Kagurabachi Editor Responds to the Manga’s Surprise U.S. Popularity

Kagurabachi has has one of the most popular launches with Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in recent memory, and the editor behind the manga series has shared their reaction to its surprising overseas popularity! Kagurabachi’s success has been a wild one to witness as it went viral with fans around the world before the first chapter of the series even made its official debut. The series has been such a hit with fans outside of Japan that even sales of the manga’s first volume have gone through the roof as fans around the world are flocking to online shelves to get it for themselves. 

While a manga being popular with an audience outside of Japan isn’t so surprising these days considering how widely they’ve become available legally, Kagurabachi has been a special case as many of its elements have been especially appealing to international readers. Speaking with Shueisha’s MangaPlus in a special interview for the service’s fifth anniversary, Kagurabachi manga editor Takuro Imamura revealed that the series’ popularity overseas is a surprise to them and a “happy miscalculation.” 

How Popular Is Kagurabachi? 

When speaking about the inspiration behind Kagurabachi, editor Imamura explained that they believed Hokazono’s inspiration for the story came from Western works, “I believe the inspiration for this also came from Western films. Hokazono enjoys not only films but also the game Ghost of Tsushima, which features many distinctly Japanese motifs. Perhaps he finds the concept of the ‘overseas imagery of Japan’ or a ‘cool-looking Japan’ interesting. So, he intentionally incorporates quintessentially Japanese items like ‘swords’ and ‘goldfish’ at key points.” But it turns out it increased its appeal overseas. 

Because Imamura and Hokazono were focused on succeeding in Shonen Jump, the international appeal was ultimately unexpected, “However, since he’s creating it with the intention of gaining popularity in the Jump magazine, we hadn’t consciously considered how it might appeal internationally. When I heard it was buzzing overseas after the serialization started, I was surprised, thinking, ‘Wait, it’s popular there?’ It was a pleasantly unexpected response, like a happy miscalculation.” 

So while Kagurabachi’s massive popularity outside of Japan wasn’t a surprise, the team behind the manga seemed to have come across it on accident rather than plan it that way. But how do you feel about its popularity outside of Japan? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animation and other cool stuff @Valdezology on X (formerly known as Twitter)!