Hunter X Hunter Could Return Sooner Than You Think
Author Yoshihiro Togashi's comic "Hunter X Hunter" is among some of the most popular shonen franchises of all time, rivaling heavy hitters like "Naruto" and "One Piece" in popularity. However, whereas the latter series are sprawling in length, totalling more than 700 and 1000 chapters respectively, "Hunter X Hunter" — which debuted in 1998, around the same time as "Naruto" and "One Piece" — is comparatively shorter, at 400 chapters in its current state.
Togashi's health struggles are responsible for the slow publication of "Hunter X Hunter." In recent years, Togashi developed severe back pain, rendering him incapable of comfortably performing mundane tasks, including even just sitting in a chair. Nevertheless, in 2022, Togashi returned to social media to announce new "Hunter X Hunter" chapters following what was at that point a roughly four-year hiatus.
Between October and December of 2022, Weekly Shonen Jump published new chapters of "Hunter X Hunter" weekly, before another, now-routine hiatus sidelined the manga after Chapter 400. Fortunately, fans invested in its current Succession Contest arc won't, at least, have to wait another four years for more "Hunter X Hunter," now that Togashi has detailed plans for the series' next return on Twitter.
Yoshihiro Togashi is working with a new system to keep Hunter x Hunter going
On March 8, 2023, Yoshihiro Togashi posted an update to his Twitter account — his first since November of 2022 — stating that "Hunter x Hunter" Chapter 401 is complete. His previous Tweet, announcing that he finished work on Chapter 400, is dated November 22, 2022, preceding that chapter's December 26 publication by about a month. Of course, multiple months have come and gone since Togashi's latest update, but this timeline nevertheless suggests that Chapter 401 might hit Weekly Shonen Jump sooner rather than later.
Furthermore, Togashi goes on to state that he has not yet finalized a system for producing new work, but is still happy that he's been able to gradually increase his ability to remain at his desk. From the sound of it, then, Togashi has developed a way to draw for, at the very least, longer periods of time than he was capable of previously thanks to this new system, whatever it may be.
In short, more "Hunter x Hunter" is on its way, but in what quantity and at what point in time still has yet to be confirmed.