Miki Miura and Maruko [Photo/Mtime]

Japanese manga artist Miki Miura, known by her pen name Momoko Sakura, passed away from breast cancer on Aug 15. She was 53 years old.

Born in 1965, Miki was the creator of the long-running manga series Chibi Maruko-chan, which depicts the simple yet interesting life of a young girl called Maruko and her family in suburban Japan in the 1970s.

Momoko Sakura started the series in 1986. Many stories were inspired by incidents from her own life, and some characters are based on family and friends.

In 1990, the commercial TV broadcaster Fuji Television began airing the animated version of the series.

Over the past three decades, the animation has stayed on the air and is one of the most popular TV series in Japan.

The nostalgic mood and childlike innocence of the animation made Maruko a cultural icon in Japan and Asia as a whole.