The Elusive Samurai: Matsui Yusei Bought a 670-Year-Old Document to Change the Finale

The Elusive Samurai creator Matsui Yusei personally bought a newly surfaced historical document, roughly 670 years old — and its contents are changing how the manga's final volume ends compared to the version that already ran in Weekly Shonen Jump.

Across the video collecting Japan's reaction to the news (137 comments total), the top-liked comment (1,263 likes) marveled that a creator who's had three straight series adapted into anime still throws himself into research this deep, while another highly-liked comment (889 likes) pointed out that the magazine issue carrying the original ending just became a must-keep collector's item. Commenters compared Matsui to Kishibe Rohan, the obsessive-researcher mangaka from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and split over what the newly found letter actually reveals about the manga's side character Inotsurumaru.

The Elusive Samurai creator Matsui Yusei personally bought a newly surfaced historical document, roughly 670 years old, and its contents are changing how the manga's final volume ends compared to the version that already ran in Weekly Shonen Jump. A Japanese reaction-compilation video built around the news pulled in 137 comments, most of them stunned that a mangaka would go this far, right as the series itself was wrapping up its run.

According to the comments, the document was headed for being broken apart and sold off piece by piece to collectors — a more profitable route for whoever held it — until Matsui was asked to buy it whole instead. He did. Because the find came after the magazine serialization had already printed its final chapter, the ending going into the collected tankobon volume won't match the one readers already saw in that issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. Several commenters also brought up that Matsui had said from the start of the series that he saw it as paying back a debt he owed to Weekly Shonen Jump itself, and read this purchase as him following through on that all the way to the very end.

Most of the thread isn't actually about the plot change, though — it's about what spending the money says about Matsui. Several commenters pushed back hard on the idea that this was some kind of publicity stunt, framing it instead as proof he's past caring about sales math.

One highly-liked reply pushed back on the idea that a 670-year-old document turning up "now" should be surprising at all, laying out why these things keep surfacing centuries later.

Not everyone agreed on what the letter actually proves about Inotsurumaru, the manga's side character tied to the find. One read said it confirms the manga got him right all along; another said it does the opposite, overturning how he'd been drawn.

By the end, the thread had mostly given up trying to process it and settled into awe instead.

That's about where the fandom landed: somewhere between awed and a little delirious, and still finding room to laugh at the gap between a document old enough to predate the printing press and a manga that never stopped being goofy about it.