Kazunobu Haramoto is all about that thug life. He's rough, he's tumble, and now that he's joined the Yakuzu, he's all set to climb the ranks of the underworld. But you know what they say: all conditioned things are like dreams, shadows, and bubbles. And Kazunobu's bubble bursts like no other! A gang raid by a mysterious assassin leaves all his new yakuza comrades dead and dusted, and the fuzz catch him at the scene with the only other survivor, the boss's young daughter. Witness protection is his and the girl's best hope now―and for some reason, the cops have it in their heads that a strict and prestegious Zen Buddhist temple is the best place to hide! Kazunobu's got two options: death, or Nirvana!

Let’s Go Nirvana! has a story and art by Gen Momoji. English translation is done by Kevin Steinbach and lettering by Brandon Bovia. Published by Yen Press (September 22, 2026). Rated OT.

Erica Friedman
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Kazunobu is a young man who has known hardship in his life, but you wouldn't know it from the young, carefree yakuza that we meet. When a mysterious, dangerous killer leaves only Kazunobu and the boss's young daughter alive after his murder spree, the police are less than helpful. Japan, we are told, does not actually have a witness protection program. Out of concern for Mutsumi, who is now no longer speaking because of the trauma, the police tuck the two of them away at a Zen Buddhist temple known for its rigorous (read: sadistic) training.

Kazubonu, now known by his monk name as Isshin, undergoes training that beggars the imagination. Leave your worldly thoughts behind, he is told, while being beaten exhausted and starved. What the monks don't know is that this isn't the first time Kazunobu has been treated this way. As an orphan his childhood was filled with the exact kind of disdain and suffering he is now undergoing. Nonetheless, he does break, only to stay because of Mutsumi, for whom he feels responsibility.

The story is a pretty solid combination of serious and comedic elements. Isshin's struggle to leave his worldly concerns and bodily functions behind can be amusing, especially when he and the other initiates begin to bond over their trials. His own tough life and his kindness to Mutsumi feel grounding, rather than schmaltzy. The only thing that reads as unpleasant handwave is the obvious satisfaction the temple monks have when they beat the initiates. That's a worldly attachment, too, I want to touch them on the shoulder and point out.

The art here is solid as well, realistic, with a tendency for goofy faces as Isshin struggles with hunger, erections, and other features of having a human body. This first volume is focused solely on forcing Kazunobu to build up some resolve and set aside, if not all of his worldly concerns, but much of the frippery of Yakuza life. The threat of death is real, should the assassin find him, but it seems too far away to have any relationship to the story. One has to expect it to be relevant again in future volumes. I also expect to see resilience, and martial skill from the monks and our boy Isshin, in service to the boss's young daughter and the woman who cares for her.

I found Let’s Go Nirvana! to be a sometimes serious, oddly insightful, and overall goofy fun read.

Kevin Cormack
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Buddhist temple life is hell. Or at least that's the impression I get from this manga! Many religions have practitioners that encourage asceticism, from Hindu Yogis to Roman Catholic monks. Denying oneself worldly pleasures and directing one's thoughts away from the physical realm and its desires supposedly lets one reach a spiritual state approaching the divine. The pursuit of such lofty goals is far from protagonist Kazunobu's motivation, however. He's thrown into the monastic life as a form of witness protection, as he's now in the sights of a terrifying assassin who killed all of Kazunobu's Yakuza seniors.

This is a tremendously well-researched series, especially considering the lengthy bibliography listed at the end, which I'd say is unusual for most manga! Kazunobu must come to grips with a supremely strict schedule filled with physical labor, tests of endurance, endless sutra chanting, sleep deprivation, malnutrition, and frankly, inhuman abuse. Author Momoji doesn't shy away from the crueller aspects of temple initiation, where new recruits are made to suffer inhuman indignities, excused by the senior monks as necessary for spiritual development.

Despite the suffering, Kazunobu's story is very entertaining, as he and his fellow initiates get up to all sorts of mischief. His relationship with the only other survivor of the Yakuza massacre, his boss's daughter, is really sweet and wholesome, plus the background threat of the assassin hunting for them both adds a sense of tension.

The humor often tends towards crude, with lots of references to bodily functions and masturbation, but this is all completely fitting with a situation where a bunch of young men are all locked up together and forced to deny all of their physical urges. We feel very sorry for poor Kazunobu, but he's a good lad really, and does his best with a crazy situation. I really enjoyed this look at a world completely alien to my own; I would definitely read more.