It seems Chainsaw Man creator Tatsuki Fujimoto may be looking to follow in the footsteps of such manga greats as Dragon Ball‘s Akira Toriyama and Naruto‘s Masashi Kishimoto, as the mangaka recently revealed his interest in retiring from drawing stories in order to focus exclusively on writing them.
The topic of Fujimoto’s possible retirement came up during a July interview with Shueisha Online Magazine‘s Kenta Terumura (translated via @lightning446).
Amidst a discussion of how legendary Studio Ghibli director hayao Miyazaki has ‘come out of retirement’ multiple times prior to the release of his latest so-called final film How Do You Live? (EN: The Boy and the Heron), the mangaka was asked whether or not he felt “there’s such a thing as a true retirement for creators”.
In turn, Fujimoto asserted, “I’m not sure about that, but Oshi no Ko‘s writer Aka Akasaka himself did declare ‘I won’t draw [this series].’ I though “Must be so nice! I want to do that too!”
Further pressed by Terumura whether or not he “ever [has] any thoughts like ‘I want to focus on writing stories’?”, the Look Back creator confirmed, “Yes, that would definitely be more fun”.
Notably, Akasaka made the decision to retire from drawing in 2022, the announcement coming hot on the heels of the conclusion of his breakout series Kaguya-sama – Love is War.
However, still wanting to create manga, Akasaka began outsourcing art duties for his subsequent works to younger artists. As a result, the mangaka is now able to produce two concurrently running works: the aforementioned Oshi no Ko, illustrated by Mengo Yokoyari, and the romantic comedy series Love Agency, as drawn by 4mm Nishizawa.
Drawing their interview to a close, Terumura asked Fujimoto if he would ever consider taking the opposite path and retire from writing in order to focus on drawing, to which the mangaka adamantaly declared, “I have not.”
“Of course it’s fun to balance out the story and the art, and there is certainly a level of enjoyment from just writing stories,” he explained. “But as far as art goes, in my case I think I could only deliver a narrow minded impression to the audience.”
