‘Hunter X Hunter’ Manga is Returning After a Four Year Hiatus
After a four-year hiatus, Yoshihiro Togashi announced this week that Hunter X Hunter will be coming back soon.
Hunter X Hunter is borderline notorious in the anime community. Written by Yoshihiro Togashi, who is also famous for creating Yu Yu Hakusho, the manga has been on an indefinite hiatus since 2018 with no official word on when – or if – it would be returning. But now it seems the wait is almost over and Hunter X Hunter will be returning soon!
The Return
The buzz started with a tweet from a tweet from Togashi’s brand new twitter account. The post, which has since amassed a huge number of responses, showed what looks like the corner of an in-progress manga page with a caption that basically translates to “Four more episodes for the time being.”
とりあえずあと4話。 pic.twitter.com/OwoB4ljp1x
— 冨樫義博 (@Un4v5s8bgsVk9Xp) May 24, 2022
At first, fans were dubious. Hunter X Hunter has been on break for a long time, Togashi is fairly private, and this isn’t exactly a well-known or official account. But fellow manga artist, Yusuke Murata (One Punch Man) confirmed the poster’s identity, and since then the internet buzz has taken off.
At this time it’s not known exactly when the new chapters will be released or how many there will be. But considering the pace at which manga is usually produced, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw new chapters in Shonen Jump within the next month or two.
Why the Long Hiatus?
To understand why Hunter X Hunter has been on pause for so long, it’s important to know a little more about Yoshihiro Togashi and the manga industry as a whole.
Manga is produced on a high-pressure, fast-paced schedule that often has artists working long hours with few breaks. It’s not uncommon for a manga artist to be supported by a small team of specialized artists to fill in background or ink lines so that the manga artist whose name actually appears on the front cover is able to take a little more time on pencil drawings and writing the entire story. Because remember, unlike the American comics industry where there is a writer working with a team of artists, the manga artist is often also the writer and creator of the entire series. It makes for wonderfully linear stories supported by one person’s entire vision as opposed to a mish-mosh of timelines and re-starts. But it also has a tendency to create a high-stress situation.
Togashi is, in addition to being responsible for two of the most popular series of the thirty years, prone to suffering from chronic pain and illness. If you yourself haven’t experienced chronic illness, it can be debilitating. The simplest tasks can seem impossible or be downright painful.
Togashi has mentioned the need to lay flat while drawing because it caused him the least pain. This isn’t to say that he’s stopped drawing or that he isn’t in pain. He has even gone as far as to say that his wife, Naoko Takeuchi (Sailor Moon) would finish Hunter X Hunter should he not be able to. We all hope that his return to the series means that he is in better health and able to work under a more comfortable schedule.
About Hunter X Hunter
The story follows Gon Freecss, a young boy who wants to become a Hunter. In this world “Hunters” are special, licensed individuals who are part treasure hunters and part bounty hunters. Gon wants to search for his long-lost father, but gains a team of very weird friends and encounters the paranormal on the way. The manga has been adapted to anime twice. Once from 1999 to 2001 with 62 episodes, and then again from 2011 to 2014 for nearly 150 episodes.
Have you read Hunter X Hunter? Are you excited about Yoshihiro Togashi’s return to the manga? Which of Togashi’s works is your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
Ja Ne, Adventurers!
