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The story
A thread on 5ch picked up on the fact that Osamu Akimoto, creator of “Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo” (Kochikame), never once missed a deadline during its 40-year run in Weekly Shonen Jump. Commenters were struck anew by the fact that he didn’t even take a break when he was sick, and the discussion expanded into comparisons with the hiatus histories of other long-running manga artists like Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takahashi, and the creator of Urayasu Tekkin Family. The thread title’s “Ko Akimoto” was a pun mashing up the lyricist’s name with the mangaka’s actual name (Osamu Akimoto), and the conversation also touched on the differing production paces of monthly versus weekly magazines.
What people said
Oda, take notes.
Yeah, he worked himself into the ground.
Wait… if it were some manga that wrapped up quick I'd get it, but this ran for an insanely long time. For real?
For real, not one break in 40 years. Not even for illness.
And he was running irregular side-story chapters on top of it, plus serializing Mister Chris at the same time. Finishing a chapter in 5 days is genuinely insane.
I used to hate the dud episodes too, but now I figure that's unavoidable for a weekly serial.
I love these social-satire episodes. ("suko" is forum slang derived from "suki"/like, roughly "love this")
Wasn't it Takao Saito or Hiroshi Motomiya who basically leaves everything to assistants these days and only draws the eyes himself?
The pupils really do change the whole impression of a character, so it's actually hard for an amateur to pull off.
No wonder he came to hate serializing it.
Love that he got so fed up he turned his editor Kazuhiko Torishima into the villain in Dr. Slump.
Kochikame's stories were, well… yeah, about that.
Drawing out 202 volumes' worth of material is genius-level stuff, no question.
"Putting out one new gag to the world almost every single week for 40 years would drive you insane — gag manga usually just fizzles out into a mess."
"That's probably why weekly gag manga tend to be short-lived."
And yeah, thinking about it, Kochikame really is the only weekly manga that managed to stay in the legendary-gag-series bracket for that long.
Even Usuta Kyosuke runs out of steam after 6-7 volumes.
Other long-running gag manga are basically just Mario-kun, Fushigi Pokemon Pipii, and Dangerous Jiisan.
Though there's also the SpongeBob pattern, where the creator dies and only the anime keeps going.
Unlike Kochikame those are monthlies, but they're still three great series.
Monthlies give you more time, and CoroCoro's readership turns over regularly, so you can get away with coasting on poop-and-wiener jokes.
Dunno much about it, but having been an assistant for artists like that adds some prestige, so maybe it's unavoidable?
Those guys are full-time assistants, that's their job.
You probably can't write this stuff for a lifetime unless your whole way of living is a gag manga.
I think Yutaka Hara is a genius.
There's no other novel series that sells like the Kaiketsu Zorori books.
isn't anyone going to point out that Kochikame's actual author is Osamu Akimoto?
True that.
And it's wild it took until post #46 for someone to finally point it out.
The only exception was when she had appendicitis, I think?
For Rumiko Takahashi's serialized works (like "MAO"), breaks mainly take the form of regular hiatuses roughly once or twice a month, used to adjust the pace of weekly serialization.
Trends and reasons behind the hiatuses:
• Age and pace management: now in her late 60s, she still keeps up a weekly serialization, and takes a break roughly once a month or every few weeks to manage her health and her production schedule.
Never seen this one.
I recall its very first hiatus actually making the news.
That just shows how rarely it ever took a break.
Being able to build up a stockpile while still doing a weekly serialization is just absurd.
Nope.
Never happened, not once.
It's not Doraemon.
As long as the publisher isn't completely incompetent, they'd notice.
With Cromartie High School, Magazine actually messed up the running order once
(like running chapter 29 the week after chapter 30).
The author reportedly snapped, "If you did this with Hajime no Ippo you'd be fired,"
and the editor shot back, "We wouldn't make a mistake like that with Ippo" — apparently they really got into it.
Probably had a whole team dedicated to gathering material.
I've read that he read newspapers cover to cover and actively clipped little tidbits from the small side columns.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Kochikame (by Osamu Akimoto) is said to have never missed a single weekly issue of Weekly Shonen Jump across its entire 40-year run from 1976 to 2016 — including times when the author was sick. The thread title’s “Ko Akimoto” is a joke spelling that plays on the sound of lyricist Ko Akimoto’s name against the actual author’s name, Osamu Akimoto; Ko Akimoto never actually drew Kochikame. Opinions split over whether to view this staying power as sheer talent or just grueling overwork, and the conversation expanded into comparisons with the hiatus records of Akira Toriyama, Rumiko Takahashi, and the creator of Urayasu Tekkin Family. Some pointed out that monthly magazines can recycle the same gags because their readership turns over, a point that highlights just how demanding weekly serialization specifically is — something not fully conveyed by the thread alone.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Shocking] The Number of Times Ko Akimoto Missed a Deadline While Serializing Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo in Weekly Shonen Jump lol“.
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