Joseph Luster
May 10, 2023 
Shinobu Ohtaka’s ORIENT manga kicked off in the pages of Weekly Shonen Magazine in May 2018 before moving to Bessatsu Shonen Magazine in 2021, and now it has its sights set on the climactic part of the story. According to the June issue of the magazine, the series’ “final battle” will officially commence when the next issue hits stands on June 9 in Japan.
The ORIENT manga previously inspired a TV anime adaptation that has run for two cours. Ohtaka is also the creator behind the hit manga Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, which ran from 2009 to 2017 and inspired two anime series adaptations.
Kodansha USA publishes the manga in English and sums up the story like so:
The new shonen action manga from the creator of Magi is here! Musashi is a teenager living under demon rule. As children, he and his best friend made a promise: to become the greatest warriors in the world and overthrow the demons. But life intervenes, and five years later, he finds himself about to become a miner. Yet can Musashi truly be satisfied with a “normal” life?
At age 10, best friends Musashi and Kojiro sat in excited silence as Kojiro’s father spun tales of evil demons who preyed on the innocent, and the warriors who defeated them. Practicing swordplay, the two swear an oath to become the strongest in the world, but as they grow up, Kojiro turns cynical, and Musashi comes to the realization that he can’t overturn 150 years of demon rule on his own. He’s being called a prodigy with a pickaxe, and he’s almost ready to settle into a life of labor. Yet he can’t shake the feeling that he is still has a responsibility to act… and soon, the injustices of his world will force his hand…
