Centuria is a 2024 Dark Fantasy manga with story and art by Tooru Kuramori.
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, whereupon 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, especially 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 forward an eldritch sea entity who, 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, he sets off to a new country to raise her.
Tropes
- Amazonian Beauty: Angvall is a huge, muscular, and very beautiful woman. Her nice figure is usually hidden in her armor though.
- 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.
- 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.
- The Good King: The King of the country has been protecting the lands for 100 years and is by all accounts a pretty good ruler.
- Gruesome Goat: Chapter 3 ends with the introduction of a creepy black goat in the forest that only Diana seems able to see.
- 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 hiss strength of character.
- Killing in Self-Defense: Julian killed his blacksmith master when noticing that he might attack him.
- Replacement Goldfish: Mira lost her first son, who was killed protecting her, and to a degree sees him again in Julian, whom she adopts as a new child. She sacrifices herself for Julian partly because she won't let that loss repeat itself.
- Resurrective Immortality: Julian gains the lives of the 100 slaves killed saving him, this is shown by him healing his own injuries and coming back to life whenever killed.
- 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.
- Traumatic C-Section: Mira opens her own belly to take her daughter out when she decides to sacrifice herself to end the ritual.
