This post is based off of a written script I wrote earlier this year for a video challenge I did in November 2025 where I tried to read Kagurabachi in 8 hours. My thoughts will cover Kagurabachi Part 1, which covers chapters 1 – 112.
Also here are my reactions to Kagurabachi Part 1 as well!
Vs Sojo Arc
Upon opening the first chapter, the art was the first thing that caught my eye because this was something so unexpected. This is a manga about revenge, but we’re here in this intimate moment that is so beautiful drawn between Chihiro & his father crafting a katana.
As I flip the page, I saw what I was expecting. Chihiro slicing up a bunch of mafia dudes with a katana. This was already my third time reading this first chapter & these panels are still so cool!
The way the mangaka, Takeru Hokazono draws his action sequence are so freaking good. It feels like I’m watching someone play Dynasty Warriors where the immense amount of goons panel feels so tense.
Immediately, Rokuhira is established as a legendary swordsmith who crafted 6 Katana to end a war; however, he places so much pressure on himself by saying.
Katana are still tools for killing & swordsmiths need principles and accountability when it comes to giving out these blades to someone. When he isn’t talking about Katana. He is just an absolutely chill goofy guy.
Just as the manga gets me attached to Rokuhira do a group of sorcerers known as the Hisaku kill him & steal his katana.
This is such a compelling start to a revenge story and it helps me perfectly understand Chihiro’s motives for revenge.
The pacing is also fairly quick as within the first volume, Chihiro has already found the Cloud Gouger & meets the main villain of the arc, Sojo.
Sojo is such a fascinating character because he respects Chihiro’s father so much, but he has this distorted interpretations of why Rokuhira made the blades. He believes Rokuhira made them for the purposes of killing.
And this is where the manga really shines because of how well I got to know Rokuhira & his relationship with Chihiro. Does this moment, when Chihiro trying to uphold his father’s legacy really matter to me by having him blocking a lightning attack & saving thousands of lives.
Chihiro also cleverly utilizes his extensive knowledges of the Cloud Gouger to plan around its weakness. For example, the massive attack “Mei” has a cooldown period before it can be used again.
It gets me excited about future katana matchups because Chihiro will have such an edge over his opponents who have recently obtained these enchanted blades.
Just when the fights couldn’t get more exciting are we introduced to the Kamunabi’s Elite Forces.
I really love this cast of characters because they all look cool and are fighting against Sojo allowing Chihiro to focus on saving Char!
Char was a small child who Chihiro was protecting from the Hisaku. They were using her for experiments because she was apart of a clan that has regenerative abilities.
However, she was taken & Chihiro enters Sojo’s mansion slaying a bunch of goons to rescue her.
The way pacing during the mansion was so well done. It blends the depressing moments of Char being painfully experimenting on while she is remembering back about the pain her mother went through. While Chihiro is easily wiping the mansion clean.
These two moments build together Char opening her eyes to see Chihiro hand her some food, calling back to when Chihiro was protecting her. He would take her out to eat food.
I love how much this shows how caring of a person Chihiro is even in his quest for revenge.
What happened next hooked me so hard into this manga because as we return to the fight between the Kamunabi’s Elite Forces & Sojo. It appears that the Kamunabi may be winning, but as Chihiro leaves the mansion. He sees Sojo standing right before him.
It’s an incredibly sad moment because I wasn’t expecting all of them to die, but we don’t sit with this feeling for long as both of these men have went through hell to get to where they are now. And they only have the energy for one last strike.
It is such an incredible conclusion to the fight as Chihiro takes not only takes Sojo’s life, but he breaks in the Cloud Gouger in the process. What an awesome ending to an arc.
However, immediately we are taken to the Kamunabi Headquarters where we learn that they are assigning wielders to form a lifelong contract with the enchanted blades to prevent them from being used by anyone else.
And they’re after Chihiro.
Rakuzaichi Arc
With one arc down, I noticed that the story replaced Char with another side character, Hakuri, who had ties to the next enchanted blade, Shinuchi, being auctioned at the Rakuzaichi.
However, I really enjoyed Hakuri’s character. He is introduced as a character with no purpose who is bad at sorcery even though his family is known for their powerful sorcery.
This gives Hakuri the motivation to look for other role models in life, which is how he meets Chihiro.
And pretty quickly, does Hakuri put his own life on the line to save Chihiro.
