Manga / Centuria

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Centuria is a 2024 Dark Fantasy manga with story and art by Tooru Kuramori (a former assistant of Chainsaw Man mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto).

Julian is a young boy who, after killing the blacksmith he was sold to by his mother, flees as a stowaway in a slave ship. When he is found, he is made a slave, but integrated into what turns out to be a tight community of slaves who look out for each other. He becomes especially close with the pregnant Mira, who agrees to share her food with him and takes him under her wing.

After trouble aboard the ship, the slaves are slaughtered by the indebted captain, but this accidentally calls forth an eldritch sea entity who, in exchange for the blood of the 100 killed slaves (including Mira), gifts Julian with their combined strength and their 100 lives. Now empowered and indebted to the 100 slaves killed protecting him and Mira's newborn daughter, Julian sets off to a new country to raise her.

Tropes:

• Ambiguously Evil: Both Diana and the King, but in different forms. Because both characters seem to have something dark about them, but it is left unclear what exactly and how dark those are, and they're also put in opposition by Elstri's vision, it leaves the reader even more in the air about how much of the vision is true and what is the context for the greater conflict of the story.
  • Diana is prophesied to become a dark knight that will kill the king and plunge the kingdom into chaos. The only source for that information comes from a fanatic and murderous seer who will seek to hate and destroy anyone who slights her king, and the only information the reader gets to see are images so divorced from context that they raise more questions then they answer (for example, an implication that some of the King's own court will side with her in the ensuing conflict). Is Diana truly evil and destroying the kingdom? What action from the king may have caused her to act this way? Is she an Omnicidal Maniac destroying for the sake of it, a Well-Intentioned Extremist revolutionary, or even actually the hero in this situation? Also, there's the fact she is followed around by an ethereal and creepy black goat that only other supernatural entities are aware of. Since The Deity Of Night is later informed to be a completely separate entity that lives inside her, are her actions in the prophecy of her own volition or is The Deity of Night just using her body to do as she pleases?
  • Every action the Supreme Lord takes is that of a benevolent ruler who wants to make his country as good as possible for his subjects, like by working to abolish slavery and taking genuine care of his subjects, even when there was criticism from his court of him being too soft or too humble, but the manga itself frames him in a shady, somber way, having his face covered in shadows and occasionally alluding to some dark past actions (not to mention how his family and court seem to consist of gleefully homicidal people).
• Ambiguous Situation: Elstri's vision of Diana causing the downfall of the kingdom and the death of the king. How much of it is true, if any at all? And how bad would it actually be if it happened? Even upon seeing the vision, Angvall is convinced it is just a lie.
• Blessing: Gifts are supernatural abilities originating from supernatural beings such as monsters and gods for a weighty price. Each Gift has powers that differ but may be similar in essence. Their environment also factors into the strength of their ability, like if they are related to water, like any weather or bodies of water will increase it's power. It's also theorized that Gifts can alter the fate of themselves or others. They can manifest as markings on the blessed person, each with a unique pattern. Children and descendants can inherit Gifts from their ancestors, though future generations will gain less powerful Gifts than the older generation, leading to Royal Inbreeding in the Supreme Lord's family.
• Central Theme: Family. Pretty much every character is defined by their ties to their family, both the one they were born onto and the one they come to choose.
• Chekhov's Gun: When burying Angvall's corpse, Titi takes a lock of her hair as a memento. Five years later it's shown she still has it kept in a pouch with her at all times. Unfortunately, Helem gets her hands on it, and with her gift uses it to revive Angvall as one of her amnesiac dolls to send after them.
• Crapsack World: The three parts of the world we get to see are not exactly nice to see. Julian's birthplace practices chattel slavery similar to that of the Roman system, the sea is populated by man eating monsters, and the new continent, while more egalitarian and communal, is mostly covered by a monster infested forest.
• Creator Thumbprint: This is Kuramori's second manga involving a bizarre, otherworldly woman. In this manga, it is a sea entity that gifts power to Julian, in Earth Recording 0001, it is an alien entity in the form of a woman that an astronaut finds and befriends on the moon.
• Dark Fantasy: A late colonialist-era take on it, but it goes to a more common European setting once Julian gets to the main country of the story.
