Manga on Hiatus After Artist Takes Bathroom Break

TOKYO — Popular manga Brave Fighter’s Journey was recently put on hiatus by its publisher as writer and artist Okobo Toshiro took a brief break to have a bowel movement.

“We are sorry to report Brave Fighter’s Journey will not have any chapter published for the next three months due to the author’s irresponsibility in handling their biological needs,” magazine Burning Ace said in a statement. “There is simply no way for Okobo to catch up after such a monumental, multi-minute setback. Had he planned ahead and catheterized himself like a true mangaka this never would have happened.”

Longtime fans of the manga were split, with some expressing sympathy for Okobo’s plight and wanting them to do what is best for their health while others expressed considerably less sympathy.

“A bathroom break? What’s next, sleeping for a full 8 hours?” asked irate fan Benny Simkins. “If Okobo keeps this up they’ll start not only tending to their basic needs but doing things that are outright healthy and ruin any chance of burning out as a young genius with a tragically small but brilliant body of work. God forbid we end up with another Miura or Togashi who lives a long fruitful life producing top tier art for a number of decades at a pace they are comfortable with.”

Okobo offered an apology to both fans and Burning Ace, ensuring all parties that they would do everything in their power in order to keep to a stricter time table.

“I am sorry for disappointing my fans and publisher, I will not make this mistake again,” Okobo said from their spartan Tokyo apartment. “I have already hooked myself up to an IV in order to streamline nourishment and have taught myself to simultaneously draw separate chapters with my left and right hand in order to keep up the standard of art during the weekly release schedule and perhaps even make up for some lost time.”

At press time, it was revealed every new chapter of Brave Fighter’s Journey had a coded cry for help embedded in each speech bubble.

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