A DO Manga Pauses as Creator Jaku Amano Recovers

The November issue of Kodansha’s Monthly Young Magazine shared on Monday that Jaku Amano’s manga A DO is going on hiatus while the author recovers from poor health. The magazine plans to announce a return date once Amano is feeling better.

The pause comes near the finish line. The eleventh volume revealed back in July that the series will conclude with its twelfth volume, planned for early 2026, and the story had already entered its final stretch in June.

For anyone curious about the series, it imagines a Japan reshaped by a wave of immigration and unsettled by harsh protests from extremist groups. A spirited, job hopping young woman named Riko rides her scooter through one such protest and ends up saving a boy named Eito from an oncoming truck.

She takes him out for ramen, but their quiet moment is shattered when a distant sniper fires at Eito. As the bullet flies toward him, plant like tendrils burst from his arm and stop it in the air, leaving Riko, and the reader, wondering who this boy really is and why the army wants him.

Amano began A DO in Monthly Young Magazine in June 2019, and Kodansha USA has been publishing it in English, with the eighth volume arriving on August 5.

My take: The most important thing here is the author’s health, and I genuinely hope Amano rests and recovers fully. A DO has such a striking premise, and it deserves the strong finish it is building toward.