• Dramatic Irony: Lacrima tells Julian about how her father, the Supreme Lord, is unique in that he didn’t inherit his powers but was granted them by the God of the Sea and that there's no one like him, unaware that Julian has also been given his powers directly from the same god (and is considered her son). Julian’s expression when she says this indicates he’s aware of the irony, but he doesn’t say anything.
• Eldritch Abomination: A common case for the monsters in this setting is to be horrific and mutated beings. The Sea Witch is a prime example, however, the setting is also populated by the bear monster and other god-like entities like her.
• Females Are More Innocent: Nope, and a notable case relative to its Shounen demographic. While there are multiple friendly and morally upstanding female characters in the series aiding Julian, Centuria stands out in that not only can the women be just as vile as the men, the majority of the series' main antagonists are not only female but complete assholes, and in rather varied ways too, ranging from Elstri to Queen Eire and Helem. Pretty much the only male character to quite match the sheer bad vibes of these characters is Arkos, and even then, his circumstances are relatively tragic and soon after his death he's resurrected as a far more benign character. Of course, this isn't that uncommon for the Dark Fantasy genre in general, but it is rather unique for a Shounen manga take on it.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Even before the sea entity appears, the sailors warn that they had planned to avoid that route, but something is pulling the sea towards it, hinting at its supernatural power.
  • In chapter 5, the reader is made aware of Elstri's prophecy forewarning of a calamity which will originate in the forest. Genre Savvy will likely assume that the calamity is Julian. However, in that same chapter Diana is able to sense some entity in the forest that Julian can't see. The "Child of Prophecy", as it turns out, is none other than Diana.
  • An example that is even lampshaded in chapter 70, when Helem raises these points to Zira, the degree of abuse and disrespect that Lacrima suffers from everyone in the palace is actually quite odd. Regardless of how weak she is, she would still be a princess of royal blood, with political use if not military ones, so why does everyone feel so free to mistreat her? And why is she allowed to go in and out of the castle without anyone protecting a member of the royal family? She is actually one of Helem's Living Dools, and the real Lacrima was already dead.
• Hope Spot:
  • Julian eventually seems to find a family with Diana, Angvall and Titi, living with them in a humble cabin near a scenic river, and looks forward to settling down to raise Diana. Unfortunately Elstri reveals Diana as the calamity destined to one day kill the king, forcing Angvall to accept her duty and kill the girl as Julian finds himself hunted once again.
  • During Angvall's and Arkos' fight, at one point it almost looks like Angvall is able to win when she's able to land a hit on the prince's neck... only for Arkos to harden his blood and for the blade to shatter.
• Humans Are Good: For a Dark Fantasy series, the manga has had a pretty good streak of faith in humanity. Although Julian spent most of his life being used as a slave and sold by his mother, he is adopted into a group of slaves who know that through pain, they must look out for each other. Even when reaching land he is immediately adopted into Angvall's house because she can't find it in herself to leave a kid and a baby to their own devices, and despite initial friction, he is accepted by the village quickly after showing his strength of character, to the point the villagers are willing to put their own lives on the line to save him and Diana when Elstri comes for them.
• Killing in Self-Defense: The morality of this is explored at length with Julian's character. Before the story started, he killed his blacksmith master when noticing that he might attack and kill him. In the present, Julian loathes killing, yet he won't hesitate to take lives if it means protecting his loved ones. Julian has zero illusions that, when all is said and done, he is killing people and causing grief to whomever their families might be. He's certainly not going to let those close to him be hurt, of course, but he refuses to ignore the weight of human life.
• Magic Is Feminine: While there are Gifted Ones of both genders, all Gifts derive from gods ruling over places like the sea or the forest. All the gods shown thus far are female, either because they're described as such or because they take on physical forms which are "roughly" female.
• The Magocracy: The Royal Family is made up of Gifted Ones. Given that magic in this setting is hereditary, one can infer that the Royal Family's magical bloodline serves as a kind of Divine Right of Kings legitimizing their rule in the eyes of the population.
• Our Mages Are Different: Those who possess supernatural abilities are generally referred to as "Gifted Ones", and gain their powers from either being blessed with a supernatural creature in return for offerings or from being born the child of a Gifted One. These "Gifts" are shown to be highly varied in function.
