Gantz Creator Hiroya Oku Confirms He Drew Thunder 3 Manga Under Pen Name Yuki Ikeda
Manga creator Hiroya Oku (Gantz, Inuyashiki, GIGANT) confirmed on social media on Thursday that he created the Thunder 3 manga under the pen name Yuki Ikeda. He said that he wrote the series under a pen name in order to maintain a story surprise in the first chapter for first-time readers, a surprise that would have been lessened if readers saw the Hiroya Oku name.
Kodansha USA publishes the series in English and describes the story:
Three ordinary schoolboys come into possession of a DVD that supposedly opens a gateway to a parallel universe, but when their backs are turned Pyontaro's little sister Futaba passes through and gets kidnapped by the aliens that have overrun that version of Earth! Discovering that their cartoonish bodies make them supermen in the hyper-realistic parallel universe, the boys set out to rescue Futaba.
Ikeda launched the series in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Magazine in May 2022. The series entered its climax in January 2025, then went on hiatus in March that same year due to Ikeda's health. The manga returned from its hiatus in February. The manga ended on June 5. Kodansha published the manga's 10th volume on August 17. Kodansha USA shipped the eighth volume on February 10.
The anime premiered on the +Ultra programming block on Fuji TV and other channels on July 8 at 24:45 JST (effectively July 9 at 12:45 a.m. JST). The anime is exclusively streaming worldwide on Netflix starting on July 8.
Oku announced in an interview with Courrier Japon in August that he plans to retire after he finishes his latest manga Kanrekihime (The Sweet Sixty Princess).
Oku launched the Kanrekihime (The Sweet Sixty Princess) manga in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior magazine in December 2025. Shogakukan published the manga's first compiled book volume on May 29.
Oku's Gantz manga ran from 2000 to 2013. The manga inspired a television anime, a CG anime film, two Japanese live-action films, and two spinoff manga. Dark Horse Comics released the manga in North America. Oku launched the GANTZ:E historical spinoff manga with artist Jin Kagetsu in January 2020. Shueisha's Jump TOON vertical-scrolling manga service launched a new vertical-scrolling full-color edition of the manga titled GANTZ: T in July 2025. The Deadline website reported a Hollywood live-action of the manga in November 2021.
Sources: Hiroya Oku's X/Twitter account, Thunder 3's X/Twitter account
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.