Manga
The manga that were hits in Japan in the 2020s.
2020S HITS
About
Young Chihiro spends his days training under his famous swordsmith father. One day he hopes to become a great sword-maker himself. The goofy father and the serious son--they thought these days would last forever. But suddenly, tragedy strikes. A dark day soaked in blood. Chihiro and his blade now live only for revenge.
Character analysis
Chihiro grows up training under his father, a renowned maker of enchanted blades, expecting a life built around craft rather than combat. A sudden, bloody tragedy takes that future away from him, leaving him with nothing but his father's cursed swords and a singular drive for revenge. The story moves fast and hits hard specifically because it doesn't waste time easing into that shift, Chihiro's quiet apprenticeship becomes a weapon almost overnight, and the story is upfront about how much that costs him.
Hakuri is tied into the dangerous world surrounding Chihiro's father's enchanted blades, the kind of figure whose role becomes clearer as the story expands beyond Chihiro's personal revenge into a larger conflict. Without a closer read of the specific chapters, it's hard to describe their exact relationship to Chihiro with full confidence.
Togo exists within the same dangerous world of cursed swordsmithing that defines Chihiro's story, part of the cast whose own goals intersect with his quest. Characters introduced into a revenge story at this stage usually either complicate the hero's path or end up reluctantly tied to it.
Kunishige is the renowned swordsmith whose death is the tragedy driving Chihiro's entire arc. Though he's gone before the story properly begins, his presence lingers through the blades he made and the apprenticeship he gave his son, Chihiro's entire fighting style and purpose are really an inheritance from a father he can no longer learn from directly.
Hinao is part of the cast surrounding the aftermath of the tragedy that reshapes Chihiro's life, caught up in the same world of cursed blades and revenge. A closer read of their specific role would be needed to describe their personality and motivations with more confidence.
Status evaluation
The art is widely praised and highly acclaimed, a major part of why this became one of the buzziest recent debuts in the genre.
The revenge-driven hook is sharp and well-received, with the father-son tragedy giving it real emotional grounding.
Some lighter father-son moments appear early on, but the overall tone is serious.
The loss of Chihiro's father and the quiet future that death takes from him give this real emotional weight.
The story carries real tension but stays action-drama rather than horror-focused.
Sword-based violence is shown in graphic, visceral detail.
The expanding world of cursed swords and the forces seeking them adds a moderate and growing amount to track.
This is a newer, shorter-running series so far. The exact current volume count has not been confirmed against a current source and should be treated as approximate.
“A gentle swordsmith's apprenticeship turning into a single-minded revenge story in the space of a few chapters hit harder than I expected.”