I reread Vol.1 and yap (Part 2: Chapters 3-5)
Warning: long post
Fuck it we ball, I'm doing a part 2. Part 1 here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Kagurabachi/s/khgx3dNNCt
Chapter 3
If you're not aware, the Shonen Jump youtube channel did a reading of the first 3 chapters of Kagurabachi, with voice actors and everything. They usually do this with some of their series, but the Kagurabachi one is special in that the visuals use the english translated version of the manga instead of the original japanese. The VAs in it are pretty good, and this panel is the highlight: https://youtu.be/tUo5kS8MRqc&t=2m50s
Chihiro slurping his cold soba
One of my favourite panels of Chihiro, it's so unserious. But the digital version of the manga on the MangaPlus/Shonen Jump apps crop out the cup, I've seen screenshots of the full digital version with the cup circulating around the internet and it makes me jealous not knowing how those people found it. I'm pretty sure not even this physical version is the full thing, I'm sure I've seen it go more below the cup.
Daruma man summoning his darumas
I've only just now noticed how disgusting it looks when Daruma guy summons his darumas. He summons them several times and I can't unsee how gross it is every time.
Chapter 4
Not even a whole explosion in front of him can interfere with his bummery, he's probably used to it from his war crimmy days (jk jk even goats deserve sleep). Besides that, I find the panelling quite amusing here. I initially thought that the view of Shiba was just one of those mini-panels that show people's reactions, but it's actually the rear-view mirror of the car. Pretty neat.
I never actually noticed this before, but Enten turns into the colour of the fish that Chihiro is about to summon, or more like the blade is wrapped in a coloured liquid before it turns into a fish. I skimmed through my screenshots of later chapters and it happens a lot actually (though not much in the current Sword Bearer Assassination arc), I must be blind to have not noticed it before, lol. I'd love to see it animated though, that would look amazing.
Here's a panel of Chihiro going 😮 for some reason.
I find it funny the way these two are watching the battle unfold like they're in some drive-in cinema, and call me immature, but this panel here makes it look like they're watching Chihiro releasing some major gas midair.
Chapter 6
Chihiro when he hangs up on you
I love the way Chihiro just hangs up when he can't come up with a response. The whole phone call with Hinao is pretty funny, Hinao makes a good point but he's just so annoyed the whole time.
Shiba trying to get info out of Daruma guy
If I'm correct and Daruma is talking about the Hishaku here, I'm getting the impression that we've barely seen what the Hishaku are capable of as of Chapter 63. It's making me wonder what exactly it is that makes the Hishaku so menacing...
This looks brutal as fuck btw:
His right foot looks like it's just gone...
So there's two bowls with what I'm assuming is rice wine on the tray.
He takes the jug instead.
Other notes
I'm noticing that there's a lot of moments where you can see Shiba quietly reacting to something, despite how expressive he usually is. Sure, you'll see others like Chihiro react to things, but you can usually tell what they're thinking. But there's something about Shiba's reactions that are oddly vague. Sometimes you get to see his inner dialogue, but a lot of the time it's kinda just blank and it's hard to guess what he's actually thinking, even with what we know about him now. It feels like we still don't actually know him that well, not yet anyway.
Anyway, here's a compilation of Char panels I like:
Char looking for spirit energy
And that's all I have... for now. If you're seeing this, thanks for reading this far! If you liked these rambles, reply to this post with "glug". I'm probably going to do a part 3 for the rest of Vol.1, so I'll see you there 👋.
Sojò
Posted Jan 15, 2025, 3:37 PM UTC