Naoki Urasawa Works on His Second Manga For the Decade
The genius behind Monster and many other legendary works over the past 40 years is about to make his second manga in the 2020s.
On June 12, 2026, it was announced that Naoki Urasawa, the author of Monster, Pluto, 20th Century Boys and the ongoing Asadora, will be working on a new manga alongside Asadora titled “Last Manga Classroom” for Shogakukan’s Big Comic Original Zoukan, which sounds like a story about writing manga.
Naoki Urasawa commonly does two manga for each run.
His first serialization was Pineapple Army (1985-1988) as artist for Kazuya Kudo and around this time he began work on his first solo outing, Yawara! (1986-1993), which was a big success, selling 30 million copies as of the latest update.
Yawara! ran almost simultaneously with another big collaboration work, Master Keaton (1988-1994), where he worked with Hokusei Katsushika and Takashi Nagasaki that sold over 20 million copies as of 2014, with a sequel 30 years later titled, Master Keaton Remastered (2012-2014)
Near the end of Master Keaton, he made another solo work, Happy! (1993-1999), which sold 18 million.
Early on in Happy’s serialization, Urasawa began work on arguably his most famous manga, Monster (1994-2001), which has sold over 20 million copies,
When he wrote Monster, he wrote it alongside 20th Century Boys (1999–2006, 2007 for the 21st Century Boys sequel), his second most famous work that sold 36 million copies in circulation, the highest-selling among Urasawa’s works.
In the middle of 20th Century Boys, Urasawa worked together with his frequent collaborator Nagasaki on Pluto (2003-2009), an adaptation of Mighty Atom (Astro Boy internationally), the most famous work of one of his manga idols, the Godfather of Manga, Osamu Tezuka, and this sold 10 million copies.
While Pluto was nearing its end, Urasawa drew Billy Bat (2008-2016), with Nagasaki as writer.
Currently, Urasawa is working on Asadora! (2018-present), which has been published in Shogakukan’s Weekly Big Comic Spirits but releases chapters irregularly, which results in only 9 volumes as of November 2024 containing 65 chapters and over 70 chapters as of March 2026, when he published two new chapters for Asadora.
With Last Manga Classroom, Urasawa worked on eight sets of pairs over the course of 40 years.
Urasawa is currently 66 years old.
Source: Twitter
Urasawa Naoki (20th Century Boys, Monster, Billy Bat, Asadora) will start a NEW MANGA SERIES titled “Last Manga Classroom” on August 12, 2026 in Big Comic Original Zoukan.
In a time where AI does everything for you, what is Urasawa doing?
(Saigo no Manga Kyoushitsu)
Image ©… pic.twitter.com/F1jui3e3Rj
— Manga Mogura RE (Anime & Manga News) (@MangaMoguraRE) June 12, 2026
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