Apparently, Takeshi Obata, the lovely artist for the uber popular Death Note manga and Hikaru no Go, was arrested last wednesday after having been caught with an 8 cm knife in his car. He was actually stopped for not having his car lights on. It turns out in Japan, people are not allowed to hold a knife with a blade longer than 6 cm. Obata reasons that it was for camping, but he was still arrested by the police.

Shounen Jump has released that they aren’t pulling out the books that have been published for Obata unless there is a viable reason for his arrest. Nippon TV, who will be showing the animated episodes of Death Note, hasn’t given comments yet with regards to this arrest.

In all honesty, I think it’s silly, but a run in with the law is a run in with the law. I am half amused with this current turn of events. But I must add, thank GOD he’s not drawing for a manga now else I’d be so devastated to miss a week of his drawing. In fact, I quite miss him already. I hope things sort out for Obata-sensei. I mean, he should be able pay the fine of thirty thousand yen, right?

Source: MDN