Kyokuto Necromance: Unedited Audio & Notes

Manga Details

• “Kyokutou” means “Far East”. This title suggests something like “necromancy in the Far East.” Sounds like it’s either referring to an Eastern style of necromancy or it’s a company or it’s a company/organization name. Per discussion with David Evelyn the official translator it was almost called “Far East Necromance” 

• Fusai Naba

  • Other works

    • TAOTAO (2017, 3 chapters, Jump GIGA)

      • A short series that ran in Jump GIGA.

    • Harakiri Gomen (2020, 4 chapters, Weekly Shonen Jump)

      • A short series exclusive to the Japanese digital version of Weekly Shonen Jump.

    • ALIENS AREA (2022, 3 vols, Weekly Shonen Jump)

      • Aliens Arena? Aligns Areola? Allies Arrears? Alan’s Are Ears? Alice’s Aria? Whatever it is, this supernatural bureaucracy manga was previously covered in Shonen Flop episode 66.

• Publishing

  • Run Dates: 

    • April 21st, 2024 to September, 1st 2024

  • Series it replaced

• Two On Ice by Elck Itsumo (4 vols, flop, SHONEN FLOP EPISODE 113)

• Series that replaced it

  •  Ichi the Witch by Osamu Nishi and Shiro Usazaki (1+ vol, looking good)

• Series that started at the same time as it

  • Astro Royale by Ken Wakui (2+ vols, doing okay)

  • Psych House by Omusuke Kobayashi (2 volumes, flop)

• Chapters/Volumes: 

  • 18 chapters/2 volumes

About the Manga

• Plot

  • Since his father Itsuki died Kaoru Uno has lived with his grandma. One day when she falls he sees a bunch of little spikey boys hovering around her but she seems ok. When he gets to school he meets Yoji Amane, a famous author and friend of his dad’s who’s here to pick him up. Yoji tells him that these spirits called Shiryo are walking around causing shit. Kaoru has a flashback to when his dad gave him a cool ring and tells him not to forget about Shiryo even though he clearly did. Just then his grandma happens to be walking by and is taken over by Shiryo. Kaoru fights it and awakens his own Shiryo, Shishi, which is just shitty star platinum. Yoji shows up and destroys it with his Shiryo, Chitari who eats its soul. Yoji says that this power makes them necromancers because I don't think the author had googled that term yet. Yoji takes Kaoru to get his license and a bunch of bureaucratic bullshit happens with a secret society and like do you really care?

  • Kaoru tests out his power with a magic beach ball and it turns out his super strong. Their goal at this point is to eventually take down Ryu who killed Kaoru’s dad who was also Yoji’s partner. They defeat a Shiryo at a school and one of the teachers was a friend of Kaoru’s dad and brings her smart niece Midori over to teach Kaoru how to do things with his Shiryo. In the middle of teaching an assassin suddenly shows up, hurts Midori and kidnaps Kaoru. Yoji gets mad and has his friend Manson go with him to get him back. When Kaoru wakes up he finds that he’s sitting across from Ryu who hands him a business card with his name on it. Ryu says he’s Yoji’s brother and ties Kaoru in a cocoon or something. He says he used to love Kaoru’s mom until she died in a science experiment. Ryu implies he wants to commit the ultimate sin of necromancy by bringing her back to life because the author finally read the Wikipedia page for necromancer. Yoji shows up and releases Kaoru who is rescued by Manson and a necromancer named Terashima who hasn’t mattered until now. Manson tries to run away until Kaoru says it’s lame and Terashima heals Kaoru allowing him to go fight Ryu cuz I guess it doesn’t matter if he dies. 

  • Ryu and Yoji fight until Kaoru shows up fused with Shishi and Ryu says that doing so makes him stronger which the reader never would’ve guessed.  Kaoru fights him to a standstill before dropping dead in front of him. Ryu tells Yoji that actually bringing back Kaoru’s mom won’t do enough so instead he wants to harness the power of internet trolls to make everybody sad. Instead Ryu tells Yoji to use him as a sacrifice to bring Kaoru back, forcing him to commit the worst sin ever. Yoji says that actually doing things that make him feel bad makes him feel good actually and Kaoru wakes up to find Chitari carrying him away with Yoji nowhere in sight. Three months pass and a girl who looks identical to Chitari shows up at Kaoru’s school, she uses her power to steal his cell phone service and says that she’s actually a mystical being. Her brothers invented Shiryo to destroy the humans but she didn’t want to do that because she fell in love with Kaoru’s great great grandpa. She then tells him that she stole his grandma’s soul and she’ll only give it back if he marries her. Also someone finally reaches Yoji on the phone and it seems like he’s okay yay.

• Characters

  •  Kaoru Uno

    • Doesn’t eat his veggies

    • Lives with grandma

    • Teen

    • Gotta find a pep in his step

  • Yoji Amane

    • Goth man

    • Novelist

    • Society

    • Dies at the end?

