Japanese manga editors are frequently known for ruling with an iron fist and forcing their employees to work in a constant state of crunch, as the authors of Bleach and Jojo will often attest. If you work for a less popular magazine or managed to establish enough cred to move on then it's another story, much like "indie" comics in the West. They're not less awful than the American comics industry, just a different flavor of it.
In the case of Bleach, there's been a lot of mixed messages.
I have heard that he was being forced to keep drawing even with a shoulder injury, but I also heard he kept drawing even though his editor gave him time off to heal until his shoulder bones damn near shattered.
Tite Kubo wouldn't be the first artist to keep working beyond all reason and sense (the very first mangaka did it as well) and he has gone on record as enjoying his time on Jump even if some of the comments from his time actually working there seem to contradict that, so who knows.
Edited by HailMuffins on May 16th 2020 at 12:33:55 PM
There was a power grab a while ago where publishers wanted to take merchandising rights away from authors (giving them power to go after doujinshi and fan publishers). A lot of authors got their own starts doing doujin and fanworks, and they know better than to bite the hands that fed them, but publishers want to wring all they can out of it. There was a moderate author strike against it.
It's been fun.That was when the guy behing Mahou Sensei Negima Torch the Franchise and Run out of spite, right?
I recently realized something funny.
My RL name, in Japanese, would be pronounced with a -chan at the end. But -chan is also a suffix. That sounds like something funny but iI was left wondering if that would even translate as an amusing coincidence in Japanese or if it's common.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes@De Marquis My name in real life is 'Sebastian', which is apparently translated phonetically in Japanese to "Sebasuchan". So with hte added suffix it'd be...Sebasuchan-chan.
And I was wondering if that was the case, or if it even translated to a funny thing in actual Japanese. Does seem like the sort of thing which is kinda funny, at least.
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothesThat reminded me, I always thought of Botan rice candy as being Chinese, and was surprised to learn it as a Japanese brand.
But then it hit me that Botan is pretty much the same word as "Botchan" (young boy/young master), and I then realized this is why the logo (mascot?) is a rather plump/pampered-looking young boy.
On the topic of manga, my cursory knowledge, based on an interest in ukiyoe and Edo-period literature is that compared to Western Europe during the same time period, Edo Japan had a high rate of literacy and greater centralization, and in connection with the two, there was widespread printing of illustrated popular literature, including prints with captions.
I don't really know what made illustrated literature have a different trajectory in Europe (which in turn made it different in the United States), but that's pretty much why manga ended up as a "mainstream" medium in Japan.

They only show their so-called respect to mangaka with a hit manga who is popular enough that their fanbase are willing to fight for them. Small time mangaka are treated like crap just like any other business.
Heck, American comic artists actually get paid better than Japanese mangaka. And even then, the fate of Japanese mangaka are still miles better compared to the fate of Japanese animators.
There is nothing super special with Japanese entertainment industry. This is like the belief that the Japanese respect their voice actors so much that they will never recast them which is bullshit.
Look, there is no such thing as American comic artist are all sell-outs and Japanese mangaka are all doing it for the art. Japan is a real country, not a dreamland.
Edited by SteamKnight on May 16th 2020 at 9:55:44 PM
I'm not as witty as I think I am. It's a scientifically-proven fact.