It’s sometimes easy to feel concerned by Shonen Jump’s seemingly continuous wave of cancellations and conclusions, but one series is poised to bow out the way it was intended. After four years of stunning art, hilarious fourth-wall-breaking gags, and truly mesmerizing panels, The Elusive Samurai by Yusei Matsui is on its way out as confirmed by chapter #224.
The announcement, made official by Weekly Shonen Jump’s issue released in Japan on October 27, 2025, confirms the series is hurtling towards an organic conclusion. While this contrasts heavily with the hasty cuts of other new promising series, this series was never intended to go the One Piece route, with a clear end in sight the whole time.
Acclaimed New-Wave Shonen Jump Series Confirms Upcoming Conclusion
The Elusive Samurai’s manga ending was inevitable, but still a sad event, as it has only just been truly taking off in the West thanks to a phenomenal first season of its anime. The series follows Tokiyuki Hojo, scion of the Kamakura Shogunate who escaped his family’s massacre at the age of 8 in 1333.
“It may seem like the plot will be resolved in the next chapter, but I think things will continue longer than you’re assuming.
-Yusei Matsui, Author Comments Following Weekly Shonen Jump #48, 2025
The manga then depicts a gradual retelling of Tokiyuki’s growth and guidance under Suwa Yorishige as he grows his army to fight back against the horrifically violent usurper, Takauji Ashikaga. With the manga’s timeline progressing to 1352, fans who know how Tokiyuki’s quest ended knew there was only one year left to retell. Still, Matsui promises a longer epilogue.
While the series is rooted in Japanese history, it remains self-aware of its magical realism, while criticizing the hindsight bias of the readers. This is a major selling point of the manga’s subversive nature. Chapter #223 even showed Takauji pointing out the dehumanizing detachment of the audience towards history, and how they doom themselves to future mistakes.
The Elusive Samurai Was Its Creator’s Most Ambitious Work Yet
With a background including as an assistant on Bobobo-bo Bobo-bobo, and creating hits like Neuro: Supernatural Detective and the acclaimed Assassination Classroom, Yusei Matsui is a seasoned Shonen Jump talent at this point. His stories never quite dominate the sales charts, but they amass loyal fans for his particular mix of parody and exceptional storytelling.
With The Elusive Samurai ending, this marks the upcoming conclusion of Matsui’s longest series to date, which is impressive given that, technically, fans knew how it would end all along. It’s also his most artistically-evolved series yet, with a mix of evocative character designs, mind-bendingly violent depictions of key villains, and a protagonist who has grown immensely in four years.
While The Elusive Samurai chapter #224 culminates in a show-stopping victory to cap off the highest points of Tokiyuki’s journey, Matsui indicates that the series will not abruptly end there, with an epilogue sure to reflect the fateful events of 1353.
Tokiyuki Hojo is unrecognizable from how he started, growing from a boy with a talent for godly evasion, to a young adult fighting against a brutal tyrant. Tokiyuki won over his readers just as he won over his harem of wives. It’s unique yet perhaps the most quintessentially Shonen Jump-esque running manga, and it will be missed.
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