Japanese publisher Shueisha announced on Tuesday that Nobuhiro Watsuki 's Rurouni Kenshin manga is going on hiatus, due to Watsuki being charged for possession of child pornography. The manga will not run in Shueisha 's Jump SQ. Magazine as of the January 2018 issue, which will ship on December 4. Shueisha commented that it is taking this news seriously, and that Watsuki expresses deep regret. The publisher added that it has not decided what to do with Watsuki's manga volumes already in print, because the matter is still under discussion.

Watsuki first launched his 28-volume Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shueisha 's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has more than 60 million copies in print. The manga centers around Kenshin Himura, once a deadly assassin during the Meiji Restoration, who is trying to find a new life beyond violence. The manga has since been adapted into a 95-episode TV anime series, an anime film, three original video anime projects, three live-action films, and a stage musical by the all-female musical theater troupe Takarazuka Revue. The Daily Sports newspaper reported that a new live-action film in the works

Most recently, Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki launched the Rurouni Kenshin : Hokkaido Arc ( Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan : Hokkaido-hen ) in Shueisha 's Jump SQ. magazine in September. Viz is simultaneously publishing it in English.

Sources: Kyodo News/47 News, Mainichi Shimbun, Buzzfeed via Hachima Kikō