-headed personality, was unlikely to get into a fight. Nagata quickly packed his belongings and jumped on a Shinkansen.

When he arrived at the medical center in the evening, Nagata found his closest friend on a bed, connected to tubes. His face was swollen three times its normal size. Nagata almost didn't recognize him.

The only thing that looked familiar about his longtime friend was the lower part of his legs that were sticking out of the top cover. Nagata held his hands and broke into tears. The following day, Ota took his last breath.

Aichi prefectural police arrested the men who assaulted Ota. It later came out that, on the morning of Nov. 23, Ota visited a bar in the Nishiki 3-chome district of Nagoya’s Naka Ward as a customer and was charged an exorbitant rate.

Two bar staffers and another customer had beaten him over the payment. He died the next day.

In the first trial, the Nagoya District Court gave the male customer an unsuspended sentence for having injured and killed Ota. The court handed a suspended sentence to the two bar staffers on a charge of injurious assault.

But later, the Nagoya High Court ordered the case sent back to a lower court in 2015. In the 2018 retrial, the two staff members received an unsuspended sentence for attacking and killing Ota under the citizen judge system.

The ruling was approved by the Nagoya High Court, but the two accused staffers filed an appeal. Now the incident is being examined at the Supreme Court.

Nagata felt he could relax and be his normal self when he was around Ota.

Nagata used to misbehave, skipping classes and getting into scraps. But Ota was a good friend and a good influence on his health and education.

Despite their polar-opposite personalities, Nagata and Ota got along well with each other, though they did not know why. When Nagata told Ota about his plan to go to Tokyo to become a cartoonist when he was 18, Ota encouraged him, without uttering anything critical.

Ota looked out for Nagata’s health. Each time they met, Ota advised him not to “drink too much” or “smoke so frequently.”

The close friends went on many trips together. Along with other friends and families, they went to Ishigakijima island in Okinawa Prefecture one month before the incident. Nagata and Ota had already selected Yakushima island in Kagoshima Prefecture as their next destination.

Following Ota’s death, Nagata could not get out of bed or come up with new stories.

The title he was then working on for a magazine was centered on fights between high school delinquents.

Nagata tried to hold his brush. But he kept picturing Ota’s swollen face at the hospital. Drawing became impossible.

That forced Nagata to put his serialized title temporarily on hold.

Nagata spent an entire month trying to get to the bottom of why Ota died, but he could not find the answer.

After that, and a lot of soul-searching, he went back to work because he believed the only thing he could do for Ota now was to make manga.

That was when Nagata came up with the premise for “Kimongai,” a dark series he hopes some good will come out of. Nagata named the main protagonist Masato.

In the story, a boy whose mother was killed is attacked by strange men. He is about to die but then escapes death by selling his soul to an “oni” demon. The protagonist uses the power of the demon to vanquish evildoers and criminals who also make contracts with an oni.

“If I were Ma-kun, I would have wanted to live longer, even though I would have had to sell my soul to oni,” said Nagata.

The manga artist expresses his feelings about his life and the human condition through the characters’ words in “Kimongai.”

“The death of a person who must not be killed is totally meaningless,” one dialogue went. “There is no god in this world where such an unreasonable thing occurs,” a character said in another scene.

One character says in the manga: “Oni is an evil creature living in the dark aspect of humans’ minds. Everyone has oni in the heart. Whether one can defeat oni depends on the strength of the person’s mind.”

Many seriously troubled characters emerge in his manga.

One is a mother who dislikes and abuses her son who resembles her divorced husband. Another is a man seeking revenge for his harsh treatment in life--including his dismissal as a temporary employee and having to live a sealed-off existence from society. Another is a young man who killed his father-in-law for sexually exploiting his little sister.

“I think of what I would do if I were those characters,” Nagata said. “There would be no single answer, but I want readers to imagine.”

Nagata said he carefully depicts the expressions and psychological conditions of protagonists exposed to violence to inspire readers’ imaginations.

“It could happen to anyone, to be about to step across the line that must never be crossed,” noted Nagata. “But if people imagine the possibility in advance, that may help them stop themselves.”

The beginning page of the first volume of “Kimongai” reads that he dedicates the work “to Masahito Ota.” Nagata details why he decided to create the title in the postscript.

He was worried those explanations may force readers to see the story in one predetermined way. But Nagata said when he saw a Twitter comment that described his work as “thought-provoking,” it brought a lump to his throat.

Nagata prays every day with an offering of incense in his living room in front of a memorial photo and part of Ota's ashes, which was presented by the bereaved family.

“I speak to (his photo) when our eyes meet, saying in my mind, ‘Your smile is nice,’” Nagata said.

Nagata also said Ota sometimes appears in his dreams.

“He (Ota), though dead, is still alive in me and stays close by,” he said.

Five years after “Kimongai” was first serialized, a sequel to the story, “Kimongai Karma,” is now being carried in the biweekly Young King manga anthology, published by Shonengahosha Co.

A total of 18 volumes have been released under the “Kimongai” series. As more people enjoy comics on manga distribution apps, the work is also growing in popularity among women, according to Nagata.

Nagata said he currently creates the stories with the hope of eliminating as many “senseless deaths” as possible in this world.