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Kinnikuman Manga Extends COVID-19 Hiatus

Manga creator duo Yudetamago announced on Thursday that they are extending the hiatus of their Kinnikuman manga due to the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation. They will announce an updated return date in the future. The break began on April 20 and was originally slated to end on May 18.

The announcement noted that the spread of COVID-19 in Japan has still not been suppressed. The creators also cited the extension of Japan's state of emergency and emphasized that the health of their staff and their staff's family members is their foremost priority.

When Yudetamago initially announced the hiatus, they explained that they and their assistants commute to a studio where they produce the manga manually, using pen on paper, for long hours over several days every week. In addition, many staff members live with elderly family members.

After consulting with Shueisha, Yudetamago decided to put the manga on hiatus for now. During the hiatus, Shueisha is posting previous one-shot manga and other works by the duo for free. The duo exhorted fans to "knock out the virus with our friendship power!"

Yudetamago resumed their original Kinnikuman wrestling manga as a free web manga in 2011. The creators went back to their first 1979 Kinnikuman storyline and continued where they last left the story in 1987. The original manga has inspired various television anime series and films. Yudetamago previously published a Kinnikuman one-shot manga in Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine in 2015, and then published a one-shot in Weekly Shonen Jump for the first time in 11 years in June 2019.

Toy figures of Kinnikuman were imported into the United States under the "M.U.S.C.L.E" brand name in the 1980s. Viz Media then released Takashi Shimada and Yoshinori Nakai's Kinnikuman Nisei - Second Generations manga sequel in North America as Ultimate Muscle: The Kinnikuman Legacy, and 4Kids Entertainment broadcast the anime adaptation on television.

Sources: ShūPla News, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web