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The Japanese creator of the popular manga franchise "Yu-Gi-Oh!", Kazuki Takahashi, has been found dead at sea in Okinawa Prefecture, Japanese media reported.

He was found floating in the waters off Nago wearing snorkelling gear, on the morning of Jul. 6, about 300 metres offshore.

Japanese coast guard officials subsequently confirmed that it was his body on Jul. 7.

Takahashi, whose real name is Kazuo Takahashi, was 60.

Cause of death is under investigation

Reuters reported that the cause of death is currently under investigation.

The Japan Times further reported that Takahashi had been travelling by himself in Okinawa.

On the night of Jul. 6, the police received a report from a car rental company which said that Takahashi was uncontactable.

This led the coast guard to suspect that the body was his.

"Yu-Gi-Oh!" ran for eight years

The "Yu-Gi-Oh!" manga first debuted in 1996 and ran for eight years, till 2004.

The series was eventually turned into a television series, several movies and a trading card game.

The card game was eventually recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world's best-selling trading card game in 2011 after more than 25.17 billion sets were sold around the world

Top collage photos via Wikipedia.