Warning: The following contains spoilers for Kagurabachi chapter 27!!
Chapter 27 of Kagurabachi kickstarts a battle with Chihiro unleashing a new power. Unlike other shonen protagonists, however, it is not an expansion or upgrade of “his” abilities: instead, the hero simply grabs a new weapon and set of powers without any hesitation. This flies in the face of typical shonen rules, which promise that protagonists keep a tight grip on their unique talents.
Takeru Hokazono has been able to keep readers off guard with his narrative choices. Chihiro’s new arsenal upends story expectations, and also continues to establish the grittiness of the crime-ridden setting.
Since even the hero’s powers are not sacred and free to be abandoned, the conflict over the Enchanted Blades will be much more unpredictable going forward, with the author free to change the formula whenever he wishes.
The current arc shows Chihiro contending with the Sazanami Clan, which plans to auction one of the missing Enchanted Blades. As part of a long-term ploy, Chihiro willingly surrenders his own unique sword, the Enten, so he can trace its location to the auction. A recurring question throughout the manga so far is how Chihiro would fight the sorcerers without “his” sword, which chapter 27 answered. In a dramatic reveal, he unleashes the Kuregumo, another Enchanted Blade that belonged to Sojo, a prior villain. This confirms that the swords can be passed about, and that Chihiro is willing to use or abandon them as necessary.
Until now, Chihiro was strongly associated with water and goldfish motifs, so seeing Kagurabachi’s hero change his abilities so easily is unusual. It is like envisioning Naruto abandoning his Shadow Cloning, or Luffy coughing up his Gum Gum Fruit to find another power. It’s normally unthinkable for a shonen protagonist to give up their “unique” talent, and Chihiro’s Enten also fits the bill, being a secret seventh blade that was personally granted to him by his father. Nonetheless, the swordsman is unafraid to use whatever tool is available to him, even what was the signature weapon of a former enemy.
The return of the Kuregumo also promises a unique unpredictability to the ongoing plot. It is possible that Chihiro may collect and subsequently wield all the Enchanted Blades; it is also possible that the swords will continue to find their way from one owner to another. Even the Enten may wind up being used by either friend or foe. This only further highlights the grimy world of the manga, where everything is a tool to be used. With a single page, Kagurabachi shows that its hero’s true strength is his resourcefulness, and promises that the story’s signature weapons can return.
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