AJIN

Only ting i want to say about this manga:
"the MC worth it"
Because of his awesome mc i forgive little things that not make much sense int the story I just love him, i relate to him a lot, though that may be not so good.
Anyways the art is enjoyable it goes great whit the manga, the plot is interesting and untill now it doesn't focus on the mystery of "the heck is an ajin" head on but in the warlike relationship between them and humans- for now at least- but what really got me in this manga is the main character abnormal personality! Kei is not a hardworking shonen mc neither a sissy shinji-like, he is lazzy, hateful, genius and totally awesome!

sorry about my english.

People die when they are killed...unless you're a demi-human. Ajin is set in the backdrop of bureaucratic Japan where we follow Nagai Kei as he discovers after nearly being isekai'd by Truck-kun, he's a demi-human and returns from death's door.

Critiques out the way first: Ajin's beginning chapters are ass. They aren't bad by any stretch of the imagination--compared to the vast sea of manga out there, it's a pretty damn good introduction. But compared to the greatness that is the next 80% of the manga, the opening chapters are pretty fucking weak. The issue with the opening chapters is that the author has no idea what he wants to do with the characters he wrote out. They all appear one dimensional and lack any coherent sense of depth--much like your average shounen series.

Yet, as time progresses and the chapters move along, you begin to piece together the stories each character is trying to tell. Each character has a very evident sense of motivation and you know what's driving these characters to do what they're doing. They're self-aware of the actions they take may not be the most morally accurate, but its just so painfully human you can't help but empathize with them in the situation.

Unless you're Sato, Ajin's main antagonist. What makes this villain so damn good is not that he is the cleverest motherfucker on the street, no, it's also because he's a gamer. Sato is the personification of those fucked up thoughts--the crazy what-ifs you sometimes catch yourself fantasizing about. Sato's the same reason why people love the Joker so much. Sato takes those what-ifs and embodies them into reality. His violent tendencies paired with his wit makes every one of his preparations so interesting. Its this stark juxtaposition between Sato's chaotic and violent whimsicality and the organized, rational nature that is Nagai Kei that make each conflict so compelling to read.

By the end of the series, you'll see entire stories being conveyed in three textless panels. From facial expressions, to the way the panels are framed, the reader can grasp the rich history from characters they might've only spent very little time with--giving them incredible nuance despite the unfamiliarity.

Ultimately, it's Ajin's ability to convey many things in a single story that makes it such an incredible piece of work. It's never shoving things in your face but it asks the reader to really take the time to understand what's trying to be communicated across the page. Read the series or Imma have to crack out the belt

Oh Ajin. I just wish you actually had something to say.

As far as plots go, I wouldn't exactly say this manga has the most original concepts ever. Some humans achieve the ability to never die outside of old age. When they are discovered by humanity, they are essentially taken from civilized society and used as seen fit. Usually tortured. No one really seems to care that people just vanish, and general society doesn't seem to think the people being essentially kidnapped are in any sort of danger. Sure. Whatever.

Where the story does shine are the conversations the characters have (usually), and the manga's antagonist.

That said, I'm not really sure what the point of this manga is outside of ultraviolence. The humans treat demi-humans like trash, kidnapping and torturing most of them for nothing more then financial gain. Yet the main opposing force to this behavior is a literal nutcase who finds glee out of making his life a waking video game CoD expansion.

So who are we supposed to root for here? No one? Well, our protagonist I guess, but he has no real stakes in this fight either outside of some vague "I want to live life in peace so let me help you I guess" sort of attitude. Yet somehow he never had the bright idea to dye his hair? Change his looks? He hardly tried anything to really lay low, and clearly his face isnt very distinct given the fact the manga says quite a few kids look like him and had been dealing with the consequences of that. Of course, by the time the protagonist does develop a real desire to win, its by the end of the story, but it all could have been avoided.

Speaking of protagonists... he's fine I guess. A mess of contrivances, and he somehow knows literally everything despite being a high schooler, but that's manga! At first he was still in the realm of possibility, as most of his actions were just cold rationalizations, but by the end his sheer amount of knowledge and planning reaches absurd dues ex machina levels.

