Rumors about Togashi being in the hospital. Watch out for fake news!
Recently, lots of people are making a fuss on social media, saying Togashi released an official statement about his low back pain and that he’s in the hospital right now. In addition, his wife, Naoko Takeuchi, is learning his art to finish HxH. WHAT!?
Firstly, Naoko helped Togashi in the first volume of Hunter × Hunter when they were still dating and he praised her (HxH, v.1, p.162). After that, he didn’t mention anything about her still working with him as his assistant or learning his art. This has always been a false rumor created by the fandom.
Finally, this “official statement” people are sharing and making up stories is actually less than a half of a bunch of Togashi’s comments taken from the Table of Contents of WSJ magazines, issues 20-31, from 2016, after he came back from a 86 weeks of hiatus:
WSJ #20, 2016 (HxH Chapter 350)
“Happy to be able to sit on a toilet seat or a chair. When I’m bedridden because the body is in pain, I can’t sh*t.” (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #21-22, 2016 (HxH Chapter 351)
"Bedridden → 3rd crawling → baby crawling → holding on to something, and in the end go to the hospital." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
Note: The 3rd Crawling (第3匍匐) is one of the five crawling stances in Jieitai - Japan Self-Defense Forces.
WSJ #23, 2016 (HxH Chapter 352)
“The tough part of lumbago is that you can only go to the hospital after you've recovered to some extent.” (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #24, 2016 (HxH Chapter 353)
“On a pain scale of 1 to 10, when I’m in the 10th level, I can't move my body for even 1cm all night long.” (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #25, 2016 (HxH Chapter 354)
"As a result of the medical examination, surgery was avoided. I can only imagine how painful it is for someone who is seriously ill." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #26, 2016 (HxH Chapter 355)
"Weight loss started at the recommendation of my doctor. Aim for 65 kg in your 30s to not develop the symptoms." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #27, 2016 (HxH Chapter 356)
"As of summer of 2014, I was 84 kg. Limit carbohydrates and lose 6kg in 2 months." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #28, 2016 (HxH Chapter 357)
"Loosened food restrictions and added exercises. I'm shocked that I can't keep up with a fast walk of 50 meters." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #29, 2016 (HxH Chapter 358)
"I can't draw in prone position, which I was able to do in my 20s, because my body is too stiff." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
Note: Prone Position - to lie flat with the chest down and the back up.
WSJ #30, 2016 (HxH Chapter 359)
"Stretching. I reaffirmed my disorder by looking at the trainer’s demonstrations." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
WSJ #31, 2016 (HxH Chapter 360)
"At a pace of 10 minutes per kilometer and weighing 73kg, sitting and working for a long period of time became possible." (Yoshihiro Togashi)
After that, he went on a hiatus again. I translated his comments myself, but you can find all Togashi’s afterwords from HxH serialization translated from the WSJ Table of Contents on Manga Craves’s Blog.
We all know Togashi has been facing severe back pain conditions since the serialization of Yu Yu Hakusho as he mentioned in volume 6 about having a bad lumbago in January 1991 and working in the prone position (I couldn’t find an english scan, so check out volume 6, tanko edition).
His assistant from YYH and Level E, Kunio Ajino, also wrote about finding him laying on the ground in his book “Sensei Hakusho” (2017):
The back pain problem probably persists now, but there’s no recent official statement from the author about the issue!
The last information about Togashi was actually a post on Weblio (April, 2020), which says that an editor from Shueisha visited their agency in China in December 2019. They asked about Togashi-sensei’s current condition and the editor had said Togashi was still suffering from lumbago and that it had not improved.
I don’t know if it’s true, because it’s just someone telling a story, but it doesn’t seem false either. HxH Source on Twitter talked to the Weblio’s user and even made a thread about that, follow them for reliable information on Hunter × Hunter.
Source: Weekly Shounen JUMP, issues 20 -31, Table of Contents, 2016. Scans from the digital edition:
