"From meme to award winning manga" - Kagurabachi fans celebrate series' journey to impressive Next Manga Awards victory

Modified Aug 29, 2024 13:17 GMT

"From meme to award winning manga" - Kagurabachi fans celebrate series' journey to impressive Next Manga Awards victory (Image via

The official winners of the Next Manga Awards 2024 were announced on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, with the Kagurabachi manga winning the Print Manga category. Takeruo Hokazono’s series earned its victory with more than 100 thousand votes from fans worldwide. It earned the second-highest share of votes in the contest’s history and more than tripled the 2024 second-place share.

Understandably, the ever-fervent fanbase of the Kagurabachi manga series is taking the opportunity to celebrate and boast of their favorite manga’s success. As many are pointing out, what started as a meme surrounding the series and its apparent edginess has blossomed into a successful, award-winning manga series.

Kagurabachi confirms its success with latest overwhelming award victory

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The Kagurabachi manga’s popularity primarily started out as memes surrounding the series’ edginess in general and protagonist Chihiro Rokuhira. Many even posted these memes to the effect of commenting on how generic and uninteresting the manga looked from their standpoint. Such posts were made online in the first few months of the manga’s serialization when casting judgment either way was still difficult.

However, there came a time in which the script suddenly flipped on Hokazono’s manga, with many genuinely praising it and recommending it to others online. The fanbase only grew from there, with the series experiencing a massive swell of popularity and readership to the point Shueisha allegedly believed it could “carry the next generation of Jump.”

Today, the strange journey has culminated in an all-time victory for the series at the Next Manga Awards 2024. The manga’s victory came with 101,836 votes, second in the contest’s history only to Oshi no Ko’s roughly 103 thousand votes in 2021.

The series also now boasts the single highest vote count any Weekly Shonen Jump manga has received in the contest. Finally, the series’ winning vote count more than tripled what the second-place manga received.

Fan reaction

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Understandably, fans online are heartily celebrating their manga’s victory, boasting about it and reminding the naysayers of their major critiques of the series. Others, meanwhile, are choosing to instead focus on praising Hokazono and his series, or sharing how legitimately happy it makes them to see that he won.

“PREACH, KAGURABACHI WILL AND SHALL MOVE MOUNTAINS,” boasted one fan.

““AXED IN 20 CHAPTERS”

“MORBIUS EFFECT”

“DEMONSLAYER COPY”

“GENERIC MC”

“CAN’T CARRY JUMP”

WHAT THEY GOTTA SAY NOW! WE AINT COME TO TAKE PART, WE CAME TO TAKE OVER BACHIBROS!” proclaimed another.

“Time to dominate the manga industry for the next bachillion years,” celebrated a third.

“trying not to cry at work” admitted a fourth.

Others still are pointing out how impressive the victory is, either by nature of the manga’s journey or in the potential it’s showing on the back of this award:

“Next Jujutsu Kaisen [fire emoji],” argued one netizen in reference to the widespread popularity of Gege Akutami’s manga.

“Impressive! Kagurabachi taking home the award so soon after its debut shows just how well it’s resonating with readers,” pointed out a second.

“Winning an award within 1 year since its serialization is an insane feat!” agreed a third.

In any case, the fandom of Hokazono’s manga series is universally celebrating the victory and rejoicing in the vindication they’re currently feeling. They’re likewise confident that this is only the start for the series, and given its remarkable journey thus far, the potential it likewise shows, and this latest feat, it’s difficult to argue otherwise.