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Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc Manga Launches on September 4 (Updated)
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
The September issue of Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine is revealing on Friday that Nobuhiro Watsuki's new Rurouni Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc (Rurouni Kenshin, Meiji Kenkaku Romantan: Hokkaidō-hen) manga will launch in the magazine's October issue on September 4. The manga was originally announced in December as launching this spring, but was delayed to summer.
The new series will feature Kenshin as the protagonist, and it will have five "arcs."
Watsuki and his wife Kaoru Kurosaki published a two-chapter prologue titled "Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido-hen Jomaku: Ashitarō Zenka Ari" (Rurouni Kenshin Hokkaido Arc Prologue: The Criminal Ashitaro, pictured at right) for the manga in the Jump SQ. magazine last November and December. The manga featured a new protagonist named Ashitaro. Viz Media's digital Weekly Shonen Jump manga magazine published the prequel in English last December.
Kurosaki is also serving as story collaborator on the new manga.
Watsuki first launched his 28-volume Rurouni Kenshin manga in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 1994. The manga has more than 60 million copies in print. 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, three live-action films, and a stage musical by the all-female musical theater troupe Takarazuka Revue.
Update: Added preview image. Source: Anime! Anime!
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