This Time it’s Real – Hunter X Hunter Returns (Updated 4/23/14)

HE

IS

BACK

Update: the official return date is the 6/2 issue of WSJ.  The tagline:

“What is being aimed for is darkness. What is being hunted is hope. What blocks the way is endless despair.”



Hunter X Hunter is returning to Weekly Shounen Jump, starting in June.  This time it’s real – the official announcement comes from Shueishia and Viz Media, including the information that it will be simultaneously released in English and Japanese.

You can save all the warnings and cautions – I know it all by heart.  Togashi may write for a month and go on haitus again, blah blah blah.  I don’t deny any of it, but right now I just want to cry my tears of joy and bask in the moment.

What does this mean for the Hunter X Hunter anime?  Who knows.  Perhaps a hiatus with a return in a year or two, if Togashi can write that long. Perhaps he even plans to write an ending for the manga, to coincide with the anime ending.  Who knows?  There’ll be time to worry about it later.  For now, let’s just enjoy the moment.

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38 comments

  1. d

    Finally — I can now go to sleep at night with peace in my heart.

    I'm more happy that Togashi didn't decide to bail on it than anything, seeing how much longer this hiatus has been than any other, of his.

  2. l

    Glad you decided to make the post right away and not wait for tomorrow's episode review, a great way to bask in fellow excitement

  3. T

    Should it have taken his long? Hell no.

    Am I glad? Hell yes. Whether the author's work ethics get on my nerves or not I can't deny I've been clawing my nails down to see more.

  4. t

    very good news.
    how much time was it?2-3 years?around when the anime started when he took that long break.
    of course there are fears of recurrent hiatus like he did 2-3 times during chimera ant arc (that was annoying), but I still think he'll write seriously for some time.

    what does that mean about the anime?probably nothing right now. they'll reach the point they planned ahead. after all the manga will return in June when the anime is about to finish chimera arc and only few eps left for next arc. there won't be enough episodes. however, if Togashi is consistent with writing for a long period, maybe we will see hunter anime return sometimes later (a thought that so far was only just a dream for us).

  5. l

    2 years, 34 days if my math is correct. Best case scenario, this is a delayed announcement and the anime production staff was working behind the scenes with him about future events. Not likely whatsoever, but a shounen sure can dream.

  6. A

    Words fail me. Random sounds coming out of my mouth area fail me. There isn't a way to describe the feelings welling up inside me.

    Two years. Two. Fucking. Years.

    And he has had all that time to think about what he will do with the story. I really can't fathom how incredible this moment is.

    Holy fucking shitballs.

  7. H

    OUR WISHES HAVE BEEN GRANTED!!!!!!!!!!
    WAAAAAAAAAAAGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  8. S

    I started getting into this series in late February 2012. Took about a couple weeks/a month to get through the first 5 episodes of the old anime, and went increasingly uphill after that.

  9. e

    AAAAAAAAAAAAA IM CRYING RIGHT NOW I CANT BELIEVE MY EYES THIS IS REAL RIGHT? ITS NOT A DREAM RIGHT?
    OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW I'M JUST KEEP OPENING ALL HXH COMEBACK NEWS
    OHE IS BACKKKK! FINALLY TOGASHI

  10. n

    HE IS BACK!!!!!

    I want someone to put some long needle into Togashi's brain and make him write as long as he's alive. Please don't finish this series. At least not yet. I have a very bad feeling about this. Please God, Please.

  11. n

    Hopefully he's been working and has 2 years worth of chapters/storyboards for us.

  12. I would assume he's got a lot in the can already – the story fully mapped out, storyboards and maybe even names finished. It's logical to think he would, as that would enable him to produce "new" material weekly for some time even if he's not able to work a full schedule, but in truth we're all pretty much guessing.

  13. f

    I'm pretty new to the HXH fandom, but I've heard a few things and thought I'd like to confirm it – is Togashi really that much of a slacker, or has he had genuine health problems that stopped him from writing the manga?

  14. No one knows, but that doesn't stop many fans from calling him a slacker and worse, and non-stop bitching and moaning about him taking to long to write a series so good there's no one else that could write it in a thousand years.

  15. H

    he actually has general health problems. he said it in an interview after completeing his previous hit series yu yu hakusho. i'll provide the link:

    http://mangafox.me/manga/yuyu_hakusho_dj_yoshirin_de_pon/v01/c001/8.html

  16. Yeah, seen that, but it's pretty vague and from what, 20 years ago? May still be true, may not. May have been something minor even then.

    My instinct is that he does have some sort of chronic physical ailment that makes doing manga (which is, after all, a damned hard job) difficult. But there's no conclusive proof, he has enough money to retire on if he wants, and he prefers to keep whatever his situation is private. Understandably so.

  17. e

    I assumed it was two things:

    1) Because he can – obviously. His manga is still selling, and Shonen Jump obviously allows him to leave and come back whenever he wants, and to work on his own schedule. I heard once he liked to spend a lot of time with his family now as he gets older, and when he has a job that allows him to do so, and a steady income through manga sales, why not?

    2) And this is just a hunch, but – he cares about his writing and the quality of it. Maybe this is me just being a fan, but, even as the quality of some of the art slips in the initial magazine print, the writing is great, some of the most efficiently heterodox storytelling I've ever read. That probably takes a lot of thinking, re-writing, etc. And since he has a job that allows him to practically take as long as he wants to write, I'd like to think he uses that time to come up with and properly execute great stories.

