Kazuhiro Kiyohara, real-life basis of manga's protagonist, was arrested for drug possession last week

The editorial department of Shogakukan 's Corocoro Aniki magazine announced on the magazine's official website on Tuesday that Junji Kawai's Kattobase! Kiyohara-kun manga will not appear in the magazine's fifth 2016 issue on March 15 due to "various circumstances." The editorial department added that the issue will publish a specially drawn "new work" by Kawai instead in the issue.

Famous former professional baseball player Kazuhiro Kiyohara, for whom the manga's protagonist is named after and based on, was arrested last week on charges of stimulant drug possession.

The manga focuses on Kiyohara, a player on the fictional baseball team Seibu Raianz (based on Kiyohara's real-life team, the Seibu Lions). Many other characters based on professional baseball players (with names written in the phonetic katakana alphabet) and their teams (with altered names) appear in the manga.

Kawai launched the original Kattobase! Kiyohara-kun manga in Shogakukan 's Coro Coro Comic magazine in 1987, and ended it in 1994. He launched the sequel with the same title in Corocoro Aniki in October 2014.

[Via Hachima Kikō]