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Hunter × Hunter Creator Tops Fan Poll of Manga Artists With Too Many Breaks

Some manga artists, such as One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, are known for their tireless work ethic and steady serialization of their work. Others creators are notorious for having frequent hiatuses. The Goo Ranking website posted the results on Wednesday of a poll asking fans about the latter group.

The poll asked fans which manga creators take too many breaks, and the website collected responses from December 13 to December 27. A total of 3,638 people responded to the poll.

The "winner" of the poll comes as no surprise because Yoshihiro Togashi's Hunter X Hunter manga has had regular hiatuses since it debuted in 1998. The series has been on hiatus more than in publication since 2006. Togashi is so renowned for his extended breaks that fans created the term "Togashi Disease" to describe a perceived condition that affects some manga creators who put their works on long hiatuses.

Here are the full results of the poll:

Hisashi Eguchi (Stop! Hibari-kun), who ranked #5 on the list, said last year that he was responsible for Togashi's frequent breaks. Eguchi said, "I taught him it was all right to be lazy. Togashi looked at me and [kept taking hiatuses]. It's my accomplishment... I'm the one who said you don't have to draw weekly."

However, the official reason for the Hunter X Hunter manga's extended hiatuses is Togashi's chronic lower back pain. Fans created charts and graphs that detail the series' breaks since 1998. Due to the infrequent serialization, some bookstores decided to sell the first 32 volumes as a "finished" complete set in 2015. Shueisha released the 33rd compiled book volume in Japan on June 3.