Achieving a significant level of popularity in the manga world is never an easy task. New titles are being released all the time, and an aspiring author has to compete with hundreds of others to find a place for their work. This is especially true for the Shonen Jump magazine. Here, any manga that can’t provide a certain amount of attention from readers with its first 10 to 15 chapters gets canceled without any chance to develop and find its own voice. It usually takes a long time for the magazine authors to convey the appeal of their work and to be sure to continue writing the story.
For these reasons, the sudden rise in popularity of Kagurabachi is so amusing. After just one chapter, this manga became a meme. Maybe you’ve seen it. An image of a black-haired guy with a katana gets stretched, colored, and signed with all kinds of weird internet jokes. Well, he’s actually the main character of the manga and for some reason he’s in the focus of thousands of manga readers all over the world now.
New Jump titles appear at least once a season and none of them have ever managed to cause a reaction like this. So what’s the reason? Why do countless mangas disappear without leaving a trace or at least take some time to become popular and this one goes viral so quickly? There’s more than one answer to this. And none of them is based on the fact that a title can provide good meme material.
At the moment there are three ongoing battle mangas in Shonen Jump, that can be recognized not only by a shonen fan, but also by a manga fan in general. They are One Piece, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen. All three of them are very different in their tone, art style and appeal. But there's still something they have in common. One Piece is a story about a protagonist whose main goal is to become stronger and better. My Hero Academia is also about overcoming obstacles and becoming better. Jujutsu Kaisen’s main hero beats the bad guys and becomes better… You see the pattern here, right? The main idea of becoming a better person is something that all these titles share. However, the first chapter of Kagurabachi is nothing like that at all.
Chihiro, the main character of the manga, is presented as a loner on a revenge quest. At the moment he has no intention of making friends, nor does he want to become a better person. He’s filled with rage and just wants to kill some people.
This outlet for anger is what made this manga stand out for its readers. The majority of people who follow Shonen Jump are young men, aged 12 to 18. They’re teenagers trying to navigate a complex and demanding world of adults. They face obstacles all the time — in their studies, in their personal lives, in their relationships with friends and family. The anger that builds up with all these problems is something very common among young people.
So what do you do with it? Well, the characters like Luffy and Deku present a model of working on yourself, using this anger to become better and stronger. Relying on your friends to achieve something bigger. A pretty idealistic and somewhat overused trope in Shonen manga, sometimes jokingly called «a power of friendship» by the fans.
Kagurabachi, on the other hand, with its first chapter is almost telling the opposite. Don’t work on your anger, don’t try to change yourself, just let it out, it’s okay. It's only one chapter, so there are no consequences in sight for the main character. The promise of it being the best solution is what attracted so many people on the internet to the manga.
The title uses this narrative very wisely, picking another popular series as its reference. In the first chapter we see Chihiro sitting by the window, looking at his sword at night — a clear reference to an image of Guts, the protagonist of Berserk, doing the same in his story. The rule of cool is on full display here, making it easier to invest new readers into the plot.
Finally, this incredible leap of popularity wouldn't be possible if we weren't living in the age of the Internet. And no, we’re not talking about the memes. There are strong communities of anime fans on almost every social media and other opinion-sharing resources like Youtube or Reddit. It’s very easy nowadays to find like-minded people and the validation that comes with it. It might have felt wrong or weird to enjoy some bloodthirsty manga like Berserk in the 90's or maybe even in the 2000’s. But now there are thousands of other people saying that there’s nothing wrong with that. So the popularity of a manga can grow significantly faster or can be almost instantaneous as we see in the case of Kagurabachi.
It is very exciting to see how the landscape of weekly manga is changing. Kagurabachi’s sudden popularity may be a sign that the traditional boundaries of Shonen Jump are beginning to fade. It is no longer necessary for the authors to comply with old narrative traditions or wait for months or even years for a wider audience to notice their work. Even if Kagurabachi doesn’t manage to meet fans’ expectations and prove itself as a good title, it will still be remembered for this incredible achievement. And for the memes, of course.
Straight to the stardom after only one chapter.