During Chihiro’s fight with Hiyuki, a member of the Kamunabi, she is arguing with Chihiro that the enchanted blades only cause misery & by wielding Enten, Chihiro caused the death of the Elite Forces.
Chihiro hesitated for the first time, which stunned me, but also it made sense. Chihiro is a good person. He wants to save innocent lives. However, Hiyuki takes advantage of his hesitation for another strike.
Hakuri then puts his own life on the line & body blocks Hiyuki’s attack.
Hakuri tells Chihiro that Enten suits him, which gives Chihiro the resolve & confidence that he is doing what is best for the enchanted blades. This moment sold me on Hakuri.
As the battle between Chihiro & Hiyuki resolve, we head for the underground auction, Rakuzaichi. I knew this place was gonna be scummy, but seeing the human trafficking & that the Kamunabi are bidding for the Shinuchi blade was wild.
I cannot wait for Chihiro to destroy this place, but here is the challenge. All the auction items including humans & the enchanted blade are stored in a pocket dimension created by Kyora himself, Hakuri’s father.
If Kyora dies so does the pocket dimension. So Chihiro needs to find a way to sneak in because their is a backdoor to this storeroom because Kyora can’t be running the storeroom by himself.
Luckily, Chihiro ingenious & risky idea comes into play. As he is hoping that by communicating with Enten via spiritual energy. He can locate the physical door to the storeroom.
Oh yeah, I failed to mention that Kyora offer Hakuri’s life for Enten.
Of course, on the day of the auction. The action goes insane as Chihiro & Hiyuki are slaying a bunch goods in stylish fashion.
I was initially worried about Chihiro not having Enten, but he is still skilled enough to wield a broken Cloud Gouger.
I greatly enjoyed the increasing intensity of Chihiro sweeping these fools with ease. While he is fighting alongside Hiyuki, he even questions her motives about why she is here. She is protecting the Kamunabi who are participating in an auction for criminals.
Of course, the action comes to a halt as Chihiro is confronted by the leader of the Hisaku, Yura.
This entire manga so far, Chihiro has been pretty calm. He has had small reactions here & there, but was always focused. This was the first time where he freaked out.
The mangaka uses this moment to allow Hakuri to grow. As Hakuri learns Isou for the first time against his own brother. Hakuri’s three siblings are guarding the entrance to the storeroom & while Hakuri is handling his eldest brother.
Mr. Shiba slides in to fight Hakuri’s other two brothers. At this point, I was worried for Mr. Shiba. Shiba is one of my favorite characters in this manga. I love his cool uncle vibe, but this moment was the first time where his life was endanger.
One of Hakuri’s brothers sacrifices his own life by absorbing the power of the enchanted blades to protect the storeroom. He was unsuccessful in stopping Chihiro & Mr. Shiba. However, the brothers had already destroyed the physical door to the storeroom so there was no way to enter it.
Then a beautiful revelation occurred as we learn that Hakuri had the ability to create his own subspace, which also allowed him to send Chihiro to his father’s subspace as well. This moment was so hype because we are learning through Hakuri the abuse his eldest brother had put him through. The fact that he was ostracized by his family for not being able to learn sorcery. To then have him be the most powerful one is so damn cool!
The next several chapters were so tense as Chihiro fights against a god.
Kyora is in full control of his space. He can summon & create anything to stop Chihiro.
All Chihiro can do is block & try to wear down Kyora’s energy.
However, as this fight continue, Kyora is getting weaker & weaker as the Shinuchi is destroying Kyora & his subspace.
This is where the finale of the Rakuzaichi arc begins as Hakuri is focused on keeping Kyora’s subspace open & making sure he can teleport Chihiro in & out. As Chihiro is attempting to save every human in the collapsing storeroom.
All the while, chaos is happening in the auction as the wielder of the Shinuchi has taken over Kyora resulting in so many people at the auction dying.
It’s an intense sequence that is so expertly handled in the manga. I am constantly at awe by the pacing of each of these stories moments.
As the arc concludes, not only do we witness how dangerous of a blade the Shinuchi is, but we learn a bit of Kyora’s human side. He is reminded of his wife & children. He is reminded about how he never believed in Hakuri, but in the end, he shakes that off & uses the last bit of his life to try & continue to the auction.
It is such an awesome ending to the arc and for it all to lead to us witnessing the dangerous power of the Shinuchi, which even has Chihiro wondering why his father even made this in the first place.
