Togashi sensei posts on Twitter that he’s working on the popular manga again—what does this mean for Filipino anime fans?
After a four-year hiatus, four chapters of the manga Hunter x Hunter is currently in the works.
On Monday, Yoshihiro Togashi, the artist behind the popular shonen battle anime, joined Twitter. His first tweet, which has garnered over 320,000 retweets and almost a million likes as of writing, is an edge of a manga sketch with a caption that translates to “four more episodes for the time being.”
That’s 400 percent more episodes than what we’ve had so far! The last published chapter, 390, was published in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018.
As the Twitter account was new, many were skeptical about the legitimacy of the post. Shortly after it went up, however, fellow artist Yusuke Murata, famous for mangas One Punch Man and Eye shield 21 quote tweeted and confirmed that the account was real.
With over 79 million copies in circulation, Hunter x Hunter is one of the most popular manga series of all time. Because of Togashi’s health condition, the title has had various hiatuses over its run.
Hunter x Hunter, first published in 1998, is set in a world of “hunters,” special mercenaries who scour the globe for treasures, monsters, criminals, and bounties. The narrative revolves around Gon Freecss, a young boy who became a hunter to track down his missing father.
The title has been well-received globally for its compelling, morally gray universe that forces readers and viewers to ponder upon the motives of the characters and how noble they are in practicality.
The manga has been adapted into television twice, starting with a 62-episode series that aired from 1999 to 2001. The second anime series, which screened from 2011 to 2014 for 148 episodes, is currently available on the streaming application Netflix.
Among the Asian countries where Hunter x Hunter became big was the Philippines. The first iteration of the television show first ran in the country in 2002 on the local channel GMA. Seven years later the same station televised the anime again.
The last published chapter, 390, was published in Weekly Shonen Jump in 2018. That’s 400 percent more episodes than what we’ve had so far!
The Filipino dubs have over millions of views online. There are several Filipino-managed Facebook groups on the hit anime series as well.
Other than Hunter x Hunter, Togashi is best known for his acclaimed 1990 manga YuYu Hakusho, as well as his marriage to Sailor Moon creator Naoko Takeuchi.
Hunter X Hunter is licensed and released in the US by Viz Media.