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Masashi Kishimoto, Akira Ōkubo's Samurai 8 Manga Ends
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
This year's 17th issue of Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine published the final chapter on Monday of Masashi Kishimoto and Akira Ōkubo's Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru (Samurai 8: Hachimaruden) manga. The manga's fifth and final volume will ship in Japan on May 1.
The preview chapter for Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in April 2019, and the manga's first full chapter debuted in May 2019.
Viz Media is publishing the manga in English digitally and in print. Shueisha's MANGA Plus service is also publishing chapters digitally in English. Viz Media describes the first volume:
Only the most powerful warriors are able to transcend their human bodies and become something even greater—samurai. Samurai carry special souls within themselves and can travel through space as easily as walking the earth. Hachimaru has always dreamed of becoming a samurai, but he's as weak as they come. He's so sickly that he can't even eat solid foods. Being too weak to leave the house may have turned Hachimaru into an expert at video games, but with enough heart, could he become a true samurai?
Viz Media released the first volume in print on March 3, and will release the second volume on May 5. Shueisha released the fourth volume in Japan on March 4.
Kishimoto is in charge of the original work, and Ōkubo is drawing the manga. Ōkubo is a former assistant to Kishimoto.
Kishimoto ended his main Naruto manga after 15 years of serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump in November 2014. He then wrote the one-volume sequel manga Naruto: The Seventh Hokage and the Scarlet Spring. Kishimoto also worked on the script and character designs, and served as the chief production supervisor on the Boruto -Naruto the Movie- film sequel.
Mikie Ikemoto and Ukyō Kodachi launched a sequel manga to Naruto titled Boruto in Weekly Shonen Jump in May 2016. Kishimoto is supervising the series. The Boruto: Naruto Next Generations television anime then premiered in April 2017.
Source: Weekly Shonen Jump issue 17