And just when it couldn’t get crazier. Chihiro decides not only to join the Kamunabi, but he has a plan to use Hakuri’s plans to teleport the missing blades to their wielders. Much like what Hakuri did with Chihiro.
Sword Bearer Assassination Arc
And so I begin the Sword Bearer Assassination arc, the 4 remaining sword bearers are being kept in secre-oh the Hisaku found out where they are.
To make matters worst, once a contract is formed, the sword bearer loses their abilities to use sorcery.
We are first introduced to the wielder of the Kumbyuri, Yoji Uruha. And I love him as he is such a big fanboy of Rokuhira. Immediately, he can tell Chihiro is Rokuhira’s son. THE KAMUNABI HAD TO RUN A BLOOD TEST TO FIGURE THAT SHIT OUT! BUT BECAUSE URUHA WAS REAL ONE HE KNEW!
I also love that we get this brief moment of intimacy where both Chihiro & Uruha get to reflect on how great of a person Rokuhira is. This manga doesn’t have many moments like these, but I appreciate it when it takes its time to share it.
Sadly, this moment is taken away from us by the arrival of a high-ranking Hisaku member named Hiruhiko. As Chihiro fights Hiruhiko, Uruha & Hakuri escape to Samara’s fortress with the help of an elite squad of ninjas from Samura, wielder of the Tobimune.
Hakuri has not fully healed from the Rakuzaichi and Samara’s ninjas are attempting to get him healed as quickly as possible so that Hakuri can summon both the Tobimune & Kumbyuri at the same time.
What I really enjoy about this manga are the decisions the mangaka makes to enhanced the intensity of fights. As we are now trying to fend off the Hisaku until Hakuri is well enough to fight.
Unfortunately, Hakuri is too late as one of the 3 Hisaku members that killed Rokuhira arrive at Samara’s fortress. However, Hakuri decides to risk his own life & teleports the blades to Samara & Uruha.
I felt like I was sweating through this as the action immediately shifts from slicing up a bunch of dudes to as soon as a Hisaku member shows up. It is nearly impossible to fight against them.
And in an insane twist, Samara ends up killing Uruha. Not by some fluke, Samara believes the punishment for the blades rest on those who wield it. If no one can wield them. We will have peace.
But before I go any further, Chihiro & Hiruhiko are also having their own fight while this is all happening.
I hate Hiruhiko & find them very off-putting. They enjoy the act of killing & they see what Chihiro does as the same thing. Hiruhiko ignores any context & understanding from the actions Chihiro takes to protect innocence lives & instead paints him as some sort of murderer.
As Hiruhiko is a murderer looking for a friend.
Though I can’t deny their fight was some of the coolest action sequences in this manga. As Chihiro is covered in blood by allowing himself to be struck by Hiruhiko to avoid innocent lives dying.
And in the middle of this fight, Hiruhiko calls upon the Kumbyuri blade. This is revealed before the death of Uruha so it was a crazy shock because it immediately tells us that Uruha died.
Unfortunately, this victory over Hiruhiko doesn’t last long as Samara also kills Chihiro, which is just absolutely insane as well. Oddly enough, the very next chapter, Chihiro is brought back to life.
I still do not understand the extent of Samara’s powers, but to bring Chihiro back, maybe it is because Chihiro is a child in Samara’s eyes & was not apart of the Seitai War. Whereas Uruha was apart of the war & deserves to die alongside the blade.
Then again, Mr. Shiba does mention that Uruha’s body was not found at the morgue so Uruha is probably also alive as well! So maybe Samara isn’t such a bad guy.
Oh wait, he was working with the Hisaku this entire time!? We are thrown for another loop as Samara is working with the Hisaku to kill the currently contracted wielders. With Samara promises to kill the Hisaku & himself once his mission is complete.
As Samara watches over the city to search for anyone wielding the enchanted blades. Chihiro begins to roll with Samara’s ninja squad as they understand the personal struggle Samara has been facing his entire life & with Chihiro not dying by Samara. They also have a suspicion that Samara also faked his daughters’ death.
And since this is Kagurabachi, we do sit with this melancholy for long as we are not only introduced to Samara’s daughter Iori, but two high-ranking Hisaku members Kuguri & Toto burst through the window of her school. We’re then thrown into a motorcycle chase where the Hisaku members are chasing after Iori & the ninja squad, which is something I have not seen drawn so perfectly in a manga before! Absolutely cinematic quality!
