What is the Kenshin Hokkaido Arc?
In the last tankōbon of 1999 Watsuki mentioned a Hokkaido episode he had chosen not to draw. Eighteen years later he drew it. Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc began in Jump Square on September 4, 2017, with Watsuki’s wife Kaworu Kurosaki credited as story consultant. It opens in 1883, five years after the original ended: Kenshin and Kaoru are married, their son Kenji is small, and a photograph surfaces suggesting Kaoru’s father, believed dead in the Seinan War, is alive in Hokkaido.
The journey north rebuilds the company: new dojo students Ashitaro, Aran and Asahi, Sanosuke and Saitō in Hokkaido posts, and the Kenkaku Heiki, a hidden order of swordsmen drilling for a foreign invasion that has not come. Ten volumes were out as of January 2026.