• Plot Parallel: After escaping from slavery, Julian befriends Titi and Angvall, and the three of them become a Family of Choice determined to protect their little sister Diana. The antagonist faction, lead by Elstri in her mission to assassinate Diana, has a similar familial dynamic in Altus, Zira, and Amber. The parallels extend to each of them individually. Altus, like Julian, is a slave deprived of agency, struggles with self-loathing tendencies, and has a mental connection with the spirits of the deceased (admittedly to very different ends). Zira, like Titi, is a refugee who lost everything in the Western War and was taken in by one of Torivia's two heroes. Finally, Amber is literally Angvall's living doll who bears her exact appearance.
• Reincarnation Relationship Change: The living dolls are replicas of the dead given life through Helem's Gift. Each doll is an entirely distinct being from the original, bearing no traces of their personality or memories. Inevitably, many living dolls have markedly different relationships with those who knew their past selves.
  • Invoked with Amber, the living doll of Angvall. Angvall was the late adopted sister of the protagonists who died protecting her family. One of the primary reasons Helem created Amber was to emotionally torment Julian and Titi by making them fight an enemy made in the image of their beloved sister, simply because Helem enjoys that kind of thing.
  • Early on in the manga, Arkos murders Angvall in cold blood. Their living dolls, Altus and Amber, quickly become close friends as they spend time at the palace together. Zira even lampshades how twistedly ironic all of this must seem.
  • Arkos was exceptionally close to his maid Zira, and the two harbored a romantic relationship in private. Naturally, Zira grows close to Altus, the living doll of Arkos, but their relationship is strictly platonic. This is both because Altus has the emotional development of a child and, as Zira herself admits, Altus is too good-natured for Zira to ever be attracted to him.
  • Zigzagged with Lacrima, who is, unbeknownst to herself, a living doll. The original Lacrima was abused by her mother, Queen Eire, who often poisoned her so that she could nurse her daughter back to health. When Lacrima was only five years old, Eire murdered her and had Helem create a living doll to act as a replacement. In contrast to the original, Eire never truly viewed this new "Lacrima" as an actual person, eventually growing so tired of her that she became blind to the girl's very existence.
• Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Several characters or factions are named after gods from Classical Mythology.
  • Diana is named after the Roman goddess of the hunt, wild animals, fertility, and the moon. This particular name takes on a far deeper meaning with the reveal that Diana shares a body with the Deity of the Night, who is a clear analogue to Hecate, as it was often believed that the goddesses Hecate, Diana, and Luna shared a single body.
  • The country the story takes place in is named Torivia. This name is likely a reference to "Trivia", a Roman epithet for the goddesses Diana and Hecate.
  • The Iris Sanctum is named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, Iris. The organization has seven members, reflecting the seven colors of the rainbow.
  • The Luna, the organization of Gifted Ones ranked directly below the Iris, is named after the Roman embodiment of the moon.
• Rousseau Was Right: A major theme. Centuria pretty unambiguously falls on the "Nurture" side of the Nature vs Nurture debate.
  • Julian, despite all the pain he went through, chooses to be a good person because he's shown the unconditional kindness humanity is capable of by people like Mira, the Slaves, and Angvall. He and his Family of Choice seek to Diana with love and refuse to dismiss her as the monster Elstri's prophecy makes her out to be. Consequentially, Diana grows into a genuinely sweet girl regardless of what her destiny might entail.
  • While a lot of the villains like Elstri or Arkos are pretty terrible people, the story goes out of its way to show that they're ultimately a product of their environment. In Elstri's case, she spent her entire life cursed with the knowledge that she wouldn't live to 15, until the Supreme Lord saved her life and earned her undying loyalty (it's also implied that Elstri's current fanaticism didn't start until a certain incident with the Queen). In Arkos' case, his mother actively cheered on his worst impulses and encouraged him to torture prisoners of war. Combined with him being practically worshipped as the strongest of the Supreme Lord's children, it's pretty obvious how he turned out so messed up.
• Sea Monster: Tons of it. One of which is a powerful enough sea witch that can gift Julian with massive power and 100 lives, but there are also other, minor demons that are supposed to be subservient to her and take the form of sea serpents and fish monsters.
