As the resident weeb of The Escapist, I’m usually privy to a lot of big releases in the world of anime and manga. While I tend to gravitate towards the anime side of things and watch several dozen shows a year, there are a few manga series I follow that have kept my interest. I’m still chugging away at One Piece, seeing the School Arc of Chainsaw Man unfold, looking at smaller more niche titles like The Ichinose Family’s Deadly Sins, and pining for the return of RuriDragon. But in the past few weeks, another title has been getting a lot of attention from the manga community ahead of its launch and may in fact be the next big thing; Kagurabachi, which feels like a blend of Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man.
The series is the brainchild of Takeru Hokazono, a manga artist who only did a few one-shots before hitting it big with Kagurabachi. Many are calling it the next big thing and Shonen Jump even put out a promotional trailer hyping up the series even before the first chapter was released. Over the course of that first extra-length chapter, it’s clear through page compositions as well as through the visceral action that a lot of the series is inspired by the “Dark Trio” of Shonen Jump titles, three ultra-violent series that include Jujutsu Kaisen, Hell’s Paradise, and Chainsaw Man. I mean within the first chapter, we witness an entire yakuza clan being brutally eviscerated with blood and guts draped across their offices. That’s pretty dark. With the discussion of sorcerers pulling the strings behind the scenes of the yakuza, it’s easy to say that Jujutsu Kaisen is Kagurabachi’s biggest inspiration, but I would say it draws more on Chainsaw Man with its bleak and borderline nihilistic world and main character, Chihiro.
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Chihiro is a young man training to be a swordsmith like his father, Kunishige. While his father is a bit of a dope who likes to talk to goldfish, he’s actually one of the most well-respected swordsmiths in the world, with his blades being used to help end a major war within Japan. He’s cautious about teaching Chihiro more about making swords, knowing very well that his weapons can be used to take lives including but not limited to innocent lives, but Chihiro understands that responsibility and continues to learn under his father. Cut to three years later and his father is dead and Chihiro is hunting the people responsible with the last sword his father made, a sword infused with magic that allows untold goldfish-themed carnage on his enemies.
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If there was anything I would criticize about the first chapter of Kagurabachi, it’s that Chihiro isn’t exactly the most engaging of characters. While a part of this may be due to Hokazono’s deadpan expressions that feel straight out of One Punch Man, another significant factor is that the issue isn’t really about him, but rather Kunishige. We’ve seen backstories like this before where we spent a significant amount of time fleshing out a side character before having them taken away in a heartbeat, but here I feel that not enough time was put into making Chihiro stand out as a person. He feels like a combination of Chainsaw Man’s Aki and his almost dispassionate attitude toward eliminating his enemies and Naruto’s Sasuke Uchiha for his almost edge lord attitude towards everyone. An approach like this worked in Vinland Saga, but that series spent much more than one chapter introducing Thorfinn’s father and showing in detail how that served as the catalyst for Thorfinn’s descent into violence.
This first issue is still entertaining though thanks to the pretty impressive artwork shown in the major fight scenes, which makes me excited to see where this series will go and how it will showcase its fight choreography. I just worry about how well this series is going to spend actually fleshing out its characters in a way that makes them feel believable and relatable rather than poor imitations of other characters. Plus, given Shonen Jump’s reputation of canceling titles prematurely, I hope that Kagurabachi is able to get more time to have it stand apart from its contemporaries and do its own thing.
If you want to hear me talk more about new manga that appears in Shonen Jump, sound off in the comments and if there’s enough interest, maybe I’ll take a look at the recent subversive fantasy series MamaYuyu and all of the other new titles Shonen Jump decided to release in September. And hey, maybe you’ll be able to discover the next big thing before it ever becomes an anime!
Related: Best Anime Like Jujutsu Kaisen, by The Mary Sue
