Interest
Manga Creator Kōji Ōishi Takes Hiatus For Reasons Definitely Not Related to Elden Ring
posted on by Kim Morrissy
Manga creator Kōji Ōishi announced on Twitter on Monday that he is taking a break from his Lycopene the Tomatoy Poodle (Tomtatoipu no Rikopin) manga. His apology note went viral on Twitter because of a suspiciously specific claim: "I definitely wasn't playing the hit game Elden Ring."
Ōishi elaborated that the work of a manga artist generally doesn't allow creators to have free time, much to his chagrin. "My pure feelings towards my readers are so strong that I spend so much time on trial and error and go overboard. I hope you can think of my hiatuses as something along those lines."
He went on to claim that a manga artist's life often involves putting one's health at risk, having sacrificed sleep to work on serializations in the past: "It is not uncommon for manga artists to sully their manuscripts with their own blood and for their assistants to white it out." He then stated that the COVID-19 situation has given him the opportunity to push against "the prevailing trend of romanticizing overwork." Ōishi believes that a healthy body gives rise to a healthy spirit, and that pushing oneself too hard will actually make things more inefficient.
"Elden Ring is the same," he wrote. "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. 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."
Ōishi published a Lycopene the Tomatoy Poodle one-shot manga in December 2016, and then launched the series in Weekly Shonen Jump on October 7. The manga moved to the Shonen Jump+ website and app in July 2018. Weekly Shonen Jump describes the manga:
There was a star different than our human planet called "Cuteopia."
In this planet where fancy, cute and mysterious animals live, a girl named Meh-meh gets lost one day.
There she meets a very cute toy poodle born from a tomato plant called "Lycopene" and...?!
Now, get ready for Jump's cutest tale ever to begin!
Shueisha published the first volume of the series on February 2, and published the fifth volume in December 2021.
Viz Media published the first three chapters of the manga simultaneously in English as part of its "Jump Start" initiative.
Ōishi (Maison de Penguin) launched the Inumarudashi— gag manga in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2008, and ended it in June 2012. Shueisha published 11 compiled book volumes for the manga. Inumarudashi— inspired a Vomic (sequence of still frames from the manga with voices added) project and a Flash anime project.
FromSoftware's Elden Ring action RPG launched for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam on February 25.
