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Highschool of the Dead Manga Artist Says 'It's Not Easy' to Draw Continuation

posted on by Kim Morrissy
Manga's author passed away in 2017

In an interview with Japanese pop culture website Comic Natalie, Highschool of the Dead and Triage X manga artist Shōji Satō said that it is "not easy" to draw a continuation for Highschool of the Dead, which went on hiatus in 2011 (although a new chapter did debut in 2013). Sato only drew the artwork and did not write the story.

Series writer Daisuke Satō passed away in 2017 due to ischemic heart disease. His illness had been the cause of the manga's hiatus. Shōji Satō mentioned that he often gets comments from overseas fans who are not familiar with the situation, telling him to continue the series, and said that "although it pains my heart, too, that the series went on hiatus, just thinking about Daisuke Satō makes me think that I cannot carelessly get involved in [Highschool of the Dead]."

Triage X editor Kawanakajima (not his real name) said that, realistically speaking, there is nobody in the world who could inherit Daisuke Satō's vision and continue the story he would have wanted to tell. They would need somebody who both knew Daisuke Satō's plans for the rest of the series and had the storytelling abilities to execute them properly.

Kawanakajima also said: "It's common overseas for comics and novels to be created by multiple collaborators. For example, the person who first wrote the Perry Rhodan novels has passed away, but the next generation of authors are continuing it. But for Highschool of the Dead, [Daisuke Satō] was the one and only, so I'd like overseas fans to understand that nobody else could write it easily."

Although he feels that he cannot draw more of Highschool of the Dead, Shōji Satō said that he would like to channel some of the series' appeal into his current work Triage X. For example, volume 14 contains a story reminiscent of a zombie apocalypse. Sato said that he would like to make the story and art even more dramatic and ostentatious than Highschool of the Dead.

Highschool of the Dead first began serialization in Fujimi Shobo's Monthly Dragon Age in 2006. It was adapted into a popular TV anime by Madhouse in 2010. Triage X began serialization in Monthly Dragon Age in 2009, and was adapted into a TV anime by Xebec in 2015. In 2017, Shōji Satō began collaborating with Trinity Seven writer Kenji Saitō to draw a new manga called God Shining Moonlight Howling Moon published in Bessatsu Dragon Age.

Source: Comic Natalie


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