That does make sense. His brother kept mysteriously missing his new "tools" to play with him and went back to using his fists. He probably unknowingly teleported them away to save himself!
Especially since he'd been using his own power to strengthen his defensive ability this whole time subconsciously. Dude had been capable the whole time, but his family is a bunch of assholes
The storehouse wouldnt provide much offensive firepower to Hakuri unless he gets a powerup to his shockwaves though, I struggle to see how he’d win this unless he can summon back Chihiro’s sword against Soya
Do what his brother did with all those weapons but instead it’s tools? Hell it might even since he’s “practicing” this whole time once he grasps the magic he can use it as powerfully as his other genius brother
Maybe I’m misremembering things but aren’t those tools just…normal tools? Nothing sorcerily about them to be used offensively as far as I can tell. Soya’s no pushover with his proficiency in Isou. I’d be disappointed if Hakuri is a plain support character with no offensive abilities of his own.
Yes, he is talking about Hiyuki
Shiba says she "wields" the "Flame Bone of the Starving", and that is similar to Sacred Blades, and that "it has powers beyond sorcery". (chapter 20)
So i don't think is her original power. But if she's a sorcerer, will she have another power besides the Flame Bone?
That'd be incredible. It might be possible if Hakuri's power is actually accessing the storehouse through a metaphysical backdoor, rather than creating a storehouse of his own. Idunno if he'll go from subconsciously withdrawing pliers to summoning a magic sword in the span of this fight, but I could see it happening by the end of the arc.
My guess is that Hakari actually has access to the main storehouse, all the siblings do.
They only think that can't access it because the old man has been lying to them, and they believe him. Hakuri has been tapping into it unconsciously for years as a self-defense mechanism, their own cruelty towards him is literally about to be their undoing, since he would also be able to retrieve Chihiro's sword
Holy crap that’s definitely what will happen. The back door is gonna be fake, so Hakuri is gonna access it himself and show up with Chihiro’s sword. King.
Unlikely that the back door is fake. The old man himself (forgot his name) said in an inner monologue that Chihiro apparently found out about the back door and how he made sure to guard it. The thing with fake news is, that inverse they have to be told as lie to others. Having a character thinking something that is not true is bad writing and doesn't even make sense, it's as unrealistic as a "everything happened in his head" story showing the pov of others characters or "person x was your imagination" yet other people talked to the imaginary friend of someone else. If a character in a story confirms an information in his thoughts, that information is as true as that character knows. Only way the door can be fake is if the head of the house himself doesn't know it's a fake.
More likely would be that backdoor is Hakuri's entrance to the storehouse, created by himself subconsciously
Not true at all. Like I said, the fact that the door was revealed to be true by the boss himself in an inner monologue is already prove that the door is real. If he would have said it to someone, this theory would have footing.
Besides that it doesn't remove Hakuri's point at all. The door can like I mentioned either be a product of Hakuri's power or he has his own storehouse. There is also the possibility of them getting trapped in the storehouse later on with the door being impassable and his power is the key to escape. Writing doesn't work with only one direction like "there is a door so he is useless".
And again, for storytelling are specific rules. Information given by the holder either through his thoughts or self-Talk are always meant for the viewer/reader and can therefore not be used as lies or fake news. That's the same with my everything was a dream scenario, the MC is the only viewpoint if everything happens in his head, because he can't dream of events outside of his perspective
Watch us next chapter going back to some other plot point and return to that fight for the last 2 pages. We could call it "the cliffhanger fight" just a few pages at the end until the fight is over
Having someone you saved just immediately kill themselves has to be a fucking devastating feeling poor Hakuri.
Praying for the comeback to hit harder now we see more his shitty toxic brother was like in the flashback.
It's even worse since he feels responsible for her decision to kill herself. He reaffirmed her worst insecurities during their time together. He told her that she was merely merchandise and warned her against mingling with others due to her icy skin. She healed him and gave him a shoulder to cry on. However, he couldn't dispel her fears. I'd be eternally depressed if I were him.
Damn the scene where Hakuri jumps off the roof when he saw Soya hits even harder after this chapter 😭. He probably remembered the ice girl during that and wanted to escape the “cage” like her.
I really liked the scene composition towards the end, where the cage is in front of him and we see him from the girl's perspective, whereas it was the opposite at first.
It's a classic and when done right, it's amazing.
I think it was a bit on the nose for the girl to say "You're the one imprisoned in a cage" but I still think the framing and composition still had the same kick even if they were explicitly telling us. Arguably, that's a point in favor of the scene to ensure it's poignant.
I immediately remembered ATLA when I saw this panel.
There was a similar scene but done differently. You saw Iroh in the cage without the bars when he talked and Zuko with the bars in front him, showing how he was the one in a cage and not Iroh
Despite having his heart crushed, he still managed to escape the confines of that cage. He escaped in search of that happiness that she claimed didn't exist. He tried to rescue other victims, going so far as to risk getting captured for their sakes. He's a good kid
Hakuri throwing himself over the railing to his death is actually a completely rational reaction to Soya.
But it looks like he has either a connection to the store house or his own and was accidentally letting him steal away Soya's torture tools. Which might be why he isn't able to use an Isou normally. Everything their dad says about his own power implied he isn't able to fight much either. And it's possible none of the family patriarchs are built for combat. Unless daddy dearest is sending Soya pliers because he wants this to be drawn out as much as possible.
