【Buso Renkin】Action-packed sci-fi manga series with more than 3 million copies sold!!!

Buso Renkin (translated as “Alchemical Weapons”) is a shonen manga series written and illustrated by Watsuki Nobuhiro, author of the famous “Rurouni Kenshin” manga series. From June 2003, the manga was serialized by Shueisha in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Alchemical Weapons ended after two years in April 2005, with a total of 10 volumes. Viz Media has then licensed the series to be released in North America.

In 2006, the series was adapted into a 26-episode anime TV series produced by studio Xebec. Beside the original anime series, there has been numerous of other adaptations such as drama CDs, light novels, several Buso Renkin-themed merchandises and a PlayStation 2 video game.

Although the series initially received mixed reception, it has pulled through and sold over 3 million volumes in Japan and was nominated in the Seiun Award for sci-fi comic title of the year. Buso Renkin has since become one of Nobuhiro’s iconic works in the shonen genre.

“This has to be a dream! There’s no way such kind of monster could exist in real life”, Kazuki Muto thought as he was trying to hide from a monstrous giant shadow. When Kazuki turned to look over his shoulder, there was a girl in uniform walked by without even noticing the fangs that was bearing behind her back. Without a second thought, Kazuki threw himself at the girl to try and save her. As a result, his chest was pieced by the monster.

In the middle of the night, Kazuki woke up screaming from his dorm room. He could vividly remember the events happened before, but was convinced that it must has been a dream. Kazuki made such a big ruckus that it woke up all of his friends and little sister.

However, nobody noticed that outside Kazuki’s dorm building, the girl he saved was watching over him. She whispered that Kazuki had been given a new life by the power of “Alchemy”.

The next morning, Kazuki’s life continued like normal. While Kazuki was busy talking to his friends, the school bell rang, which made Kazuki realize that he and his little sister Mahiro Muto were both late for their first day of the semester. They started running at full speed to get into the school before the gate close.

When Kazuki and Mahiro stepped inside the school ground, the gate was violently closed in front of them. If Kazuki hadn’t reacted in time, Mahiro could have been badly injured. The teacher who closed the gate had cold eyes and an unforgiving attitude towards the students. His name was Mita.

By calling Kazuki out to be late and not using a school-approved bag, Mita forced him into after-school detention. Even though Kazuki explained that he couldn’t find his bag when he woke up from the dream, Mita ignored and told Kazuki that he had to pull out the weeds in the courtyard as punishment.

When Kazuki finally finished pulling weed, it was already dark and everyone had left the school ground. The empty school and the cold night air sent chill to Kazuki’s bone. Remembering his nightmare from the night before, Kazuki decided to leave as soon as possible but he was called out by Mita. In the meantime, Mahiro also decided to leave the dorm to meet up with her brother.

When Kazuki turned around, Mita threw Kazuki’s lost bag back to him and said that it was “left behind at the Haunted Factory by the one who interrupted his meal”. Then, Mita’s body started to behave strangely as if it was morphing into something else.

His eyes filled with bloodlust while fangs and scales appeared all over his face and body. In mere seconds, Mita turned into a giant snake monster and attacked Kazuki.

While running away, Kazuki received a call on his cellphone. On the other end was the mysterious girl who Kazuki had saved. She was on her way to save him and briefly explained to Kazuki that the snake monster was called “Homunculus”. They were man-eaters that had the abilities to disguise themsleves as human.

The girl said she would let Kazuki use “his power” to defend against the homunculus. However, before she could explain to Kazuki how to use it, he bumped into Mahiro. Kazuki tried to lure the homunculus away from his sister but the monster emerged from the ground and swallowed her.

Kazuki went into a fit of rage and attacked the homunculus with a steel pole, but the monster barely took any damages. Its body was made by alchemy; thus it could only be destroyed by alchemy.

At that moment, Kazuki suddenly had flashbacks about the night he was killed. His heart was crushed by the homunculus but the mysterious girl decided to save him by using a supernatural alloy called “Kakugane” that had been refined by alchemy.

She inserted the Kakugane into Kazuki’s chest. There, it became a substitute for Kazuki’s heart and in time of need, Kakugane would give Kazuki the power to fight!

Cornered by the homunculus, Kazuki grabbed his chest tightly as if he was reaching for his heart. Driven by pure instinct and the thought of saving his sister, Kazuki shouted out the name of his newly gained power – “BUSO RENKIN!!”.

The homunculus swallowed Kazuki but it soon growled in pain as its stomach was torn from the inside. A golden lance called “Sunlight Heart” formed by the Kakugane inside Kazuki’s heart had pierced through its stomach and Kazuki flew out with Mahiro in his hand.

The homunculus tried to take them down in the air but help had arrived. The mysterious girl flew down with her own Buso Renkin called “Valkyrie Skirt”, and swiftly finished the homunculus.

The battle was over in an instant, Kazuki quickly threw away his weapon to check up on his sister but the girl stopped him. She told Kazuki to take better care of his Buso Renkin as it was acting as his heart. If the Buso Renkin was broken, so would Kazuki’s heart.

Kazuki’s life had officially taken a turn into the unknown world of alchemy, the strange power that gave birth to man-eating homunculi and the weapons to fight against them.

Read on and uncover Kazuki’s crazy and exciting journey into the world of alchemy!