Why Was RuriDragon on Hiatus?

A few weeks ago, Shonen Jump announced that its hit series RuriDragon would be returning to publication on March 4th, 2024 after being on hiatus for nearly two years. The series debuted in 2022 to thunderous praise, which begs the question; if the series was so popular, why did it go on hiatus in the first place?

RuriDragon’s Hiatus, Explained

The first chapter of RuriDragon was published on June 13, 2022 and was written and illustrated by Masaoki Shindo. Shindo, who was 23 at the time, had created several one-shots that were published in Shonen Jump, but RuriDragon was his first series to be picked up. RuriDragon follows a young high school girl named Ruri who wakes up one day to discover that she had grown dragon horns and learns that she’s half-dragon. This fact was kept from her by her mother, so now Ruri has to adjust to life as a dragon girl and grown into her new abilities and physiology.

The series had a tone and atmosphere about it that was completely different from anything else being published at the time and readers gravitated to it in droves, becoming one of the best selling debut manga volumes of 2022.

However, not even a month after the series debut, Viz Media and Shueisha, the parent company that runs Shonen Jump, announced that the series would be taking a one week break due to a “sudden illness” that Shindo developed. Shindo themself sent out a message saying that they were a little sick and would be better after a week. After that one week break, Chapter 6 released as planned on July 24, 2022, but the following week there was no new chapter. Instead, there was an announcement that the series would go on “indefinite hiatus” due to Shindo’s health.

To this day, we still don’t really know what happened to Shindo and their health. It’s not uncommon for a series to take a week off in Shonen Jump due to an author’s health – just look at the recent release schedule for One Piece – but to take such a protracted break almost immediately after a series debuted isn’t exactly normal and implies a serious medical emergency, not dissimilar from how Hunter x Hunter’s author Yoshihiro Togashi takes year long breaks due to his poor health. Shindo didn’t publish much on social media during that time, though they did post towards the end of 2023 that they were feeling much better and RuriDragon would hopefully be continuing in 2024. And now, we have confirmation that the series is back in action and hopefully for a more consistent period of time.

Whether they were hospitalized or not is unclear, but it’s reassuring to hear that they’re feeling much better and will be releasing new chapters of RuriDragon shortly. RuriDragon is releasing new chapters on weekly on Viz.com and will be shifting to a biweekly schedule starting April 22, 2024.