Square Enix will not be dropping The Apothecary Diaries despite artist being indicted for tax evasion 

On July 24, news outlets reported that Nekokurage, the artist behind the popular manga series The Apothecary Diaries, was found guilty of violating the income tax law by the Japanese court. However, it seems that Square Enix, the publisher of The Apothecary Diaries, is not considering cancelling the series, as per the company’s statement to ITmedia. 

Known by the pen name Nekokurage, manga artist Erika Ikeda was accused of evading about 47 million yen (over $300k) in taxes by failing to report approximately 260 million yen in income earned through illustrations for The Apothecary Diaries. The artist admitted to the charges and showed remorse, resulting in a sentence of 10 months in prison (3 years suspended) and a fine of 11 million yen. Nekokurage has since paid the taxes owed (as per a post on her personal X account). 

Despite the guilty verdict and suspended prison sentence, Square Enix will thankfully not be abandoning Nekokurage’s manga. The Apothecary Diaries is currently being serialized each month in the company’s seinen manga magazine Monthly Big Gangan. When asked by ITmedia for a response to Nekokurage’s verdict, Square Enix commented, “we have no particular plans to cancel (The Apothecary Diaries).” 

As an aside, due to the original web-novel The Apothecary Diaries is based on having two almost simultaneous ongoing manga adaptations by different artists, the one by Nekokurage has earned the nickname “The Tax Evasion Version,” while the other, by Minaji Kurata, was dubbed “The Tax Compliant Version” by default.