Kagurabachi continues to reap success

In September 2023, Weekly Shonen Jump magazine released a new manga titled "Kagurabachi," an epic dark fantasy story that quickly gained a large following among the publication's readers. Now, this manga of the new generation of Shonen Jump has achieved a significant milestone by winning Kadokawa's prestigious "Next Manga" award, further cementing its popularity and bringing it one step closer to a possible anime adaptation.

Kadokawa's "Tsugimanga" (Next Manga) award is a user-participation-based award designed to identify emerging series with the greatest potential to become the next big hit in Japan. Every year, avid manga readers have the opportunity to vote for a selection of shortlisted titles. In the most recent edition, which featured 8,212 eligible titles, Takeru Hokazono's "Kagurabachi" took first place among print publications with a staggering total of 101,836 votes.

By comparison, second place, "Welcome to Demon School Iruma-Kun!: Episode of Mafia," received 33,033 votes, while third place went to "Tsumiki Ogata & the Strange, Everyday Life" with 30,384 votes. In the web manga category, "Girl meets Rock!", "RuriDragon" and "Vtuber Kusamura Shigemi" won first, second and third place, respectively.

The victory of "Kagurabachi" is especially remarkable when compared to previous winners. Last year's winner, "There is Also a Hole in the Student's Organization," received 39,283 total votes, while the 2022 winner, "Medalist," received 47,064 votes. This makes the victory of "Kagurabachi" a landslide in comparison. Additionally, the first installment of the "Welcome to Demon School!" series was published in March 2017, which has given it much more time to build a following compared to the emerging success of Hokazono.

"Kagurabachi" is the first manga story with serialized chapters of Hokazono. Including digital sales, the series currently has more than 315,000 copies in circulation (as of July 2024). This impressive sales milestone, along with the recent "Next Manga" award, makes it highly likely that the franchise will receive an anime adaptation in the near future.

Following Kadokawa's announcement of the winners, Hokazono expressed his gratitude to his followers in an emotional message: "I'm really happy that so many people have enjoyed the story and find it interesting, and I'm full of energy to draw more manga. Thanks a lot! I'm really motivated to make it even more interesting... so I look forward to your continued support," he wrote.

Source: Oricon News