‘Hunter x Hunter’ fans just got some excellent news!

On the same day that Jujutsu Kaisen fans were blindsided by the unexpected announcement that the series would somehow end in five chapters, fans of another shonen lynchpin received much happier news. After over a year of hiatus, Hunter x Hunter is coming back to Shonen Jump.

It’s a rare, beautiful day when Hunter x Hunter fans aren’t the ones in the manga world getting left high and dry. Despite its wild success and widespread acclaim, Hunter x Hunter has been plagued with very frequent and incredibly long hiatuses. Yoshihiro Togashi began Hunter x Hunter in 1998—one year after One Piece, for comparison’s sake. But starting in 2006, the manga has had more time off than on.

It’s easy to meme Hunter x Hunter‘s absurd-feeling hiatuses—and people sure do, even creating an entire website to track the phenomenon. They do so with love. Because the reason they’re able to hang in there is out of support for Togashi.

Why all the hiatuses?

The sad truth of the matter is that Hunter x Hunter goes on such frequent hiatus because of mangaka Yoshiro Togashi’s health issues. Specifically, Togashi suffers from severe back and hip pain. And I do mean severe.

Togashi was candid about the extent of his health issues for the first time in a statement for a 2022 exhibition of his work in Tokyo. Anime News Network’s translation of the statement reads:

I was unable to sit in a chair for two years, which made me unable to draw, but by throwing conventional methods to the wayside, I’ve been able to resume drawing somehow. Everyone, I sincerely ask you to take care of your backs and hips. Just two weeks before writing this message, I couldn’t get into position to wipe my butt and had to take a shower every time I pooped. It takes 3-5 times longer for me to do everyday movements.

Yoshihiro Togashi’s statement for 2022 -PUZZLE- exhibit

Togashi includes a drawing of his avatar, a dog, lying down and penning something at the angle you or I might use to read a book before bed. Togashi says this is currently the only angle where he’s able to draw. So definitely give the man a break.

Before Hunter x Hunter, Togashi already had an incredibly long, storied career as a weekly manga author. His career began with a handful of one-shots and short story series from 1986 to 1989. Togashi’s first weekly serialized manga was released in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1989. Since then, up to and through Hunter x Hunter, Togashi has had a weekly series. His other big, famous one is YuYu Hakusho.

I mention this because life as a weekly mangaka is hard. The timelines are brutal, and as many of us know, being hunched over your desk all day is very physically demanding. One character in the second season of Oshi No Ko, a show that excels in showing the dark side of the entertainment industry, describes it as a lifestyle mere humans cannot do.

Whether or not this is related to Togashi’s health issues is mere speculation. But the fact that Hunter x Hunter is still going is a testament to how much Togashi wants to finish Gon’s story.