Let me start by saying how pleasantly surprised I was by Ken Wakui’s new story. As someone who only watched the first season of Tokyo Revengers and—like many others—(forcibly) witnessed the trainwreck of the manga unfold on social media, it is safe to say I was less than excited to read Astro Royale. However, by the final chapter of its first volume, I was invested enough that my eyes got watery. This is not necessarily a testament to a good or well-written story, but in this case, it is both. It is not particularly different or exciting, but it is structurally sound.
Once again, Wakui writes a story centered around the yakuza and an ensuing gang war.
However, this time, it is an internal war within one big family: the Yotsurugi’s. With the slightly tired and simple premise of the family leader dying and causing a struggle for succession, Wakui sets up the main characters well, easily explaining the Yotsurugi family’s structure, relationships, and different factions that formed.
Early into Volume 1, a catastrophic cosmic event introduces powers for our characters. This power system is nothing transcendental, but fun and a good addition to the story. It makes the fights more interesting than if they were simply fist-fighting.
As I previously mentioned, I never touched the Tokyo Revengers manga aside from seeing the odd panel on social media, so I never thought much of Wakui’s art. However, now that I have properly engaged with his work, I really like his style and designs, the dynamism of his fights, and characters’ expressiveness.
A major flaw in Wakui’s new manga is his lack of female characters.
In this volume, there is exactly one woman. All she does is say a couple of comments along the lines of “boys will be boys”. It seems like he learned nothing—or wasn’t willing to try anything new—after Tokyo Revengers. One thing I do think he learned from and improved upon was his character’s ages. Hibaru and Terasu are the youngest of the children—and also the only minors—at the ages of 15 and 16, respectively. The other siblings go from 19 to 28 years old. This instantly makes a story about the yakuza and Japan’s crime underbelly more believable than if the characters were pre-teens and teens.
I actually do find myself wanting to continue reading Astro Royale, and would recommend it. Don’t judge a manga by its cover (or by its author’s previous work).
VIZ media released Volume 1 on August 5th, 2025 and Volume 2 on November 6th, 2025.
