The 17th issue of Shueisha’s Weekly Young Jump magazine, released on March 27, revealed that Hiroshi Motomiya’s Enma manga will be going on hiatus for an extended period to gather material. The manga is expected to resume publication in the magazine’s 24th issue in May.
The story of Enma follows Ken Ōshima, a compassionate man who works as a debt collector. He takes on the task of recovering a five billion yen loan, facing various individuals, from gangsters to politicians, in the process.
Motomiya first launched the Enma manga in Weekly Young Jump on January 9. In June 2024, Motomiya also began serializing Jinsei Iroiro (The Variety of Life) in Shueisha’s Grand Jump magazine.
Additionally, in April 2023, Motomiya concluded Takeki Ōgon no Kuni: Takahashi Korekiyo, the latest entry in his Takeki Ōgon no Kuni series. This manga had launched in Grand Jump in December 2022, and Shueisha published a compiled volume of it in June 2023.
The Takeki Ōgon no Kuni series, which originally ran in Shueisha’s Business Jump magazine from 1990 to 1992, focuses on stories of real-life historical figures from Japan.
Hiroshi Motomiya’s Enma Manga
Previous installments in the series have centered on notable figures such as Yatarō Iwasaki in 1990, Dōsan in 2000, Munenori Yagyū in 2010, Tadataka Inō from November 2020 to July 2021, Sontoku Ninomiya (born Kinjirō Ninomiya) from October 2021 to May 2022, and Kimimasa Yuri in July 2022.
Motomiya began his career as a manga artist in 1965. Many of his works, including Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho, Ore no Sora, and Otokogi, have been adapted into live-action and anime formats. His manga Katsu Fūtarō!! inspired a live-action film that premiered in November 2019.
Motomiya’s well-known Salaryman Kintaro manga has been adapted into two recent live-action films. The first film, Salaryman Kintaro Akatsuki-hen (Salaryman Kintaro Dawn), was released in Japan on January 10, while the second, Salaryman Kintaro Sakigake-hen (Salaryman Kintaro Vanguard), debuted on February 7.
The Salaryman Kintaro manga has had an ongoing presence in Weekly Young Jump since 1994, running intermittently. The series was rebooted as a web manga in April 2005, and since 2009, several spinoffs have been published in Weekly Young Jump.
Although NTT Solmare’s ComicFriends service briefly offered the manga in English on Facebook, the service closed in 2012. Salaryman Kintaro has also been adapted into a live-action film directed by Takashi Miike, multiple live-action television series, and a 2001 anime series that was released in North America by Arts Magic.