Kuguri is also such a fun character because he is fighting Chihiro & complains that Chihiro is not a good swordsman because he heavily relies on Enten’s abilities rather than his own skills as a swordsman. Something, I haven’t seen before is that Kuguri just leaves the fight because he hates how disrespect Chihiro is by thinking they are on the same level of swordsmanship.
But I absolutely loved it when Chihiro locks in. Tells himself that he will be that Samurai that Hakuri wanted him to be and uses a sword skill that causes Kuguri’s mind to want to fight Chihiro rather than continuing to chase after Iori.
As the action dies down, we get another incredibly touching moment. Chihiro has given Iori a choice, to go back to her “normal” life or to learn the truth about her past.
I love this choice because even Chihiro questions himself. He could have been living a peaceful life if he forgot about his dad, but we get this absolutely beautiful panel & Chihiro says “I wouldn’t trade that time for anything”
And it is through this lens, Chihiro wants Iori to make that choice for herself because Samara took that choice away from her. Once again, this touching moment doesn’t last long because immediately do we get this insane fight scene within this hotel.
The random callback to Iori’s classmate who idolizes Chihiro also ended up following Iori to this hotel & becomes the literal key to awakening Iori from her memory lost as she immediately regains all of her skills as a swordsman.
I was expecting Iori to regain her memories, but for her to become this insanely skilled swordsman was really what made me think of her as my favorite character from the series.
We also get an extensive flashback as she remembers everything about her past with her mother & father. Once again, I love the way the mangaka is able to use flashbacks as a way to hype up characters. This wonderful blend of high action & drama.
Experiencing the repercussions of the Seitai War through the eyes of Iori was also heartbreaking as she was being bullied for having a “murderer” for a father, but she would always hide it from her father at school. It was so heart wrenching!
I appreciate the way this manga is able to deal with such heavy topics & how the Hishaku are using that trauma against Samura. As the Hisaku were the ones to spread the rumors about the wielders of the enchanted blades being murderers & that the wielder of the Shinuchi killed over 10,000 people as part of an ethnic cleaning campaign.
This manga does not shy away from the horrific repercussions of war & is not afraid to immediately throw us back into to some more hype shit as Hiruhiko returns to face off against Chihiro.
But as Chihiro & Hiruhiko pull out their enchanted blades. Samura immeidately flies down from the sky to immediately slicing the head off of Hiruhiko & heading straight for Chihiro.
This moment not to be undercut by Iori seeing her father after several years. I felt this wave of emotion to then have it get even wilder emotion when Hiruhiko with the help of Kumbyuri blade causes everyone to hallucinate allowing Hiruhiko to escape.
The intensity of Samura having forgo killing Chihiro to protect his daughter as he is stabbed by 20+ blades.
This moment is so horrifying, but this manga really doesn’t want me to sit back down as Hiruhiko is laughing that he defeated Samura & then Chihiro is just stating how you cannot underestimate a master.
As Samura begins to cut his way through this entire hotel to stop Chihiro & Hiruhiko. With ease, Samura kills Hiruhiko, which I was celebrating! Finally, the character I hated the most is dead!
And if I could get any more validation in my life, as Hiruhiko is dying. He looks over at Chihiro’s eyes and says “Those eyes. He feels nothing for me not even hatred”
A character I despised so much doesn’t even get a ounce of respect or disgust as an enemy. He is nothing to Chihiro.
This is when I thought we were at the finale of the entire manga because the Hisaku begin attacking the Kamunabi headquarters as this is all happening. I’m sorry what!?
To make matters even worst, the Kamunabi are full of people working for the Hishaku, under threat of course. Hakuri is not fully recovered & is struggling to survive this onslaught of attacks. I started to distrust every member of the Kamunabi because there is just no one else to turn to until…
Uruha returns! I was so excited to see his return because it is during this moment where I was worried for Hakuri’s safety. I was so excited to see him return!
Returning to the fight with Chihiro & Samura. We’re seeing another battle of ideals play out, which seems to be a consistent them in the manga.
Whether it is the intentions of Rokuhira, which was Sojo & Chihiro’s battle.
Whether you kill for fun or kill to protect the innocent like Hiruhiko & Chihiro.
Whether the sword or the wielder dictates morals like Samura & Chihiro.
Throughout many battles in this manga it comes down to ideals, but it hurts to see too incredible people both whom have the best of intentions fight like this.
