Back to Mojokujo's Profile Mojokujo's Profile

This is a amateur's review, so I apologize if I do not do this series justice! I just like it and want to inform others about it.


Story: 8.5/10. It's pretty straight-forward Inexplicable powers originating from Africa awaken in soldiers after they die(?), making them "immortal" and making them something other than human. Eventually this phenomenon spreads across the world and ends up occurring to the main character years later. Suffice it to say that there is a lot of escaping, ridiculously cruel lab experimentation that barely seems to get anywhere, not as much angst as I thought there'd be, annoying turtleneckers/meddlers, and...okay, I'm not ... summarizing it very well. Anyways, the revelations about Ajins are interesting (well-paced, too) and I'd say that there is a somewhat strong emphasis with how "society" reacts, or doesn't react, to these strange entities. I'm still surprised at how realistically it's portrayed.

The most "hypest" thing besides how the protaganist's black ghost (Ajin extension) seems to have a will of its own might be the division of Ajin trying to cause societal upheaval. With all the different abilities that the Ajin have (note: don't expect too much: most of them just have physical attacks), it might prove to be an interesting strategical effort. The counter-organization against them isn't all that cool, though (it has only two noteworthy characters), so I'm not too interested in how the two groups may fight with one another.

Character: 7.5/10. There is some cool developments related to the main character that either will make you applaud him as a unique protagonist, or hate him. Either ways, it does make for an interesting - if not so proactive/passionate - perspective. He isn't all that involved in the gears of the greater conflict...yet. I'm sure he will be eventually.

Other characters and their intents are explored, but in some cases are just used to portray things/happenings greater than themselves (aka, one of the protagonist's old friends being used to explore the Pro-Ajin movement, along with the attitudes keeping people from being apart of it) and in thus are difficult to really care for. At the moment I can honestly say that if anyone - except for Kai - died, I wouldn't feel sad.
The characters and their struggles/dynamics just don't connect to me, although many - including the antagonists - do have relatively reasonable intentions. Whether or not this is a problem with me or the storytelling is up in the air.

Art: 7.5/10. The Ajins are spectacularly portrayed, but everything else tends towards average. It's not exactly an issue, considering that backgrounds and characters well-drawn and aren't a barrier to enjoying this manga. Some action scenes are downright awesome and I don't doubt that this mangaka has talent. If you're into a more muted, semi-realistic style, I'd say that the art would be worth at least a point more. My personal gripe with it is that beyond the Ajin/bloody scenes, the mood/atmosphere of the manga is not well set.


Overall: 8/10. To be frank, it's pretty hard for me to get into a manga so I already consider Ajin to be a rarity. It was such a smooth read that always beckons me forward.
I do hope that I'll be able to set some of my scores higher in the future...it'll be a while until I get more chapters, though.