Yoshihiro Togashi, the author of the hit manga Hunter x Hunter, has confirmed the rumors circulating on the internet regarding the much-awaited return of his series. To add even more to his fans' rising excitement, Togashi also shared a sneak peek of his current work.
Hunter x Hunter is a beloved manga with more than 79 million volumes sold. It began serialization in 1998 in Weekly Shonen Jump, but in the past fifteen years the manga has gone through several long hiatuses due to mostly the author's health condition. The pauses in serialization, however, have done nothing to curb fans' love and enthusiasm for the series, which tells the story of Gon Freecs, a young boy who leaves on a journey to find his father, joining the legendary Hunters Association. Hunters are essentially adventurers and explorers, and over his journeys Gon meets a large cast of characters, each one made unique by Togashi's attention to details, backstories, and complex powers (called "Nen" in the series).
On May 24, the Twitter account 冨樫義博 (@Un4v5s8bgsVk9Xp), which many believed to belong to Yoshihiro Togashi, shared a picture of the corner of a sketched page accompanied by a caption saying, "We're up to the fourth at the moment." Fans took that as meaning that Hunter x Hunter is returning with three chapters ready and a fourth one in the works, and were driven crazy when Yusuke Murata, the artist behind One-Punch Man, liked and shared the tweet. Murata later tweeted again, confirming that the account that posted the original image belonged to Yoshihiro Togashi, but no confirmation came from the author or from Shueisha, until May 25, when the original account tweeted once again, confirming that he is indeed Togashi himself.
This sequence of events took the internet by storm, making Hunter x Hunter trending worldwide. Togashi became, in the span of 24 hours, the second most followed manga author on Twitter, with 1.9 million followers (at the time of writing), just behind Kohei Horikoshi (the author of My Hero Academia). These numbers confirm just how huge the expectations for the new chapter of Hunter x Hunter are, and Togashi added fuel to the fire by posting a sneak peek at one of the pages he is working on. It's a simple, unfinished drawing of a tree, but fans are still going crazy about it. This proves just how much a good manga is capable of creating a connection with the people who read it. Togashi was never a public figure, and he has been on social media for just a few days, yet the power and appeal of his work have mobilized millions of people worldwide.
The new chapter will break the series' longest hiatus, which started in November 2018, and will pick up the Succession Contest Arc, which introduced many new characters and locations to the manga. Fans of Hunter x Hunter now have an official account from creator Yoshihiro Togashi to follow for updates on the series, which will resume publication in Weekly Shonen Jump hopefully very soon.
Source: 冨樫義博 (@Un4v5s8bgsVk9Xp)