Fans of Kei Urana’s grungy dystopian sci-fi shonen Gachiakuta have been anxiously waiting to hear any word from the creator or Weekly Shonen Magazine on when the series will be returning following a three month long hiatus after the release of Chapter 173 in August. However, it seems as though the series will finally be returning with an official release date for Chapter 174 being set for November 11, 2026 in a post made by Kei Urana on X (formerly Twitter).
While details are still sparse regarding why the series went on hiatus for so long, with the author citing she planned to take a research break in preparation for the next arc, the news of the series’s return is very exciting for fans. Gachiakuta went on hiatus following the conclusion of the Doll Festival arc, which has been running for well over a year. Each story arc in Gachiakuta has progressively been getting longer, with the Doll Festival arc have forty-three chapters worth of content.
Gachiakuta‘s recent hiatus is only the second recorded break the manga has taken since it began releasing in 2022, with its first ever break occurring earlier in 2026 while the Doll Festival arc was still being released. Similar to the manga’s recent hiatus, this break was also to gather research information for Kei Urana to use in the series. Being the manga’s tenth major story arc, the Doll Festival arc took place in Andio and followed the Cleaners as theyu try to track down the individual responsible for creating mind controlling chokers. The Doll Festival itself takes place on Halloween, and the arc goes all-out with its artistic direction, and even features illustrations of the main cast dressed up in special costumes.
The Doll Festival arc ends with an explosive battle against an Eldritch-like entity after Mymo attempts to become something akin to a god. The arc ends with the entire cast rattled by the events, and with very little information being provided by Kei Urana on where the series plans to go once it returns to serialization in November, it’s a mystery what the main focus will be going forward. However, there are a number of plot threads that still need to be tied up, especially those surrounding Rudo and Alto.
With the first season of its anime adaptation concluded, a second on the way from BONES, and the manga finally returning in November, Gachiakuta fans have a lot to look forward to as the series continues to skyrocket in popularity. Kei Urana’s multi-award-winning series has 19-collected volumes currently released, and while Kodansha hasn’t disclosed exactly how many copies of the manga are in circulation, Oricon’s annual report for 2026 has confirmed that Gachiakuta has sold over 400,000 copies in Japan.
The series is also incredibly popular among Western audiences, with the anime adaptation in particular surging to the top of Crunchyroll’s popularity charts in the United States, managing to temporarily overtake massive shows like One Piece. With the second season of the anime currently in production, as well as a video game adaptation titled GACHIAKUTA: BREAKOUT being scheduled to release in 2027, which will be a survival action title adapting the manga and giving fans of the franchise a brand-new way to experience the original story.
