Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood (桃源暗鬼, Tōgen Anki) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yura Urushibara. It has been serialized in Akita Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion since June 2020. An anime television series adaptation produced by Studio Hibari aired from July to December 2025. A sequel is set to premiere in October 2026.
Contents
Plot
Shiki Ichinose is a rebellious teenager living with his adoptive father, Tsuyoshi. One day, their lives are upended when they are attacked by an assassin, leading Shiki to discover that he is an Oni and that Tsuyoshi was formerly a Momotarou, a hunter of Oni, who abandoned his duty to raise him. Following Tsuyoshi's death, Shiki is drawn into the longstanding conflict between the Oni and the Momotarou, vowing to survive and exact revenge.
Characters
Rasetsu Academy
Shiki Ichinose (一ノ瀬 四季, Ichinose Shiki)
Voiced by: Kazuki Ura, Shizuka Ishigami (young) (Japanese); Zeno Robinson, Rebecca Wang (young) (English)
Shiki is an oni whose powers manifest after an attack by the Momotarou results in the death of his adoptive father. Biologically, he is one of the eight children of Kishin and inherits the Fire elemental attribute. His Blood Eclipse Release manifests as various guns, a reflection of his past interest in them. The tremendous output of his power generates severe aftereffects, such as causing blood to rain from the sky.
Jin Kougasaki (皇后崎 迅, Kōgasaki Jin)
Voiced by: Koutaro Nishiyama, Shu Uchida (young) (Japanese); Khoi Dao, Anne Yatco (young) (English)
A student in Shiki's class and his roommate. His father is a Momotarou who previously attempted to kill Jin after he discovered his son was an oni, leaving Jin with scars and stitches all over his body. His father also killed his mother and sister for the same reason. As a result, Jin seeks little else but to eventually get powerful enough to kill his father, often brushing off Shiki and the others. His Blood Eclipse Release manifests as buzz saws that pop out from his wounds.
Homare Byobugaura (屏風ヶ浦 帆稀, Byōbugaura Homare)
Voiced by: Manaka Iwami (Japanese); Erica Mendez (English)
A student in Shiki's class, as well as his love interest. In her past, she was heavily abused by her parents, leaving her constantly apologetic and self-deprecating. Her Blood Eclipse Release manifests as the "Blood Titan", a gargantuan, ghoul-like representation of her sister, who used to protect her from their parents before being killed by their father.
Ikari Yaoroshi (矢颪 碇, Yaoroshi Ikari)
Oni
Kaoru Namikido (並木度 馨, Namikido Kaoru)
Voiced by: Haruki Ishiya (Japanese); Ezra Weisz (English)
An oni in the reconnaissance unit who is disguised as an ordinary librarian. He activates his Blood Eclipse Release by shaking a vial of his blood. The blood echoes back, giving him the locations of nearby people and the layouts of buildings, much like animal echolocation. Additionally, anyone can use his power by shaking the same vial, though there are certain restrictions; one such restriction is based on a person's IQ.
Masumi Yodogawa (淀川真澄, Yodogawa Masumi)
Voiced by: Atsushi Tamaru (Japanese); Griffin Puatu (English)
The captain of the Nerima branch reconnaissance sector. He always has an unsettling smile, regardless of how tense a situation is. His Blood Eclipse Release grants him the power to go invisible for about 10 minutes. This also includes his clothing. It is activated by simply consuming his own blood.
Momotarou
The main antagonists of the series, based on the Japanese folk heroes of the same name. Similar to the oni ability to manipulate blood, Momotarou are able to wield their own black bacteria for this purpose.
Samidare Momoya (桃屋五月雨, Momoya Samidare)
Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (Japanese); Patrick Seitz (English)
A leading Momotarou officer with an intense hatred for oni. Driven by envy for his colleague Tsuyoshi Ichinose, he murdered him after hunting him down when he left the Momotarou agency.
Tsubakiri Momomiya (桃宮唾切, Momomiya Tsubakiri)
Voiced by: Daisuke Kishio (Japanese); Howard Wang (English)
A captain in Kyoto's Momotarou branch. A sadistic man, he lost his capacity for empathy after a berserk oni child murdered his mentor and the latter's family, and came to work primarily in a scientific capacity, dissecting oni corpses. His Momotarou ability allows him to manipulate corpses, including homunculi creations of his own making, that he transfers his bacteria to. After leading the assault on the oni's Kyoto branch, he is mortally wounded by Shiki's awakened Enki abilities, before being finished off by Mudano.
