Hiroya Oku, author of Gantz, retires after 38 years drawing manga

Hiroya Oku is leaving manga. The author of Gantz confirmed this October 12 on his X account that he will retire when he finishes Kanreki Hime, the series he currently publishes in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior magazine. "I've drawn enough," he wrote.

This isn't the first time he's said it. In February, while promoting the first compiled volume of Kanreki Hime, he already warned that he was approaching 60 and that this work would probably be his last. He repeated it in May and now he has made it completely clear.

In an August interview with Japanese media, Oku explained that he still has ideas, but that the whole process—thinking up the story, drawing it, and maintaining a serialization—demands an energy he no longer has. At 59, after almost four decades in the trade, he struggles to keep up the pace.

What is 'Kanreki Hime'

The series began publication in late 2025. It follows six otaku in their sixties who share an apartment. The story takes a turn when one of them buys a mysterious drug called NEOTYPE-16, which feminizes the body of whoever takes it. One of the protagonists ends up turned into a young girl, and that shakes up the group's living situation.

The tone has nothing to do with Gantz. There are no aliens or death games here: Oku plays with identity, age, and relationships. He himself has said that he saw himself reflected in those characters along with his team of assistants, so the work has a personal touch that sets it apart from the rest of his bibliography.

So far only two volumes have been published. It's unknown how many more there will be or when the ending will arrive.

From 'Hen' to 'Gantz': 38 years of career

Oku debuted in 1988, when Hen was a finalist in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump young talent award. His big break came in 2000 with Gantz, a series that mixed science fiction, violence, and a survival game with characters trapped in a room after dying. It became one of the reference titles of seinen manga of its generation.

After Gantz came Inuyashiki and Gigant, with which he maintained his style: science fiction premises, characters on the edge, and a rather dark view of society. Kanreki Hime is his farewell, and it doesn't resemble anything he has done before.

The announcement leaves one unknown: if Kanreki Hime runs long, Oku's retirement could still take a while to become effective. For now, there's only one certainty: when this series ends, the author will hang up his pencil.