Hunter X Hunter manga registers longest hiatus on record

Fan favorite Hunter X Hunter has been on hiatus for quite some time now. Still, the manga occupies a favored place in the hearts of otakus, young and old alike. But from the look of things, the arduous wait will have to take longer.

As reported by @WSJ_manga on Twitter, Hunter x Hunter broke its own hiatus record when Weekly Shonen Jump released a new chapter without any update on Gon and the gang, or the current state of Kurapika who got embroiled in the bloody succession war of the Kakin royal family during a journey to the Dark Continent.

HUNTERxHUNTER has officially broken its hiatus record. Being the series absent from Issue 36/37, and being also absent from the upcoming Issue 38, the series has reached a total of 81 issues on hiatus since Isue 1 2019, breaking the previous record from 2014 to 2016. pic.twitter.com/iPvCcBTdqZ

— Weekly Shonen Jump (@WSJ_manga) August 6, 2020

The most recent chapter of Hunter x Hunter last came out at the end of 2018. But the first issue of Weekly Shonen Jump for 2019 did not contain any Hunter x Hunter and the manga has been gone since. If there is still no new chapter this weekend, the lack of content will push the manga towards its new longest-lasting hiatus on record – 83 consecutive weeks. The previous record stood at 80 weeks, when the manga went on a long hiatus that lasted from 2014 to 2016.
 
This new 83-week record marks the longest time that works from acclaimed mangaka Yoshihiro Togashi have been gone from the public eye.
 
Togashi, also the creator of classic '90s hit Yu Yu Hakusho, has been suffering from chronic back pain that forces him to take frequent breaks. Writing a few author notes, he gave fans a glimpse of his debilitating medical condition that has hounded him for years now.
 
"Stuck in bed -> Crawl on all fours -> Find help -> Struggle to get up and go to the hospital."

"The worst part of back pain is that it's only after it gets a little better that you can go to the hospital."

"When your pain is a ten on a scale of one to teen, you can't move your body even a centimeter throughout the night."
 
Togashi has previously stated in the past that he hopes to finish the series even if it takes time to do so. Meanwhile, Hunter x Hunter readers express that they intend to wait, however long it may take.
 
Will Hunter X Hunter ever be completed? Have we seen the end of Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio? Only Togashi knows the answer to that.