This review covers chapter 1 material only and avoids spoilers for anything beyond that point.
Anime Expo 2026 opened its doors to one of the most anticipated screenings of the convention: the first 20 minutes of KAGURABACHI episode 1, adapting chapter 1 of Takeru Hokazono’s manga.
Studio Cypic and director Tetsuya Takeuchi had a lot riding on this footage, given how much noise the source material has made since its debut in Weekly Shonen Jump. After watching it unfold on a massive convention screen surrounded by hundreds of fans, it’s safe to say the hype is earned.
Teaser Visual:
The first thing that stands out is how much physical presence the characters have on screen. Cypic’s team, drawing on experience from “The Summer Hikaru Died” and “Umamusume: Cinderella Gray“, gave Chihiro Rokuhira a body that feels grounded. Every step, pivot and swing of his blade lands with real mass behind it. That sense of weight extends to the environments too. Debris doesn’t float weightlessly across the frame; it scatters and settles the way objects actually do when force is applied to them. It’s a small detail, but it separates competent animation from animation that convinces you the world on screen has physics.
Character designs from Keigo Sasaki, known for his work on “Blue Exorcist” and “The Seven Deadly Sins“, translate cleanly from page to screen. Chihiro’s expressions carry more range in motion than they sometimes do in the static panels of the manga, which helps sell his quieter, more introspective moments alongside the aggression.
The action in this premiere earns its comparisons to Hollywood’s more grounded action fare. There’s a physicality to the fight choreography that recalls the corridor brawls of “John Wick” or the brutal, close-quarters exchanges of “Atomic Blonde.” Battles are not decided purely by flashy power-ups or dialogue-heavy standoffs. They’re built on positioning, timing and the visible cost of every exchanged blow.
Tetsuya Takeuchi’s background directing battle sequences on “Tengoku Daimakyo” and handling action animation on “Sword Art Online II” shows up clearly here. Sword strikes have follow-through. Impacts register on both the person delivering them and the person receiving them. The violence is graphic without feeling gratuitous, and it never loses sight of character motivation in the middle of a fight. Chihiro’s use of Enten, the blade central to the story, is animated with a controlled intensity that makes each swing feel deliberate rather than decorative.
Watching this alongside a packed Anime Expo audience added a layer that a solo home viewing simply can’t replicate. Gasps landed in unison during a handful of key visual beats, and one particular sequence, which won’t be spoiled here, drew an audible reaction across the entire theater. That kind of unified response from a crowd this size is not something that happens by accident. It takes animation, sound design and pacing all working in sync to produce a moment strong enough to cut through convention noise.
There were a few visual beats built entirely around scale and framing, wide shots that let the environment breathe before violence interrupts it, that left the room audibly stunned. These aren’t just pretty frames. They’re doing narrative work, establishing tone and stakes before the story asks the audience to care about anything else.
For a chapter that runs fast in the manga, the anime doesn’t rush it. The pacing gives Chihiro’s introduction room to land emotionally before the action escalates, which matters given how much chapter 1 has to accomplish in a short span. Nothing here feels padded, but nothing feels compressed either.
Twenty minutes is a small sample size, and the full episode has yet to premiere outside this preview tour. But if this footage is representative of what Cypic and Takeuchi have planned for April 2027, “KAGURABACHI” has a legitimate case for being one of next year’s must-watch premieres. The animation has weight, the combat has teeth and the atmosphere in that Anime Expo theater suggested this adaptation already understands what made the manga a phenomenon in the first place.
KAGURABACHI anime, produced by Cypic, the highly anticipated series is scheduled to premiere in April 2027. The series will stream worldwide on Crunchyroll, excluding select Asian territories.
Stay tuned to AnimeTV チェーン (@animetv_jp) for the latest information on KAGURABACHI as it is revealed.
©Takeru Hokazono/SHUEISHA,Project Kagurabachi
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