There’s a power vacuum in the world of Shonen Jump these days, with heavy hitters like Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and Black Clover having recently released their final chapters. While there are still series like One Piece and Boruto: Two Blue Vortex populating the manga publication, many new manga are vying for supremacy. One of the biggest has been Kagurabachi, the tale of revenge that has been a mover and shaker in the publication since hitting the scene in 2023. With a new anime adaptation on the way, the manga is taking a surprising break, and fans are getting nervous.
In the latest issue of Weekly Shonen Jump, it was announced that Kagurabachi creator Takeru Hokazono was taking a break due to a sudden illness. While the illness wasn’t described, Hokazono’s health issues won’t keep him away from the drawing table for too long. Kagurabachi is set to return with Weekly Shonen Jump’s twenty-sixth issue for the year, meaning that chapter 122 will take a little longer for shonen fans to digest. Unsurprisingly, fans of the white-hot anime series are more than willing to share their opinions online, while poking fun at Shonen Jump and hoping that the author sees a quick recovery.
Kagurabachi’s Break & The State of Manga
As mentioned in one of the previous social media posts above, Kagurabachi’s creator is only twenty-five years old, leaving many to knock the current state of the manga industry. While it was not definitively declared whether Takeru Hokazono is taking time off thanks to illness caused by his work, the fact that manga creators have worked to the detriment of their physical health has long been an unfortunate part of the industry. Many manga artists have confirmed that their physical states have suffered thanks to spending so much time at the drawing table, with a legendary example being Hunter x Hunter and Yu Yu Hakusho creator Yoshihiro Togashi. The man who created Gon and Yusuke Urameshi has noted that his back suffered a wild amount of punishment thanks to his countless hours drawing manga, and he is far from the only example.
The brief hiatus comes at a bad time for fans, thanks to Kagurabachi finally announcing that it would be receiving an anime adaptation in 2027. Brought to life by Studio Cypic, who fans might know for its work on the likes of The Summer Hikaru Died, Uma Musume, and Apocalypse Hotel, to name a few, it will be interesting to see if the upcoming television series raises Kagurabachi’s standing in the manga world even more. In the past, anime adaptations have helped their source material sell far more copies once they hit the small screen, but with Kagurabachi already hitting wild heights without a television series, it will be interesting to see how high it does next year.
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