The Eastern Edge

Just in case his people don't get around to putting up an English translation (and because computer generated translations of Japanese are usually incomprehensible), here's the gist of what's up with Inoue and his health according to his website updates over the past month or so:

August 5th: Inoue posted on the Vagabond section of his site that he hadn't been feeling well for a while and hadn't gotten better, so he skipped a scheduled episode of Vagabond. He also said he was concerned and decided to go in for some tests.

Unfortunately, Inoue doesn't keep all his blog archives up, but on August 23rd he posted that he had his test results and that he was fine, and the newest episode of Real was coming out in the August 26th Weekly Young Jump.
He also mentioned that the unscheduled time off would likely mean that he couldn't end Vagabond within the year as he had previously stated he intended to.

Most recently, September 6th, Inoue posted on his blog that although Vagabond was scheduled to resume with the September 2nd issue of Weekly Morning, it was decided in a discussion with the editorial department that Inoue would take time off Vagabond until he is back to full health and ready to fully commit to seeing it through to the end (as mentioned, Vagabond is nearing it's conclusion).
While Vagabond is now on hiatus, Inoue also wrote that since Real is on a one-volume-a-year pace anyway, he will continue to work on it and volume 10 of the tankobon will be released this November.

Please keep in mind that Inoue doesn't tend to keep archives of his posts online so if you want to have a look do it soon. Next time he updates they will redirect to whatever the latest post is.

If an English translation of the most recent blog entry is ever posted I will copy it here.
Until then, this is the way it is in IT Planning land (according to me) at the moment!

If you've read part 4th of my translation of the Inoue/Oda discussions, you'll know that he's been feeling less than enthusiastic about work lately. He also mentioned on his website earlier this year - and I have also blogged this - that he's concerned about the fact that he's missed deadlines and ended up making a lot more edits to his tankobon that ever before, even expressing worry about being able to continue working on weekly serials at all.
Sounds like a long brewing case of burnout to me. I hope a bit of a rest will recharge his batteries to produce his best ever work in finishing Vagabond.

Get well soon, Mr. Inoue.
Your fans will be here when you return!