Takeru Hokazono

Takeru Hokazono (外薗健) is a Japanese manga artist. They are best known for Kagurabachi, which is serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump, starting in 2023 and licensed by Viz Media in North America.

Biography
Takeru Hokazono was born in the Osaka Prefecture, Japan on September 6, 2000. Hokazono started making comics during the COVID-19 pandemic while they were in college. Their first manga was the one-shot Enten published in the Jump Giga Spring 2021 issue and won the 100th Tezuka Award, in addition to his other one-shot ''Farewell! Cherry Boy!'' being published in the same issue.

In September 2023, "Kagurabachi" started serializing in the 42nd Issue of Weekly Shonen Jump. The release of Kagurabachi had taken on a life of its own on social media. Chapter one was met with critical acclaim. Even an ironic meme campaign, known as “Kagurabachi glazing,” declared the manga as an inheritor to the likes of One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach as one of the new-generation “Big Three.” Due to the excitement, Kagurabachi has become a hit with Volume 1 having more than 200,000 copies in circulation by March 20, 2024.

Kagurabachi
In September 2023, the serialized version of Kagurabachi premiered in Weekly Shōnen Jump 2023 No. 42 and quickly became a hit.

Hokazono's Kagurabachi was the highest-voted work in the Manga Plus AX poll, beating out Sakamoto Days, RuriDragon, and Blue Box. As a result, this historical moment made Kagurabachi officially hit #1 in the Shonen Jump Table of Contents. Typically when a series hits #1 in the Table of Contents, it means that Jump has identified a work as worthy of promotion. That spot is typically reserved for the magazine's most prized works. In fact, since Kana acquired the rights to publish Kagurabachi in France, they co-promoted the series with popular names like Naruto and Boruto. However, this was met with criticism as some posters were covering the latter series' posters, and fans saw it as disrespect to Kishimoto.

Naruto and Boruto creator, Masashi Kishimoto, co-signed Hokazono by recommending the series while Kana was promoting the release of Kagurabachi Volume 3 at Japan Expo 2024 in France.

Style and influences
Takeru's story elements were inspired by Naruto, Chainsaw Man, Ajin: Demi-Human, and Attack On Titan. However, they also note that some Western media influences like Batman and John Wick.

In the Kagurabachi series, Hokazono's story breaks the traditional Shonen Jump mold in a variety of ways: it's set in an alternate version of 1950s Japan, a uniquely dark storyline, and Hokazono is a fairly new mangaka who's art-style says otherwise. Shonen Jump's best-selling works are typically optimistic heroes who pursue strength and glory while cheerfully confronting any bad guys that get in their way. In this specific universe of Japan, Hokazono "wanted to make Japan cooler," meaning essential elements of Japan are depicted. Thus, Hokazono would be able to reclaim the stereotypes and show them in the right light. Depicting the culture in a better outlook as compared to what Hollywood has set for them.

Works

 * Serializations
 * Kagurabachi (カグラバチ) (September 2023 – present; serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump)


 * One-shots
 * Enten (炎天) (April 2021; published in Jump GIGA)
 * Farewell! Cherry Boy! (さらば！チェリーボーイ！) (April 2021; published in Jump GIGA)
 * Chain (チエイン) (July 2021; published in Jump GIGA)
 * Madogiwa de Amu (まどぎわで編む) (April 2022; published in Weekly Shonen Jump)
 * Roku no Meiyaku (ロクの冥約) (August 2022; published in Weekly Shonen Jump)