Kiyoshi Harai is the world's strongest exorcist—and its most awkward one! Equally afraid of fighting demons, making new friends, and talking to girls, this so-called ultimate exorcist has still got a lot to learn before he can reach his full potential!

Having recently graduated as one of the most singular talents the Exorcist Academy has ever seen, Kiyoshi Harai is ready for his first mission— exorcising a demon-possessed girl! The only problem? He's terrified of demons! While he might be able to find a sympathetic ear in the demon possessing the girl, will he be able to hold his ground when a far more sinister—and deadly—enemy arrives?

The Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi has a story and art by Shoichi Usui. English translation is done by Christine Dashiell and lettering by Ayoub Bensidi. Published by Viz Media LLC (May 5, 2026). Rated T.

Erica Friedman
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The Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi is a lot of fun. Exactly the kind of action, friendship, and guts-filled wackiness one wants from a Shonen Jump manga. Kiyoshi, a prodigy among exorcists, just wants a chance to make friends, so being sent to a branch station headed by a delinquent-type older guy who treats Kiyoshi like a younger brother is perfect. When he gets a chance to go to school like a normal kid and actually makes a friend, Kiyoshi is happier than he has been for years. Of course, being an exorcist means that his days won't stay quiet for long.

Kiyoshi's skills and heart will be put to the test over and over as he not only takes out powerful demons, but protects both demons and humans who just want spend their days happily with their family and friends.

A bonus to this volume is the genuinely enjoyable author's notes on his own characters, which give you a little insight into his trials as an artist, and also his sense of humor and humanity—these are also on display in the story proper. Sure, this is a manga about exorcising demons and protecting humans, but like most SJ titles, it's also about found family, building your place in the world, and having intolerable rivals and that one guy who is a jerk, until it counts. It's also about ridiculous powers with silly names and increasingly powerful opponents, as one might expect.

Just kick back, read a volume, and have a good time with Kiyoshi and the gang as they take on the worst and the best demons and humans have to offer.

Rebecca Silverman
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Before he began work on Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi, Shoichi Usui was one of Eiichiro Oda's assistants – and you can tell. That's by no means a bad thing; Usui clearly learned how to balance lunacy with more nuanced storytelling and to draw dynamic, rubbery bodies in motion. (Not that anyone's made of rubber in this series, but they have that stretchy, flexible quality to them.) This shouldn't be taken to mean that Usui doesn't have his own style, however; he's simply learned how to take the best from someone else's and incorporate it into his own.

But what really stands out in this story is the humor. Is it mildly juvenile? Sure, but that's what makes it so much fun. The timing of the jokes is good, the absurdity to excellent, and I absolutely love that Kiyoshi's ultimate secret weapon is just taking a deep breath to calm himself. That he learns this trick from a dad of a demon just makes it better. Kiyoshi's own parents were killed by evil demons when he was little, and he became an exorcist to make sure that no one else suffered in the same way. His fear of demons kept getting in the way, so when he meets a demon possessing a girl and that demon decides that Kiyoshi needs some fatherly advice, it's doubly delightful. There's something very funny about a purported bad guy taking a break from doing evil to give a teenage boy some life advice, but it's also at least a little poignant because Kiyoshi doesn't have a dad. He needs someone to step up and tell him to just take a deep breath.

The fact that it was a demon who did this gives the story its backbone. Kiyoshi now understands that not all demons are terrible; just like humans, some are perfectly nice. Therefore, Kiyoshi's mission to protect doesn't have to be limited to just humans. This begins in chapter one with his new demon dad, but it's used to great effect with the Jack Joe storyline in the latter half of the book, arguably the first long storyline of the series. Jack Joe is a demon, but he has amnesia, and he's become basically brothers with one of Kiyoshi's new classmates. When other exorcists show up to kill Jack Joe, Kiyoshi defends him: he wants to protect those who need it and whom he cares about, no matter what species they are. The book needs this sort of throughline to balance it out, and it really works. Not all shounen protagonists manage to be true heroes, but I think Kiyoshi will pull it off – even if he tattooed 777 on his back in Roman numerals instead of 666.

Kevin Cormack
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Manga about exorcists who banish demons/yokai/ayakashi/vampires/monsters, etc., are ten-a-penny, or at least I've read countless numbers of them. Therefore, it can take a lot to stand out from the crowd. Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi manages this by being just so damned fun. Author Tetsu Ōkawa takes his five-year experience working as an assistant for One Piece's Eichiro Oda and uses it to infuse this tale of a scaredy-cat exorcist with a metric ton of humor and pathos.

Kiyoshi is a Good Lad who is determined to succeed at his chosen profession, despite his deathly fear of the demons he is charged to exorcise. Driven by a desire to protect others from demonic attacks following the murder of his parents by a demon, Kiyoshi stands strong against his enemies… or is he merely rooted to the spot in terror?

In this volume, we see the uncommonly gifted Kiyoshi come into his own as a powerful exorcist and find methods to manage his fears. He's relatable and funny, and also more than a little bit extra. He has crucifixes tattooed all over his body, plus the Roman numerals for what he thought was “666” tattooed on his back. (Instead, he got “777”, which is so dopey and funny, but also kind of appropriate.) There's a general crucifix motif throughout the book, which probably hews more towards Evangelion-style “rule of cool” than having anything to do with Christianity. One priest even has the hair sticking out of his head at right angles, shaped in an improbably bizarre crucifix shape.

While Kiyoshi draws the Ire of the Thirteen Demon Lords of Hell, he discovers that not every demon is actually evil. From one middle-aged demon guy who merely wants to support his own family, to another amnesiac demon who's become a boy's invisible best friend, Kiyoshi faces up against his world's authorities, who take a more annihilationist view towards demonkind. This will likely set up further interesting plot developments further down the line.

Ultimate Exorcist Kiyoshi is a lot of goofy, energetic fun, with an entertaining main character tearing up demons in an endearingly loopy world. Its artwork is clean and often quite exaggerated, which definitely suits the irreverent vibe. I had a lot of fun with this and would happily read more.