Tatsuya Endo, the creator of Spy x Family, apologized to fans, via an exhausted Bond, for the short chapter of Spy x Family that was just released.Published on both the Japanese and English platforms this week, Chapter 68.1 of the manga series Spy x Family was shorter than usual. Endo took to Twitter to post an illustration of Bond, the Forger family dog, collapsed on the floor with papers and a fountain pen strewn around him. In his message, he says, "This week's SPYxFAMILY is an illustration + extra edition because I'm exhausted from working on the book and so on. I would appreciate it if you could forgive me..."RELATED: Spy x Family Teases Mysterious New Character From Second Cour

Although the chapter was relatively short, Endo still included a double-page colored illustration of the Forgers playing in the park, celebrating fall. While Yor and Loid look on with fond expressions, Anya chases a squirrel that Bond appears a little spooked by. In response to Endo's Tweet, fans thanked him for the new illustration and for all the hard work that he puts into each chapter of the manga.

Being overworked and exhausted is a commonality in the manga and anime industry. Because there is such a demand for maintaining a consistent schedule, creators devote their entire time in between chapters to working on the next chapter, with the average mangaka having only three hours of spare time in a week. Even though some creators are now transitioning to a biweekly schedule, with Tatsuki Fujimoto's Chainsaw Man being the most recent one, it is still an arduous timeline to adhere to.

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The Toll Writing Manga Takes Is Well Documented

Numerous mangakas have spoken up about the physical and mental toll working this rigorous schedule has brought. Yoshihiro Togashi, the creator behind Hunter x Hunter, has taken multiple hiatuses throughout the series' run due to his chronic back problems. It was only recently that Togashi announced that the series had made a return after its longest break yet, at four years. The creator of Tokyo Ghoul, Sui Ishida, had similar sentiments with Ishida finding parallels between his state of well-being and the protagonist of his work Kaneki. His latest work, the superhuman manga Choujin X, is currently being released according to his schedule.

Endo's series Spy x Family caught the world by storm after its release in March 2019. It was an unexpectedly heartwarming tale about a spy named Twilight who has a rather unusual mission: to maintain peaceful relations between the East and the West, he must find a wife and a child to form a fake family. Twilight, donning the name Loid Forger, adopts Anya and marries Yor, a city worker. What none of them, except for Anya, realize is that they're all hiding a secret: not only is Loid an accomplished spy, Yor is an elite assassin and Anya can read minds.

Released biweekly, Spy x Family is available to read through Viz Media or Manga Plus. The 10th volume will release in Japan on Oct. 4. The anime adaptation is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Source: Twitter