Before its debut in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, there was a strong online buzz to Takeru Hokazono’s Kagurabachi manga series. Many avid manga readers were fascinated by the manga’s initial teaser visual, highlighting the protagonist, Chihiro Rokuhira, unsheathing his katana.
The manga’s initial success and popularity brought Hokazono to this year’s Anime NYC convention, where he attended a special stage event to meet his newfound fans. He was also honored at the 2025 American Manga Awards, taking home the “American Manga Award of Distinction” and sharing the stage with veteran manga creators Kengo Hanazawa and Minetaro Mochizuki.
Anime Trending had a chance to speak with Hokazono for a short interview on the success of Kagurabachi and his inspirations:
There was a lot of excitement for the first chapter of your work. What were your thoughts on that initial excitement? Did you feel some sort of pressure to deliver a good first impression?
Takeru Hokazono: I didn’t really feel that much pressure for the first chapter because I got to spend a lot of time on it. I was actually very confident about how great it was going to be. But obviously, as chapters went on, I did feel a little bit more pressure about how the rest of it would be received.
Did you do any research with regard to designing the manga’s katanas? Was there anything that fascinated you the most about the sword-making process?
Takeru Hokazono: For research, I did actually go to a blacksmith to see how the whole process was done. One of the coolest things that I got to see was — obviously it starts off with this blob of steel — but I got to see the blacksmith and his assistant hit back and forth in rhythm. I thought that sort of reflected the familial bond that’s so important in this series as well. That was really cool.
Kagurabachi has been described as a story of revenge that is influenced by John Wick and Quentin Tarantino films. Are themes like vengeance or retribution a core part of any Shonen Jump action manga?
Takeru Hokazono: In Naruto, there’s Sasuke’s whole plot where he’s trying to kill Itachi, and in Hunter x Hunter, there’s Kurapika’s whole plot as well. There are characters that are out for revenge that I do really like. And to go more into Shonen Jump’s dark side, I thought I could bring that out with a powerful revenge story, so I wanted to try to do that on my own.
For any new reader who is getting a first introduction to Kagurabachi, how would you describe or place the work compared to other Shonen Jump manga titles? What should new readers look forward to?
Takeru Hokazono: I definitely want to make the action scenes a lot cooler than all the other series that are out right now. But also, this goes back to the concentration of the dark in the black and white, so the black inking. I think that’s another aspect that I don’t want to lose to any other mangaka right now.
The story is going to keep getting more and more exciting, and even more epic. So I hope people look forward to that. Thank you so much.
Interpreter: Michelle Tymon
Kagurabachi is available in English print from VIZ Media and digitally on MANGA Plus by SHUEISHA.
