Shueisha Cuts Ties with Spy x Family and Dandadan Editor, Who Takes Four Series

Shueisha and Shūhei Hayashi, the editor who turned Spy x Family and Dandadan into two of the biggest recent manga hits, have severed ties. On September 30, the Shōnen Jump+ editorial team released a statement announcing that the publisher terminated its editorial services contract with MIX GREEN, Hayashi's company, effective July 31, 2026. The note adds that "all commissioning relationships" with the editor are now extinguished.

Hayashi's response came almost instantly, turning the announcement into a clash of narratives. On his X account, the editor stated that the creators of the four ongoing series —Spy x Family, Dandadan, Hyakkon Tamashii, and WITCHRIV— have signed contracts directly with MIX GREEN and that he will continue to oversee the editing of all of them.

Announcement about the closure of an editorial commission for a company involved in publishing works.user.guancha.cn

The situation leaves one question without a clear answer: who do these works depend on now? Shueisha maintains that it no longer works with Hayashi or his company. Hayashi claims that the creators have chosen to stay with him. Both statements can be true at the same time, but they don't fit within a single legal framework. And so far, neither party has explained how that contradiction gets resolved.

An Editor with an Uncommon Track Record

Hayashi joined Shueisha in 2006. He worked on Monthly Shōnen Jump and Jump SQ., and at Shōnen Jump+ he rose to deputy editor-in-chief. Titles like Chainsaw Man, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, Blue Exorcist, Kono Oto Tomare!, and HEART GEAR passed through his hands.

In August 2022, he stopped being a Shueisha employee and began working as an independent editor for Shōnen Jump+, while also founding MIX GREEN. In April 2026, he announced the creation of his own editorial team and a manga platform. At the time, he insisted he wasn't looking to compete with Shueisha, but rather to offer creators closer support.

That project, seen from the publisher's perspective, paints a different picture: the person overseeing the editing of several of its most profitable titles is simultaneously building a complete editorial structure in parallel. Shueisha's statement can be read as the response to that move.

Tweet mentioning four manga works and their contractual situation.user.guancha.cn

What Happens to the Series

For readers, the immediate impact is limited. The editing of the four titles remains in MIX GREEN's hands, according to Hayashi, and publication continues in Shōnen Jump+. There's no short-term risk of interruption or a change in editor for now.

The problem lies in the rights you don't see in the magazine: collected volume publication, anime adaptations, international licensing. On that division, Shueisha and MIX GREEN remain silent. The separation between editorial work and the intellectual property of Spy x Family or Dandadan sits in a gray area that neither party has clarified.

"Works previously commissioned to Mr. Hayashi will continue to be published in Shōnen Jump+ under a new system," the editorial team's statement says.

That sentence doesn't say who signs the editing contracts or who decides on future adaptations. Nor does it clarify whether the "new system" includes MIX GREEN or whether Shueisha will appoint other editors. Hayashi's version points to the former; Shueisha's silence leaves the door open to a conflict that may take time to resolve.

Twitter post related to the termination of a contract between Shueisha and an editor.user.guancha.cn

The case echoes other moments when a named editor has accumulated so much weight within a magazine that their departure forces a redefinition of the power balance. The difference here is the scale: Spy x Family and Dandadan aren't minor titles, but two of the series that have sustained Shōnen Jump+'s catalog in recent years.

As long as the two parties don't offer a joint account, the only verifiable fact is that Shueisha has formalized the split. Everything else —who controls what, for how long, and under what conditions— remains unanswered.