Manga artist Takatoshi Yamada hospitalized for tests after mysterious drastic weight loss — 5ch: “Losing 40kg in a year is beyond abnormal”

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The story

Manga artist Takatoshi Yamada, known for “Dr. Coto’s Clinic,” has revealed on his Instagram that he’s lost a dramatic amount of weight. He says his weight dropped from 90kg a year ago to just 51kg, even though he wasn’t consciously dieting — he’d simply been eating only one meal a day. Citing the unexplained, rapid weight loss, he also disclosed that he is currently hospitalized undergoing detailed medical tests. Reactions on 5ch were split: some suspected cancer, while others pointed out that “if an illness caused that much weight loss, other symptoms should be showing up too.”

September 9, 2026, 9:01 AM

Manga artist Takatoshi Yamada, known for the hit series “Dr. Coto’s Clinic” and other works, updated his Instagram as of the 9th.

Back in August this year, Yamada had already reported that “my weight loss won’t stop.” According to Yamada, his weight plummeted from 90kg a year earlier to just 51kg in only six months. “I haven’t been dieting or trying to lose weight during this time — I just have no appetite at all, and I’ve been living on one meal a day,” he wrote.

Source: news.livedoor.com / Original article here

What people said

7AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:39
This just shows dieting isn't even necessary
You never see fat old geezers, right? People naturally get thin as they age
24AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:42
Re: #7

There aren't any fat old guys because they die off before they get old

You won't find fat or tall people in nursing homes
Tall people don't tend to live that long either
37AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:47
Re: #7
There are actually
Studies show slightly chubby people are more likely to live past 100 in good health
It's been properly researched
8AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:39
The girls starving themselves skinny on Mounjaro must be jealous (Mounjaro: a weight-loss/diabetes drug)
9AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:39
Looks normal to me
Just how fat was he before?
10AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:39
>So he can draw manga again?
Is he working on a Dr. Coto sequel?
11AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:39
He's probably sleepwalking and running for eight hours straight every night
12AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:39
I always enjoy watching a writer's true colors get peeled back
Wonder what this guy's deal is
13AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:40
This has gotta be a serious illness (´・ω・`) just saying
Go get looked at by Dr. Coto himself
15AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:40
His eyes…
Guess it's hard to tell just from a photo in cases like this?
20AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:41
90 to 50 in half a year is…
74AnonymousSep 9, 2026 17:07
Re: #20
It was a year, not half a year
Still way too much weight loss though
21AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:42
If it's Mounjaro that might be normal, but if it's not, that's probably really bad
22AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:42
I lost 30kg in the first year of COVID and everyone kept asking me "Is it cancer?"
25AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:42
Was he even getting checked regularly?
Losing more than half your body weight has to mean a serious illness
27AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:44
10kg next year, then he goes negative the year after?
He'll practically ascend to heaven at that rate
35AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:46
Kind of jealous, but 40kg is way too much
He's turning into that flying-cloth yokai, Ittan-momen
38AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:47
I'd heard he'd been on hiatus for ages because of his eyesight
Is the story up to around where his assistant has breast cancer, and the guy who gave up on becoming a doctor comes back to the island?
40AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:47
I'm more surprised he used to be 90kg
That's way too fat
44AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:49
His right arm looks incredibly thin
My relative who had anorexia looked just like this
45AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:49
Losing weight this fast and drastically, you can't help but suspect cancer
48AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:52
Takatoshi Yamada
Guy really had it rough
He kept drawing hardcore villain characters and just never sold
He worked and worked and worked and worked, and finally made it big with Dr. Coto
49AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:52
If it were cancer, something would hurt somewhere and he'd know
Maybe he just stopped eating, the fat came off, and now he's actually at a normal weight
50AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:53
Losing weight this fast actually makes me think it's NOT cancer
If a cancer were causing this much weight loss, some other symptom should have shown up by now
54AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:55
Re: #50
Yeah, I thought the same thing
53AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:54
Photo from April 2025
https://ogre.natalie.mu/media/news/comic/2025/0404/yamadatakatoshi_2.jpg

He doesn't look that fat here, so maybe he's just tall
79AnonymousSep 9, 2026 17:10
Re: #53
I don't think he was 90kg at this point
He was probably already lighter than that by then
55AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:55
Re: #1
Can't taste anything… could it be a brain disorder?
56AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:55
Because of guys like Shigeru Mizuki and Takashi Yanase, some people think manga artists live long lives
Actually they tend to die about as young as sumo wrestlers
83AnonymousSep 9, 2026 17:16
Re: #56
Ikki Kajiwara (51)
Momoko Sakura (53)
Kentaro Miura (54)
Shotaro Ishinomori (60)
Osamu Tezuka (61)
Hiroo Terada (61)
Fujiko F Fujio (63)
Akira Toriyama (68)
Mitsuteru Yokoyama (69)
Fujio Akatsuka (72)
Takao Yaguchi (81)
Takao Saito (84)
Leiji Matsumoto (85)
Isao Kojima (87)
Fujiko Fujio A (88)
Kazuo Umezz (88)
Yoshiharu Tsuge (88)
Sanpei Shirato (89)
Shigeru Mizuki (93)
Takashi Yanase (94)
58AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:59
What's the mystery? If you don't eat, you lose weight
59AnonymousSep 9, 2026 16:59
Dr. Coto was a hit, but he hasn't drawn anything in like 15 years — can he even still make a living?
71AnonymousSep 9, 2026 17:06
Re: #59
The comics have sold over 12 million copies total
At a 10% royalty rate that works out to roughly 600-700 million yen
Should be fine unless he's living some insanely extravagant lifestyle
60AnonymousSep 9, 2026 17:01
Losing 40kg in a year is beyond abnormal
He should've gone to the hospital sooner

Background and key points of this discussion

“Dr. Coto’s Clinic,” set around medicine on a remote island, is Yamada’s signature work and was also adapted into a TV drama. Reports on this weight loss have been inconsistent about the timeframe — both in his own posts and in news coverage — so the thread saw a mix of reactions, from people saying “he lost 40kg in six months” to others correcting that it was actually over a year. When someone loses a large amount of weight in a short period, doctors would typically consider things like digestive-system disease or thyroid dysfunction as possibilities, but as of September, Yamada himself has not disclosed a diagnosis, and the results of his hospital tests haven’t been made public. The thread shows both the view that it could be cancer and the counter-view that “if it were cancer, more symptoms would probably have shown up by now” — worth keeping in mind that the cause remains unconfirmed at this point.

*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread ““Dr. Coto” manga artist Takatoshi Yamada reports mysterious drastic weight loss of “-40kg in a year,” hospitalized for tests, says “I’m trying hard to eat”“.

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