Creator of “Ojarumaru” cartoon leaps to her death

Crisscross News is reporting that Rin Inumaru, creator of the children’s cartoon “Ojarumaru”, has commited suicide by jumping off her apartment building:

The original creator of the “Ojaru Maru” cartoon, N-H-K’s popular animation program for young children, has been found dead after an apparent suicide leap onto the roof of a building next to her condominium in Musashino City, western Tokyo, police said Monday.

Rin Inumaru, 48, who also created picture story books for children and novels, left a note at her home addressed to her mother, saying, “I’m not good at my job.” Inumaru apparently jumped about 19 meters from the roof of a 14-story condominium in the Kichijoji area onto the top of a neighboring five-story building at around 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

If you don’t know what “Ojarumaru” is, here’s a short clip from YouTube:

As I have never been able to sit through more than 15 seconds of the show without changing the channel, I can’t really comment on it. It is just sad she killed herself because of work-related stress. Considering the fact that it was such a popular kid’s show, it is really unfortunate that Inumaru considered her life a failure.