Highschool of the Dead

Shoji Sato Reveals Why ‘Highschool of the Dead’ Will Not Resume

Triage X creator Shoji Sato is best known to international fans for drawing Highschool of the Dead. The visceral zombie-apocalypse blended gory genre tropes with dark humor and ecchi, which made it a hit.

Highschool of the Dead

In an interview with Comic Natalie, Sato revealed that international fans are constantly asking him to continue Highschool of the Dead — something that he just can’t do. The series was a collaboration between him and writer Daisuke Satou, who passed away in 2017 due to ischemic heart disease.

Sato said that many international fans are not familiar with the manga’s situation, which has technically been on hiatus since 2011. While not public then, the manga’s hiatus has been due to Daisuke’s failing health. Sato relayed, “Although it pains my heart too that the series went on hiatus, just thinking about Daisuke Satou makes me think that I cannot carelessly get involved.”

Editor Kawanakajima also commented that it would be impossible for Sato, or anyone else, to continue Highschool of the Dead since Daisuke didn’t leave a story roadmap behind. Kawanakajima said, “It’s common overseas for comics and novels to be created by multiple collaborators. For example, the person who first wrote the Perry Rhodan novels has passed away, but the next generation of authors are continuing it. But for Highschool of the Dead, Daisuke Satou was the one and only, so I’d like overseas fans to understand that nobody else could write it easily.”

Highschool of the Dead

Even though Sato was the manga’s artist, he wasn’t privy to Daisuke’s story ideas until it was time to draw a chapter. This setup makes it unlikely for Sato to continue Highschool of the Dead alone, but he does wish to channel some the series’ appeal into Triage X before it ends.

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