An MMO Junkie Closure

As of 6/20/23 Recovery of an MMO Junkie webcomic creator, Kokuyo Rin, has tweeted that Net-juu no Susume (MMO Junkie) will remain unfinished but free for viewing via Line Manga and also that she will be deleting her twitter once all 87 chapters are uploaded. 

For those who don't know MMO Junkie aired back in 2017 with 10 episodes and 1 OVA (and a drama CD). Ever since I discovered this anime I became hyper fixated on it especially with the two main characters, Moriko Morioka and Yuuta Sakurai; I shipped them so hard. I wasn't satisfied with the anime's ending so I got curious of it's web-comic counterpart. That's when I found out that the comic was on hiatus since 2015 and was discontinued shortly after the anime aired which left me even more curious. I couldn't find it anywhere so I dug deep and found someone had possessed all 87 chapters but it was in raw Japanese so I had to study hard to (roughly) translate it for myself. That was when I became obssesed even more and found Kokuyo-sensei's twitter which had been dead since the comic's hiatus until 2020....

2020 was when Kokuyo-sensei started becoming more active which led to speculation of the continuation of MMO Junkie and I was anxious for more news. She only posted sketches and some tweets of her daily life but I was thankful that she was communicating with her fans. She even started her own VR project which she has now sadly dropped out of. I could only assume that she fell out of love with her work which happens a lot amongst creators and I couldn't help but wonder why when she had nothing but support from her fans until she became more open with us.

Fast forward to the present (6/20/23) Kokuyo-sensei's privatter diary revealed that her mental health was deteriorating when writing and drawing her webcomic as well as struggling with business side of things that later led to thoughts of self-harm. If not for her loved ones she would be in a bad place right now. And one those people that saved her is now married to her! (this sakumori illustration was relevant lol) Ever since she got married she developed some courage to tweet and draw more but has overall chosen happiness which is why she won't be returning to the creator life and I support her 100%!

"This time, I decided to give up the idea of going back to being a writer. I have decided to give up on being a writer this time.

I know it's not a bad thing to keep my account as an author, but I've decided to delete it after much consideration.

I will take a real long, long break.

I know some of you may be wondering, "How is your life? I know some of you may be wondering, "Is my life okay?
One of my best friends, whom I wrote about in my first diary, is now married to me and staying by my side.
The truth is that I hid the fact that I got married because I felt it would create a lot of ill will and I didn't want to be teased with the kind of malice that comes from speculation, but he was the one who helped me regain my mental health to the point where I temporarily resumed Twitter, and I think I will only be happy to have someone like that by my side.

I didn't want people to think that I didn't want to draw because my life was stable....
I would rather not have this support, and I really despaired....

I am truly sorry to everyone who supported me.
It's like I made you expect it many times and betrayed you....
I'm not trying to ask for forgiveness with my republished manga, but if anyone still likes it, I'd be happy if you could read it.

I'm glad I drew it and I'm glad I went back to it, despite everything that happened.
I'm glad I came back to it, I'm glad I came back to it."

-Kokuyo Rin ( translated by me and DeepL)

Even though we'll never know what will happen next in MMO Junkie I'm forever relieved and grateful that Kokuyo-sensei is alive and has found happiness. Thank you so much Kokuyo-sensei for creating MMO Junkie it will forever be my no.1 comfort media 🥰

(Yes this illustration will be part of June rewards!)