Hunter x Hunter fans have been on an emotional rollercoaster journey when it comes to the iconic manga and its anime adaption.
The shonen manga, which began serialization in 1998, has been on a number of hiatuses since, with artist and creator Yoshihiro Togashi having to take extended breaks due to his health. A recent tweet, however, has given us hope, and so the rollercoaster begins again!
On May 1, Togashi set the Hunter x Hunter community abuzz with posts on X that showed he is back at work, almost a year on from our last update from the artist. Any post from Togashi is usually met with a strong response, given just how much the anime community loves him. Still, these latest posts have kicked fans into overdrive given that they came with pictures attached, pictures that showed Togashi is back at work.
The above post shows that Togashi is working on Chapter 405 and that he is already five pages in, but it’s also a sweet nod to his wife. The words ムーン・ヒーリング・エスカレーション (Moon. Healing. Escalation) name a technique used in the extremely popular Sailor Moon story that heals anyone hit by negative energy from the Dark Kingdom. How does it connect to Togashi’s wife? Well, it just so happens that his wife is Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon … awwww. The artist is obviously feeling well enough to resume his work, and this appears to be his way of thanking Takeuchi for her support.
It isn’t just his wife’s support that Togashi received, but also his fans’, who have been cheering him on. The above post received over 300,000 likes in the first 12 hours, and at the time of writing, it has 347 thousand likes and 85 thousand shares.
Since his initial post, Togashi has continued to post more work pages, with the latest one showing the corners of pages 12, 13, and 14. The last chapter to be released was chapter 400, titled “Secrecy” and published on December 26, 2022 in Weekly Shonen Jump. It’s been a while then since we had anything new from Togashi, though even with the above posts, we still aren’t sure when we will get to see the newer material he has been working on.
Hunter x Hunter is one of the most popular anime in the world, and we always love to see an update from the artist. We wish Togashi the best of luck with his work and hope we can glimpse these pages sometime soon! (And maybe a seventh season of the anime? Please!)
(featured image: Viz Media)
