Kagurabachi
a review by CyanideIE
a review by CyanideIE
Before I actually start with the praise and criticisms, I will give the basic premise of the manga. It is a revenge action manga following the main character, Chihiro Rokuhira, on a quest to avenge the murder of his father, Kunishige Rokuhira, and take back the 6 enchanted blades that were stolen from his father with the secret seventh enchanted blade, "Enten", that they forged together.
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I'm sure that most people in the animanga community are aware of the memes surrounding Kagurabachi's release. Even before the first chapter had been published, people were ironically hyping it up to be the greatest thing ever made. It was better than every single manga combined. It was, in effect, the Morbius of manga. Looking at where it is now, at ch100, is it better than every single manga that has been and will be made? Is it the manga that will herald the second coming of Jesus Christ? Is the manga that will finally get my father to return with the milk? Obviously, no. It is, however, a damn good battle shounen and here's why.
What makes or breaks an action manga, first and foremost, is how good the action is and Kagurabachi excels at that with clean and fluid choreography. Unlike a lot of action manga that can clutter up their panels with a lot of detail making it hard at times to tell what quite is going on, Kagurabachi tends to not have it be as detailed and instead focuses on one movement at a time.
This lack of detail also often extends to the backgrounds which recurrently either don't have a ton of detail or are just flat out white which puts emphasis on the characters' actions making it easier to follow along.
The author also does the opposite where he darkens panels to really make it stand out from the rest of the chapter. He does this quite sparingly so each time he does it, it really makes an impact.
But good choreography and artwork is not all that makes a fight. The best fights in animanga are often considered the best due to a mix of great visuals and the emotional impact of it. Look at the greats like Naruto vs Sasuke, Kakashi vs Tobi, Magna vs Dante etc. What makes them standouts is due to the emotional weight of them and Kagurabachi focuses a lot on this with each major fight being a clash of ideologies or representing an aspect of a core theme of the series, usually legacy.
Let us look at how this is done in the first arc, called "Vs Sojo", is focused on Chihiro trying to take back one of the Enchanted Blades, "Cloud Gouger", from the weapons dealer, Sojo. What defines this arc is the legacy of Kunishige Rokuhira and what the intended purpose of the blades are.
I'll put it like this: whilst a knife can be used to kill, its primary purpose is usually to cut objects for cooking or crafting. A hammer can be used to kill but its primary purpose is usually to help build. An axe can be used to kill but its primary purpose is usually to cut wood and so on and so forth but what makes a katana different is that its primary purpose is to kill. That is their sole purpose and this is something Chihiro must wrestle with in this arc as whilst he and his father believed that katana should be used to protect the innocent, Sojo believes that their only purpose is to kill and commit mass slaughter.
I think what makes this arc work so well is that, ultimately, Chihiro can't deny that Sojo's wrong. He must accept that both of their interpretations of Kunishige's legacy are valid, even though he disagrees with Sojo, which is done through an incredible final clash. It is incredibly fluid and dynamic and interspersed with them talking in a mindscape, similar to how it happens in certain Naruto fights. They debate and argue through their attacks and ultimately, Chihiro wins the fight but not the argument. He's forced to grow and he's forced to grow over and over throughout the series as more comes to light about the Enchanted Blades and what they were used for.
__________________________But enough about themes and fights. What about the characters? Are they interesting? Are they well written? To an extent, yes. I won't pretend that every character in Kagurabachi has a ton of depth or is even the best utilised. In fact, Kagurabachi has an issue where the author does not know quite what to do with some characters that he has introduced so they are just kind of just forgotten even though they had a lot of focus in earlier arcs.
However, when he does focus on characters, they can be an utter delight. The main villains are well written and interesting and the core cast are intriguing. They are well developed and have some great character arcs. The highlights of Kagurabachi's side cast, in my opinion, are Hakuri, Samura and Iori.
Hakuri is introduced in the second arc, called "Rakuzaichi", and quickly became a fan favourite as he was goofy and heartfelt whilst having some really cool moments. I would be willing to argue that the Rakuzaichi arc is more about Hakuri rather than Chihiro considering the amount of focus and development that Hakuri gets.
Samura is a sword bearer who you meet later on and Iori is a character who has major spoilers surrounding her so I can't say much aside from that everything surrounding them in phenomenal. You can tell just how much thought and care went into crafting their narratives, Samura especially.
I will now proceed to gush about Samura and Iori in spoiler tags so don't click on it unless you've either read the manga or really just don't care about spoilers.
Then he enters the Kyoto Bloodshed Hotel fight when Iori remembers everything and Chihiro draws Enten which was utterly incredible. The buildup with Iori and Samura's backstory being so emotional and adding so much context leading to his return was insane. What makes him my favourite character in the entire series is his fight with Chihiro after Hiruhiko is taken out of the picture. It showcases how suicidal and narcissistic he is in his refusal to let anyone else help in. He believes that only he should shoulder the burden and then gets shown by Chihiro why he's wrong. What makes the fight so good, in my opinion, is that Chiriro lost it in the sense that he goes down first but he wins it overall because he convinces Samura that the path he is going down on is wrong. That he can open his eyes to a future where he and his daughter both live. I still get chills reading the final page of ch85.
Chihiro himself comes off as deadpan and is not as expressive as your typical battle shounen protagonist but this works well considering that he is on a revenge quest and this also makes his emotional scenes hit so much harder.
Each arc also helps Chihiro to develop as they focus on him having to confront an aspect of his life, whether it be his relationship with his father, the truth behind the Enchanted Blades etc which have led to some incredibly tense and emotional moments. Whilst his development is never outright stated, it is clearly shown in how he is drawn and what he says in comparison to how he is in the beginning.
In terms of plot, it's solid. There's a clear goal of taking back the Enchanted Blades and stopping the people who killed Kunishige and this is not something that changes. What happens throughout the manga is that as more information is given to us, the more we question and, as of ch100, only a few of those questions have been answered. These answers are not earth shattering reveals, most of the time. They instead make characters a lot more morally grey and have you question the entire system that the cast live in.
Throughout this review, I came to a few conclusions. The first being that I am bad at writing reviews. The second being that it is seriously hard to write a review for what makes Kagurabachi so good without just having the entire review be one massive spoiler which I have tried not to do. The only arc that I've gone into serious detail about is the first and I don't think that I've even explained it well.
I also suppose that I never really explained the title for this? It's not really a statement on the quality of the manga but rather just going off statistics like it being the only manga without an anime on the top 20 best-selling manga of 2025 in Japan, the last volume beat out both Blue Box and Sakamoto Days in sales numbers despite them both being pillars of current Weekly Shounen Jump and both having an anime. It also won 1st place in the Tsugimanga Print Category with the largest margin between 1st place and 2nd place since Oshi No Ko won it but like, saying that a manga is good based on sales statistics is tremendously stupid so it's more on it becoming really popular.
It has that slick action and hype that seems quite popular nowadays with anime like Solo Levelling but with the added bonus of actually interesting writing and well thought out themes which is why I think it will blow up once the anime (which was leaked by Toyo Kezai to be done by Cygames Pictures) releases.
If you want a simple tldr, well here it is. Kagurabachi is a well written battle shounen about magic swords and sorcerers in kinda-modern day Japan. It has very obvious nuclear weapon allegory and some great insight into legacy. The action is some of the best in current battle shounen with the author's love for cinema being very clear in some of the shots he draws. If you read the first arc (ch1-18) and you don't like it then it probably is not for you. If you feel middling on it, then read the second arc and see how you feel then.
Even simpler tldr: It good. Please read.
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