One Manga had such a complex main character the mangaka gave up

A manga series going on a hiatus is something that has become quite common and Vagabond was one such series. It is a manga that is still cherished to this day by its fans even after having gone on hiatus in May 2015.

The story is illustrated by Takahiko Inoue, a manga artist who most anime fans consider similar to Kentarou Miura, the author of Berserk. This is because of the former's over-conscious personality when it came to his manga series. A slight mistake in a panel would be enough for them to redraw it from scratch. To fans, this shows how passionate the authors were about their work.

However, Inoue's most successful series has been on hiatus for nearly a decade without a date of return, which has fans wondering why it happened. This article will look at how Takahiko Inoue started his journey as a mangaka, what inspired him to draw, and why his best work is still on a hiatus, despite fans wanting it back on serialization.

Disclaimer: This article contains the opinions of the author.

---

The story of how Vagabond manga went on hiatus and didn't make a return even after almost a decade

The protagonist of Purple Kaede (Image via Weekly Shounen Jump)

Takahiko Inoue is a Japanese manga artist who started his professional career in 1988. His first series was a one-shot, Purple Kaede, which later won the Tezuka Award, indicating that Inoue would be a prolific author in the future. Since his high school days, the author had been interested in sports, more specifically basketball.

After graduating from high school, it was time for Inoue to make a decision that would decide his career. He joined Kumamoto University as a literature major to see where his life would lead him, but unfortunately, he left his degree after almost a year. Throughout this year, he kept sending his manuscripts to a Shounen Jump contest and was even appreciated by one of their editors.

He then landed a job as an assistant for the popular manga series City Hunter, written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo. The latter became Takahiko Inoue's mentor, under whom the author developed his manga skills and was ready to enter the manga industry.

A panel from the Slam Dunk series (Image via Shueisha)

His first official work was titled Chameleon Jail, whose story was given by Kazuhiko Watanabe. The series didn't go for that long and wasn't as prolific, which led to Takahiko going solo further on.

A year after Chameleon Jail, Takahiko started releasing Slam Dunk and the rest is history. Considered the best sports manga series to ever exist by fans, the series enjoyed accolades and still stands as one of the best-selling sports manga series.

After completing Slam Dunk, Takahiko had reached a stand-still and he hardly seemed to come out with new projects. One day, his editor handed him a novel series to kill time as he wasn't able to focus on his career.

This novel series was titled Musashi written by Eiji Yoshikawa which told the story of the prolific Japanese philosopher and swordsman Musashi Miyamoto. Awestruck by the novel, Vagabond started to take shape in Takahiko's mind.

---

Takahiko Inoue: Vagabond

Musashi as seen in the series (Image via VIZ media)

The novel Musashi, the story behind the series centered around Musashi Miyamoto who ventured on a journey of self-discovery and learned the importance of friends. This series was different, even for Takahiko Inoue because he took this series as a way to achieve perfection. He went out of his way to approach an art style and according to fans, calling it an "aesthetic" would be an understatement.

Akira Kurosawa was Takahiko's inspiration for this series as the former was responsible for creating aesthetic and eye-pleasing samurai movies. Takahiko even shifted to drawing with paint later in the series to capture the image Akira Kurosawa depicted in his movies. Takahiko also started Real while this manga was still being serialized in 1999.

In 2009, Takahiko announced to a Japanese newspaper that Vagabond could end in a year or so as his characters were reaching that point. A year later, he reaffirmed the statement before he fell ill. The manga went on an indefinite hiatus until 2012 when it came out with a new chapter.

Musashi as seen in the manga (Image via VIZ media)

The series continued its serialization for two years, releasing three volumes, until Takahiko announced a four-month hiatus for research purposes. This is a norm in the manga industry for manga authors once they reach the final saga/arc of their series.

The hiatus lasted for a year but the series returned in January 2015. It released monthly chapters until May 2015 before going on an indefinite hiatus. Since May 2015, the series hasn't returned from a hiatus to this day.

There could be many reasons why Takahiko abandoned one of his most influential works. First, Takahiko's inspiration was basketball, not swordsmanship. His series Real returned from hiatus sooner than Vagabond and was updated recently with a new chapter.

According to Takahiko, writing Real is a natural process for him because he doesn't need to go out of the way to draw the series. This is unlike Vagabond where he challenged himself to get better by the passing chapter, thus reaching the level of perfection.

Musashi as seen in the series (Image via VIZ media)

Second, which could be the main reason behind the decade-long hiatus, is writing the series' protagonist, Musashi Miyamoto. As mentioned earlier, Musashi Miyamoto (real-life name: Shinmen Takezo) was one of the greatest philosophers of Japanese history. Although Takahiko was following a source for the story (Musashi novel series) he still had to improvise the story a little to fit the series.

Writing about a philosopher's life is an ordeal because such personalities are not born every day and what goes in their mind can never be predicted. To get close to writing about such a personality's journey in life, one might even have to become a philosopher and see the world from their point of view.

This meant sharing their emotions, their feelings, and everything else, which could be what Takahiko faced when he reached a dead-end for the manga series. In 2010, after he announced his first hiatus for the series, Takahiko explained how he would prefer to avoid the series until he got the inspiration to write it again.

This could mean that he wasn't feeling his connection with Musashi Miyamoto anymore and wanted to wait until he established that bond again. After the announcement of the First Slam Dunk movie, Takahiko shared his thoughts that he would resume Vagabond one day.

---

Final thoughts

It is easy for people to criticize a mangaka for their inconsistency during the serialization of a work, but it is hard to imagine what the artist is going through. Much like Takahiko Inoue, countless other artists didn't return from their hiatus due to mental pressure.

The biggest examples include Hunter x Hunter whose author couldn't return to the series. The author also revealed the possible endings for the series as he feared he might pass away before he could lead his story to a climax. The same could be said about Berserk whose author passed away without ending his series. So, it is commendable to give a breather to authors because writing is not an easy feat.

---