One of the strangest phenomenon that happened in 2023 was the release of Kagurabachi.
It was strange because the shonen manga got wildly popular in what felt like a matter of days. It had even been compared to Weekly Shonen Jump’s “Big Three,” which are One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach, and spawned a wildfire of Internet memes that started with one that was posted before the first chapter was even released. And now, three years after its serialization, Kagurabachi will finally have an anime adaptation.
Cypic will animate and produce the adaptation with Tetsuya Takeuchi helming as the director. Cypic, a subsidiary of CyberAgent, has worked on The Summer Hikaru Died and Apocalypse Hotel. Keigo Sasaki will serve as the character designer and Shochiku and CyberAgent will be on the production committee. Taihi Kimura (Liar Game, The Beginning After the End) will voice the protagonist Chihiro Rokuhira.
Rumors of an anime adaptation have been circulating as early as December 2024, although CyberAgent and Shochiku did not confirm it at the time. Kagurabachi will also go on a world tour where the first 20 mins of the first episode at various anime events will be screened. The full first episode will premiere in Japan in spring 2027.
Written and illustrated by Takeru Hokazono, Kagurabachi follows the journey of a young man named Chihiro Rokuhira who is going after a group of powerful criminal sorcerers for the murder of his father and for stealing the six Enchanted Blades his father forged. The manga has four million copies in circulation as of this article’s writing and earned a handful of nominations and awards including the 10th Next Manga Award and nominations for the Eisner Awards’ Best U.S. Edition of International Material–Asia and the Kodansha Manga Award in the “shonen” category.
Kagurabachi is available to read on Viz Media and Manga Plus. The anime adaptation releases in April 2027.
Source: YouTube
