Oh totally agree on the contractual aspect. Just thinking of the aspect of a series that simply drops adaptation entirely. The notion that you cease working on the manga adaptation rather than seeking to compete the work they put that effort into is also rather sad as well. If I had a passion project I was doing I'd be sincerely glad if a friend sought to complete/bring it fruition after I died.
Its simply a difference in how they view the best way to be respectful in those cases where in the East they leave it "untouched" by others where maybe Westerners are more driven to complete as best they can (Silmarillion being compiled by Tolkien's son to give people a large collection of all the lord around the rings/Middle Earth comes to mind). Its unfortunate that almost each time I've heard of an artist dying, their works simply get dropped.
With Akira Toriyama in particular, there's just such a global audience for Dragonball with so much goodwill with fans (how many popular series exist with so little negativity as Dragonball? Can't think of any.) that it's going to be completed as best they can, and it feels like an anomaly. Most manga/adaptations seem to just get cancelled upon an artist death.
I genuinely hope the artist lives as fulfilling a time as they have left, and doesn't feel burdened by those seeking more, as this work is genuinely enjoyable. I think it might be the third series ever I'm interested in reading the novel version of, and I definitely wasn't expecting that from an Ecchi game parodying/doing a different take of the isekai into a porn game concept.
The Reincarnated MC is pretty cool imo as a character, and the magic fabric as a weapon is definitely out of the box for sure. He's actually relatable without being too over the top slapstick that the genre seems to be excessive with.
