Rurouni Kenshin

[VLordGTZ]

Manga are generally creator-owned works rather than publisher-owned like with major American comics.  It's why Masami Kurumada is able to publish Saint Seiya sequels/spin-offs in non-Shueisha magazines, even though Shueisha still has the publishing rights to the original manga.  Generally, mangaka don't try to seize the publishing rights to their series, but it does happen from time to time like with Makoto Raiku and Shogakukan or (more recently) Hiroyuki Takei and Shueisha.

[VLordGTZ]

It looks like Watsuki is only being fined 200,000 yen for his crime (no jail time).

[Dr. Insomniac]

That's less than 2000 American dollars. Just a slap on the wrist. Wow.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I still think that it's safe to say that his career is pretty much done by this point, though. At least, I'll be surprised if he can find any work as a mangaka for the next several years, whether it be with Jump or any other publication. I doubt anyone will risk the controversy of contracting him at this point.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I still think that it's safe to say that his career is pretty much done by this point, though. At least, I'll be surprised if he can find any work as a mangaka for the next several years, whether it be with Jump or any other publication. I doubt anyone will risk the controversy of contracting him at this point.

I still don't think this will hurt Watsuki though. He's probably gotten enough royalties from those live-action Kenshin movies to live comfortably.

[VLordGTZ]

Yeah, Watsuki will still continue to survive financially.  Rurouni Kenshin is an iconic Jump franchise, and since manga are creator-owned works, Shueisha can't get rid of Watsuki without giving up the rights to the series.  He'll likely never return to a mainstream Shueisha magazine, but he'll definitely still be raking in royalties from Shueisha for the foreseeable future.

[gunswordfist]

Yeah, Watsuki will still continue to survive financially.  Rurouni Kenshin is an iconic Jump franchise, and since manga are creator-owned works, Shueisha can't get rid of Watsuki without giving up the rights to the series.  He'll likely never return to a mainstream Shueisha magazine, but he'll definitely still be raking in royalties from Shueisha for the foreseeable future.

Ugh, this all makes me so sick.

[LumRanmaYasha]

It's pretty repulsive that Watsuki has only gotten off with a slap on the wrist. This sends a bad precedent for when cases like this happen again and does nothing to discourage those behaviors. Watsuki has earned plenty through his career to survive financially until he finds a new job even if Shueshia truly breaks all ties with him. Which is doubtful, considering the precedent they set when they rehired Shimabukuro, who went on to draw his most successful series that ran for nearly a decade, received an anime, and was distributed internationally. And I'm a big fan of Toriko the series and think Shimabukuro is a good mangaka, but considering what he did, he shouldn't ever have been given a second chance at Shonen Jump, and I'm concerned Watsuki will be forgiven in the same way he did, especially considering his storied and successful history with Shueshia.

[gunswordfist]

Oh, I didn't know Shimabukuro was Toriko's credit (never read/watched it)

[Markness]

Oh, I didn't know Shimabukuro was Toriko's credit (never read/watched it)

Apparently Shimabukuro's incident was a case of the girl lying about her age.

Toriko's worth a read. It's very gutsy and bursting with hot blooded fun.

What infuriates me more about Watsuki is that he has a beautiful wife (No word on her feelings but I doubt she's happy about all this) and he took her for granted.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Viz Media has wisely decided not to publish the new chapters of Rurouni Kenshin's Hokkaido Arc in the English Shonen Jump releases since its return in recognition of the controversy surrounding Watsuki's possession of child pornography:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2018-06-04/rurouni-kenshin-hokkaido-arc-does-not-return-in-viz-shonen-jump/.132432

It's nice to know that they aren't just trying to throw the issue under the bus and hope that people forget it exists like what Shueisha is doing.