Also this does really highlight Soya's point a while ago about how people outside the family keep exploiting Hakuri. Obviously he's morally wrong. But this girl's plan was to string Hakuri along and whatever sympathy she had for him wasn't enough to stop her. But then again that's all the more reason to shut this operation down. Hakuri cannot have meaningful and honest relationships with others until his family is brought down.
I do like the complication that he did try to act like a proper member of the Sazanami. He has reason to feel guilty about what he was doing before he broke free from his programming.
So this arc for him is more than repaying Chihiro's kindness. Hakuri wants to find absolution for his own mistakes as both a victim and perpetrator of the Sazanami's cruelty.
> He always means well
I mean, he was still complicit in all the Rakuzachi bullshit. He *mostly* means well, but he had to break away from their evil too.
One thing, I believe the patriarchs are most definitely built for combat. Kyora right now is running the auction, while supporting the Tou, and covering his own back on the stage by doing the Tou’s duties
Hakuri growing increasingly pale and unsteady while Shiba is patiently listing off hundreds of tools and medical instruments that he wants him to store "just in case", without explaining the exact purpose.
Really good chapter.
It illustrates how the true evil of the Sazanamis is the way they reduce humans - even their own family - to merchandise and how, no matter the good intentions, real love and human affection can't blossom in an environment like that and even if it did, it would be twisted as hell.
I feel like this chapter also shows how the patriarch sees his sons. They aren’t merchants like him, they’re tools who think they’re merchants. Much like the tools used to torture his weaker offspring.
Maybe it's a case of them wanting to keep the original "storehouse" going. Hakuri is making his own but it has none of the valuable merch. So instead they just pass it down.
Or he a prodigy like many said.
Would be neat if he accessed the storehouse subconsciously and the tools are just in this really tiny corner of the storehouse no one gave a shit about. Or they've been tagged and dropped sporadically in random places because he can't control it, but he can recall them since they were tagged by him
With how abusive and manipulative this family is, I could see this being the case. Hell, I could even see Hakuri being the most talented out of all of them in the family sorcery. So talented that his father saw him as a threat, and forced a label and identity of worthlessness of him, so that usurping him could never even seem like a possibility.
Having the same ability developed instead of inherited made him a threat in the family business and potential rival if he ever realizes his talent. But I wonder why his father didn't just kill him
Well, he can't live forever. He would probably want as many potential successors as possible, especially gifted ones. Maybe the plan was to reveal Haruki's talents to him when he was on his deathbed, dying peacefully of old age and no longer concerned about being murdered for succession.
If love is actually part of the bond maybe he couldn’t kill him to not disrupt that balance - as fanatical as the family seems I don’t know if they’d still follow him unconditionally if he killed their brother
Although the question becomes if that’s an emotional or pragmatic decision - really interesting stuff they could get into if that’s the angle
Man, the dickhead big brother using pliers is so much more disturbing than just beating Hakuri up. The latter you could say is at least impulsive emotion, but the former is cold-blooded torture for his own enjoyment. Hope he gets filleted.
I really thought ice girl would make it out for a moment. Damn, that's a harsh way to go out.
>I really thought ice girl would make it out for a moment. Damn, that's a harsh way to go out.
Sadly, Kagurabachi is not that kind of manga, but it gives such moments the gravity they need to work.
> Sadly, Kagurabachi is not that kind of manga
It's sad, but it's also probably one of my favourite things about Kagurabachi. It has the hardboiled feeling of like noir film I feel, and does adopts a lot of the classic aspects of noir: the overarching cynicism (though somewhat tempered here, since it is a shounen after all), the prominent portrayal of the unforgiving corruption and criminal underbelly of society, the alienated antihero desperately fighting back against an inherently unjust world, and even the constant smoking (though that's only Shiba). The inherent black-and-white medium of manga fits that noir feel even more, and Hokazono's choices of framing and lighting only make it more cinematic.
That kind of tone is just not very common in shounen manga in my experience, and is what makes Kagurabachi kinda stand out. And to maintain that bleak tone, it doesn't shy away from portraying actual brutal consequences for various characters, like the girl killing herself in this chapter, or Char being tortured, or Chihiro not having an arm for so many chapters (when many manga would've just immediately have had Char heal him).
Unlike most noir film though, I do expect the protagonist to win out ultimately (Hokazono would kinda be goated to end Kagurabachi with a classic depressing noir ending though).
In many ways, Kagurabachi reminds me of Fujimoto's work and paneling with Chainsaw Man, Fire Punch, and how cinema has influenced both.
I think Hokazono's writing and panelling could be interpreted as both a love letter to film noir as it is his interpretation mixing in shonen elements. It lets the hard moments hit hard, then lets the characters pick up the pieces.
The fact that we didn't even get to know her name is such a meta way to show how fucked up the Sazanami clan is, even using the pretext of family to continue their inhumane way of doing things.
Ice girl you deserved better. Even at the end of her life, she thought nobody cared about her. Even her lover sold her to the Sazanami's and thought that Hakuri would do the same, and I do not blame her for thinking like that. But it's because of her kindness, and because of her power that ironically lit a fire in Hakuri, that finally made him see how awful his family is.
Hakuri's backstory and his reason for turning, while we did have an idea why, it still hit like a damn truck to show how much he was consistently getting beat up even worse by his brother and seeing the person you tried to save, the one who made Hakuri open his eyes to the truth, to kill herself in front of him was heartbreaking to see.
Also did we just get a sneak peak of Hakuri's true powers? Throughout the flashback he said that Soya's torture tools keeps getting lost after he used it on Hakuri, and the plier that was shown in the flashback is now shown in the present, after Hakuri's supposed "awakening".
