The "Hunter x Hunter" manga series, which was created by Yoshihiro Togashi, has been on hiatus since August of last year. Now, Japanese bookstores have declared the action adventure fiction series as complete.
BookOff and other Japanese bookstores may have been fed up with the unpredictable production of the manga. Its production was put on hold since last August due to the series creator's serious lower back pain issues. Initially, it was expected to just be a two-week hiatus but got extended since Togashi has not recovered yet.
"The manga will not return in the magazine's 41st issue as originally scheduled, since Togashi has not fully recovered medically. A return date was not announced," Anime News Network reported.
The production of the "Hunter x Hunter" manga series just resumed last June after a hiatus of two years, from Mar. 2012 to May 2014, and was put on hold briefly in July as well. This was prior to the August announcement from Togashi. Its most recent manga volume was published in Dec. 2012.
The series have been declared finish and bookstores are selling the 32 volumes of the "Hunter x Hunter" manga series as a complete set for around 7,000 yen, or about $60. Japanese fans reacted with resignation while others protested the label.
"Hunter x Hunter" was serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine since Mar. 1998. As of Dec. 2012, there have been 340 chapters collected into 32 volumes by Shueisha. The manga series focuses on Gon Freecss, a young boy who discovered that his father is a world-renowned Hunter.
The series was adapted into a 62-episode anime TV series which was produced by Nippon Animation in 1999 running until 2001. A second anime series aired from Oct. 2011 and ended on Sep. 2014 with 148 episodes. It has sold over 65.8 million copies in Japan alone as of Feb. 2013.
