Hunter x Hunter, one of the most popular mangas on the planet, has been on hiatus for over 1200 days. But that hiatus is seemingly about to end, after the creator, Yoshihiro Togashi, appeared to post work-in-progress of new chapters on a brand new Twitter account.
It's a strange one. The Twitter account that posted the original tweet bears all the hallmarks of a fake account. The name is a seemingly randomised series of letters and numbers, but Yusuke Murata, an illustrator best known for his work on the wildly popular One-Punch Man has confirmed that the account is legitimate. Seemingly confirming that new chapters of Hunter x Hunter are incoming.
If the original tweet is to be trusted, it looks like Togashi is planning to create at least four more chapters.
This is fantastic news for manga fans, who regularly have to deal with unfinished masterworks. Berserk suffered multiple delays and will remain unfinished after its creator Kentaro Miura died last year, aged 54. Personally, I've been waiting years for Takehiko Inoue's Vagabond, which hasn't seen a new chapter since 2015. I've long given up on Hajime No Ippo, which releases chapters all too sporadically to keep track of.
The issue with almost every manga that goes on hiatus is the author's health. Creating manga is a labour intensive process and keeping to the strict deadlines required is incredibly difficult. Togashi himself has long suffered from back issues, as a result of the long hours spent drawing and creating manga.
Hunter x Hunter was first published in Weekly Shonen Jump all the way back in 1998. It's a manga very much in the style of Naruto or Dragonball Z and follows Gon, a "hunter" on a long-running adventure to find his father.