Manchuria Opium Squad Manga Resumes October 5 With New Artist Tsurushima
The magazine is restarting a series whose artist died mid-chapter, with a successor chosen from within the Kingdom assistant circle that Shikako had asked to carry the artwork.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Kodansha's Weekly Young Magazine will resume Manchuria Opium Squad in its 45th issue, shipping October 5. The manga continues with Tsurushima, successor to the late artist Shikako, who died on November 8, 2025 of choroidal melanoma. Chapter 216 runs 12 pages, shorter than the planned 16; Shikako completed 11, writer Tsukasa Monma arranged the 12th, and assistants drew the background. Chapter 217 onward is drawn by Tsurushima.
The series had been stalled since Shikako's death, and the announcement on the manga's official X account says the return depends on several parties: Shikako's family, Tsurushima, writer Tsukasa Monma, the production assistants, and readers who waited. Yasuhisa Hara, whose Kingdom manga employed both Shikako and Tsurushima as assistants, shared the announcement and said Shikako had hoped an artist from Kingdom would take over the art, and he credited Tsurushima for taking it on. The manga ran on Comic Days from April 2020 to September 2021 before moving to Weekly Young Magazine that September.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.