YMMV / Kagurabachi

• Evil Is Cool:
  • Many quickly became enamored with Sojo for being a badass and batshit insane Evil Counterpart to Chihiro. Although many initially picked up the series for its presence in internet memes, many have expressed that Chihiro's and Sojo's fight and the arc following it was what convinced them that the story genuinely had potential.
  • Although certainly a different flavor of evil from Sojo, Kyora Sazanami has proven himself to be rather popular for being an extremely cunning and shrewd businessman capable of coming up with plans at the drop of a hat and reading Chihiro and co like an open book.
• Fan Community Nicknames: With the manga gaining more popularity upon its release, many fans have begun referring to themselves as "Bachibros".
• Fandom Rivalry: One with Nue's Exorcist. That manga was popular with Japanese readers and was pushed heavily by Jump, but had a poor western reception. While Kagurabachi was popular with western readers and was pushed mainly by a western fanbase.
• Friendly Fandoms: Quickly formed one with the MamaYuyu fandom, as new-generation underdog Shonen Jump titles that got promoted by well-known mangaka and have gained decent traction overseas after struggling initially in survey rankings. Along with both series having their initial volume stocks sell out, people have been seen buying both volumes in support of the series.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Thanks to its many memes, it's popular with international audiences, with the series' overseas popularity even being commented on by Shonen Jump's editor-in-chief at Jump Festa 2024. The official Kagurabachi account on Twitter/X has gone as far as to make posts in English for foreign readers.
• Growing the Beard: The early chapters are generally considered to be rather generic sporting a very basic plot structure, barebones worldbuilding and a plain protagonist, not to mention that the art quality is questionable outside of the action shots, and most of the early readership was derived from memes. Char's introduction giving the story a more tangible focus and serious tone, as well as characterizing Chihiro better, is considered the point where the series starts to find its footing. This is then solidified with Sojo's full arrival into the story right after, who despite effectively being just the Starter Villain is generally agreed to be the point where the plot truly kicks in with a highly engaging and entertaining antagonist who turns Chihiro's ideals on their head and shakes the setting. Additionally, the fights with him are a truly stunning display of Hokazono's art skills, a far cry from the relatively unimpressive Mook Horror Show from the early chapters.
• He's Just Hiding: Sojo's fans are still adamant that he is still alive despite seeing him dying by holding the Datenseki while his base of operation blew up with him inside and the Kamunabi confirming his corpse on the next panel.
• I Am Not Shazam: It's not uncommon for people who've only been exposed to the series via memes to assume that Chihiro is the eponymous "Kagurabachi".
• Memetic Badass: Chihiro, and Kagurabachi in general, are treated like this, due to a fake translation of the chapter circulating ahead of its official release that made it look like an absolute Cliché Storm among Shonen Jump's roster, which led to a surge of ironic shitposting about it. Chihiro can take on Goku, Naruto, Luffy, Deku, Satoru Gojo, Isagi Yoichi and all of Shonen Jump's big hitters, and the manga is so popular that it had an anime, video game, live-action drama, and card game before the first chapter even came out.
• Memetic Loser: Through the influence of other manga fandoms such as Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece, the fanbase quickly singled out Shiba as the resident "fraud" character. Many jokes have been made about his conspicuous absence whenever Chihiro is busy putting himself in danger, as well as the fact all of his fights only happen offscreen.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Shonen Jump Morbius ^ExplanationMuch in the same vein of the infamous memes about Morbius, following the manga's first chapter, Twitter was immediately inundated with memes hyping up the manga as one of the greatest things to ever be made. It also spawned a meme that the anime is either on the way or already out with a single "screenshot" being utilized for people to pretend that they're watching the anime.
  • "I will become the Kagurabachi" ^ExplanationThis manga's fandom response to the "It's morbing time" meme. An edit of the final panel of chapter one, which has Chihiro saying this line instead of simply saying he intends to cut the sorcerers down.
  • Enough time has passed. ^ExplanationAs a sub-set of memes hyping up the manga, some people have made posts saying that Kagurabachi is better than hugely acclaimed titles like Berserk. The posts are usually accompanied by the line "enough time has passed". Officially acknowledged with Jump's English twitter using the phrase to announce a global release of Volume 1.
  • "I'm the best X" "No I am" "..." ^ExplanationAs one of the various memes hyping the series up, this one initially features two characters, groups, or series squabbling over which between them is better. Then, an image of Chihiro drawing his sword (which has been heavily edited to fit the argument) appears while saying nothing to silently prove he's the best instead. The variety of contexts and arguments that fans will fit their edited Chihiros into borders on the absurd. Here's a thread.
  • Chihiro Redraw ^ExplanationThe first key art for Kagurabachi, which has Chihiro draw his katana with a serious look on his face◊, is subject to many redraws with other characters.
  • Save Kagurabachi!!! Fujoshis!!!^ExplanationAs Shonen Jump is notoriously prone to axing series, many became concerned about the series' chances of surviving in the publication, especially since most of Kagurabachi's popularity comes from overseas fans. When fans saw fujoshis shipping the characters together on Twitter, many fans actively welcomed it, believing that it would increase the manga's chances of surviving into the future.
  • "Tenoí!" ^ExplanationA term originated from a Reddit user whenever used to praise the chapters in the manga. It quickly caught on when other fans began using the term on anything Kagurabachi-related.
  • "I truly love... X." ^ExplanationA line said by Sojo during his first confrontation with Chihiro to explain his devotion (or more accurately, obsession) about Kunishige Rokuhira's work. Naturally, the second half of the line is changed for anything while followed by the panel of a confused Chihiro.
• Moe: Char is one for every viewer thanks to her troubled backstory, Adorkable tendencies, and having a beautiful smile when satisfied.
• Signature Scene: Hiyuki revealing the Flame Bone of the Starving is a truly impressive page, which has drawn a lot of attention, quickly becoming one of the most colored and redrawn pages in the series.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: There was initially quite a bit of confusion over Hiyuki's gender, due to her androgynous appearance. Although the official Twitter account did indirectly confirm that she is a female as they referred to her with the pronoun "kanojo" (彼女), the initial Viz translation of Chapter 21 described her with male pronouns, leading to some confusion. The Viz translation was later revised to use female pronouns.
• Watch It for the Meme: All publicity is good publicity, and Twitter blowing up with memes about Kagurabachi and its supposed never-before-seen quality have led many people to go to MangaPlus and check the manga out for themselves. The manga received such a boost that it got to the top 10 most read mangas on the site even with only a single chapter, beating out pretty big titles like Spy X Family, Black Clover, and Dragon Ball Super. By the release of its second chapter, it raised even higher in the rankings, now beating out absolute juggernauts in the manga and anime community like Oshi no Ko and My Hero Academia. With the release of its third chapter, it had risen to the top three, beating out Boruto and Chainsaw Man. By the fifth chapter, it had beaten out Jujutsu Kaisen, landing in second place only behind One Piece. Even after the initial hype surrounding the meme cooled down, the series is still comfortably in MangaPlus's top 10 most read series as of December 2023.

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