Kagurabachi will premiere its first two episodes in Japan last, after a world tour
The tour has shown the opening 20 minutes from Los Angeles to Melbourne. The full episodes debut at Tokyo's Kabukiza on March 25, ahead of an April 2027 broadcast.
Kagurabachi's anime will have its full first two episodes premiere in Japan last. The series has spent months screening its opening 20 minutes to audiences abroad, and the third leg of its world tour now runs through Singapore, Seoul and São Paulo before a finale at Tokyo's Kabukiza Theatre on March 25, 2027, where episodes 1 and 2 will finally be shown in full.
The TV broadcast and streaming debut follows in April 2027. A manga whose breakout was driven partly by readers abroad is getting an anime launch that reaches them first.
The tour, stop by stop
- Part 1 (from July 2026): the first 20 minutes of episode 1 at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, Japan Expo in Paris, AnimagiC in Mannheim, Otakon in Washington on August 2 and Anime NYC.
- Part 2: conventions in Johannesburg and Melbourne.
- Part 3: AFA Singapore on November 29 and Seoul on December 6, both with Chihiro's voice actor Taihi Kimura and animation producer Mizoguchi KAN; CCXP Brazil in São Paulo in December, date to be announced.
- Finale: Kabukiza Theatre, Tokyo, March 25, 2027, with episodes 1 and 2 in full, plus live viewings in cinemas across Japan.
Taihi Kimura, Tomokazu Seki (Kunishige Rokuhira) and Katsuyuki Konishi (Togo Shiba) are scheduled to attend the finale. Anime Corner says the Kabukiza is the venue where the anime was originally announced.
Two versions of the finale
The finale details have shifted. Wikipedia's account of the tour says it is set to conclude in Japan in the second quarter of 2027 with a screening of the full first episode. The newest announcement, reported by Anime Corner, puts it on March 25, the end of the first quarter, and adds episode 2.
The most recent version is the more generous one: an earlier date and twice as much footage.
Where it will stream, and where it will not
Crunchyroll will stream Kagurabachi worldwide except in Japan, mainland China, North Korea and South Korea, according to Wikipedia. Muse Communication has the series for South and Southeast Asia.
That makes the Seoul stop notable. South Korea is one of the territories outside Crunchyroll's deal, and it is getting a tour screening with the lead voice actor before Japan sees the full episodes.
A breakout helped by memes
Takeru Hokazono's manga has run in Weekly Shōnen Jump since September 2023, with 12 volumes out as of September 2026. Its early global popularity was partly driven by internet memes, with many fans ironically calling it the heir to Jump's "Big Three" of One Piece, Naruto and Bleach. It went on to win the 10th Next Manga Award in the print category in 2024 and the 2026 Daruma for Best Action Manga at the Japan Expo Awards.
Circulation numbers, though, do not agree with each other on the same Wikipedia page. The summary at the top says 5 million copies. The sales section, updated year by year, reaches "over 4.5 million" by October 2026.
The growth curve is steep either way: over 350,000 copies by July 2024, 600,000 by August, 1 million by October, 1.3 million by December 2024, and over 4 million by April 2026. In North America, the volumes have appeared on Circana BookScan's monthly top 20 adult graphic novels list since November 2024 and on The New York Times' graphic books and manga list since December 2024. The series was also nominated for the Eisner Awards and the Kodansha Manga Award in 2025.
Who is making the anime
- Studio: Cypic, formerly CygamesPictures, in a joint production by CyberAgent and Shochiku. Toyo Keizai Online first reported the project in December 2024; it was confirmed as a TV series in April 2026.
- Director: Tetsuya Takeuchi, known for the Rock Lee vs Gaara fight in Naruto. He drew a new illustration of Chihiro with the Enchanted Blade Enten for the manga's third anniversary.
- Character design: Keigo Sasaki.
- Cast: Taihi Kimura (Chihiro Rokuhira), Tomokazu Seki (Kunishige Rokuhira), Katsuyuki Konishi (Togo Shiba), Miku Ito (Hinao), Miyari Nemoto (Char Kyonagi) and Yuichi Nakamura (Soshiro Azami).
The story follows Chihiro, trained by his father Kunishige to become a swordsmith. When the sorcerer organisation Hishaku attacks, kills his father and steals six Enchanted Blades, Chihiro takes up the seventh, Enten, and sets out for revenge.
What is still unknown
- The exact April premiere date and the broadcaster in Japan.
- The episode count.
- The São Paulo date.
- Whether international audiences get episodes 1 and 2 in full before April. So far only the first 20 minutes have travelled.
Kagurabachi's opening has been shown in Los Angeles, Paris, Mannheim, Johannesburg and Melbourne. Tokyo, the city where the anime was announced, gets the full first two episodes on the last date of the tour.