Devil Effect

I've been reading Kagurabachi for a few months and its actually one of my favorite shonens now like omg

I think my fav list rn is

Iori, Hiyuki, Natsuki, Samura and Hakuri

Ofc i like every1 else but these r just off the top of my head

"Kagurabachi" upcoming TV Anime first 20 minutes of Episode 1 will screening at Anime Expo 2026 on July 3

Air Date: April 2027

Chihiro and Chiaki really do have extremely similar personalities/parallel suffering+response ->

they both start their stories separated from a happy, if slightly unconventional family (primarily represented by Kunishige).

Are pushed by death+disaster towards a duty they really don't want and depersonalize themselves to cope with (Chiaki burning kuni's letters and living as an unfeeling 'Princess'/political tool, Chihiro considering himself a monster who is going to hell), and,

feel an extreme sense of guilt and responsibility to make up for tragedies they aren't responsible for (the war and Irishima talks for Chiaki, the destruction caused by the Enchanted Blades and Hishaku for Chihiro) by sacrificing themselves

Like Chihiro "I am going to use myself as a lightning rod/let myself get impaled by a million pieces of paper/fight people I know are stronger than me/kill people even though I hate violence" is operating on the same selfsacrificial mindset as Chiaki, "I'll cut contact with the person I love /i'll volunteer for essentially torture and death"

basically,

Let's be passively suicidal with mama

Jokes aside,

He gives up several chances to go after Kuregumo to focus on saving Char, because her life if more important than his vendetta

He gives up Enten to save Hakuri's life, because even when Hakuri was 'powerless' he was still worth more by being a good person than the most valuable object in the world to Chihiro

Basically ignores all three sides of a 3 way stand-off btw the government, the Hishaku, and Samura to ask Iori (who everyone else is treating like a living Mcguffin) what She Wants to Do and deliberately makes it an informed decision and lets her know he will support her no matter what

EVEN The Very First Chapter - Chihiro gives up a lead on the Hishaku to focus on saving a nameless small town and unnamed background extra

Anyway, thematically, Chihiro (who for his father and Samura explicitly represents a brighter future) not just wanting to save people, but having an overwhelming respect for their autonomy makes sense.

Especially as so much of the confrontation with Akemura at end of Part 1 is triggered by Yura and the Kamunabi longing to go back to the past because it seemed more orderly, but it sucked, it always sucked it just didn't suck for them specifically (See noteable human trafficker Kyora cosy with the government, its why 2 out of4 of Japan's best sorcerers are orphan teens raised to kill/torture/die for their country/its why chiaki's at risk of getting sold off/hiyuki's about to go to war as a fetus)!!

It's pretty clear that the women in these families are seen as little more than objects. Women are expected to give birth to powerful sorceries.

Chihiro as he is now is already emblematic of how that has been broken with the Soga clan. Kunishige and Chiaki definitely had him without permission from the Kamunabi or the Soga.