Aka Akasaka, the artist behindKaguya-sama: Love is War, announced this week that he will be changing directions in his career. Instead of continuing to focus on drawing manga, as he has been, he will be shifting to focusing on writing the stories for them instead. The announcement came via the mangaka’sTwitter.
While Akasaka has been working on a few manga since he debuted in 2011, his most famous work by far isKaguya-sama: Love is War, which was first published in 2015. It is a romantic comedy with over 19 million copies currently in circulation, and available in English from Viz Media. It tells the story ofthe president and vice presidentof a student council who like one another. Both are too proud to admit it and thus spend their time plotting to get the other to confess first.
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Kaguya-sama: Love is Warwas a popular enough manga to getan anime adaptationin 2019 that had two seasons, along with a live action film the same year. While it had been running since 2015, Akasaka’s announcement came alongside its final chapter. The manga has now officially ended as of October 2022.
Akasaka announced thatKaguya-sama: Love is Warwill be the last manga that he illustrates himself. Instead, he is going to put his full energy into writing new stories for other manga most likely, though there is a chance he could also branch into writing light novels, a genre which often overlaps the manga world. There was some foreshadowing in the final chapter ofKaguya-sama, though, and Akasaka promised it is setting up something else. Could it be that he intends tocontinue the storyin light novel format, instead of a manga?
Akasaka currently has another work that began in 2020,Oshi no Ko, which is illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari. Many people are speculating that he will be pouring a lot more time into writing this project, especially withKaguya-samanow behind him at least for the time being.Oshi no Kohas already been licensed for an anime adaptation coming soon, and is published in English byMANGA Plus.
This year,Young Jumpmagazine also held a contest looking for a new manga artist to work on a project alongside Akasaka. At least that means that Aka Akasaka is definitely not out of the game forever. With the closing ofKaguya-sama: Love is Warending, it opens the door for his next opportunity. And while we may be seeing his talent in a different capacity, hopefully it will be just as successful as hisfamous manga series. Plus, his tweet also said that he intends to keep drawing, at least as a hobby!
