Thank you so much again for your great info, Greg!There was a sad story about a mangaka showing his face.About 20 years ago, Nobuhiro Watsuki, the author of Rurouni Kenshin (and the mentor of Oda), showed his face on the cover page of Weekly Shounen Jump.Right after that, the amount of fan letters from female audience drastically declined. He was shocked and went so far as to turn his self-portrait into a pig… (source: "Kochikame")
Sasaki mentioned on the SJ podcast a while ago that back then it was traditional that Jump authors were shown in persona on the cover of the new year issue every year. Compared to what Sasaki disclosed as a reason it is very sad what apparently the true cause was that Jump did stop doing that.[/]If I remember it correctly in one of the last Kenshin volumes Watsuki mentioned that he initially wanted to let die a certain character but got fan letters an changed his decision. In a way it seems to me that Watsuki takes it quite personally how fans react. HE should be more self aware and stay strong