  18. I agree enthusiastically – I've made that point myself, many times. Togashi obviously cares deeply about the writing (more than the art) and the fact is that if it takes him a decade to write a story no one else could do in a century, I'm OK with that.

  19. Y

    While having regard to the amount of time elapsed between the distribution of that doujinshi and today, I feel nonetheless that the treatise that Togashi composed therein–not featured on Manga Fox–remains instructive. If anyone wishes for any insight into the unfinished nature of the author's drawings; his schedule; his aspirations à propos storytelling and characters; or whatever, I think they are outlined best there: http://37.media.tumblr.com/3caf277c1fd09fa2f54a5c92bdc57613/tumblr_my63rcM6nL1sksy0go5_1280.jpg
    http://37.media.tumblr.com/ab18f447760959cc34f521a71efe151e/tumblr_my63rcM6nL1sksy0go6_1280.jpg

  20. I agree, 20 years on or not it's an interesting peek inside his process.

    Basically, it all makes sense and frankly, I'm 100% in his camp on this. Writing manga is extremely stressful. Togashi is extremely hard on himself and a perfectionist. He doesn't want to write unless he feels he has something to say, and he feels motivated to say it. He doesn't need the money, and he wants to have a life beyond work. It may be inconvenient for us, but it's all perfectly reasonable.

  21. h

    yessssssssssssssssssssssssss,it's going to be 20-30 chapters then back to 2 years hiatus

    Enzo

    are you going to blog the manga once the anime ends

  22. H

    epic

  23. R

    It's one of the sad days when unbridled joy is tempered by the fact that I've had to sit through 3 other on and off hiatuses from Togashi, each one not too long after his "big return". It's just hard to be unconditionally excited after multiple relapses.

    I'm glad he's back, but my gut says it's not for long.

  24. s

    OMGGGGGGGG YEEEEEEESSSS AAAAHGLDSJFKDS;SD

    This news just made my entire week!!! I don't even care if he goes on another hiatus later. I'm just so happy to know the story is getting picked up again!

  25. K

    The fact that the chapters will be concomitantly published in English makes me hopeful that he's already written a fair amount of material and turned it into his publisher, it would be fantastic if he already has a few dozen chapters finished, and while extremely unlikely, it would also be great if he's already shown Madhouse material that's not been published and they've animated it, though I shouldn't get my hopes up that much.

  26. J

    So fucking hyped! I don't worship Togashi as much as some others do and I think his writing is flawed, but he does deliver stuff no other manga has achieved. All aboard the hype train 🙂

  27. s

    Agreed; I myself dont see HunterXHunter this amazing piece of work but i do think its great nevertheless and its crazy to see that with all the things the HunterXHunter anime has achieved, Togashi has decided to happily surprise his fans with his decision to come back and shell out as many chapters as he can before he goes back to hibernating. I can respect Togashi's proclivity for throwing shonen conventions upside down and delivering a series with psychological intrigue and suspense that comes forth naturally (i dont see other mangaka' capable of writing real suspense in a shonen manga the way togashi does). The fact that he can do that with this genre is a testament of his unique talent as a writer which is why regardless of some of HunterXHunter shortcomings, I hold the series up as a great take on the genre and a solid and intense action series..although one can argue that HunterXHunter has now evolved into a well-written drama series (I feel like this was always the intention of the direction of the series, but togashi wanted to ease his audience into the nitty-gritty by disguising it as an action series)

  28. J

    Moar drama in my HxH plz! Who iz Gonz ebil twin step sister??????1!

    …Seriously though, I do agree with you 🙂 Feels>Action. I really like the direction HxH has taken as it progressed.

  29. s

    same here; character drama over action any day; it feels more human and you can connect to that more than you can with action even though i do love me some good action (who doesnt?). A good writer always knows how to evolve their series and a good writer also knows how to properly disguise the genre of their series and slowly pull away the curtains bit by bit until its audience has become fully invested in the true vision of the work.

  30. m

    That is amazing news! The new arc had the intro done, and seems like it'll be really exciting.

  31. Sorry, that was a bit specific for me…

  32. K

    While I'm over the moon about the return, it's makes me sad that it's too late for the anime. At least for now.

    In other good news, Jump also announced that the manga has printed 66,000,000 copies.

  33. There's an outside chance Togashi has been working in concert with Madhouse, so that they can animate ahead of what's been published. Not a strong possibility, but it does exist.

  34. R

    "What is being aimed for is darkness. What is being hunted is hope. What blocks the way is endless despair."

    Man, it's as if Chimera Ant arc isn't dark & despairing enough. But, yeah, Togashi always alternate the tone of each arc between dark-light-dark-light patterns, considering the tone after Ant arc is bit lighter then it's quite expected.

  35. S

    http://www.imagebam.com/image/2e0f0d322387020

    Togashi working during hiatus? Who do you think he is, someone dedicated to his audience lol.

  36. w

    Yum. I don't really want HxH to end, but I kinda hope whatever he's writing is going to serve as a final arc of sorts for the series and hopefully one that can provide the anime with the ending it truly deserves.

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