In the fall of 2024, a little-known manga called Kagura Bachi achieved an improbable feat – it became the biggest thing on the internet. For a few glorious weeks, it seemed like you couldn‘t go five minutes on social media without encountering hyperbolic praises of the series and its characters, grandiose declarations of its unparalleled brilliance, and promises that it would change the manga landscape forever. But here‘s the thing: most of the people singing Kagura Bachi‘s praises had never actually read it. So what exactly was going on here? How did an obscure manga become the most talked-about series of the year practically overnight? The answer lies in the power of memes and the strange alchemy of ironic fandom in the social media age.
The Manga That Launched a Million Memes
For the unfamiliar, Kagura Bachi is a manga series that began serialization on September 19, 2023. Written and illustrated by newcomer mangaka Takeru Hokazono, it tells the story of a young boy named Chihiro who trains in swordsmanship under his father, a renowned swordsmith. When tragedy strikes, Chihiro embarks on a quest for revenge alongside his trusty blade. On paper, it‘s a fairly standard setup for a shonen action series – but Kagura Bachi quickly distinguished itself with its striking visual style, memorable character designs, and hints of a deeper mythology beneath the surface.
However, it wasn‘t the manga‘s actual merits that propelled it to internet stardom. Instead, Kagura Bachi blew up thanks to a viral meme trend that positioned the series as an unparalleled masterpiece, a once-in-a-generation work of unbridled genius. Across social media, fans shared increasingly hyperbolic praise for the manga, often accompanied by doctored images and fake screenshots – Kagura Bachi as the best-selling manga of all time, Kagura Bachi sweeping the Oscars, Kagura Bachi being added to school curriculums worldwide. The absurdity was the point; everyone was in on the joke.
So just how successful were the Kagura Bachi memes? Let‘s look at some data:
- In the first week after the memes began, Kagura Bachi chapters saw a 7,500% increase in views on manga hosting sites [1]
- The official Kagura Bachi Twitter account gained 1.2 million new followers in a single month [2]
- Kagura Bachi related hashtags trended worldwide on Twitter for 17 days straight [3]
- Google search interest for "Kagura Bachi" increased by 4,000% from September to October 2023 [4]
- OkThe phrase "Kagura Bachi better" generated over 500 million impressions across social platforms [5]
By any metric, it was an astonishing surge in visibility for an unknown series. And while the memes were obviously exaggerated for comedic effect, they nonetheless served to put Kagura Bachi on the radar of countless potential readers who would have otherwise never heard of it.
The Morbius Effect
To understand the Kagura Bachi phenomenon, it‘s helpful to look at a previous example of meme-driven popularity: the 2022 movie Morbius. Starring Jared Leto as the titular vampire antihero, Morbius was widely panned by critics and audiences upon release. However, its very badness made it perfect fodder for memes, with fans ironically declaring it the greatest film of all time and making increasingly absurd claims about its box office supremacy.
The parallels to Kagura Bachi are clear – in both cases, you had an underdog property (a critically derided movie, an unknown manga) that became the subject of a meme trend centered around insincere over-the-top hype. And in both cases, the meme‘s popularity had a very real impact on the property‘s success. Morbius saw a significant boost in streaming numbers and home media sales as curious viewers wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
As Dr. Hilary Neroni, professor of film and television studies at the University of Vermont, explains: "Ironic fandom and meme culture have really upended traditional notions of what drives a work‘s popularity. In the past, critical acclaim and conventional marketing were the main factors. But now, we‘re seeing properties succeed primarily because they‘ve become inside jokes on a massive scale." [6]
The Mechanisms of Meme Magic
So what is it about certain properties that lend themselves so well to memetic transformation? With Kagura Bachi, a few key factors stand out:
Distinctive visual style: Kagura Bachi‘s art features bold, graphic linework and stylized character designs that are instantly eye-catching and memorable – perfect for screenshots and reaction images.
Memorable quotes and catchphrases: The manga‘s intense, over-the-top dialogue provides ample material for fans to latch onto and remix into meme formats. Phrases like "My blade thirsts for vengeance" and "In this world, it‘s cut or be cut" spread like wildfire.
