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Baku Yumemakura Resumes Chimera Novels With Final Arc
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The official Twitter account for Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.'s Nemuki+ digital magazine revealed on Friday that Baku Yumemakura has resumed his Chimera novel series with the series' final arc. The novel series resumed in the September issue of the publisher's Issatsu no Hon magazine on Thursday.
Yumemakura stated in a post on the "note" website that the novels had been on hiatus for a year and a half due to his health. During that year and a half, Yumemakura was hospitalized four times for lymphatic cancer, heart failure, hip surgery, and an inguinal hernia (Yumemakura added his cancer is currently in remission). This time period was the first time in the 40 years since Yumemakura started Chimera that he had not been writing it regularly.
The series centers on Kō Ōtori, a normal high school student who experiences a repeating dream of being eaten by a beast from inside himself. When Kō meets Reiichi Kuki, the elite student who rules his school, the encounter awakens hidden powers inside him.
Yumemakura published the first volume in the series in 1982. The first bunkobon edition of the series had 16 volumes from 1982 to 2002, and the series was re-released in a larger tankōbon edition in eight volumes from 2000 to 2002. Asahi Sonorama published both editions, and illustrator Yoshitaka Amano drew the front covers. Asahi Shimbun Publications is publishing a new edition of the series with cover art by Katsuya Terada, while Kadokawa is publishing another separate edition with covers by Shirow Miwa.
Yumemakura's agency had revealed in March 2018 that Mamoru Oshii would work on an animated film based on the novel series. The Comic Natalie news website reported later that month that Oshii is directing the work.
Yumemakura is a prolific writer, whose works have been adapted into manga, anime, and live-action. These works include Kurozuka, Onmyoji, Amon Saga, Psycho Diver: Soul Siren, and Majyugari, among others. He has written manga such as The Summit of the Gods, and Garōden.
