Rurouni Kenshin: The Hokkaido Arc  It has been serialized monthly in "Jump Square" since September 4, 2017, with the chapters collected into four "tankōbon" volumes by its publisher Shueisha, as of May 2020. North American publisher Viz Media released the series digitally in "Weekly Shonen Jump" simultaneously as it ran in Japan until November 2017. In 1883, Himura Kenshin, having married Kamiya Kaoru, become a father to Himura Kenji and with his body deteriorating, still fights for those in need. Former criminals Inoue Aran and Hasegawa Ashitaro, the latter a former member of Shishio Makoto's faction, have become live-in students at the Kamiya Dojo in Tokyo. Kubota Asahi, a member of the Yaminobu, also starts living at the dojo. The Yaminobu accidentally leave behind a recent photograph taken in Hokkaido of Kaoru's father Kamiya Koshijirō, who was thought to have died in the Seinan War. After being given back his "sakabatō" or reversed-edge sword, Kenshin, his family and the new residents of Kamiya Dojo head to Hokkaido to find Koshijirō. There they reunite with Sagara Sanosuke and team up with Saitō Hajime when they get involved in stopping the mysterious group named Kenkaku Heiki, who launch attacks throughout Japan in order to gain battle experience to fend off future foreign invasions of the country. Saitō recruits his former comrade Nagakura Shinpachi and former Juppongatana members Seta Sōjirō, Yūkyūzan Anji, Sawagejō Chō, Honjō Kamatari and Kariwa Henya to aid them. In the final "tankōbon" volume of the original "Rurouni Kenshin", published in November 1999, Nobuhiro Watsuki said that he had ideas for a "Hokkaido episode, a sequel" but wanted to start a new manga and so ended the series. In September 2012, Watsuki revealed that he considered drawing the Hokkaido arc before creating "Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration". But with the theme of the series concluded in the final arc of the original and unable to come up with a new theme, he said that there was "just no way" he could write it.