Manga creator Koji Oishi is taking a hiatus, which he jokingly attributes to needing more time to play From Software's latest action-RPG, Elden Ring.
As reported by Anime News Network, the Shonen Jump published author posted a suspiciously specific explanation for why he is putting his current series, Lycopene the Tomatoy Poodle, on hiatus. "I definitely wasn't playing the hit game Elden Ring," the artist joked. The comedic statement went viral on Japanese Twitter, garnering more than 70,000 likes and tens of thousands of retweets within 3 days. While many manga readers and video game fans found Oishi's candid excuse and excellent taste in games to be endearing, the author did use the situation to deliver a serious message about the long hours that artists within the manga industry are expected to work. He lamented that working on manga often requires sacrificing a creator's free time, social life, and health, stating, "It is not uncommon for manga artists to sully their manuscripts with their own blood and for their assistants to white it out."
この度の休載につきまして pic.twitter.com/B0wsSm2NnF
— 大石浩二 (@k_marudashi) March 13, 2022
Oishi elaborated by likening the lifestyle of a manga creator to one of Elden Ring's Tarnished, who have to face constant, brutalizing punishment in order to achieve their goals. "Elden Ring is the same...When I manage to land an attack on the enemy, I have a tendency to get carried away, thinking, 'I might be able to land one more hit.' But then I'd be the one taking damage," Oishi said. "It's said to be a difficult game, but the key to victory is watching your opponent carefully and not taking on more than you can chew." The author said that the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns gave him time to think about "the prevailing trend of romanticizing overwork," and push back against it.
Lycopene the Tomatoy Poodle is a comedy series that was originally published in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2016. Serialization of the series was moved over to the digital-only Shonen Jump+ platform in 2018. Prior to this series, Oishi was best known for creating Inumarudashi, a manga series about a strange kindergarten student and the teacher who struggles to deal with his eccentric behavior.
Concerns over the health of manga creators have been a hot topic within the industry since the unexpected death of Berserk creator Kentaro Miura in 2021. Numerous other popular manga creators have taken short hiatuses throughout the last year, including My Hero Academia creator Kohei Horikoshi and most recently, Jujutsu Kaisen's Gege Akutami, who took a two-month break in 2021 and recently went on an additional one-week hiatus due to on-going health issues.
Source: Twitter, via Anime News Network
