Author slowed pace of manga last August due to ailing family member

Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine announced on Friday that Hiromu Arakawa will resume her Silver Spoon manga in the magazine's 21st issue, which will ship on April 22. The manga will be featured on the cover of the issue, and it will have an opening page pinup and a special feature article. The issue will also reveal details about the release of the 13th compiled volume of the series.

Arakawa also contributed a "Sunday Manga Backstage" four-panel manga about her hiatus.

The page features Arakawa as her signature cow avatar asking her editor if she can take a hiatus because her family member is ill, and her editor says it's fine. Arakawa later is sitting with her editor and she says that because she isn't able to leave the house, she isn't able to go out and do research for the manga. In the background on the news something blows up, and a newscaster talks about military movement. That's when Arakawa and her editor realize that the place she wanted to do research in is now a war zone, and now she most definitely can't do research there. Arakwa added that she hopes that someday soon peaceful days will return.

Arakawa had announced in August that she would slow the pace of her manga due to the health of a family member declining.

Arakawa added in a written statement accompanying the four-panel manga that her family member's medical treatment is finished, so she is relieved. She added that she can't become negligent however, so little by little, she will continue to draw manga while watching over her family member. Arakawa also noted that she is finished with the edits and extras for the 13th volume of Silver Spoon.

Arakawa created Fullmetal Alchemist before penning Silver Spoon. Silver Spoon won 2012's Manga Taisho (Cartoon Grand Prize) and Booklog awards, and 2013's Shogakukan Manga Awards in the boys' category.

The first season of the anime adaptation of the manga aired on Fuji-TV's Noitamina late-night programming block in summer 2013 and the second season premiered in January 2014. Aniplex USA released both seasons on home video, and Crunchyroll streamed the first and second seasons of the anime. A live-action film adaptation opened in Japan in March 2014.