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Gantz manga-ka Hiroya Oku is retiring... not for lack of ideas, but lack of energy over how grueling it is mentally & physically

After nearly 40 years of making manga, Hiroya Oku is tired of the intense schedules and competitive market of the industry.

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Thu Aug 27 2026

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It isn’t a secret that making manga is an intensive process. Between tight deadlines and a highly competitive market, it takes a toll on manga creators. For Gantz creator Hiroya Oku, enough has become enough; he’s announced that he will retire from the manga industry at the conclusion of his current series because he just doesn’t have the energy to go through it all again.

During a recent interview, Hiroya Oku said that he was retiring from making manga when his current series, Kanrekihime (The Sweet Sixty Princess), ends. Admittedly, he didn’t reveal when that series will end, but he said that he’s still brimming with ideas for new stories. However, at 60, he doesn’t have the energy.

“I just don’t have the energy to draw anymore,” he admitted. “I still have the desire to create, but thinking up a story, drawing the pictures, and continuing to do that. The whole process requires an enormous amount of mental and physical energy. I just don’t have the energy to do that anymore.”

Oku described Kanrekihime as his swansong as a manga artist. In it, a group of middle-aged men in shared housing takes a potion that turns them into a beautiful young woman because they’re afraid of dying alone. “I drew this manga with the intention of showing the way of life of the older men who are the protagonists,” he explained.

With nearly 40 years in the manga industry, Hiroya Oku is best known for creating Gantz, which ran from 2000 to 2013. It spawned multiple manga spin-offs, an anime adaptation, and a PS2 video game.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included...