Shonen Jump Debuts One of Its Coolest New Series Yet

Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine is going through a Summer of changes as it searches for its next breakout hit, and one just might be on their hands as a new series has had one of the coolest debuts with the magazine yet. Shonen Jump previously revealed that they would be introducing four new serializations throughout the month of June, and this has also resulted in many other series getting cancelled to make room. While that side of the situation is a real bummer for fans of those works, it also means that there are opportunities for brand new stories and ideas to shine.

Jun Harukawa has made their Weekly Shonen Jump magazine debut this week with a brand new series titled Kaedegami. This new series combines elements of Chinese mythology with cool demon designs and a central mystery at the center of it all. It’s hard to gauge just where this story is going to go after its debut chapter, but it’s such a strong opening that it’s likely that this series is going to have a chance at a strong run with the magazine given what it sets up for its central duo.

What Is Kaedegami?

Kaedegami is set within the Eastern Frontier and features a world filled with monsters known as Shenguai. These are monsters that abduct and eat humans, and follows a kid named Kou. This kid was unfortunately abandoned by his father at a young age, and has since been living in the woods alone. But he himself doesn’t mind as he’s actually been hiding a secret. He’s actually been living with a Shenguai all this time as well. It turns out this monster had found him shortly after he had been abandoned, and after revealing her name was Chiyou, Kou and the Shenguai started to live with one another as Chiyou taught him what he needed to know to survive.

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But when a Shenguai attacks the two of them, Kou discovers Chiyou’s real goal. She had been raising him from a child in order to serve as a vessel for her power and was looking to reclaim her lost self. She was formerly known as the God of War among Shenguai, and had been stripped of much of her body parts and power. She’s lost her face, entrails, and hands and legs. And had been planning to raise Kou to when he’d be strong enough to take over.

How to Read Kaedegami

Thanks to the bond he’s shared with her, and the time they have spent together, Chiyou no longer wants to use Kou as a vessel. But given the situation, Kou is willing to let her use him as a vessel to fight. Now that the two have united, they are able to defeat the attacking Shenguai and actually recover Chiyou’s face. This is the first step in what’s likely going to be a long journey to reclaim all her parts and power, so we’ll see whether or not it’s going to survive Shonen Jump’s incredibly competitive landscape.

If you wanted to check out Kaedegami as it publishes new chapters in Japan, you can find the newest chapters completely for free with Shueisha’s MangaPlus service or Viz Media’s digital Shonen Jump library. We’ll see how this series develops and figure out soon enough if it’s going to be another series cancelled before it gets a real chance at success, or if it’s going to have the same kind of multi-year run that franchises like My Hero Academia had been able to enjoy in the past. For now, it’s certainly one of the more intriguing debuts.