Since the late 1950's Shogakukan's Weekly Shonan Sunday magazine has been bringing some of the longest and most iconic manga to the world. Some series include Detective Conan, Cyborg 009, Major 2nd, Inuyasha and Zatch Bell! For just over 60 years, the company has been changing the world of storytelling and even a state of emergency can't stop them!
As the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread, the companies of Japan were forced to either close or work from home. The country going into a state of emergency didn't help much either as fear of the unknown began to slowly set in and even manga companies were affected; with delays and postponements for various books and companies. The pandemic hit closest to home for Shogakukan as two of their employees became infected; forcing the remaining staff to work from home.
This work from home order has forced the Editor-in-Chief Takenori Ishihara, to make the difficult, but wise, decision to combine 4 issues into two double sized issues. This was announced in issues number 26 and was made in an effort to help lower the stress on the creators working on serialized stories; who have already been dealing with slower working conditions. Ishihara stated that he hopes the readers will be understanding of the situation and he believes that soon, everyone will return to theie "peaceful, carefree daily life".
Sad for the delay? Happy to see have two double sized issues? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! The first combined issues, 27/28, will release on June 3rd and the second, issues 31/32, will release on July 1st!