Yes guys, you heard me correctly.

We are indeed suffering a drought period due that darn Icelandic volcanic ash that is causing so much chaos and disruption. Ok ok, truth is, we’re in a drought period because I’ve been insanely busy at work, some of the staff have got exams, but more importantly, because both of our manga editors are out of commission due to severe computer problems. That said, we do have some chapters ready for editing, but we’re just going have to be patient and wait for our editors to get their computers problems sorted out.

Now, don’t get too gloomy because there is some light at the end of this drought tunnel.

1. We should hopefully get a final encode of Toki Den relatively soon.
2. I’m going to send the Yuria Den script to SC for a final check in a couple of days.

Okay, so it’s midnight my time and thus the joke’s officially over.

This was all an April Fool’s joke, and it wasn’t a very good one. It was one I just thought up in the spur of the moment with full realization that it was very highly unlikely and not at all trustworthy. And yet a number of you fell for it. I guess this shows we have a bunch of gullible fans!

To set the record straight, there will NOT be Akashachi Gaiden, Juuza Gaiden is NOT cancelled, Araki Hirohiko is NOT drawing anything HnK-related (though that would be awesome), we are NOT picking up this project, Wimmo is NOT returning, and we are NOT dropping anything.

Also, I hate to be a fanboy, but to those of you in the comments: Shachi was the Hokuto Ryuken guy. Akashachi was the pirate. Make sure you get those straight.

For those of you that missed the joke, here’s the original post:

We at Hokuto no Gun have just learned from a very reliable source that due to lame artwork, Juuza Gaiden will be prematurely cancelled, and Comic Bunch will replace it with a much more awesome Akashachi Gaiden. Most of the details about this new project are top-secret, including its release date, so not even we know much about it, but according to the most recent rumors, this Gaiden will be drawn by none other than Araki Hirohiko.

The HnG Staff are very excited about this new release and will begin translating it as soon as it comes out. We will be dropping all of our other projects just so we can focus on this piece of pirate awesomeness. Rumors have it that even Wimmo will return just so he can translate this manga. We are excited to bring you this incredible Gaiden to you, and we hope you will enjoy it!