On Apr. 13, 2020, a webcomic website “Weekly Playboy News” (Shueisha) announced that “Kinnikuman” will be on a hiatus. On the same page, the author Yudetamago specified that the break period will be “at least a month from Apr. 20, and it may extend if the situation will not get better”, and the reason for it is “due to the social situations with a spread of new Coronavirus, the working space for the manga drafts cannot be running as usual”.
The same web page continues, ” the working space filled with many assistant staff “can meet the conditions for 3 Cs”, and “there are many staff who lives together with older members of the family. We also believe that the commuting increase risk of infection for both the staff and their family members”.
They also commented, “We have been delivering 'Power of Friendship' over the years through our manga, but when my partner and I thought what can we do in this in this State of Emergency, we thought of a thing called 'Power of doing nothing'”. “Prioritizing doing nothing' than anything else is the best friendship that we can think of”.
They apologized by saying, “We are really sorry for the fans who wait for out manga, but for now, please understand our decisions” and summarized their comments by saying, “Let's blow out virus with our Friendship Powers!! He no tsuppari wa iran desu yo!”.
The comments to Yudetamago/ Shimada Takaji's Twitter responded to the announcement of the manga going for a break by saying, “Let's overcome this difficult situation with Kinnikuman fans' power!”, “We believe in Friendship Powers of you and the fans!! And, please take a break for the Superman world!! We will be waiting for you forever!”, “I will wait for the supermen to overcome Coronavirus!”, and “I will survive as the supermen survived Kapiraria beam. I cannot die until Kinnikuman ends!”.
The present schedule for continuation of “Kinnikuman” is Mar. 18. The short stories and other related episodes will be released for free every Monday on “Weekly Playboy NEWS”.
