KochiKame Manga Ends on September 17, 2016

Yoshihisa Heishi, editor-in-chief of Weekly Shōnen Jump announced last Saturday (September 3,
2016) that Osamu Akimoto's KochiKame manga series will come to an end after 40 years of serialization in the 2016 No.42 issue of the magazine on September 17, 2016.

The announcement was made during an event in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward commemorating 40 years of the manga. Akimoto-sensei said he wanted to bring the series to an end while it’s still popular.
 

Akimoto-sensei stated that he has an idea for his next work, but any development is as-yet undecided.

As he talked about the end of the series, Akimoto-sensei said, "Excuse me for surprising everyone. It's been an honor for me to have been able to draw this manga for 40 years, and to have been able to release 200 volumes. It makes me happier than a gold medal."

Akimoto-sensei added, "(The main character) Ryō-san likes celebrations, so I thought that I would make 200 volumes the end, celebrate 40 years, and quietly have the manga disappear." He says he had been thinking about ending the series since about one year ago but when he talked to the editorial department he was asked to continue. He said, however, "If I let this chance slip by, the series ending wouldn't be as good. I wanted to announce the end myself, on this ceremonious day."

Heishi said, "Akimoto-sensei wanted to use 40 years and 200 volumes as a good place to stop, and begin work on a new creation."

Akimoto-sensei says that among the reasons he was able to continue the series for so long, "My encounter with Ryō-san, a character who is fun to draw and will move freely no matter what material I give him, was a big factor," adding, "I'm not thinking yet about the final installment."

Many fans were shocked to hear of the series' impending demise, saying they had assumed it would last forever.

“I had many common perspectives with Ryōtsu and the manga means much to me,” said Michihiko Ozawa, 40, who actually works in Kameari. “He could still have continued on.”

“It’s like an end of an era. It was a nationally manga series,” said Hiroaki Yasutaka, 37, an associate professor at Kumamoto University who was in Tokyo for an academic meeting.

source: Anime News Network, Japan Times, Mainichi, Asahi Shimbun