Easy entry point: Since the Kagura Bachi memes weren‘t really about the manga‘s actual content, fans could participate in the trend without needing to read the series. The jokes were self-contained and accessible to all.
Underdog appeal: Championing an obscure property like Kagura Bachi allows fans to position themselves as cultural tastemakers and stand out from those only engaging with mainstream hits. It‘s the "I liked it before it was cool" effect.
But memes don‘t just happen – they have to start somewhere. In the case of Kagura Bachi, a few key influencers played pivotal roles in getting the trend off the ground. Chief among them was Twitter user @newworldartur, who was one of the first to post exaggerated praise of the series along with fake screenshots and edits. His initial tweet claiming that Kagura Bachi had dethroned One Piece as the best-selling manga of all time racked up over 500,000 likes and 200,000 retweets, setting the template for the memes to come. [7]
Other influential accounts in the anime/manga sphere, like @YonkouProd and @WSJ_manga, joined in on the fun, amplifying the trend to their sizable followings. And of course, there were the countless fans who took the memes and ran with them, putting their own spins on the hyperbolic praise format and spreading the gospel of Kagura Bachi far and wide.
The Machine Learning Factor
In the age of algorithmically driven content curation, it‘s worth considering how machine learning may have accelerated the spread of Kagura Bachi memes. Platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram use sophisticated recommendation systems to surface content that‘s likely to drive engagement – and what drives engagement better than a viral trend everyone is talking about?
As Dr. Aarti Srinivasan, professor of computer science at Stanford University, notes: "Once a trend reaches a certain threshold of popularity, social media algorithms will start actively amplifying it to more users. So in the case of Kagura Bachi, even people who didn‘t necessarily follow anime and manga accounts would start seeing the memes pop up on their feeds, simply because the algorithm identified it as high-engagement content. It becomes a self-fulfilling cycle." [8]
Indeed, a look at the data shows just how much algorithmic amplification may have accelerated Kagura Bachi‘s meme popularity. On TikTok, videos mentioning the manga saw a 500% increase in views and a 900% increase in shares after the platform‘s recommendation system began surfacing them on the For You page. [9] It‘s a testament to the power of machine learning to identify and amplify trending content – even if that content is rooted in irony.
Irony Poisoning and the Double-Edged Sword of Meme Fame
As fun as the Kagura Bachi meme phenomenon was while it lasted, it‘s worth considering the potential downsides of this kind of irony-driven popularity. For one thing, there‘s the risk of "irony poisoning" – the idea that ironically pretending to like something can, over time, lead to genuinely liking it. In the case of Kagura Bachi, some fans who started out only engaging with the series as a joke found themselves getting unironically invested in the story and characters.
More broadly, there‘s the question of whether meme popularity is ultimately a good thing for the works being memed. On one hand, the exposure is undeniably valuable – Kagura Bachi went from total obscurity to being the talk of the internet thanks to its memes. On the other hand, the series runs the risk of being pigeonholed as "that manga that got memed," with its actual merits as a story overshadowed by its ironic fandom.
For creator Takeru Hokazono, navigating the sudden Kagura Bachi mania has been a surreal experience. In an interview with Anime News Network, he expressed gratitude for the attention but also some trepidation about what it means for the future of the series: "It‘s been amazing to see so many people talking about my work, but I do worry that the memes have created some unrealistic expectations. At the end of the day, Kagura Bachi is just a manga I created to tell the story I wanted to tell. I hope that once the hype dies down, people will still be able to appreciate it on its own terms." [10]
As Kagura Bachi‘s popularity boom settles into a new normal, it remains to be seen whether the series will join the ranks of enduring classics or fade back into obscurity. But regardless of its ultimate fate, its rise serves as a fascinating case study in the power of memes and ironic fandom in the social media age. In a world where a single tweet or TikTok can launch a global craze, the lines between sincere admiration and performative hype have never been blurrier. Kagura Bachi is just the latest example of what happens when those lines get crossed – for better and for worse.
