The cancellation of Act-Age took fans by surprise this past weekend, and its publishers aren’t wasting time when it comes to scrubbing the series. The hit series was axed by Shueisha within the last week after its writer was arrested in Japan for acting indecently towards an underage girl. Now, Viz Media has updated its message on the manga’s cancellation, and the company says it will stop providing access to Act-Age very soon.
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The comment was posted on Viz Media’s official site earlier this week. The note says the publisher is no longer publishing Act-Age and will remove digital access to the manga shortly.
“VIZ Media will no longer publish current and future works of Act-Age, including graphic novels and digital volumes, and chapters will be removed from the Shonen Jump digital vault,” the site says.
This news shouldn’t come as a surprise to fans given the nature of Act-Age‘s cancellation. After Shueisha spoke with the manga’s artist, it was decided that Act-Age needed to be canceled. The nature of Matsuki Tatsuya’s crimes were too grave to continue his work’s publication.
For those needing more information on the writer’s recent arrest, it took place in Tokyo after a middle-school girl came forward to police. The minor said she was touched inappropriately by Tatsuya after he approached her from behind on his bike. The man fled, and after reviewing security footage in the area, police learned Tatsuya seemingly harassed another underage woman. When confronted with these allegations, the Act-Age writer admitted there was “nothing generally incorrect” about them.
After his arrest, Shueisha and Shonen Jump reviewed the incident before deciding to cancel Act-Age. Its final chapter was released this week but only in print. Both MANGA PLUS and Viz Media refused to host the final chapter digitally.
What do you think about the magazine’s complete erasure of Act-Age? Do you think it is the right move? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