And this is all without even mentioning the gung-ho jingoism in this story. Politicians are nothing but useless lumps on a log, but the military leaders? Well, clearly they should be the ones in charge. They step up when the others are useless, even somehow managing to assemble task forces of the most considerable fighters. Politicians continue to be dumb as logs and wont even authorize police officers to use /tranquillizer guns/? On what are essentially alien forces terrorizing and murdering thousands? Is this a joke? Of course the military has merit when the people "running" the country have no brain cells.

Oh, and somehow no other countries have gotten involved. Because obviously terrorism done by demi-humans, which is an existential threat to humanity, does not matter and whatever just let Japan deal with it. Uh. Sure. Ok. That's manga for you.

How am I supposed to take these adult, very smart characters seriously when there is just an endless mountain of contrivances that let the manga progress? I dunno.

Normally I could ignore all of this and just enjoy the manga as an action spectacle, but over and over the manga continues to bring up the sheer atrocities humans have committed against the Ajin, yet also tries to get us to think humans are deserving of redemption and something about idiot friends who will always be there to support you or something. Which somehow is supposed to make me root for the humans I guess.

This manga tries to act like it's saying something, and I just don't know why its pretending so hard. Either let us turn our brains off and enjoy this action cartoony violence much like a video game, or /say something/. And sadly, Ajin just has literally nothing at all to say.

"Why must one die?" Is being immortal a gift or a curse?

One day, our main character Nagai, Kei finds out the wrong way(and only way) that he's an immortal being with supernatural powers, which is not only bad since the government is after all "Ajins"(Immortals) for experimental purposes but because he's one of the few hundred Ajin's in the world.
His head has a price now, and his mysterious abilities make him the perfect target for everyone around him. Who will remain his friend and who will betray him?

Kei is given a quick introduction into a very realistic world.
Ajin is filled with psychological and existential issues that question society's morals when dealing with this new "race". How would society react to these immortal people? It has many similarities to our world and it's a way to feel empathy with the characters and that part of the story since we too deal with issues like racism and discrimination.

The main character goes through many ideology changes throughout the manga as he fights for his freedom and "survival". His best friend plays a big part in his new life, and both are given great character development. Other characters are also well developed to show the other side of the coin, the cruel humans and the typical greedy government.

The art is great. The gore elements that are added for shock value are superb. Everything is really well drawn and the style blends well with the story. All designs and especially the Ajin's mysterious "ability" make the story more engaging.

The seriousness of this manga describes very well how we humans act in face of death and pain. People turn selfish and hateful when pushed to the limit, add a mystery and supernatural concept into the mix and you have the story of an immortal kid with a strange power.

Ajis is a rather new, and lesser known, manga that offers a good story, interesting characters and solid art.

As some other recent mangas, like Shingeki No Kyojin, it does have an overall "shounen" feeling to it but introducing elements of seinen like and increased use of gore and violence, antagonistic figures that go beyond "I want to rule the world because I am evil" and a reduced focus on the frequently used "friendship is power" theme.


Story:

As the preview on the site indicates, Ajin is about people that can't die.
They look and act like normal humans, and most of them don't even realize they are "ajins" until the moment "die" for the first time.

So far, the main focus of the story has been to show that immortality in this case is not a blessing but rather a curse. Most people don't consider "ajins" to be human, they don't have human rights and as soon as one is found goverments from all around the world will hunt them down to capture them and use them as test subjects. As test subject they are victims of brutal experiments and constant torture, a fate that as immortal beings is almost worse than death.

While it's a nice take on immortality I honestly feel this more of a "pessimistic look" on not being able to die rather than a "realistic" look at the issue.
The story shows that before finding out about their power most ajin act as normal humans, they are born, have families, friends and a normal life, it's even said that most of them are not even violent or dangerous even after finding out they are Ajin. Yet we are supposed to believe that no one really feels bad about them and all agree that they are not humans and shouldn't be treated as one. At one point it's even shown that something like 0.0001% of the japanese population seem to be "ajin supporters".