Yomogi Momokusa (桃草蓬, Momokusa Yomogi)
Voiced by: Mariya Ise (Japanese); Allegra Clark (English)
Tsubakiri's partner. Her Momotarou ability allows her to create near-impenetrable walls with her bacteria.
Shinya Momoiwa (桃巌深夜, Momoiwa Shinya)
Voiced by: Chiharu Sawashiro (Japanese); Damien Haas (English)
A captain in Tokyo's Momotarou branch. His Momotarou ability allows him to peer into the vision of up to 36 people for 24 hours. He is also capable of making a target see his vision, as long as his bacteria is present on them. Due to the non-combative nature of his power, Momoiwa was often deemed by fellow Momotarou as being unable to advance highly, causing him to become obsessed with status and begin using underhanded tactics—including breaking Momotarou policy by putting the lives of humans in danger—to advance through the ranks. He targets Shiki with the hopes that killing Enki will further advance his rank, and resorts to manipulating Mikado and torturing Kougasaki to do so. Momoiwa is eventually killed after Kougasaki uses his oni power to slit his throat.
Other characters
Tsuyoshi Ichinose (一ノ瀬剛志, Ichinose Tsuyoshi)
Voiced by: Tsuyoshi Koyama (Japanese); Imari Williams (English)
Shiki's adoptive father. Formerly a Momotarou partnered with Momoya, he took an infant Shiki in after discovering that he is a child of Kishin and left the organization, presumably due to being unable to murder a child. Momoya's envy eventually drove him to murder Tsuyoshi.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Yura Urushibara, Tougen Anki: Legend of the Cursed Blood started in Akita Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Champion on June 11, 2020. Akita Shoten has collected its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on October 8, 2020. As of July 2026, thirty volumes have been released.
In March 2024, Yen Press announced that they had licensed the manga for English release in North America, with the first volume released on September 17 of that same year.
A spin-off manga by Dōma Oda, titled Tougen Anki Gaiden: Tsuki to Sakura no Kyōsō Kyoku (桃源暗鬼外伝 月と桜の狂騒曲; 'Tougen Anki Side Story: The Rhapsody of the Moon and Cherry Blossoms'), started serialization in Monthly Shōnen Champion on June 6, 2025. The first tankōbon volume was released on December 8, 2025. As of July 2026, two volumes have been released.
Stage play
In December 2023, it was announced that the series would receive a stage play adaptation, which ran at the Tennozu Galaxy Theater in Tokyo from February 17 to 24, 2024, and at the Umeda Arts Theater's Theater Drama City in Osaka from February 29 to March 3 of the same year.
Anime
In May 2024, it was announced that the series would receive an anime television series adaptation. It was produced by Studio Hibari and directed by Ato Nonaka, with Hiroyuki Hashimoto serving as assistant director, Yukie Sugawara handling series composition and writing the screenplays, character designs by Ryoko Amisaki with him also serving as chief animation director alongside Yopi, and Kohta Yamamoto composing the music, with music production by Pony Canyon. The series aired from July 11 to December 26, 2025, on the Friday Anime Night programming block on Nippon TV and its affiliates. For the first cours, the opening theme song is "Overnight", performed by The Oral Cigarettes, while the ending theme song is "What is Justice?", performed by Band-Maid. For the second cours, featuring the "Nerima Arc", the opening theme song is "Amidakuji" (阿弥陀籤), performed by Chogakusei, while the ending theme song is "Action", performed by Eill.
Remow licensed the series for simultaneous airing on Crunchyroll and other services such as Samsung TV Plus (North America), Anime Onegai (Latin America), Bandplay (Brazil), Animation Digital Network (several European territories), Anime Generation (Italy) and Anime Key (Middle East and North Africa). Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video are also streaming the series worldwide outside of Mainland China.
Following the airing of the final episode, a sequel titled Tougen Anki: Nikko Kegon Falls Arc was announced. It is set to premiere in October 2026 on the same programming block.
Video game
A role-playing video game adaptation by Com2uS and Sega, titled Tougen Anki: Crimson Inferno (桃源暗鬼 Crimson Inferno), was announced in March 2025 for mobile devices and PC. It was unveiled at Tokyo Game Show 2025.
Reception
By February 2022, the manga had over 1.2 million copies in circulation; over 1.85 million copies in circulation by November 2022; over 2.2 million copies in circulation by March 2023; over 2.6 million copies in circulation by December 2023; over 3 million copies in circulation by May 2024; and over 6 million copies in circulation by July 2026.
The manga was nominated for the 2021 Next Manga Awards in the print category. The manga placed seventh in Rakuten Kobo's second E-book Award in the "I Want to Deliver It to the World! Top Recommended Manga" category in 2024.