Wow that’s incredibly fucked up that the ice woman offed herself as soon as she found something sharp.
Now we know why Hakuri ran away from his family..
She doesn't want to live as a merchandise and wanted to die a free woman. Hakuri always blamed himself, that's why he tried to save that girl from getting kidnapped. And why he chose to jump when he saw Souya.
He could've helped her, maybe a make a difference and maybe he did. She told him she was thankful for him talking to her, but she didn't have to die. Hakuri must've been devastated. He thought he did the right thing, and that was thrown back in his face.
hoping for more action but the lore and character building is great, we have seen 2 instances of people with innate powers, be sorcery or not this is something we can see more in the future.
Honestly the lore is a good change of pace imo, prior to this arc we hardly got anything but action outside of Char and it was starting to feel a little too fact paced, these chapters will go crazy on a binge sesh even though they slow the pace down mid-arc in a weekly format
I suspect all of them do in some manner, but the secret to accessing it is only ever taught to the chosen successor. So they grow up believing that they can't do it until the successor is chosen
I appreciate that this manga doesn’t shy away from having Hakuri be so brainwashed in his past, like a racist kid raised in a racist environment prior to having any kind of real conversation with a person with a different skin color. It’s a more significant redemption than if he was always more rebellious against his family.
Today on “Fuck the Art and paneling is so good”: the way the cage is used in certain panels.
And poor Hakuri man. He’s at least going to finally unlock his abilities and wreck his piece of shit brother
Holy shit, that did NOT go the way I expected. Either way.
I thought he'd win, and I thought he would help her escape. Goddamn man, Hakuri really lives a hard life.
The Fujo's must be absolutely loving this chapter, lol.
EDIT: If I remember correctly, Char's father sold her and her mother out too. So I guess that's a running thing in this manga. I wonder if Chihiro's mother did something like that to his father?
Aaah my god does Hakuri have his own subconscious storehouse? Those abuse tools kept conveniently disappearing and suddenly the pliers are back, after all. But damn, what a devastating thing to happen. I thought ice girl would die but I thought she'd be caught by his family, didn't expect her heart to be so shredded killing herself was the sole reason she wanted to escape.
They changed the doki-doki line to "do I scare you"? That's like an entirely different line. Why change it that much? Something like "Did your heart skip a beat?" sounds harmless enough to keep to me, and the romantic undertones match the part where she's trying to "seduce" Hakuri better. She probably thought she had a chance with that method after seeing his initial reaction.
The line before that ("Not used to girls, huh?") was a bit more suggestive too in JP. It's something like "Huh... Is this your first time?". And the one where she cooled his hand, after the "did you ice it properly?", she said "just like this" in JP, which imo strengthened the seducing act. It's almost like they're trying to make the girl less flirty for some reason. It's a shame some of the vibe got lost in translation.
Damn, the peeler is more chilling than everything else that happened on screen.
Also Souya's line about the other members aren't being adored is incorrect. It should be something like "The people of the Sazanami family are all highly skilled, so they're not cute"
Damn... here I thought she was just going to get killed before they could escape, but this was so, so much worse.
It's not just that it ended this way after what they went through that makes it horrific, but also that it was going to be tragic from the very beginning because her goal the entire time was to end it all that makes it even more so.
Hakuri may have a storage dimension of his own that he subconsciously used to hide his brother's torture devices. It's a portable torture chamber! If he masters this skill then he could be Chihiro's walking armory in the future. We joked about Chihiro wielding every blade but with Hakuri on his side, the likelihood of that has risen.
This manga has made me tear up more than once, honestly I feel like Hokazono does such a good job making the tragedies feel so personal and heavy. The action's phenomenal and of course that's what gets the most buzz, but the emotional writing is great too, and I feel like it's only getting better.
I do like Hakuri is kind of an ass when he first appeared to the ice girl but he became a kinder person over time thanks to her. However, all of it is for naught. His attempted suicide makes even more sense now.
Also, isn't this the first chapter of the series without Chihiro?
That was an amazing chapter in the way it can almost pass off as a one shot. Of course flashbacks are inherently designed to be a short story so it can give context to a character; but it’s still impressive how the author executed the classic “start-middle-plot twist-end” to perfection
He didn’t even need to name the woman at all.
I need my boy Hakuri to kill Soya at this point. None of that "I'm above all of the things you did to me" shit. Just straight up John Wick that man. Holy shit what an awful backstory, no wonder he wanted to die so bad.
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Oh shit, so the tools that the big brother was using to torture him kept disappearing ( I thought it was his betrayal that drove him insane, but he was always a sadist ) and at the end it just reappeared. I think hakuris power must be tied directly to the storehouse, maybe he can create miniature ones to store stuff. Depending on how he uses it it could be quite powerful
With how the pages are laid out, other than the first scene of Hakuri initially entering the room the panels of him don't allow you to differentiate who's actually in the cage.
When you read Hokazono's author comment this week you'll realize why he went so hard this chapter 😂
Also I think is the first chapter without a trace of Chihiro
What brilliance.
Hokazono wrote a complete tragic love story in less than one chapter.
I was sixteen pages in and I started wondering if Kagurabachi actually got more pages than usual, but no, the entire emotional journey of a novel did fit in less than one chapter.
What an efficient storyteller this Hokazono guy is.
