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Hakuryū Legend Manga Resumes Without Nuclear Power Arc
posted on by Egan Loo
Writer Dai Tennōji and artist Michio Watanabe resumed their Hakuryū Legend yakuza manga in the 2,262nd issue of Nihonbungeisha's Weekly Manga Goraku magazine on Thursday. However, the creator did not resume the manga's Genshiryoku Mafia (Nuclear Power Mafia) story arc, which was abruptly suspended from the magazine seven days after the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster of March 11. Instead of the Genshiryoku Mafia story arc, the creators launched a new story arc.
Nihonbungeisha had explained on March 17 that the nuclear power-themed story arc was suspended in light of the damage caused by the March 11 disaster. That suspended arc began in February and focused on the "dark side of the nuclear power industry." In particular, the characters dealt with the danger of a "Chernobyl-level nuclear accident" at facilities run by "Tōto Denryoku."
The real-life Tokyo Denryoku (Tokyo Electric Power Company or TEPCO) runs the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; the workers have been working nonstop since March 11 to prevent the reactor fuel rods from melting after the cooling systems were damaged by the earthquake-induced tsunami. Fukushima Daiichi's containment system is designed to prevent a nuclear accident from reaching the proportions of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl plant in the former Soviet Union.
