One To Watch: Tougen Anki
Blood. Blood. And so much more.
Where do I even start with this one? There are so many things in this first volume that made me immediately fall in love, so let me just make a quick list of things you will absolutely adore about Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood. In no particular order, though perhaps in a particular order.
A demon on rollerblades with an umbrella made of blood.
Fun, vibrant inter-panel play (more on that later).
A demon who uses his blood to make buzzsaws out of his arms. Like Chainsaw Man but… bloodier. Believe it or not.
Lots of blood, and as someone who is positively indifferent about gore, I found it both unobtrusive and enriching.
Snark. Lots of snark.
There’s already an anime set, and a teaser available. Check it out:
It wasn’t that long ago that I expressed a mild—what’s the word—exhaustion with the numerous “half human, half demon/oni/devil” trope, before hastily retreating from that stance because, turns out, I adore that trope, and I’ve fully accepted that now.
For starters, they take that trope and multiply it, rather than being half human, half something, our protagonist Ichinose Shiki, is part Oni, which sticks him in the thick of the growing Oni Agency as they fight the Momotarou Agency. Essentially, two factions of demons fighting each other. Maybe Shiki is also part Momotarou, maybe he isn’t.
But wait! He’s not just in the thick of the conflict, first he has to go to the Oni school and join the ranks of Oni.
You see what’s happening here? So many amazing tropes that we love, all in one bloody place. And speaking of—there is so much blood. The last time I dug into a series that prioritized gore (I forget what it was, but it was American comics, and I was not impressed), I found the gore to be… a bit much. I’m not squeamish, but it just felt unnecessarily red.
Tougen Anki has a lot of blood, but it’s all in the name of the story. That Oni blood is where their power is and since we’re talking about that, let’s talk about those powers. Shiki uses his blood to make guns. His teacher wields a tricky blood umbrella. A classmate makes buzzsaws. It’s really cool. The visuals are remarkable, not gory, but vibrant. And I never thought I’d describe black-and-white blood as vibrant.
And there’s more! One of my favorite things in any visual medium is when panels overflow or break the borders or bleed into one another. It adds such a fantastic layer to the story, a layer of dynamism and creativity that enriches the page. Here are two examples.
How do you see that and not stare awhile, maybe smile goofily like I do? It’s such a commitment to creative layouts and fluidity. I can’t praise it enough, and Tougen Anki’s first volume is setting a precedent that this is going to be a regular feature in the series.
Let me say again—this is all just from one volume. So many standout features, and that doesn’t even include that it’s just well written. There’s distinct characterization, Shiki is just snarky enough, but also emotionally sound enough to not be obnoxious. Essentially, it’s well balanced. There’s so much here, and once more volumes become available, there will be a lot to write about.