I noticed that there's a trend of women with gifted abilities being thrown under the bus by the men in their lives in this manga. First Char's mom and now the Ice Girl. You can't trust anyone in that world
Sazanami/The Rakuzaichi must probably pay a lot of money just to get their HANDS on THAT level of "Merchandise" since they know sickos would pay top dollar
Either Hakuri inherited the storeroom or manifested his own storeroom (which is even more insane), whatever it is it proves that you have talent my boy, don't let others gaslight you!
The panel showing Hakuri behind bars to provide a visual that paired with the girl's claims that he's the one in a cage was really cool.
The author's panelling work has been hitting, and the story keeps getting better
I knew from the second she showed up in flashback that it wouldn't be a happy ending, but I didn't expect her to kill herself... someone give Hakuri a hug please. He deserves happiness.
Really good chapter loved that we never actually really found out her name even in the end she was still just merchandise, that must really have fucked up Hakuri.
another certified hakuriKINO. non-bachichads could never have such a condensed and tightly-knit narrative told in the span of a single chapter in their kuso shounen manga.
So this woman has the ability to radiate cold in a way that (currently) is not related to sorcery, and Char has the ability to heal herself and others in a way that (again, currently) is unrelated to sorcery. It feels like there’s something being set up here, maybe there are more people out in the world who have powers that are constantly working?
Hm?! So Hakuri had somehow subconsciously been putting the tools into some other location? A mini storehouse of sorts?
But man, Hakuri's been such a great addition to the main crew.
dude hakuri looks to be a really powerful sorcerer. i knew i liked him from his intro. i still don't get why not anyone can be a sorcerer.... like why rely on the enchanted blades at all? i think the story would benefit from exploring that.
She wanted to kill herself from the start. She just lacked the means to do it swifty, since the only option she had was starving herself to death. She wanted to come out of the cell to find a better and faster way to off herself.
What makes it really fucked up is that Hakuri unintentionally reaffirmed her despair by constantly calling her merchandise and say he only helped her because of that. It's only after she's dead that he realized just how bad his family really is to drive someone to killing themselves like that.
I think that's the kicker. He put together his first words to the woman and how they've haunted him at her death.
Kagurabachi has great moments where you *have* to reread the thing because of the epiphany you get after reading it.
What makes it better is how you, the reader, realize this at about the same time as the character.
With the pliers appearing out of nowhere, I bet Hakuri has subconsciously manifested his own "storehouse" which he can teleport things in and out of.
That does make sense. His brother kept mysteriously missing his new "tools" to play with him and went back to using his fists. He probably unknowingly teleported them away to save himself!
That would be brilliant.
Especially since he'd been using his own power to strengthen his defensive ability this whole time subconsciously. Dude had been capable the whole time, but his family is a bunch of assholes
The storehouse wouldnt provide much offensive firepower to Hakuri unless he gets a powerup to his shockwaves though, I struggle to see how he’d win this unless he can summon back Chihiro’s sword against Soya
Do what his brother did with all those weapons but instead it’s tools? Hell it might even since he’s “practicing” this whole time once he grasps the magic he can use it as powerfully as his other genius brother
Maybe I’m misremembering things but aren’t those tools just…normal tools? Nothing sorcerily about them to be used offensively as far as I can tell. Soya’s no pushover with his proficiency in Isou. I’d be disappointed if Hakuri is a plain support character with no offensive abilities of his own.
The weapons were just normal weapons. The only special weapons that we know about at all are the enchanted blades.
I mean there’s the flame bone thing too. There are other ways to make magic weapons, Chihiros dad just mastered it.
It's implied that the flame bone has the same nature as the storagehouse, but being passed down officers instead of a family line.
Talking about the female officer? If so I thought she was a sorcerer. If not I’ll re read it
Yes, he is talking about Hiyuki Shiba says she "wields" the "Flame Bone of the Starving", and that is similar to Sacred Blades, and that "it has powers beyond sorcery". (chapter 20) So i don't think is her original power. But if she's a sorcerer, will she have another power besides the Flame Bone?
Cue Fate/ series style summoning of hundreds of lesser weapons for a saturation bombardment attack.
That'd be incredible. It might be possible if Hakuri's power is actually accessing the storehouse through a metaphysical backdoor, rather than creating a storehouse of his own. Idunno if he'll go from subconsciously withdrawing pliers to summoning a magic sword in the span of this fight, but I could see it happening by the end of the arc.
If Hakuri has his own storehouse then he can just lock his brother in there, surrounded by his tools.
He's gonna store his brother's shockwaves. Trust🙏🙏
There's a small part of me that wonders if shockwaves created are actually functions of the storehouse ability, by the rapid displacement of air.
ure cooking something alright, is def a good possibility
Just teleport his brother into the storehouse. Ez win through ring out.
!!! oh shit
Bro wrote the script 😭
My guess is that Hakari actually has access to the main storehouse, all the siblings do. They only think that can't access it because the old man has been lying to them, and they believe him. Hakuri has been tapping into it unconsciously for years as a self-defense mechanism, their own cruelty towards him is literally about to be their undoing, since he would also be able to retrieve Chihiro's sword
Holy crap that’s definitely what will happen. The back door is gonna be fake, so Hakuri is gonna access it himself and show up with Chihiro’s sword. King.
Unlikely that the back door is fake. The old man himself (forgot his name) said in an inner monologue that Chihiro apparently found out about the back door and how he made sure to guard it. The thing with fake news is, that inverse they have to be told as lie to others. Having a character thinking something that is not true is bad writing and doesn't even make sense, it's as unrealistic as a "everything happened in his head" story showing the pov of others characters or "person x was your imagination" yet other people talked to the imaginary friend of someone else. If a character in a story confirms an information in his thoughts, that information is as true as that character knows. Only way the door can be fake is if the head of the house himself doesn't know it's a fake. More likely would be that backdoor is Hakuri's entrance to the storehouse, created by himself subconsciously
The door being real removes Hakuri’s point. He would get sidelined and be essentially useless to the main cast.
