Hiroya Oku, the manga creator behind Gantz and Inuyashiki, is preparing to step away from manga after his current series, The Sweet Sixty Princess.
In a recent interview with Courrier, Oku said he no longer has the energy required to keep drawing manga. He described the work as taking an enormous amount of both mental and physical strength, and said he is fine with the decision. Oku is set to turn 60 in 2027, and he referred to The Sweet Sixty Princess as his “end-of-life” work.
For longtime manga readers, this is a pretty big one. Oku has never really made “safe” stories. Gantz threw ordinary people into brutal sci-fi survival scenarios, while Inuyashiki mixed body horror, superhero ideas, and ugly human behaviour into something very different from mainstream shonen comfort food. His work can be messy, violent, uncomfortable, and controversial — but also unmistakably his.
His current manga is also a sharp turn from what many fans may expect. The Sweet Sixty Princess is not another alien-filled death game or action-heavy sci-fi nightmare. The story follows a group of 60-year-olds living together, with one character choosing a radical medical procedure called Neotype 16. That surgery can transform a person into a young woman, regardless of age or sex.
The series began in late 2025 and is still ongoing. No final chapter date has been announced, so Oku’s retirement is not happening on a fixed public timeline yet. It also has not been confirmed for an anime adaptation.
That anime question matters because Oku’s earlier works did make the jump to screen. Gantz received multiple adaptations and became one of those titles anime fans kept bringing up whenever people wanted something darker, bloodier, and more adult than the usual seasonal lineup. Inuyashiki also received an anime adaptation, giving a new wave of viewers a taste of Oku’s very specific brand of bleak sci-fi drama.
Analysis / inference: For Malaysia and SEA anime fans, Oku’s potential retirement is worth paying attention to because his work represents a side of manga that sits outside the usual comfort zone. Not every reader loves his style, and fair enough — his handling of sex, violence, and character cruelty has always split opinion. But that is also why his stories became conversation starters in fan circles. They are the kind of manga people recommend with a warning, then debate for weeks.
If The Sweet Sixty Princess really becomes his final major work, it may also reframe how fans look at his career. Instead of ending with another extreme sci-fi battle, Oku seems to be using his last stretch to write about ageing, identity, bodies, and transformation from a very different angle. That is still very Oku, just less “survive the monster” and more “what does it mean to become someone else near the end of life?”
No cap, manga will feel a bit less weird without him actively pushing these uncomfortable ideas onto the page.