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Onihei Manga Skips Current Chapter Due to Story Issues
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The official website of LEED Publishing Co., Ltd. released a note on July 26 that explained that Sentarō Kubota and Takao Saitō's manga adaptation of Shōtarō Ikenami's Onihei Crime Reports in Edo (Onihei Hankachō) novel series did not have a new chapter in Comic Ran magazine's latest issue due to the story in the planned new chapter resembling an older story of the manga.
The note explained that the magazine's editorial department had prepared a new story concept, but Saito pointed out that the story resembled a previous chapter of the manga. Upon further investigation, the editorial department acknowledged that the story resembled chapter 275 of the manga, which appeared in the November 2016 issue of Comic Ran in September 2016. Left without time to rework the story, the magazine's staff had no choice but to not publish a new chapter of the manga in the latest September 2019 issue.
The announcement noted that Kubota and Saito had not put the manga on hiatus for more than 25 years, and apologized that the manga's first such break was due to the mistake.
Kubota and Saito launched the manga in Comic Ran in 1993. Bungeishunju published the manga's 107th compiled book volume on June 20. JManga once partially published the manga in North America.
The historical novel series depicts Heizō Hasegawa, who metes justice on wrongdoers and supervises the crackdown on arsonists and robbers in Japan's Edo period (1603-1868).
Ikenami serialized the story in Bungeishunju's Ōru Yomimono novel magazine from 1967 to 1989, and Bungeishunju published 19 volumes for the main story. Later paperback reprints divide the story into 24 volumes. The serialized novels inspired the first live-action television adaptation in 1969, as well as three subsequent series and a 1995 live-action film. The novels also inspired a television anime adaptation that premiered in January 2017, and streamed on Amazon Prime Video's now-defunct Anime Strike channel.
Source: LEED Publishing Co., Ltd.'s website
