Kanon, Air, Clannad, Heaven Burns Red's Jun Maeda in Palliative Care for Pharyngeal Cancer
Visual Arts/Key announced on Monday that writer and composer Jun Maeda (Kanon, Air, Clannad, Angel Beats!) has been diagnosed with pharyngeal cancer, and has chosen to focus on palliative care, after considering his condition and the outlook for possible treatment.
The announcement also included an e-mail and mailing address for fans to send Maeda a message or letter of encouragement. The staff will accept letters only, and asked fans to refrain from sending gifts or other get-well items. The staff added Maeda is currently hospitalized, but "remains strongly determined to devote himself to creative work through to the very end."
The announcement stated that Maeda has finished work for the first six chapters of the Heaven Burns Red game, including all the major story elements that will take the story to the end of the sixth chapter. He has also completed the lyrics and composition for the songs in the first half of the sixth chapter. Maeda may no longer be able to fulfill further writing and songwriting duties aside from the above mentioned segments depending on the progression of his illness.
The announcement also noted that Maeda was working on launching an original music project on YouTube with new songs "over the long term," but that, after learning of his diagnosis, he has decided to focus on completing the songs currently in development "as quickly as possible," which will be released sequentially on YouTube at Maeda's request.
Maeda was hospitalized for five months in 2016, and is suffering from idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (unexplained enlargement and weakening of the heart's left ventricle). He revealed later that year that his heart condition requires a heart transplant, although he later reassured fans that he still had long to live, and would still write more stories.
Maeda first worked on visual novels with Tactics/NEXTON's Moon and ONE in 1997 and 1998, respectively. The core team for both visual novels would eventually break off from Tactics to make visual novels and stories under the new circle Key. There, Maeda is known for writing the Visual Arts/Key visual novels Kanon, Air, Clannad, and Little Busters!, all of which received anime adaptations. His early works with Key are iconic to bishojo visual novels, and are often dubbed as "nakige" (crying games) by enthusiasts for their penchant for storylines where characters grapple with and find ways to come to terms with death, loss, tragedy, and sacrifice. The stories are some of the best known in the visual novel medium, and continue to be influential today.
Maeda also composed the music for the visual novels he has written, and composed themes as well as wrote the story for both Angel Beats! and Charlotte. He has composed, or otherwise supervised the musical production, for other Key visual novels, such as Kud Wafter, Rewrite, and Prima Doll. Maeda is credited with the original work and as scriptwriter for Key, Aniplex, and P.A. Works' The Day I Became a God anime.
Maeda provided the original concept for the Summer Pockets game that debuted for Windows PC in June 2018 and for iOS and Android devices in December 2018. The game got a television anime adaptation in June 2025.
Maeda's Heaven Burns Red game launched in February 2022, and is his first completely new game in 13 years. As stated above, the game features a scenario whose first six chapters (which the game is still currently progressing through) written by Maeda, as well as original songs for the game composed by Maeda, performed by various singers. The game's staff had stated in August the game had started the final chapter of its main story.
Source: Visual Arts/Key's website (link 2) via Denfami Nico Gamer
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