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One Piece Manga Takes 3-Week Break in April (Updated)

The official Twitter account for The One Piece franchise announced on Thursday that Eiichiro Oda will put his One Piece manga on hiatus for three weeks, starting with the 18th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump that will release on April 1. The manga will then return in the magazine's 21st issue on April 22. The manga will still appear in the 17th issue of the magazine coming out next Monday.

Update: The official Twitter account also posted the announcement in English.

Oda himself wrote a handwritten statement (English translation pictured above) about the hiatus. In it, he admitted this news was on the heels of the news about the death of Dragon Ball manga creator Akira Toriyama, and he knew news of the hiatus could "cause some unnecessarily excessive panic," but added that he is "not unwell." He said that while the break has to do with his body, he asked fans to consider it a "type of scheduled maintenance." He added, "it's about time I start figuring out what the ONE PIECE actually is."

Toriyama died on March 1 due to acute subdural hematoma. He was 68.

Oda wrote a statement of condolences after the announcement of Toriyama's death, stating the "hole [Toriyama] left is too large" and remarking on his admiration of Toriyama and the sadness he feels of never seeing him again.

Update: Clarified translation of Oda's statement and added in a bit more information from it.

Source: One Piece franchise's Twitter account