I recently read Kagurabachi and fell in love with it. I didn’t expect it to be this good since its release was surrounded by memes mocking yet another shonen manga with a sword-wielding guy. After reading it, I get where the memes came from. The protagonist Chihiro starts off stoic and hard to connect with. But he expands the trend of darker protagonists in recent Shonen Jump, like Yuji Itadori in Jujutsu Kaisen’s Shibuya Incident arc or Denji in Chainsaw Man, both beaten down by their stories. Unlike Yuji and Denji, who have charisma or humor, Chihiro lacks that. He fights for what’s right but is a murderer, slashing through people in the first chapter. Even if they’re bad guys, they’re human, yet he cuts down anyone in his way. He sees himself as a monster headed for hell, not enjoying the violence. His goal is to protect innocents by reclaiming and destroying enchanted blades, with killing as a byproduct. The third arc deepens his dark motivations. Each arc improves, with the first delivering a climactic battle that feels like a 10-volume payoff in just two. The second arc brings emotional storytelling and complex battles. Now in the third arc, a favorite character emerges, and the battles are among the best in modern shonen. The art style is my favorite in modern manga, with page turns so stunning I have to stand up and rave about how awesome Kagurabachi is.