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Earlier this year, Cells at Work! creator Akane Shimizu disclosed that writing and illustrating the hit manga came at a deep personal cost to her. This included being diagnosed with depression and PTSD as well as abuse from a family member. Since that disclosure, Shimizu has said that her abusers have made subtle threats that her career will be impacted by speaking out.

Trigger warning: This article makes reference to financial and sexual abuse by a family member.

On June 15, 2026, Akane Shimizu made a social media post that explained that she has been diagnosed with “depression and trichotillomania, followed by post-traumatic stress disorder” stemming from incidents that occurred during the serialization of Cells at Work! by publisher Kodansha between 2015 and 2021. She did not share the exact details of those incidents, but she did say that she was the victim of “financial and sexual abuse from a close relative, as well as secondary harm from family.” Understandably, these incidents remain a deep wound for her.

The latest wrinkle in this situation comes from a more recent social media post, where Shimizu explained that the reason she had made the disclosure was that, starting around six months ago, she has been “continually subjected to situations where the perpetrators subtly hint at impacts on my work while threatening legal action.”

She alleges that her abusers – who remain undisclosed – have threatened her with various legal actions, including requesting mediation against her wishes and shifting the burden of proof to her. Because she believes that further legal threats will be made by the people involved, she has decided to disclose details of their actions slowly to avoid any misunderstandings.

The six-month window that Shimizu hints at is interesting because it lines up with the first hint on her social media that she was ready to publicly talk about her abuse. In November 2025, she posted that she was “continuously dealing with serious troubles with some people around me” during the serialization of Cells at Work! This led to her taking the advice of her attorney and working towards a settlement with her abuser. A few months after making that public statement, Shimizu seems to have become the subject of legal threats from the person or people who abused her.

It is unclear who said the abuser is; the fact that they are in a position to threaten her career seems to imply that they have a professional relationship with the Cells at Work! creator. However, she also mentioned financial and sexual abuse from relatives, which could be a totally separate event, so we’re unable to speculate beyond the fact that this is a difficult situation for her to navigate and we hope she is being supported both through the legal process and the emotional pain she must be feeling.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

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