• Soulless Shell: The living dolls are a particularly tragic example. They're replicas of the dead created by Helem mixing the flesh of corpses with mud. The living dolls have neither the memory nor the personality of the original. Despite that, they're still people who have all the same capacity for independent thought and emotion. Tragically, the living dolls are still completely beholden to the whims of their psychopathic creator who considers them nothing more than tools.
• Spirit Advisor: The slaves who were killed and used as sacrifice are able to communicate with Julian, such as when they beg him to use their strength to help him.
• Tempting Fate: In chapter 12, Julian wonders if the happiness he's found with his adoptive family is going to last forever. And surely enough, everything takes a turn for the worse that very same chapter.
• Time Skip: Chapter 31 suddenly jumps the manga forward five years.
• Traumatic C-Section: Mira opens her own belly to take her daughter out when she decides to sacrifice herself to end the ritual.
• Unholy Ground: Balkar Loa, the witches' stronghold, is the old capital from 400 years ago. It has been wholly corrupted by the forces of night, and every living being there has morphed into grotesque monsters.
• War Is Hell: The glimpses the audience gets into the Western War do not paint a good picture. The war took tons of lives on both sides, soldier and civilian alike, and both Torivia and Rummir committed plenty of atrocities—Titi's village was wiped out by Rummir soldiers and the war ended when Arkos drowned Rummir's entire capital city.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Calling the Royal Court a mess of infighting is putting it lightly. While the Supreme Lord is generally a benevolent ruler, the Queen is clearly a psychopath who murders all of the Supreme Lord's illegitimate children and concubines out of mere jealousy. Elstri is an absolute fundamentalist who goes so far as to try to murder an entire village out of "disrepect" for the king, and is even willing to go behind his back if she deems it in his best interest. Arkos is an open sadist who treats his siblings like crap, he's somehow the only one of the king's kids so far who doesn't express malice towards his father. Lacrima resents her father and is quick to betray him the minute she's surrounded with people who actually treat her with kindness. Lukas expresses open malice towards the king and makes no effort to hide his plan to murder him... and yet he's given a position as a Black Knight. Helem is willing to dig up Arkos' dead body and reanimate it into one of her loyal minions. The Witches literally swear fealty to the very child destined to kill the Supreme Lord, and yet they're somehow afforded a position of power in the palace.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 12 reveals that Diana is the apparently the calamity destined to one day kill the king, and the prophetess Elstri orders her executed on the spot.
  • Chapter 46 has a lot of revelations about Lukas. He is actually the bastard son of the King, but hates his father for accepting the Queen's decision to kill all concubines including his mother. The king has his face shown and reveals he was aware that Elstri intends to betray his orders, so he sends Lukas there with the intention of saving Diana and bringing her to him, revealing Diana may be connected to an ancient being who put the king in serious injuries, and Lukas says he intends to help Diana destroy the king.
  • The last few chapters of the Western Border arc has a lot of major reveals in quick succession. Lacrima is actually one of Helem's living dolls. The real Lacrima was killed by her mother, Queen Eire, when she was only five years old, and Helem created a living doll of her at the queen's request. In truth, "Lacrima" is a Manchurian Agent who, if things go according to Helem's plan, will be forced to kill Diana against her own wishes. Helem also uses Titi's Tragic Keepsake to create Amber, a living doll of Angvall. Finally, Altus, who up until now had been characterized as an Empty Shell, calls out Helem for being such a psycho, unambiguously establishing that he is a completely different person from Arkos.
• Wham Line:
  • In Chapter 12, Elstri comes to the village to investigate the source of the prophecy. When she's talking to Angvall, Julian arrives with Diana in his arms, and Elstri is met with an image of a deep, all-consuming darkness stemming from Julian. Angvall tries to plead with Elstri that Julian would never kill the Supreme Lord, only for Elstri to say the following:
    Elstri: "What're you talking about? That young boy is just a victim of fate's whims. I am talking about the baby in his arms."
  • In Chapter 70, Helem points just how strange Lacrima's background is. Why did no one at the palace care that Lacrima, a member of the Royal Family, was running off across the country by herself? Why was Lacrima so mistreated by the others at the palace when, as a princess, she should be of exceptional importance even if she happens to have a weak Gift. And for that matter, why does Lacrima have a weaker Gift than the others of the Royal Family? Helem answers all of these questions with a single line:
    Helem: "I made that thing. It's nothing but a puppet born from the corpse of the real lady Lacrima."