Maybe it’s just me, but there’s something about Kagurabachi that’s been bugging me. When it wants to, it can be a badass Shonen Jump series, thanks to some impressive sword fighting visuals. However, half of the time, author Takeru Hokozono would rather have Chihiro, Togo, and everyone else sit around and talk. Yes, there are moments when talking is important in a series, with Fist of the North Star showing exactly the perfect balance of action and dialogue. But what is it about Kagurabachi that makes me want to look at my watch and utter, “Get on with it!”?

At the very least, Volume Seven has a lot of good action on display. The battle between Chihiro and Hiruhiko starts off with a chat, only for it to crescendo into having someone’s arms sliced off in beautiful fashion. Then Samura tags himself in, seemingly betraying Chihiro to the point of killing him! But seeing as Chihiro is the hero of the story, they almost immediately bring him back to the land of the living.

Where this volume of Kagurabachi gets good is the reveal of Samura’s daughter, long thought to be dead. Instead, she’s in hiding with her mother, with all of her memories of her father blocked from her brain. But something about the black sky hovering above is triggering these lost memories between daughter and father. Oh, and the swordsmen attacking her school do something to wake a bit of that memory up too.

Nothing is cooler than sword fighting with vehicles. The two kinds of adrenaline that pump through one’s heart while witnessing mayhem in the traffic is what makes modern-day Shonen Jump series a joy to read through. As both hero and villain speed through with bloodlust in their brains, it results in some great visuals and a killer escape. This to me is what should make Kagurabachi a must-read, as it breathes a sort of uniqueness in the pages of Japan’s biggest comic book magazine.

But as soon as the action gets to near-perfection, we’re once again brought down with more talking. Granted, it’s an important chat with Samura’s daughter about the mess that she’s about to get into, as well as why her dad has been blocked from her memory. In 24 hours, a new memory seal will be created to allow the daughter to forget everything that’s about to happen. So why not spill the beans on the father if she’s going to have a brain wipe the next day!

I will admit that there was a decent balance between action and dialogue in the seventh volume of Kagurabachi. Be that as it may, a great Shonen Jump action series is 25% dialogue, 75% action. Right now, it’s at 60/40, with character chat holding the majority. So if Hokozono can maybe tip the scales more towards the action portion of Kagurabachi, then he will get back onto the path of greatness that the manga’s first volume had promised us.

Promotional consideration provided by Chantelle Sturt of VIZ Media.