Potential Problem With Disposable Characters in Kagurabachi?

Kagurabachi is currently one of the coolest shōnen manga series. The creator Takeru Hokazono, a young mangaka, came into prominence with his hit series and made sure that the character of Chihiro gets worldwide following. Although the storyline of Kagurabachi is far from lacking or stale, some tropes and writing decisions made some fans question Hokazono's plot decisions. In this case, it's the problem of disposable characters.

For more story tropes, check out Screen Rant.

Side Characters Need to Have a Purpose

As consumers of fictional media, we want to enjoy the stories that creators put in front of us and understand the message they want to showcase to us. Writing is really hard; innovation and creativity always need to be in the back of creators minds. Of course, after some time, some creators simply experience a burnout, or their writing becomes quite stale, which leads to some plot decisions that are simply too shallow or don't have any significance.

This is the case for side characters, who serve the purpose of furthering the main plot or simply enhancing the main character's journey in the story. This is where many writers 'slip,' which leads to us witnessing some characters being hyped up to the point of cult-like significance, only for them to be absolutely wasted and killed off after very short amounts of time. Side characters need to have a purpose, not just 'exist' in the sphere of the series, or they will be massively wasted and serve absolutely no purpose for anything.

Problem With Disposable Characters in Fictional Media

Moreover, the same side characters introduced in the middle of the storyline don't have to be anything enormous—they are there to propel the main protagonist or are important for a side story that will serve as a good step toward something more meaningful in the story. However, some creators use those resources for, well, nothing. A great example is the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. The show that should've ended much earlier but continued and made the whole journey of their main characters go to waste due to creators' reluctance to either kill their main character in Eleven or simply end the story of their series.

What they did was to introduce new characters every season, make fans like them, and then kill them instead of someone more important in the cast. This led to the whole story of Stranger Things being 'victim' of bad storytelling and people simply not caring for their characters that they built up for almost ten years. This is what plagues many different genres and fictional media—creators don't want to risk their characters, which closely connects to them not knowing or wanting to conclude their story. In Kagurabachi, that's not the case, but Hokazono made a few writing decisions that are questionable, especially for the future of Chihiro's story.

Overhyping Characters That Never Fully Serve Their Purpose

In Kagurabachi, we recently witnessed the Masumi Ninja Clan and Chihiro arriving at Kyoto Bloodshed Hotel, which is the equivalent of the hotel Continental in John Wick—the neutral ground for mercenaries. They arrived there to keep Samura's daughter Iori safe, and this is where we meet Yojiro Sengoku, the general manager of the hotel, and apparently, the master and disciple of a very rare and powerful Reigen One-Sword Style, which only very few people have.

Hokazono made sure to mention it two chapters ago, making many fans quite hyped about the epic battle that could potentially occur in the future. This feeling increased after we saw Hirohiku entering the hotel, but soon we were left quite disappointed. After all that hype around the character, making sure he is an important figure in an important mercenary establishment, Hokazono decided to murder the character simply for 'aura farming.' This might be a bit sharp, but having a master swordsman being beat by a rookie in Hirohiko, who learned the basics of swordsmanship from very few 'classes' from his Hishaku member Kuguri. To introduce a character, hype him up, and then simply murder him for the sake of showcasing other characters strength is, unfortunately, very common in these types of manga, and Hokazono 'fell' into that 'writing trap' that we fans don't really like.

Conclusion: Disposable Characters Aren't Always a Good Writing Decision

Some would say this particular detail from Kagurabachi is nitpicking, especially if we know that the overall story is interesting and solid, but it does ruin some of the characterization and story development of this hit series. To hype up fans, one needs to use a new character, a very hyped-up one in this case, and simply kill them off due to showcasing other characters' power. This isn't how you want to represent stakes and importance within the story for your fans—as a writer, you want your fans to know every character you introduce will have an important role in the main storyline.

Yojiro is, unfortunately, far from that status, and now we question the extent of Hirohiko's power—is he that powerful to dismantle a very skilled swordsman, or is the general manager of the hotel simply weak and Hokazono purposely mischaracterized his own character'? Well, we will learn soon, but this decision isn't being welcomed by the fans at all, and hopefully, Hokazono will stick 'with his guns' and not fall into the same narrative trap again.

For more Kagurabachi, check out Manga Plus.