Nana, the fan-favorite Shojo manga, has provided readers with equal amounts of joy and pain. Why so? Because not a single new chapter had been published since the manga went into hiatus in 2009.
If you are a Hunter x Hunter fan, this is the perfect time to touch grass and regain composure. Yoshihiro Togashi might be chronically ill, but he still manages to return from the hiatus and unexpectedly release a few chapters before diving back into a break again.
Nana fans, on the other hand, have accepted that the chance of the manga’s continuation is next to impossible.
Nana‘s Hiatus and the Author’s Health Issues
Nana first debuted in May 2000 and was published by Shueisha in the monthly magazine, Cookie. It serialized for nine years and received a total of 84 chapters before going on a hiatus in May 2009.
A manga with a bad ending will leave your mouth with a sour taste but you will forget about it in some weeks
— Ctmbottomtext (@ctmbottomtext) May 26, 2024
Meanwhile a manga without a ending leave a hole on your soul, full of sadness asking yourself what would happen next despite knowing That it will never come back……
Ai Yazawa, the author of the manga, had contracted a sudden illness and was hospitalized to receive treatment. In the absence of the mangaka, Nana was put on indefinite hiatus. While the author did return from the hospital in April 2010, Nana’s continuation status was never updated again.
Ever since Nana was put on a hiatus, Ai Yazawa only worked on small projects. She provided a few artworks for some occasions in 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2020. However, she never worked on a new series or updated readers on Nana’s fate.
That’s crazy af 15 year hiatus? And HxH fans thought they had it rough…
— Goldy-RiSA 🌱🌺 (@GoldyRiSA) May 26, 2024
Yazawa’s illness was never revealed to the public, but fans speculate that it stemmed from the pressure of serialization and a huge workload. To make things worse, Nana’s last published chapter ended on a cliffhanger, so fans have been waiting for more than a decade just to get closure. A lot of questions and storylines are yet to reach their conclusion.
Will Nana Return Anytime Soon?
Despite there being absolutely zero updates on Nana for a decade, fans still love it. You can even find some beautiful Nana cosplays going around. So when Nana was putting together an art exhibit for fans in 2020, she was contacted for her comments on the series’ future.
In the following interview, Ai Yazawa apologized for the hiatus and how long fans have been waiting for Nana’s return.
I am terribly sorry for making everyone worry since I have taken a long hiatus from NANA. I feel like my body has been recovering little by little while preparing for this event as well.
The good news is that the author seems to be recovering, though she has not made a complete turnaround yet. In fact, she also hinted at the manga’s potential return, sometime in the future.
Not only that, but I would love to keep working on my manga while taking care of my health from now on. Please look forward to when that time comes.
This was the last time fans heard from Yazawa, and she never commented on Nana again. Many fans think that she talks about the series’ return just to give fans false hope so that her work can keep selling itself.
Ai Yazawa has been suffering for a long time now and whatever illness she has refuses to let her go. She is around 57 years old at the time of writing this article, and it is unlikely that her body can take the stress of being a mangaka anymore.
Togashi rn: pic.twitter.com/6U3LjuEhft
— MiracleJoe (@MiracleJoe_x) May 26, 2024
So fans only have two sides to choose from: to give up and move on or to hold onto hope till their last breath. Nonetheless, no one can guarantee your satisfaction no matter which side you choose.
You can read Nana on Viz Media and watch the anime on Crunchyroll.
