Peacock King Review: The Exorcist Manga That Made Buddhist Mythology Look This Cool

A Buddhist monk who fights demons with powers from Tantric ritual — in 1985. Before this kind of manga had a genre name.

Quick Take

• A late-80s esoteric action manga grounded in actual Buddhist and Shinto occult traditions
• Genuinely influential on the supernatural action genre — precursor to Blue Exorcist and others
• Only 8 of 28 volumes in English; the series is essentially inaccessible to completion in English

Who Is This Manga For?

• Readers interested in esoteric/occult manga from the era when the genre was establishing itself
• People who want supernatural action grounded in actual religious mythology
• Fans of the Peacock King films (1988, 1989) who want to trace the source material
• Anyone curious about the genre precursors to modern supernatural shonen

Content Warnings & Age Rating

Age Rating: M (Mature) Content Warnings: Violence, occult themes, sexual content, religious mythology (Buddhist and Shinto), character death

Adult content throughout. Not for younger readers.

Yu's Rating

Category	Score
Story Depth	★★★☆☆
Art Style	★★★☆☆
Character Development	★★★☆☆
Accessibility for Non-Japanese Readers	★★☆☆☆
Reread Value	★★★☆☆

Story Overview

Kujaku is a monk trained at a Tantric Buddhist temple, born with special powers he doesn't fully understand. He uses these powers — drawn from Peacock Wisdom King (Mahamayuri), a deity associated with the destruction of poison and evil — to battle demonic forces that threaten the living world.

The series follows Kujaku through a series of encounters with supernatural threats, each grounded in specific elements of Buddhist and Shinto mythology. He is assisted and occasionally complicated by Ahwone, a Taoist monk from China with his own agenda, and a young woman named Ryou who becomes drawn into his world.

The narrative is episodic in its early volumes, building toward larger conspiracies as the series progresses — a structure common to the era's action manga, where standalone adventures eventually accumulate into overarching conflict.

Characters

Kujaku — Competent, slightly remote, more interesting for what he represents (the tradition he draws on) than for conventional character development. His powers are specific and rooted in actual practice, which gives him a distinctiveness that more generically powered protagonists lack.

Ahwone — The more comedic counterpart, whose Taoist background provides contrast with Kujaku's Buddhist framework. Their relationship is the series' primary dynamic.

Art Style

Ogino's art reflects late-80s Weekly Young Jump aesthetics — detailed in the occult iconography, somewhat rougher in figure work. The supernatural imagery is the visual highlight: mandalas, ritual tools, and demon designs drawn with genuine research into the traditions they represent. By modern standards the art shows its age, but the specificity of the religious visual vocabulary remains distinctive.

Cultural Context

Peacock King arrived in 1985 during a period of significant interest in esoteric religion in Japanese popular culture — the "occult boom" of the 1980s that also produced the Doraemon Tibetan episodes and eventually led to the Aum Shinrikyo tragedy. The manga engages with this cultural moment by taking its occult material seriously as lore even while using it for entertainment.

Mahamayuri (孔雀明王) is a real figure in Tantric Buddhism — specifically associated with the removal of poison and negative forces. The choice of this deity as a power source was specific and meaningful within its cultural context.

What I Love About It

The research Ogino put into the religious iconography is what makes this stand out from other supernatural action manga of the period. Most such manga invent their mythology. Peacock King borrows from tradition — the specific mudras, mantras, and associated imagery are recognizable to anyone with knowledge of Tantric Buddhism.

That specificity gives Kujaku's powers a texture that generic "fight evil" manga lacks. When he deploys a particular technique, it means something within a real tradition. That's not nothing.

What English-Speaking Fans Say

Primarily remembered by readers who encountered it through Viz in the early 1990s — an era when English-language manga options were so limited that this was one of the few available examples of its type. Historical significance is frequently cited. Modern readers tend to find the art and pacing dated but the occult content genuinely interesting.

Memorable Scene ⚠️ Spoiler Warning

The ritual scenes — where Kujaku performs actual Tantric practice before or during combat — are the most distinctive visual moments in the manga. They look different from anything else in early-90s English manga publishing, which is precisely why they landed.

Similar Manga

Title	Its Approach	How Peacock King Differs
Blue Exorcist	Exorcist action with Christian/occult elements	Blue Exorcist is more character-focused and modern; Peacock King is grounded in Buddhist tradition
Dororo	Supernatural Japanese mythology in action context	Dororo is more humanistic; Peacock King is more occult-focused
Shaman King	Spirit-based combat with shamanic traditions	Shaman King is more accessible; Peacock King takes its tradition more seriously

Reading Order / Where to Start

Volume 1, straight through. The episodic early structure makes any volume a reasonable entry point, though starting from the beginning provides the most context.

Official English Translation Status

Viz Media published 8 volumes in English. The complete series is 28 volumes in Japanese. The English release is significantly incomplete.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Genuine research into Buddhist and Taoist esoteric traditions
• Influential predecessor to the supernatural action genre
• The occult visual vocabulary is distinctive and specific
• Important historical text for understanding the genre's development

Cons

• Only 8 of 28 volumes available in English
• Art reflects its late-80s context — will feel dated to modern readers
• Cultural context (Tantric Buddhism, Shinto mythology) requires background to fully appreciate
• The mature content limits its audience significantly
• Episodic early structure may frustrate readers wanting sustained narrative

Is Peacock King Worth Reading?

For genre history enthusiasts and readers with interest in esoteric religious content, yes. For casual readers, the incomplete English release and dated presentation are significant obstacles.

Format Comparison

Format	Pros	Cons
Physical	Period-specific feel suits the material	Out of print; incomplete
Digital	More accessible	—
Omnibus	No omnibus available	—

Where to Buy

Read the first volume. If it doesn't hook you, put it down. It'll hook you.

Start with Volume 1 →

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