And this pain I feel inside my heart, just makes this next sequence awesome. As we learn the true intention of Enten. Rokuhira built the original 6 enchanted blades for war. Rokuhira hated himself for making the blades. He tried to destroy the blades.
Yet, he still crafted Enten. He crafted Enten with Chihiro. The first pages of the manga was Rokuhira created Enten with Chihiro.
The power of Enten. It’s true purpose is to destroy the blades. Absolutely cinema. I get chills just talking about it now.
This revelation empowers Chihiro to fight forward as he continues to fight against Samara. Samara begins to become more & more stubborn as the Tobimune begins to crack under Chihiro pressure. This was so exciting because Chihiro was winning against Samara.
But of course, Samara heals himself & his blade. It wasn’t until his daughter stepped in for him to awaken to his mistake. He believed that by shielding his daughter from his actions & himself. That he could protect her, but instead it dragged her into this.
Even seeing the moment where Samura finally forgives himself & heals his eyes was so touching as he apologies to Iori. That fact that this manga is able to tell such a powerful relationship with so much action & so little exposition is truly a masterclass.
And from peace there is always destruction as we return to the battle at the Kamunabi headquarters where we learn that one of the leaders is working with the Hisaku. That was insane and I don’t even get a chance to breathe because we’re introduced to two more characters. The Hishaku member who killed Rokuhira & the original Cloud Gouger wielder. We are also introduced to the Cloud Gouger wielder’s brother, Natsuki.
All this built up to one of my favorite manga panels to date.
How cool is it to see such a perfect panel of a 4-Way sword fight! This fight is just absolutely peak. Once again, the mangaka is always challenging themselves to make the sickest action sequences!
Azami finally gets his time to shine! He has been teased as a martial artists in volume 1, but to learn that his real ability is sorcery, but he has cleverly been hiding his abilities through his physical movements is so awesome!
Unfortunately, even though Azami had the upper hand when fighting against Yura. I was devastated to see him die to the hands of the Shinuchi once Yura was able to make contact with Soga.
Soga has been teased since the Rakuzaichi arc. Through the power of the Shinuchi, he was able to control Kyora & kill everyone in the auction house.
To now have him take over Yura & wield the Shinuchi is insane. Without troubles he takes out Azami.
I can’t believe how good this manga is. The action sequences continue to get more intense, more incredible. The amount of different camera angles, the way characters are like pushing physically against each other, the way you see the details in the malediction taking over Yura with the flowers and the petals all popping up around him.
The care we see in Shiba for saving people from all these buildings that are being destroy from the fight between Yura, Chihiro, and Samura. It is so intense!
Once again, we get another battle of ideals, as Soga, who we learn is Rokuhira’s brother, believes that these blades should be used to eradicate evil; however, he is so blinded by propaganda where he believes that this entire race of people should die.
The Seitai War began as an unknown group of people from another island washed ashore Japan & began killing people with the power of the enchanted bladed imbued within them.
Although the conflict was resolved & a peace treaty was signed. Soga continued to harbor hate towards the race of people. It is a scary thought & from the way he is acting. He wants to destroy all of Japan to wipe the slate clean essentially as we see him turning the Kamunabi headquarters into a deep empty pit.
Once Soga fully takes over Yura. He seems impossible to stop. As he kills Chihiro. Reading these chapters, I was absolutely in disbelief. We see Enten dissolve as Chihiro remembers back to his father & him building the katana in the first chapter of this manga.
I was horrified that this is how this manga will seemingly end. Even when Samura comes in to save Chihiro & sacrifice his own life to bring Chihiro back to life.
I still felt hopefully. Kagurabachi Part 1 ends on an insane moment where all hope is lost. Samura is gone. Chihiro is on death’s door. Enten is gone. I do not know how we will come back from this.
But Soga does not get the last word in Part 1 as Chihiro brings us some hope as he suggests it is possible to resurrect Samura by breaking the Tobimune. Chihiro does stop there though.
Chihiro ends this story by forging a new Enten & Cloud Gouger. What a tremendously uplifting ending to what will be an insane Part 2. For us to sit with this dread & sadness for so long the last several chapters to get this glimpse of hope is so exciting!
I absolutely adore Kagurabachi, I was expecting a fun revenge story, but instead of I got story with a perfect blend of action & emotional weight. They both enhanced each of the moments without feeling too long or drawn out. Not once in this manga did I feel bored. I couldn’t believe how gripping this story is!
I cannot wait to read more, definitely expect me to read more Kagurabachi!