    • Stand’s Chitari

  • Ryuji

    • Big bad

    • Killed dad

    • Sad about mom

    • Legend of the 5 rings

Why it Failed - Jordan

• It just doesn't give me a reason to care I really front loaded flashbacks

• So pretentious 

• So generic 

• It really hits the x at home even when trying put a “wrapper” of some cool ambiance

• Challenge the mc more, knowing is half the battle but not all of it

• What a lame training arc

• Characters are just kinda bland and we really don't see much about them 

• There's not much world building and things like school only exist because they set up something 

• Let the ryuji shit breath

• I feel they didn’t really explain how the power system works?

• Ending?????

What it Did Well - Yato

• David: And before we get into what we think it did well, if you’ve been enjoying the show we’d really appreciate it if you subscribed to the Shonen Flop Youtube! We’re trying to hit our goal of 1500 YouTube subs and if we hit it we’ll do a special bonus episode on the Build King Epilogue. If you’re already subscribed, thanks so much!

• It has a fun sense of style 

• I like how the stands seem to have personalities 

• The characters also seem fun but not very deep

• It's interesting how the stand boosts your ability and gives them more agency 

• Author still knows sit-down talks work well so glad to see it again 

• The author is at his best when people are resolving things through talking but he's too afraid to not constantly have fighting 

• Grandma was cool where did she go

Where it Could Have Gone

• Turns out this was just an elaborate scheme to teach the mc French

• Yo imagine if this was cyberpunk I think that really would have worked

• It needed to make it's ideas sticky I keep forgetting how things work as they take a long time to be relevant 

• Make the mcs stand like an interesting person it's so genetic 

• What if the mc agreed with the villain and was like hell yeah let's get mom to

• We could have had cool African lore?

Misc Thoughts - Yato

• Art turns into jjk during the fight scenes 

• Does eating the soul do anything?

• The main badguy reminded me of Youpi from hxh for some reason

• Trivia from David Evelyn: 

  • Melancholy is pretty much a direct translation as the word one of the MCs wants to say in the first ever page 

  • For Shishi's name they wanted to include the Japanese so it was more obvious where it came from, but they didn’t go with it. 

    • I Will Drink Blood and Devour Flesh

    • (Chi o Susuri Shishimura o Tsukusu Tomo)

    • it's a quote from Ichiyo Higuchi's "Wakarejimo" (Late Frost)

  • most of the necromancy and shiryos are based off band names

    • love phantom = b'z love phantom

    • division kashimashi = elephant kashimashi

    • the ghost inside = the ghost inside

  • Chitari's name was probably from an old text from Ben no Naishi Nikki (specifically the "Cockfight of the Third Day") where there's a quote that goes:

    • "katame wa tsubure, sakayori chitari onuke nado shite, miwasureru hodo ni narite kaeritari"

    • "one eye crushed, blood spilling, tail plucked, it was turned unrecognizable and left."

• Maxy Bee thoughts:

  • Not much for this one (because it’s very blah, only one volume is out, and I ain’t buying it), but let me tell you about how Fusai Naba failing again in Weekly Shonen Jump is probably okay, because he is almost definitely also Nabana Naba, author of The Vermillion Mask, a relatively popular series from Young King OURS that is 6 volumes deep and growing, and even licensed and readable on AI translation company Orange Inc.’s new subscription service Emaqi. It’s just about the worst possible way to get licensed, but hopefully made a little bank for Naba. 

Final Verdict

• Six Word summary

  • Community

    • Tucker: Read Daemons of the Shadow Realm

    • Maxybee: Neck Romance? Love bites, I guess

    • Balth: Lead with the premise next time.

    • blahmoomoo: Can't wait for Steel Ball Run

    • Chickenwarlord: 2 and a half men-ass ending

    • dackerson: No pep in this manga’s step

    • Diego: My chemical necromance not bizarre enough

    • duderocks: One of the endings ever made

    • FunkyGreenOverdrive: Aliens Area Again with Awful Aftermath

    • Glornak Ironspawn: Interesting powers. Decent characters. Janky hands.

    • Isekai Sensei: The romance of necromance was sudd-end

    • jrpg astrologist: The ghosts looked like vape clouds

    • Kpt.Kluless: Not worth resurrection keep it buried

    • LassOfTheRedRose: Flopcord only cares about the ending?

    • LordAnubis: No using necromancy the necromancer demanded

    • Luffy0321: Bizarre ending befitting the stand rip-offs

    • Portal man: Who's going to the shotgun wedding?

    • Redblade: Exorcise -> Exercise -> Kidnap-> Yap -> Necromance -> Romance

    • Riel: Is it cannibalism if they're ghosts?

    • Sbubby: Here’s what Kyokuto Necromance does well:

    • Spike: This truly was our Kyokuto Nec-Romance

    • T-Wolfwood: What the fuck was that ending?

    • Ty: Kaoru's bizarre adventures: Zangetsu the stand

    • Watchtower: Gaga Oo-la-la No More Bad Necromance

    • Xylon: Stop with the exorcist manga, Shueisha.

  • David: You wouldn't let me like this | Homer, It’s an ending that’s enough.

  • Jordan: just checking off a trope list | literal last fucking second genre shift

  • Guest: 

• Flop or not

  • David: Certified this is garbage. Demons of the Shadow Realm is the easy option, however also reading Young Girls Don’t Play Fighting Games is great

Jordan: this is terrible Certified af. If you want a series that I feel turns this all of these tropes on its head check out mob psycho