Manga author Aka Akasaka has had a pretty successful run over the last few years. After working on a couple of short manga series in the early part of the previous decade, he began working on a new series, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, which started its serialization in Miracle Jump magazine in 2015 and became his breakout hit. With that series ending recently, Akasaka announced on his official Twitter account he will go in a slightly new direction in the next stage of his career.
『かぐや様は告らせたい』連載終了にあたって。 pic.twitter.com/D3QiQgcjB1
— 赤坂アカ (@akasaka_aka) November 3, 2022
In the statement, Akasaka revealed he is officially retiring from being an illustrator. That does not mean that he intends to leave the manga industry entirely, just that he wants to focus on being a writer and story creator rather than an artist. He also said that he still plans to draw as a hobby.
As for the conclusion of Kaguya-sama, Akasaka stated that the ending left fans with a bit of foreshadowing and he is working hard to make sure that gets paid off “in the best possible way”, but asks for patience from fans for a little while longer.
To reiterate, Akasaka is not leaving manga behind. He has been working alongside illustrator Mengo Yokoyari on the series Oshi no Ko since April 2020 and, earlier this year, Young Jump magazine had auditions to find an artist to work with Akasaka on a new series that we currently know nothing about.
Akasaka deserves praise for his career up to this point and his decision about the future. After writing and drawing a globally popular, award-winning series for seven years, he has decided to focus on what we hope will make him happiest moving forward while still being a creative professional. Congratulations to Akasaka for his successful run as Kaguya-sama’s writer and illustrator and good luck to him in his continued future as a storyteller.
Sources: Crunchyroll News, Anime News Network
