Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc Manga Takes 1-Issue Break

The July issue of Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine revealed on Thursday that Nobuhiro Watsuki and his novelist wife/story collaborator Kaoru Kurosaki's Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidō-hen) manga will not release a new chapter in the next issue and will resume serialization in the September issue.

The series took a break in November and returned to serialization in the March issue on February 4.

The manga resumed serialization on September 4 following a 1-month break in August.

The manga had previously resumed serialization in July 2025, after being on hiatus since the magazine's June 2024 issue, which released in May 2024. The manga did not appear in subsequent issues, and the magazine's staff then stated in September 2024 that the manga was going to continue its hiatus for a while, due to Watsuki's poor health.

Watsuki and Kurosaki launched the Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc manga in Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine in September 2017. The manga went on hiatus in December 2017 following Watsuki being charged for possession of child sexual abuse images. The series later resumed publication in June 2018.

Viz Media had been simultaneously publishing the manga in English, but stopped after the manga went on hiatus in 2017.

Watsuki first launched his 28-volume Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has more than 72 million copies in circulation worldwide. The manga centers around Kenshin Himura, once a deadly assassin during the Meiji Restoration, who is trying to find a new life beyond violence. 

The manga has since been adapted into a 95-episode TV anime series, an anime film, three original video anime projects, five live-action films, and a stage musical by the all-female musical theater troupe Takarazuka Revue.

The first season of the new anime re-adapting the main manga series premiered on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block and other venues in July 2023. The anime ran for two consecutive cours (quarter of a year). The second cours began in October 2023. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired, and it is also streaming an English dub.

Rurouni Kenshin Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Kyōto Dōran (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Disturbance), the second season, premiered in October 2024, and aired for a continuous two cours for a half-year run. Crunchyroll streamed the season as it aired. The anime will get a third season.

Source: Jump SQ. July issue