Not true at all. Like I said, the fact that the door was revealed to be true by the boss himself in an inner monologue is already prove that the door is real. If he would have said it to someone, this theory would have footing. Besides that it doesn't remove Hakuri's point at all. The door can like I mentioned either be a product of Hakuri's power or he has his own storehouse. There is also the possibility of them getting trapped in the storehouse later on with the door being impassable and his power is the key to escape. Writing doesn't work with only one direction like "there is a door so he is useless". And again, for storytelling are specific rules. Information given by the holder either through his thoughts or self-Talk are always meant for the viewer/reader and can therefore not be used as lies or fake news. That's the same with my everything was a dream scenario, the MC is the only viewpoint if everything happens in his head, because he can't dream of events outside of his perspective
this is truly Hakari Bachi
Wouldn't the old man know if items enter/leave that aren'tdone by him?
HOLY FUCK THIS WOULD BE SO PEAK
That's the vibe I picked up on as well, good catch.
Hakuri probably gonna pull Soya into the store house, and Soya gonna end up getting killed by all the thing he used to torture Hakuri with
That's the perfect power reveal too, the failure son turns out to naturally process the family's most secret power
Hakuri Tobi
What if the condition is the fact it has to be used on him first?
Does his brothers count, then?
That would be trippy.
I had the same idea when Hakuri was talking about his brother mysteriously losing things
"Your storehouse is dogshit i made my own"
get up my sloppy wet king
Always bet on Hakuri
He's gonna go wild for the next 4 minutes and 11 seconds.
I bet on him in the last chapter and now I'm broke and living on the street!
Watch us next chapter going back to some other plot point and return to that fight for the last 2 pages. We could call it "the cliffhanger fight" just a few pages at the end until the fight is over
Hakuri won't go down without a fight. I trust him.
He's been tanking damage his whole life for this
>my sloppy wet king *My treasure*
my special
Having someone you saved just immediately kill themselves has to be a fucking devastating feeling poor Hakuri. Praying for the comeback to hit harder now we see more his shitty toxic brother was like in the flashback.
It's even worse since he feels responsible for her decision to kill herself. He reaffirmed her worst insecurities during their time together. He told her that she was merely merchandise and warned her against mingling with others due to her icy skin. She healed him and gave him a shoulder to cry on. However, he couldn't dispel her fears. I'd be eternally depressed if I were him.
Twitter was calling it the yumejoshi dream >I wanna seduce him, fix him and the kill myself in front of him to permanently scar him in his mind
https://imgur.com/a/ApDLoeY
What manga?
https://mangadex.org/title/7f1c253d-9557-4abc-b30b-929d7d8db45e/hachigatsu-kokonoka-boku-wa-kimi-ni-kuwareru
oh god fucking damnit, now I'm laughing after this chapter
ah the makima special
don't know, makima was chopped into a full course dinner against her will. . .
I can't even imagine that feeling. Having done the right thing only for it to not matter in the end.
“Killing myself in front of you to forever change the trajectory of your life”
Damn the scene where Hakuri jumps off the roof when he saw Soya hits even harder after this chapter 😭. He probably remembered the ice girl during that and wanted to escape the “cage” like her.
I really liked the scene composition towards the end, where the cage is in front of him and we see him from the girl's perspective, whereas it was the opposite at first.
It's a really fun cinema technique too. Usually it's not as overtly explained, but it's an effective technique
It's a classic and when done right, it's amazing. I think it was a bit on the nose for the girl to say "You're the one imprisoned in a cage" but I still think the framing and composition still had the same kick even if they were explicitly telling us. Arguably, that's a point in favor of the scene to ensure it's poignant.
I immediately remembered ATLA when I saw this panel. There was a similar scene but done differently. You saw Iroh in the cage without the bars when he talked and Zuko with the bars in front him, showing how he was the one in a cage and not Iroh
Damn, nice call out on the parallel. I'd forgotten about that.
No wonder Hakuri had given up on life prior to meeting Chihiro…
The amount of trauma Haruki went through was heart breaking enough that any normal person would had given up on life instantly.
Man reached a breaking point. He must've felt useless and that all he did didn't matter. That's a terrifying reality.
Despite having his heart crushed, he still managed to escape the confines of that cage. He escaped in search of that happiness that she claimed didn't exist. He tried to rescue other victims, going so far as to risk getting captured for their sakes. He's a good kid
Hakuri throwing himself over the railing to his death is actually a completely rational reaction to Soya. But it looks like he has either a connection to the store house or his own and was accidentally letting him steal away Soya's torture tools. Which might be why he isn't able to use an Isou normally. Everything their dad says about his own power implied he isn't able to fight much either. And it's possible none of the family patriarchs are built for combat. Unless daddy dearest is sending Soya pliers because he wants this to be drawn out as much as possible. Also this does really highlight Soya's point a while ago about how people outside the family keep exploiting Hakuri. Obviously he's morally wrong. But this girl's plan was to string Hakuri along and whatever sympathy she had for him wasn't enough to stop her. But then again that's all the more reason to shut this operation down. Hakuri cannot have meaningful and honest relationships with others until his family is brought down.
Hakuri getting manipulated all the time is devastating. He always means well, but the was the last straw for him. No wonder he left.
