Kagurabachi and Girl meets Rock!, the first place winners of the Next Manga Awards 2024’s Print Manga and Web Manga categories, respectively, recently celebrated their wins with two collaboration illustrations.
Coming in first at the latest Next Manga Awards ranking isn’t the only thing these two manga have in common — as both collaboration drawings point out, their protagonists have Chihiro as their first name.
The two illustrations can be found below. The one depicting the main characters with their main equipment swapped was posted by Girl meets Rock! artist Tetsuo Ideuchi, while the illustration where Girl meets Rock!‘s Chihiro is playing her guitar in front of the other Chihiro was uploaded by the Kagurabachi X (formerly Twitter) account.
The Takeru Hokazono-created Kagurabachi made its debut last September in Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump. The action manga quickly went viral on X due to English memes that hyped it up, and it also ranked seventh in the Manga We Want to See Animated 2024 ranking. Viz Media is releasing English-translated volumes this fall.
Manga Plus describes Kagurabachi as:
Young Chihiro spends his days training under his famous swordsmith father. One day he hopes to become a great sword-maker himself. The goofy father and the serious son–they thought these days would last forever. But suddenly, tragedy strikes. A dark day soaked in blood. Chihiro and his blade now live only for revenge. Epic sword battle action!
Girl meets Rock!, which is written by Kuwahali, started its serialization on Shonen Jump+ (also Shueisha) in January 2024. It was available on Manga Plus, but can no longer be found on the service at the time of writing. Manga Plus’s synopsis had read:
With a passion for richly textured Japanese rock, first-year high school student Chihiro Hatono steps into the world of the light music club, new guitar in tow. But what awaits her behind those doors…? A drama of unfiltered youth and musical ambition takes the stage!
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Sources: @675pixel, @kagurabachi_x