The manga industry has just witnessed one of the most epic and justified moves in recent years. Tired of dealing with complete incompetence, writer Michiru Nakayama and illustrator Tatsuwaipu dropped a major bombshell: they will withdraw their manga Make Heroine wo Katasetai!! (I Want the Losing Heroine to Win!) from their current publisher due to a blatant chain of lies and poor management by their team, leaving the community stunned by the dark details of this toxic work relationship.

The level of audacity these creatives faced is worthy of a true funa. According to the explosive joint statement, the original editor had sworn that the first physical volume’s sales were soaring and that serialization had a bright future. However, the reality behind the offices was a constant hell: they suffered absurd delays for script reviews, the printing house replaced their cover illustrations without notifying them, and communication was virtually non-existent. The real cold shower came when this editor was replaced and the new manager showed them the real sales figures, confirming that the original numbers were mediocre and that the work faced imminent cancellation at its fifth volume.

When the authors demanded a face-to-face meeting with the editor-in-chief to confront the liar, the company’s top executives decided to hide the ex-editor and remove him from the room without warning to protect him from the complaints. In response to this ultimate insult, the artists made the most drastic decision possible: not only will they cut the current publication of the story on the digital platform on July 23, but they demanded that the company stop distributing all their previous works by December 2026, including titles like Hagure Yuusha no Isekai Bible and Tamamori Buchou no Mousou wa Tomaranai. Fortunately, the creators promised that their losing heroine will return under the independent label Number Nine early in 2027.

Seeing the disastrous level of professionalism in some Japanese companies that prefer to lie to their talents rather than face them with real numbers, do you think more artists will start revealing the dirty secrets of their contracts, or will the fear of being blacklisted in the industry continue to silence these massive corporate abuses?