u/Bulky-Selection-9808

I love how she stabbed her own hand to stay awake, just like Ichi did against Haytee. It shows that she learns from everything she sees, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she started imitating Ichi in other ways too, like the traps he sets for his enemies.

Small off-topic note: I love how Gokuraku sees in Kumugi the same determination he had when he modified himself to become Optimus Prime. It really helps connect the two characters, who, as far as I can remember, haven’t interacted much with each other.

I don’t know if anyone cares, but in Italy, the publisher Star Comics has announced a collab between Hokazono and Horikoshi. It takes the two postcards released in Weekly Shonen Jump #45 of 2025, drawn by the two mangaka in honor of each other’s works, and uses them for a special edition of volume 1 of Kagurabachi and My Hero Academia. On top of that, there are stickers from both series and an interview with both mangaka. It’s coming out on November 17, or earlier if you’re going to Lucca Comics.

I've noticed that lately, many mangaka seem to be focusing more on slice-of-life stories, whether naturalistic or supernatural, or on drama series. (Bear with me on the term "drama"—I mean works like Under Doctor, where fights are very limited or completely absent.)

Out of the magazine's roughly 20 slots, around 5 or 6 (if I'm not mistaken) are Battle Shonen in the traditional sense. What do you guys think caused this change? (Assuming it actually is a change—I might just be imagining it.) Obviously, I'm not counting the author's personal preferences.

For me, it has to be Jikishirone’s vision of Minerva. I mean, a pregnant woman ending up like a rotisserie chicken is pretty damn unsettling.

Is this the scene where Ichi and Uroro are roasting each other pretty badly, and Uroro shows him what’s happening outside through a TV? How? TVs don’t exist. The simplest explanation would be: he’s literally the king of majik, so he can do whatever the fuck he wants. But even then, it still seems weird to me that Ichi would have something that doesn’t exist in this world, like a CRT TV, inside his magic circle. A magic mirror would have made more sense.

It’s not a criticism, just something that feels weird to me.

If Ichi the Witch were told from the Majiks’ perspective, I’m sure this manga would be a horror story. Ichi is a fucking beast when it comes to Majiks, and they don’t even try to hide it. Literally, Gokuraku eats a Majik. They call him “the Brutal” for a reason.

Coloring by @jakipop

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Now, this isn't even criticism—it just cracks me up. They have an entire R&D department, they have a witch whose literal job is to come up with all kinds of weird witch gadgets, and you're telling me Kumugi has to sit on Amadoro's lap like he's Santa Claus?

They've got everything in that place: brooms, surfboards, toasters, even a freaking cyborg, but not a single sidecar for Desscaras, who has to sit on the backrest instead.

I guess Love Joe was too busy working on Gokuraku....literally

So far, we've always seen them operating in pairs, like Kizashi and Hitsugi or Hakari and Mayoi (and also the magnificent Sukemaru), just like the members of the Akatsuki. What strikes me as odd, though, is that there are an odd number of them. Maybe the strongest one travels alone, or perhaps with Fujimine or Haytee.

Let's be honest: after 25 chapters it hasn't even gotten a single color page, and it's almost always been near the bottom of the TOC. Kinato probably won't last much longer, but I don't think this is a case of a "manga getting axed before it had the chance to bloom." It had more time than many better series that ended up getting canceled.

This manga fails from two main perspectives. Fan service is more of something that annoys some readers than an actual flaw (as long as it doesn't interfere with the story, I don't consider it a real problem, even though some scenes are bordering on hentai).

1. Characterization and character writing

At the beginning, Kinato actually had his own personality, but then he basically turned into Deku. There's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from an archetype and making it your own, but Kinato is literally a copy-and-paste version of him.

Some of the other guild members suffer from the same issue. Talius and Juna are basically Magna and Gray from Black Clover. As for the rest of the guild, I don't have much to say. If this manga weren't on the verge of cancellation, they might have had the chance to stand out more.

On the other hand, whenever the characters aren't cheap copies, they barely get any development at all. Take Terasu, for example, and his past with his mother and grandmother. Maybe this is just a personal opinion, but I didn't feel emotionally invested in the fight between Terasu and Sazaku whatsoever.

2. The pacing

It's simply way too fast.

When Kinato goes to Kisalani, the author tries to recreate his own version of Chopper's cherry blossom moment from One Piece, but with only about one-tenth of the emotional investment. That's because you know almost nothing about the scientist and her assistant (I don't even remember their names, and I can't even be bothered to look them up), whereas Oda spent entire chapters building the relationship between Chopper and Hiriluk.

This pacing problem can also be seen with many members of the cast. I do appreciate that the pacing slows down when Kinato goes to the Majo, but I think all that time was wasted. Instead of being little more than a training arc, it could have been used to lay the groundwork for the confrontation between Terasu and Sazaku.

In the end, I'd say the pacing is what ruined everything. It was genuinely a wasted opportunity.

they have the same grit, two-tone hair and they scream a lot, like, a lot lot