News

Zetsubou-Sensei's Kōji Kumeta Injures Finger, Goes on Hiatus

This year's 16th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine announced on Wednesday that Kōji Kumeta has suffered a finger injury. This has led to no new chapter for his Shibuya Near Family manga this week.

In lieu of a new chapter, Kumeta instead published a long and humorous apology note. He explained that he injured his middle finger deeply while handling a tea bowl, and immediately had to rush to the hospital to have it treated and stitched up. He later expressed alternating doubt and confidence on whether he can hold a pen or draw a straight line, but settles on not drawing.  He added that readers will probably be all right with subpar drawings from him, but it would not sit right with him. (He commented that doing so would "wound his heart," which would last his whole life "unlike a wound to the finger.")

Kumeta then said that a past work of his was supposed to run in the current issue of the magazine — but that he "forgot," and that readers would forget about it too, so it's fine. He made a self-deprecating dig at the perceived elderly age of both writers and readers of Weekly Shōnen Sunday for their forgetfulness; he noted how even the editorial staff forgot about milestones for the Shibuya Near Family manga, so they would also forget this current statement. (He humorously adding that he would be in trouble if they didn't forget it.)

Kumeta said that if his injury does not heal in time, Weekly Shonen Sunday will publish a continuation to his 14-page one-shot manga "Tawaman Tomoko," which served as a "blueprint" for Shibuya Near Family, in the magazine's next issue. If he still has not recovered by then, the issue after that will publish a sequel one-shot "Rizoman Tomoko." He then joked that if he still had not recovered at that point, he has yet another sequel planned named "Shiniman Tomoko," though he has not drawn it yet. He joked that at that point, he is worried that his editor might tell him to just serialize that manga instead.

Kumeta launched the Shibuya Near Family manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday in October 2021. Prior to the manga's launch, the magazine published a short, uncredited prologue chapter for the manga.

Kumeta's previous manga is Kakushigoto: My Dad's Secret Ambition. Kumeta published a four-page introduction to the manga in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine in November 2015, and then published the first full chapter in the same magazine in December 2015. The manga ended in July 2020 and has 12 compiled volumes. Kodansha USA Publishing is releasing the manga digitally in English.

The Kakushigoto manga's television anime adaptation premiered in April 2020, and aired for 12 episodes. Funimation streamed the anime as it aired in Japan. Kakushigoto Theatrical Edition, the theatrical compilation film for the anime, opened in Japan on July 9. Funimation streamed the film.

Kumeta and artist Yasu ended their Joshiraku manga in September 2013. Kumeta ended his Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei manga in May 2012. Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei inspired three TV anime series and several OVAs, and Joshiraku also inspired a TV anime series.

Source: Weekly Shonen Sunday issue 16