Viz Media Licenses Naruto Creator's Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru

With Naruto currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary, it can be easy to overlook the fact that [...]

By Nick Valdez

With Naruto currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary, it can be easy to overlook the fact that original series creator Masashi Kishimoto has long moved onto other projects. While Kishimoto has provided some input to how the sequel series, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, has developed, most of his attention has turned toward his latest work -- the science fiction samurai series, Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. Debuting earlier this Spring, Samurai 8 has been picking up speed with fans with each new chapter in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. Now Viz Media will be bringing physical copies of the series our way.

Viz Media announced during New York Comic Con 2019 that they have licensed the physical English language release for Masashi Kishimoto and Akira Okubo's Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. Currently aiming for a Spring 2020 release, fans should keep an eye out for it if they want to add it to their library.

Released earlier this Spring, Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru is written by Masashi Kishimoto and illustrated by one of the creator's former assistants on Naruto, Akira Okubo. The series is currently available to read with Viz Media's digital Shonen Jump library, and is released on a weekly basis. There are currently around 20 chapters or so around the time of this writing, so the physical release will have quite a bit to catch up to by its Spring 2020 release.

The series is officially described as such, "The galaxy is headed towards the end of its existence: It can't withstand any longer than for another century. A Samurai was given the mission to try and save all of the scattered planets and their respective inhabitants by finding 'Pandora's Box'. The God of Warriors, Fudo Myo-o, sealed a secret that will save the entire world inside of 'Pandora's Box'. In order to open it, someone will need to find the seven keys first. Hachimaru, a feeble boy who's required medical assistance since birth, might just be one of them!"

Although weekly talk about the series has seems to have quieted over the last few weeks, Samurai 8 still has a number of dedicated fans hooked to see what comes next with each new chapter. With the physical release it's going to find a whole new group of fans who prefer to thumb through manga volumes like the early days of the fandom.

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