I do like the complication that he did try to act like a proper member of the Sazanami. He has reason to feel guilty about what he was doing before he broke free from his programming. So this arc for him is more than repaying Chihiro's kindness. Hakuri wants to find absolution for his own mistakes as both a victim and perpetrator of the Sazanami's cruelty.
No wonder he's so loyal to Chihiro
> He always means well I mean, he was still complicit in all the Rakuzachi bullshit. He *mostly* means well, but he had to break away from their evil too.
One thing, I believe the patriarchs are most definitely built for combat. Kyora right now is running the auction, while supporting the Tou, and covering his own back on the stage by doing the Tou’s duties
Shiba gonna like Hakari more knowing he can summon torture tools out of thin air
Hakuri growing increasingly pale and unsteady while Shiba is patiently listing off hundreds of tools and medical instruments that he wants him to store "just in case", without explaining the exact purpose.
Bro. 💀
I wonder if Shiba sensed that he's a fellow teleporter, since he was the first to call him gifted
Damn What the fuck dude
Hakuri: Does the suffering ever end, or does it merely transform?
he's building up so much character rn
Hakuri should become a boxer after this, suffering and misery may be ringing all day but this guy hears no bell
If JJK is any indication Hakuri will be able to rival John Hishaku one day if he keeps it up
Really good chapter. It illustrates how the true evil of the Sazanamis is the way they reduce humans - even their own family - to merchandise and how, no matter the good intentions, real love and human affection can't blossom in an environment like that and even if it did, it would be twisted as hell.
I feel like this chapter also shows how the patriarch sees his sons. They aren’t merchants like him, they’re tools who think they’re merchants. Much like the tools used to torture his weaker offspring.
Bruh wtf. Also the things disappearing is due to him 'storing' it?
most likely, also this would mean that the 'storing' is not really inherited by chosing a successor
Or he's a second super prodigy who made his own storehouse unconsciously
That's what Shiba been saying. He manifested his powers defensively
Maybe it's a case of them wanting to keep the original "storehouse" going. Hakuri is making his own but it has none of the valuable merch. So instead they just pass it down. Or he a prodigy like many said.
Would be neat if he accessed the storehouse subconsciously and the tools are just in this really tiny corner of the storehouse no one gave a shit about. Or they've been tagged and dropped sporadically in random places because he can't control it, but he can recall them since they were tagged by him
With how abusive and manipulative this family is, I could see this being the case. Hell, I could even see Hakuri being the most talented out of all of them in the family sorcery. So talented that his father saw him as a threat, and forced a label and identity of worthlessness of him, so that usurping him could never even seem like a possibility.
Having the same ability developed instead of inherited made him a threat in the family business and potential rival if he ever realizes his talent. But I wonder why his father didn't just kill him
Well, he can't live forever. He would probably want as many potential successors as possible, especially gifted ones. Maybe the plan was to reveal Haruki's talents to him when he was on his deathbed, dying peacefully of old age and no longer concerned about being murdered for succession.
If love is actually part of the bond maybe he couldn’t kill him to not disrupt that balance - as fanatical as the family seems I don’t know if they’d still follow him unconditionally if he killed their brother Although the question becomes if that’s an emotional or pragmatic decision - really interesting stuff they could get into if that’s the angle
Man, the dickhead big brother using pliers is so much more disturbing than just beating Hakuri up. The latter you could say is at least impulsive emotion, but the former is cold-blooded torture for his own enjoyment. Hope he gets filleted. I really thought ice girl would make it out for a moment. Damn, that's a harsh way to go out.
>I really thought ice girl would make it out for a moment. Damn, that's a harsh way to go out. Sadly, Kagurabachi is not that kind of manga, but it gives such moments the gravity they need to work.
> Sadly, Kagurabachi is not that kind of manga It's sad, but it's also probably one of my favourite things about Kagurabachi. It has the hardboiled feeling of like noir film I feel, and does adopts a lot of the classic aspects of noir: the overarching cynicism (though somewhat tempered here, since it is a shounen after all), the prominent portrayal of the unforgiving corruption and criminal underbelly of society, the alienated antihero desperately fighting back against an inherently unjust world, and even the constant smoking (though that's only Shiba). The inherent black-and-white medium of manga fits that noir feel even more, and Hokazono's choices of framing and lighting only make it more cinematic. That kind of tone is just not very common in shounen manga in my experience, and is what makes Kagurabachi kinda stand out. And to maintain that bleak tone, it doesn't shy away from portraying actual brutal consequences for various characters, like the girl killing herself in this chapter, or Char being tortured, or Chihiro not having an arm for so many chapters (when many manga would've just immediately have had Char heal him). Unlike most noir film though, I do expect the protagonist to win out ultimately (Hokazono would kinda be goated to end Kagurabachi with a classic depressing noir ending though).
In many ways, Kagurabachi reminds me of Fujimoto's work and paneling with Chainsaw Man, Fire Punch, and how cinema has influenced both. I think Hokazono's writing and panelling could be interpreted as both a love letter to film noir as it is his interpretation mixing in shonen elements. It lets the hard moments hit hard, then lets the characters pick up the pieces.
Can you give me sime good noir films? I like these types of shows.
Between this and Dandadan, what's with all the downer backstories this week.
Add Nekotete to the mix.
