Boys Be… Manga Artist Hiroyuki Tamakoshi Gives Update on Cancer Diagnosis

Manga artist Hiroyuki Tamakoshi (Boys Be…, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket) revealed on Twitter last Thursday that he would be taking a break from work due to his cancer diagnosis. His new manga based on Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is going on hiatus. The artist said that as the cancer had spread to several places in his liver, he would be focusing on recovery.

He previously revealed in September 2022 he had been diagnosed with stage 3 cancer and was undergoing chemotherapy treatment. He noted at the time that the serialization of Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket would be going on hiatus due to the chemotherapy. It resumed serialization in the July issue of Kadokawa‘s Gundam Ace magazine in May.

Tamakoshi launched the manga in the Gundam Ace magazine in July 2021. The third compiled book volume shipped on November 25.

Masahiro Itabashi and Tamakoshi serialized their first Boys Be… series in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in the 1990s, followed by Boys Be…2nd Season and Boys Be…L Co-op. They then started another Boys Be… manga series called Boys Be… 2009 1-Gakki (Boys Be… 2009 Term I) on Kodansha‘s MiChao mobile comic website in April 2009, and ended it in October of the same year. Itabashi and Tamakoshi then started their Boys Be… Next Season series in a different magazine, Kodansha‘s Magazine Special, in November 2009, and they ended that series in February 2012. The pair launched the ongoing Boys Be…~adult season~ manga in Kodansha‘s Evening magazine in August 2012, and chapters are published irregularly. The Boys Be… ~young adult~ manga launched in Kadokawa‘s Monthly Dragon Age magazine in September 2017, and ended in July 2018.

Tokyopop published most of the Boys Be…2nd Season series, without the “2nd Season” appellation, in North America. Right Stuf first released the 2000 animated adaptation in 2006. The franchise also inspired live-action television series and stage musical adaptations in Japan.

Sources: Oricon, Hiroyuki Tamakoshi‘s Twitter account

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