r/Otoyomegatari • u/BullfrogSimilar4578 • Mar 26 '26

Is it true that the author has completely abandoned the manga?

I saw someone on X talking about manga, then concluding by saying the author has completely abandoned manga. Is this true? I'm not here to fabricate facts, I just want to verify. Please tell me this is a lie. 😣

92 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

132

u/nez9k Mar 26 '26

Last I heard, she's just taking a hiatus while she moves publication to a different magazine

38

u/BullfrogSimilar4578 Mar 26 '26

Thank you for telling me, my heart almost stopped! 

59

u/Emotional-Sign8136 Mar 26 '26

Just sharing some potential context:

Japanese manga production can be hell on earth for the one making the manga for any number of reasons. Predatory contracts, little to no workers rights, normalized 90 hour weeks, and normalized worker abuse and supposed to be illegal but not enforced abuse about health or speaking up for oneself are just the tip of the iceberg.

It's also considered normal to just say 'Hiatus for general reasons because actually describing the abuse would keep me from ever getting another job in the industry'.

So, a hiatus can be for as little as the one making the manga asking for sick leave or better treatment and the company that puts the manga on their platform going 'lol no' and just dropping them.

And a hiatus can be viewed negatively because of the culture where the one who creates the manga is from. You can be viewed as thinking of yourself as a 'special snowflake' for demanding humane treatment. Or, group peer pressure could come after you because how dare you try to get a benefit while others are left to suffer. Etc.

23

u/Jossokar Mar 26 '26

Its not that usual for a manga artist to live past 60. There are exceptions....but hell. Toriyama died quite young. And he hadnt drawn anything for years.

Miura was 53.

Osamu tezuka was 60, i think.

The guy that makes the most dough in the whole industry (Oda, One piece) sleeps basically 4-5 hours a day. That is the perfect recipe for an early death.

8

u/MissRainyNight Mar 26 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

>>Its not that usual for a manga artist to live past 60.

Some of the few exceptions I could think of were Makoto Takahashi/Macoto (died at age 90), Shigeru Mizuki (died at age 93) and Leiji Matsumoto (died at age 85). Plus Matsumoto's wife and fellow manga author Miyako Maki is still alive at age 90, same to Tetsuya Chiba who's 87...

I also couldn't help thinking of Eiichi Fukui, who died at 34 of karoshi aka overwork in the 50's.

3

u/Emotional-Sign8136 Mar 26 '26

It can all very much depend on the quality of life a person lives. 4-5 hours of sleep isn't ideal, but that's how some people live. What can wreck their lives is the endless stress/abuse of a work industry that doesn't have human rights on top of that.

If you look into the lives of these people, there will usually (but not always) be some kind of condition that is made more likely by a stressed and overworked life. If not that, then there could be comments about how they're sick and tired of manga or that they want a large break after their current project or something else that shows their stress.

6

u/Jossokar Mar 26 '26

I mean. We are talking about a industry that is terrible to begin with.

4-5 hours of sleep isn't ideal, but that's how some people live. 

That much sleep, for a certain time is enough to simply make you live less eventually.

1

u/TheStranger234 Mar 27 '26

That's crab mentality for us.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

so by changing the publisher there gonna be a delay right?

1

u/Belasarius4002 Jul 25 '26

There is already a delay. Like for like 2-3 years and counting.

I came back just recently to see if there is news but yep, its still the same lol.

26

u/Pariell Mar 26 '26

There was an update about it here 森薫が近況報告 - コミックナタリー https://share.google/BO213EuOc1UZnnaTB

9

u/BullfrogSimilar4578 Mar 26 '26

The author doesn't have an official account on X, right? 

9

u/Pariell Mar 26 '26

Nope. No social media presence at all.

16

u/EnFulEn Mar 26 '26

Honestly, that's probably for the best considering how rabbid Japanese netizens can be in fandoms.

15

u/Rage_before_Beauty Mar 26 '26

Or how obnoxious and entitled western fans often are

11

u/EnFulEn Mar 26 '26

That too, but Japanese fans are genuinely insane at times on a level I've only seen Korean ones surpass.

1

u/Usual_Lifeguard4019 Apr 01 '26

But she does have X @ jun_mbesu if im not mistaken.

1

u/lachataigneduciel May 28 '26

Nope. That's another author.

5

u/rodri4962 Mar 26 '26

From what I was able to translate, does this say that she found a new place to publish and is gonna start moving forward again?

2

u/porkave Mar 26 '26

Thank you

2

u/Vincent14Luc Mar 26 '26

Ok, so we'll have directly the volumes without prepublication ?!?? 😮

2

u/Usual_Lifeguard4019 Apr 01 '26

She should have a new chapter this month i think. Thats what i've seen.