Manga Review: Ajin: Demi-Human

Hello readers, it's been a while since my last post and for that I sincerely apologize...

Been a little busy getting a job and preparing to get certified as a high school teacher. But I'm back to bring you all a few new posts, starting with this one! Today I'd like to bring you a 90% spoiler-free review of a seinen manga series I recently started reading known as Ajin: Demi-Human. Is it an egregious train wreck or the next big hit? Well...it all depends on what you're looking for.

Story: Writer and artist Gamon Sakurai's manga Ajin tells an interesting story that shares a lot in common with Sui Ishida's Tokyo Ghoul. The story revolves a seemingly normal world that bears an interesting phenomenon. In the world of Ajin, there exists another species apart from humans known as ajins or demi-humans. While ajin are biologically uniform to human begins in both physical appearance and internal structures, what sets them apart are their slue of unique abilities. For starters, ajin are immortal and cannot die. No matter how they are killed they will simply regenerate and come back to life. Ajins also seem to have the ability to physically paralyze a human being's movements with their voices. Lastly, ajin have unique control over an entity known as a "black ghost" that they are able to summon. These "black ghosts" are invisible to most human eyes, vary in shape from ajin to ajin, and are able to perform many different kind of actions upon an ajin's command. 

With their unique abilities and immortality, ajin are feared by the entire world and are hunted down by "Demi-Human Control Organizations" that capture them and experiment on them. Sounds a lot like the CCG and ghouls huh? Anywho, main character Kei Nagai, finds out he's an ajin after he's run over by a car and killed, only to come back to life surrounded by strange black matter. Now he is chased by many people and is forced to run from the human society he was once a part of. Sounds a lot like Kaenki Ken becoming a ghoul huh? 

Ajin's story really is similar to Tokyo Ghoul! Ghoul began being published in 2011 while Ajin followed a year later in 2012. I can't help but feel that Sakurai borrowed a few ideas, or at the very least was inspired in some way by Ishida's manga. After all:

• Both stories take place in modern day Japan
• There exists a species similar to humans that are despised by humanity that have special abilities
• "Demi-Human Control Organizations" are very similar to the CCG and exist to subjugate and/or destroy the featured species
• Both have protagonists that suddenly become members of the featured/despised species in the story.
• Both protagonists' morals change over time after begin subjected to the cruelty and hatred of humanity. 

The list goes on but I didn't intend for this to be a comparative post; I just couldn't let it go unmentioned.

That being said, Ajin's story is unique enough to stand on its own and its concept of ajins themselves is cool enough to engage readers for the most part. As for the manga's genre: I'd say it is a healthy amalgamation of action, adventure, horror, and supernatural. 

Art:

Sakurai's art in this manga is fairly inconsistent. At times it can spout some awesome hand-drawn pages with a lot of  attention to detail and some fantastic, jaw-dropping backgrounds (i.e. Chapter 22). Whereas other times the character designs suddenly look lazily drawn and down right stupid, particularly in chapter 18. It's a shame that the art style doesn't remain consistent throughout as Ajin can look really good at times. Sakurai's art certainly isn't he best I've encountered, but at the end of the day art is subjective. 

Characters:

-Kei Nagai

Kei is the manga's protagonist. Upon accidentally getting run over and reviving from death, the world is made aware of his existence as an ajin; maliciously hunting him for the sake of "humanity's evolution." Kei starts out as a young boy who despite recently learning that he is an ajin, tries to hold on to his humanity, not being able to let go of his kind morals and values. Yet, as the world beings to crumble around him and he bears witness to humanity's wickedness, Kei is forced to subscribe to a different set of values, gradually growing darker and less forgiving. While Kei isn't particularly different from other manga protagonists, I did think it was interesting that his intelligence is actually rather high. Yet, the story only subtly references this fact until it is made apparent later on to the reader in cool, indirect ways. While Kei isn't the most memorable protagonist, I definitely think he has been set up enough to become a great one in time. Only future chapters will shed light on this hope. 

-Kaito "Kai"

Kei's estranged and fiercely loyal childhood friend. While Kai's relationship to Kei is very strange, Kai has been set up to be an important character for future events, whom will ultimately come to save Kei from danger...no matter what. Though he is not received much development as of yet, Kai will be drastically important later on. 

