Look, we've all seen the memes, we were all there for it. People joked about it left and right, Aleks Le voiced an edit, so on and so forth. I'm here to set things straight, as people are still primarily joking about the manga, and I wanna shed some real light on it. This manga is fun, really fun. It's still very early, as chapter 29 came out the day I'm writing this, but so far the story has been really enjoyable.
The action is incredibly on point, and the paneling helps to elevate it though how snappy and creative it is in the ways it leads you through the page and onto the next one. There's some times it gets a bit cluttered, but those moments are very much overshadowed by the countless times I've been in awe at how simply cool the manga's presentation is. There's many, many panels or specific poses and shots that serve to reflect and contrast the other throughout or between chapters as well, supremely cinematic and unapologetically cool to look at. It's the definition of watching a really solid action flick, you know what you're getting and you're having one hell of a time with it.
The art quality is very often outstanding, but I have my issues with the current style on the characters expression-wise. Most of the expressions the main cast have are either closed mouthes or giant, square-shaped maws, there's no real in-between. This has progressively been getting a bit better, but it's still a present pet peeve with the art-style.
The characters are also a surprising amount of fun to watch. Chihiro's deadpan attitude meshes very well against the colorful types he has around him, it makes him stand out, which also serves for some effective levity at times. The standout to me so far is probably the main antagonist of the first arc, Sojo, who is simply a straight-up menace that serves perfectly as a foil to Chihiro and as a trend-setter for the manga's intentions. He's awesome to see in action and is the first example of what makes Kagurabachi enjoyable to me: pure, effective and classic shonen. Also shout-out to Hiyuki, a newer character who potentially might be one of the coolest women in modern shonen, if she truly gets to shine.
I very much want to relate this manga to Sakamoto Days, almost like a sibling to it in how it's presented. Both are action-focused series that really trim the fat in relation to how they get to the action, making sure the reader gets the maximum amount of time reading action over anything else. The main difference is that Sakamoto Days is much sillier in it's presentation in-between the action, compared to Kagurabachi's more serious and straightforward approach.
I do implore you to give Kagurabachi a chance if you haven't, regardless of why. Not everything needs to reinvent the wheel, sometimes it's just a matter of making a wheel that rolls really damn good, and that's what Kagurabachi is to me, nothing that breaks the mold, but something incredibly solid that's extremely enjoyable and fun to read.