Art:

The art is actually quite good. The overall quality of characters and backgrounds is great and the actions scenes in particular are drawn with a good ammount of detail.

Characters:

The main character feels rather generic but the supporting cast is interesting. The manga is still in early stages so it's hard to talk about character development, but the world is filled with interesting characters of various or unclear motivations that seem to fall on a moral grey zone.

Enjoyment

So far it has been a blast. The story is fun and combines mystery, action and a touch of drama in a world filled with interesting characters. I hardly could finish one chapter without having to start the next one right away

Overall 8/10.

This is showing great promise. like other recent titles it finds a good balance between supernatural, action, drama and mystery all while being presented with a tone that feels a bit more serious and mature than your average shonen manga.
The concept of immortality being a curse is not exactly new and there a few elements I think are not very consisten about the world and how people react to "Ajins". But nothing bad enough to keep me from recommending this.

If I were to describe Ajin in one word, then it would be: clever. If you like tons of plotting and creative uses of power reminiscent of Death Note or Code Geass, then you will very likely like Ajin. The characters are very relatable, and as long as you stick with the main character's selfishness for the first story arc, you will see him develop wonderfully as somebody who is rational and calculating, but at his core a very driven and caring person. All characters behave believably and have greatly complex motivations for each of their actions, and their subtle emotions are captured well by the mangaka. The sob stories aren't painfully drawn out and ideals they hold seem more in line with what real, driven people would likely have. Overall Ajin was a great read for me, and if you enjoy complex multifaceted characters and complex plots (great usage of the immortality power), then you'll likely love Ajin too.

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.

Some people seem to really miss the mark about this manga so I thought I would put my quick share on why this manga is amazing. Lets get one things straight first, the torture/abuse of immortal humans in this manga is a super small part that is mostly glanced over other than 1 character constantly referencing it to affect is personality. The real meat of this manga comes with the villain Sato who might be the most entertaining villain to watch ever. Ever time the author feeds us some of his backstory it becomes a joyous moment, and his overall dynamic with the main character is really fun to watch. If you are turned off by the comments about the gore side of this manga I would say to mostly ignore them. It really looks like the reviewers complaining about that side stopped at those chapters. But if you want a fantastic action manga with fantastic art and great world building, constantly talking and figuring out the rules of the powers HxH style then Ajin is the manga for you.

Story
Ajin are humans that cannot die. Seventeen years ago, they first appeared on a battlefield in Africa. Our main character turns out to be a Ajin and gets treated like he is some animal to be experimented on and everyone else sees him as a cash prize like an event being held everybody thinks they will get money if they hand in an Ajin even though Ajin are human other people don't see them as those adults were trying to kill the main character and smirking then they said let's see if he really is an Ajin. Long story short this manga has an interesting story. 9/10

Art
The art is great it is very gritty and it portrays the story really well.

Characters
I will just talk about the main character and he is weird he seems like he is going to be that cliché character that's going to try to make peace with the Ajin and Humans but then he comes out as a character that doesn't care about the humans its just weird some may like him some may hate him he is an interesting character to observe. 8/10

Enjoyment
Well, I can say it's good because when someone does something to another person you get REALLY PISSED or maybe that was just me but if I can get pissed about a Manga it means it did well enough to make me feel something about it and when you start reading this manga you will never stop. 8/10

Overall
I give this Manga a 9/10 while it is interesting it's not perfect.

I´m a huge fan of gore and psychological manga. This manga has both, gory and psychological aspects. I´m not a big fan of lotsa text, but some points in this manga are kinda "chewy". You don´t really feel like reading everything.
But even if this is one negative point, the art makes up for it. I really like the art style and the details, as well as the nice design of the Ajin(Demi-Human).
The characters are all pretty important, and they all appear several times, you learn something new about them everytime they appear. I also like that the characters have a yet so simple, but unique design, you can recocnize them pretty well.
In my opinion this manga is lika mix of the manga Pupa and Tokyo Ghoul, but I wouldn´t compare these three manga with each other.

I recommend this manga for people who like a kinda realistic artstyle, with lotsa blood, betraying, screaming, deaths and sure, some sarcastic supernatural creatures.