The official Twitter account for Shueisha’s Jump SQ magazine has confirmed that Watsuki Nobuhiro and Kurasaki Kaoru’s Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidou-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc/ ―るろうに剣心・異聞―明日郎 前科アリ) manga will resume serialisation in the magazine’s August 2025 issue, available for sale from July 4th, 2025.
[https://x.com/JUMP_SQ/status/1938160313133895810]
The manga has been on hiatus since the release of its last chapter in May 2024. It was confirmed in September 2024 that the manga would continue its hiatus due to Watsuki’s poor health.
The Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidou-hen manga is a sequel to the original Rurouni Kenshin manga. Watsuki first started the original Rurouni Kenshin manga in 1994 in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, and Shueisha released the manga’s first volume in September 1994, and the 28th and final volume in November 1999.
Watsuki and Kurosaki started the Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidou-hen manga in September 2017 in Shueisha’s Jump SQ magazine, and in December 2017, the manga went into hiatus following Watsuki’s charge for possession of child sexual abuse images. The manga resumed serialisation in June 2018, and Shueisha published the manga’s first volume in September 2018 and the ninth volume in November 2023.
Viz Media has released all of the original manga volumes in English under the name Rurouni Kenshin, and it describes the manga below:
“One hundred and forty years ago in Kyoto, with he coming of the American ‘Black Ships,’ there arose a warrior who, felling men with his bloodstained blade, gained the name Hitokiri, manslayer! His killer blade helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu era and slashed open the progressive age known as Meiji. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years, became legend.”
Since the debut of the original manga, the franchise has received a manga sequel, a manga spinoff, a TV anime, an anime film, OVAs, live-action films and stage musicals. A new TV anime premiered in 2023, with a sequel in October 2024, and in March 2025, it was confirmed that the anime would get a third season.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1GjI8k4pZY]
The first two seasons of the anime can be streamed on the Crunchyroll website, and it describes the anime below:
“During the upheaval of the Bakumatsu Era, there was an Imperialist warrior feared as the Hitokiri Battosai. However, upon the arrival of the new era, the Battosai disappeared from the public eye, leaving behind just his legend as the strongest Revolutionary warrior.
Years later, in downtown Tokyo, on the 11th year of Meiji. Kenshin Himura, a travelling swordsman who vowed to never kill again on the sakabato (reverse blade sword) he carries on his hip, meets Kaoru Kamiya, the head instructor of the Kamiya Kasshin-ryu sword style. Kenshin solves the case of a crossroad killer who was tarnishing the name of the Kasshin-ryu while claiming to be the “Hitokiri Battosai,” which then leads to Kaoru offering to have the wanderer stay at her dojo.
Follow Kenshin’s journey as he makes treasured friendships with Yahiko Myojin, a descendant of a samurai-class family in Tokyo, and Sanosuke Sagara, a fighter for hire, and faces off against various foes who have unfinished business from Kenshin’s past. The curtains have opened on the inspiring tale of a swordsman, and the resolute people surrounding him, living in the new Meiji Era.”