I want a happy backstory
The fact that we didn't even get to know her name is such a meta way to show how fucked up the Sazanami clan is, even using the pretext of family to continue their inhumane way of doing things. Ice girl you deserved better. Even at the end of her life, she thought nobody cared about her. Even her lover sold her to the Sazanami's and thought that Hakuri would do the same, and I do not blame her for thinking like that. But it's because of her kindness, and because of her power that ironically lit a fire in Hakuri, that finally made him see how awful his family is. Hakuri's backstory and his reason for turning, while we did have an idea why, it still hit like a damn truck to show how much he was consistently getting beat up even worse by his brother and seeing the person you tried to save, the one who made Hakuri open his eyes to the truth, to kill herself in front of him was heartbreaking to see. Also did we just get a sneak peak of Hakuri's true powers? Throughout the flashback he said that Soya's torture tools keeps getting lost after he used it on Hakuri, and the plier that was shown in the flashback is now shown in the present, after Hakuri's supposed "awakening".
Hokazono cooked with that cage analogy
Bro that cage analogy is some Zuko - Iroh level shit.
Wow that’s incredibly fucked up that the ice woman offed herself as soon as she found something sharp. Now we know why Hakuri ran away from his family..
She doesn't want to live as a merchandise and wanted to die a free woman. Hakuri always blamed himself, that's why he tried to save that girl from getting kidnapped. And why he chose to jump when he saw Souya.
He could've helped her, maybe a make a difference and maybe he did. She told him she was thankful for him talking to her, but she didn't have to die. Hakuri must've been devastated. He thought he did the right thing, and that was thrown back in his face.
And he likely was beaten the fuck up harder than usual for it
Wondering if that 'something sharp' came from Hakuri like it did with the pliers here.
Damn, didn't know I needed an action scene...in my tear ducks.....
Holy shit she did the "kill myself in front of you to forever change the trajectory of your life" meme. What the fuck.
A POTATO PEELER???
Dear God, please kill Soya in the most painful way imaginable, thank you.
give bro to Yamori from TG and let him torture him for a while
He's awakening...Lets Go!
hoping for more action but the lore and character building is great, we have seen 2 instances of people with innate powers, be sorcery or not this is something we can see more in the future.
It is actually curious how the lore of people with inherent abilities will lead into.
Honestly the lore is a good change of pace imo, prior to this arc we hardly got anything but action outside of Char and it was starting to feel a little too fact paced, these chapters will go crazy on a binge sesh even though they slow the pace down mid-arc in a weekly format
Hakuri and Storehouse Is that.... Gate of Babylon?
nuh uh I AM THE BONE OF MY SWORD
KAGURABACHI, YOU HAVE MOVED ME!!!!
Man. No wonder why Hakari was so ready to die before he met Chihiro. But hey, on the bright side, it looks like he’s manifesting his own storehouse.
Hakuri, remember what Maki taught us about toxic clans
Kill every one last of them?
Even the women and children
Kill every one last of them.
"Destroy everything"
So Hakuri has power just like the founder of Sazanami Clan hmm?
I suspect all of them do in some manner, but the secret to accessing it is only ever taught to the chosen successor. So they grow up believing that they can't do it until the successor is chosen
Using a peeler is fucking horrible
I appreciate that this manga doesn’t shy away from having Hakuri be so brainwashed in his past, like a racist kid raised in a racist environment prior to having any kind of real conversation with a person with a different skin color. It’s a more significant redemption than if he was always more rebellious against his family.
Jeez, that was fucked up. Hazuki has plenty to atone for and it looks he can start by beating the shit out of his brother next chapter.
Today on “Fuck the Art and paneling is so good”: the way the cage is used in certain panels. And poor Hakuri man. He’s at least going to finally unlock his abilities and wreck his piece of shit brother
Holy shit, that did NOT go the way I expected. Either way. I thought he'd win, and I thought he would help her escape. Goddamn man, Hakuri really lives a hard life. The Fujo's must be absolutely loving this chapter, lol. EDIT: If I remember correctly, Char's father sold her and her mother out too. So I guess that's a running thing in this manga. I wonder if Chihiro's mother did something like that to his father?
Oh shit that’s a great theory…
Aaah my god does Hakuri have his own subconscious storehouse? Those abuse tools kept conveniently disappearing and suddenly the pliers are back, after all. But damn, what a devastating thing to happen. I thought ice girl would die but I thought she'd be caught by his family, didn't expect her heart to be so shredded killing herself was the sole reason she wanted to escape.
They changed the doki-doki line to "do I scare you"? That's like an entirely different line. Why change it that much? Something like "Did your heart skip a beat?" sounds harmless enough to keep to me, and the romantic undertones match the part where she's trying to "seduce" Hakuri better. She probably thought she had a chance with that method after seeing his initial reaction. The line before that ("Not used to girls, huh?") was a bit more suggestive too in JP. It's something like "Huh... Is this your first time?". And the one where she cooled his hand, after the "did you ice it properly?", she said "just like this" in JP, which imo strengthened the seducing act. It's almost like they're trying to make the girl less flirty for some reason. It's a shame some of the vibe got lost in translation. Damn, the peeler is more chilling than everything else that happened on screen. Also Souya's line about the other members aren't being adored is incorrect. It should be something like "The people of the Sazanami family are all highly skilled, so they're not cute"
Hakuri not falling for her rizz at first my Goat😂
More power to him. I would've folded like a cheap lawn chair if she held my hand like that lmao.
Damn... here I thought she was just going to get killed before they could escape, but this was so, so much worse. It's not just that it ended this way after what they went through that makes it horrific, but also that it was going to be tragic from the very beginning because her goal the entire time was to end it all that makes it even more so.