Achieving a significant level of popularity in the manga world is never an easy task. New titles are being released all the time, and an aspiring author has to compete with hundreds of others to find a place for their work. This is especially true for the Shonen Jump magazine. Here, any manga that can’t provide a certain amount of attention from readers with its first 10 to 15 chapters gets canceled without any chance to develop and find its own voice. It usually takes a long time for the magazine authors to convey the appeal of their work and to be sure to continue writing the story.
For these reasons, the sudden rise in popularity of Kagurabachi is so amusing. After just one chapter, this manga became a meme. Maybe you’ve seen it. An image of a black-haired guy with a katana gets stretched, colored, and signed with all kinds of weird internet jokes. Well, he’s actually the main character of the manga and for some reason he’s in the focus of thousands of manga readers all over the world now.
New Jump titles appear at least once a season and none of them have ever managed to cause a reaction like this. So what’s the reason? Why do countless mangas disappear without leaving a trace or at least take some time to become popular and this one goes viral so quickly? There’s more than one answer to this. And none of them is based on the fact that a title can provide good meme material.
At the moment there are three ongoing battle mangas in Shonen Jump, that can be recognized not only by a shonen fan, but also by a manga fan in general. They are One Piece, My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen. All three of them are very different in their tone, art style and appeal. But there's still something they have in common. One Piece is a story about a protagonist whose main goal is to become stronger and better. My Hero Academia is also about overcoming obstacles and becoming better. Jujutsu Kaisen’s main hero beats the bad guys and becomes better… You see the pattern here, right? The main idea of becoming a better person is something that all these titles share. However, the first chapter of Kagurabachi is nothing like that at all.
Chihiro, the main character of the manga, is presented as a loner on a revenge quest. At the moment he has no intention of making friends, nor does he want to become a better person. He’s filled with rage and just wants to kill some people.
This outlet for anger is what made this manga stand out for its readers. The majority of people who follow Shonen Jump are young men, aged 12 to 18. They’re teenagers trying to navigate a complex and demanding world of adults. They face obstacles all the time — in their studies, in their personal lives, in their relationships with friends and family. The anger that builds up with all these problems is something very common among young people.
So what do you do with it? Well, the characters like Luffy and Deku present a model of working on yourself, using this anger to become better and stronger. Relying on your friends to achieve something bigger. A pretty idealistic and somewhat overused trope in Shonen manga, sometimes jokingly called «a power of friendship» by the fans.
Kagurabachi, on the other hand, with its first chapter is almost telling the opposite. Don’t work on your anger, don’t try to change yourself, just let it out, it’s okay. It's only one chapter, so there are no consequences in sight for the main character. The promise of it being the best solution is what attracted so many people on the internet to the manga.
The title uses this narrative very wisely, picking another popular series as its reference. In the first chapter we see Chihiro sitting by the window, looking at his sword at night — a clear reference to an image of Guts, the protagonist of Berserk, doing the same in his story. The rule of cool is on full display here, making it easier to invest new readers into the plot.
Finally, this incredible leap of popularity wouldn't be possible if we weren't living in the age of the Internet. And no, we’re not talking about the memes. There are strong communities of anime fans on almost every social media and other opinion-sharing resources like Youtube or Reddit. It’s very easy nowadays to find like-minded people and the validation that comes with it. It might have felt wrong or weird to enjoy some bloodthirsty manga like Berserk in the 90's or maybe even in the 2000’s. But now there are thousands of other people saying that there’s nothing wrong with that. So the popularity of a manga can grow significantly faster or can be almost instantaneous as we see in the case of Kagurabachi.
It is very exciting to see how the landscape of weekly manga is changing. Kagurabachi’s sudden popularity may be a sign that the traditional boundaries of Shonen Jump are beginning to fade. It is no longer necessary for the authors to comply with old narrative traditions or wait for months or even years for a wider audience to notice their work. Even if Kagurabachi doesn’t manage to meet fans’ expectations and prove itself as a good title, it will still be remembered for this incredible achievement. And for the memes, of course.