-Kou Nakano

An ally of Kei's whom also recently discovered that he was an ajin. His lack of intellect drives a good majority of the humor in the manga. 

-Satou

An ajin who serves as this story's main antagonist. Satou is pretty damn evil! He bears a deep hatred towards humanity, mostly directed towards its intolerance of the existence of ajin. He now wishes to fight back against humanity and recruit any and all ajin to his cause. I will say that he is probably the most interesting character that this manga has introduced so far. 

-Yuu Tosaki

A human who is a high ranking member of the ministry of health, labor, and welfare. He is tasked with capturing Kei Nagano for the government and to assist in the mitigation of the ajin threat towards humanity. 

-Izumi Shimomura

Tosaki's partner who is tasked with guarding his life. 

Weaknesses:

I'd be lying if I said I thoroughly enjoyed this manga completely and think it to be next original hit. While I don't think Ajin is a horrible manga, I must acknowledge its shortcomings. Of which include: 

• Bad pacing (particularly in the first 19 chapters): Holy crap a lot of the events in the beginning happen so fast, only to have a few instances of breathing time, just for the story to pick up again and continuously throw a bunch of events at you. Maybe it was just me, but it almost felt as if though Ajin was trying desperately to keep its readers' attentions and not bother with fleshing anything out until later chapters/recently. This is a recurring issue I have encountered in many manga that by no means is beyond incorrigible. Yet, it continues to occur! I just wish that certain stories would take time to make sense of what it is throwing at its readers and allow for proper development and pacing. Issues such as this make me feel that Tokyo Ghoul is simply the better story if it were compared to Ajin, if only for its phenomenal pacing. However, I must give credit where credit is due: Ajin's last 10 chapters have finally slowed down a bit and has begun to dive into the backstories of its other characters while allowing for some good character development. 
• Deus ex Machina plays a heavy role in Ajin's story. There are way too many moments of convenient plot devices that allow for instances to prove that certain characters are ajins. I understand that the only way these characters would know if they are one would be to die, but how many "convenient life-threatening" accidents can occur in the lives of some of these characters before it comes across as strange and stupid. Again it could just be my lack of clemency, but plot elements such as this come across as strange and wonky to me. 
• I mentioned the manga's inconsistent art style. 
• The manga also has a severe lack of female characters. There really are only 2 important ones and one minor one in a cast of predominantly male characters. While I suppose this isn't a really big deal, I just feel that the continuous cast of males are beginning to grow stale. I hope Sakurai will introduce more important female characters in future chapters, as right now Izumi and Kei's sister are pulling all the weight. 
• Lastly, I feel Ajin's story has failed to really produce an interesting, un-cliched path to a satisfying end-game. It's yet another story displaying the imperfections and grey zones of the human condition by using a creative idea (in this case: the ajins themselves) to utilize as its medium. Granted, this may be due to its current short length, but I have yet to be impressed with a lack of interesting plot elements. I understand this series is still fairly young, but I hope for its sake that it improves with future chapters.

Final Thoughts/Score:

Did I enjoy Ajin? Honestly it's fairly mediocre at best. While I wasn't particularity impressed by it as a whole, I definitely feel it has potential in future chapters/volumes. Currently 30 chapters in with 6 volumes released, Ajin has to tackle its readers now with powerful plot elements to make its story a bit more interesting. Only then do I feel it will be able to compete with Sui Ishida's Tokyo Ghoul (a manga that I will say is vastly superior to Ajin for now). Ajin's title species are pretty cool and well thought out; something that will continue to bring back its fans for now. I just hope that the manga begins to set up for a satisfying end-game and proper character development. As such I'm gonna give Ajin:Demi-Human a 6.5/10. It has a lot room to improve, but has enough enjoyable elements to perhaps interest manga readers out there who enjoy this kind of genre. As always have a wonderful day my readers, and I will see you soon.

-Also for those of you interested, Ajin was recently announced to be receiving an adaption via a series of films by the same people who animate Knights of Sidonia. They do quality work so maybe the series will receive a new life in CGI form. You can read the full article here.

-Nights Off