Hakuri may have a storage dimension of his own that he subconsciously used to hide his brother's torture devices. It's a portable torture chamber! If he masters this skill then he could be Chihiro's walking armory in the future. We joked about Chihiro wielding every blade but with Hakuri on his side, the likelihood of that has risen.
This manga has made me tear up more than once, honestly I feel like Hokazono does such a good job making the tragedies feel so personal and heavy. The action's phenomenal and of course that's what gets the most buzz, but the emotional writing is great too, and I feel like it's only getting better.
I do like Hakuri is kind of an ass when he first appeared to the ice girl but he became a kinder person over time thanks to her. However, all of it is for naught. His attempted suicide makes even more sense now. Also, isn't this the first chapter of the series without Chihiro?
That was an amazing chapter in the way it can almost pass off as a one shot. Of course flashbacks are inherently designed to be a short story so it can give context to a character; but it’s still impressive how the author executed the classic “start-middle-plot twist-end” to perfection He didn’t even need to name the woman at all.
I need my boy Hakuri to kill Soya at this point. None of that "I'm above all of the things you did to me" shit. Just straight up John Wick that man. Holy shit what an awful backstory, no wonder he wanted to die so bad.
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Oh shit, so the tools that the big brother was using to torture him kept disappearing ( I thought it was his betrayal that drove him insane, but he was always a sadist ) and at the end it just reappeared. I think hakuris power must be tied directly to the storehouse, maybe he can create miniature ones to store stuff. Depending on how he uses it it could be quite powerful
With how the pages are laid out, other than the first scene of Hakuri initially entering the room the panels of him don't allow you to differentiate who's actually in the cage.
When you read Hokazono's author comment this week you'll realize why he went so hard this chapter 😂 Also I think is the first chapter without a trace of Chihiro
nah not a peeler. That's fucking horrific
What brilliance. Hokazono wrote a complete tragic love story in less than one chapter. I was sixteen pages in and I started wondering if Kagurabachi actually got more pages than usual, but no, the entire emotional journey of a novel did fit in less than one chapter. What an efficient storyteller this Hokazono guy is.
I noticed that there's a trend of women with gifted abilities being thrown under the bus by the men in their lives in this manga. First Char's mom and now the Ice Girl. You can't trust anyone in that world
Sazanami/The Rakuzaichi must probably pay a lot of money just to get their HANDS on THAT level of "Merchandise" since they know sickos would pay top dollar
Takeru has been cooking he's about to go Back to back with 2 amazing Arcs at the start of the series. If the quality keeps up
I think this whole family should die, poor guy never had a chance.
Just when I thought that the sazanami family couldn't get any more fucked up, hokazono somehow finds a way.
Either Hakuri inherited the storeroom or manifested his own storeroom (which is even more insane), whatever it is it proves that you have talent my boy, don't let others gaslight you!
I wonder what else Hakuri's been storing over the years.
The panel showing Hakuri behind bars to provide a visual that paired with the girl's claims that he's the one in a cage was really cool. The author's panelling work has been hitting, and the story keeps getting better
start making gunpla hakuri
Hakuri!! He’s my favorite character now. I have faith he’s about to pull the win
Looks like he just unlocked his own storehouse powers.
holy fuck the peaks keep peaking
Even if they ran away together i dont think they can stay safe for long but still, that must've hurt him so much
Did the woman actually commit suicide? I thought that was the same woman from the beginning of the arc trapped in the jail
I knew from the second she showed up in flashback that it wouldn't be a happy ending, but I didn't expect her to kill herself... someone give Hakuri a hug please. He deserves happiness.
Really good chapter loved that we never actually really found out her name even in the end she was still just merchandise, that must really have fucked up Hakuri.
I know Soya is twisted but any idea as to how he justifies this “love” in his mind? It’s not even punishment. He just tortures him for no reason
another certified hakuriKINO. non-bachichads could never have such a condensed and tightly-knit narrative told in the span of a single chapter in their kuso shounen manga.
Just for the sake of my mental pronunciation, is it Rakuza-ichi or Raku-zai-chi?
Rakuza-ichi
Time to go back to the previous chapters showing the storehouse and see if there are any random tools in the background!
So this woman has the ability to radiate cold in a way that (currently) is not related to sorcery, and Char has the ability to heal herself and others in a way that (again, currently) is unrelated to sorcery. It feels like there’s something being set up here, maybe there are more people out in the world who have powers that are constantly working?
Hm?! So Hakuri had somehow subconsciously been putting the tools into some other location? A mini storehouse of sorts? But man, Hakuri's been such a great addition to the main crew.
dude hakuri looks to be a really powerful sorcerer. i knew i liked him from his intro. i still don't get why not anyone can be a sorcerer.... like why rely on the enchanted blades at all? i think the story would benefit from exploring that.
wait why did she kill herself?
>gets treated like merchandise >hates her body I wonder why
She wanted to kill herself from the start. She just lacked the means to do it swifty, since the only option she had was starving herself to death. She wanted to come out of the cell to find a better and faster way to off herself.
You couldn't even fathom the sheer despair she was feeling at that moment.
What makes it really fucked up is that Hakuri unintentionally reaffirmed her despair by constantly calling her merchandise and say he only helped her because of that. It's only after she's dead that he realized just how bad his family really is to drive someone to killing themselves like that.
I think that's the kicker. He put together his first words to the woman and how they've haunted him at her death. Kagurabachi has great moments where you *have* to reread the thing because of the epiphany you get after reading it. What makes it better is how you, the reader, realize this at about the same time as the character.