I have been quite surprised at the rate of speed Sui Ishida has been releasing chapters for his latest manga, Choujin X.
When I heard that there would be no set timeline for release dates so he could focus on his health this time, unlike with Tokyo Ghoul where he was really overworked, I thought that we could expect a few months between each chapter.
So, it was a pleasant turn of events to see Ishida release Chapter Four not long after Chapter Three.
I do hope he is continuing to keep healthy, though.
In any case, I have been falling behind on reviewing these chapters since I reviewed Chapter One, so now I’m going to review Chapters Two, Three and Four in one big post.
I will also be sure to write more reviews as the story goes on.
Chapter Two:
The second chapter of Choujin X picks up with our secondary protaganist, the little girl from the plane crash that happened in the first chapter.
Her name is revealed to be Ely Otsuta, and it is explained how she helped her adopted grandfather with farming tomatoes, showing that she is a child prodigy in that regard.
However, this backstory is interrupted by a tomato Ely picks up screaming as it bursts into flames, as she wakes up in a construction site with a concerned construction worker standing over her.
A dazed Ely asks for directions, only for the helpful construction worker to be burned to death right before her eyes by Chandra Hume, the Choujin who attacked the plane.
Que the big chase scene of the chapter as Ely makes a break for it after Chandra offers to escort her.
It is during this chase where we once again see how Ishida is going in a more comedic direction with this manga, as we get plenty of gags from Ely riding a skooter, to her miraculously finding a tractor and then using this to escape from Chandra and a group of gang members wearing sheep masks for some reason.
These comedic gags are quickly cut short when Ely and the gang members begin falling to their deaths and Ely uses her newly aquired Choujin powers to save them all.
She obtained these smoke powers through being infected by Chandra’s, or so he says, claiming this was just a “first attempt.”
It will be interesting to see why Chandra is so interested in creating other Choujins.
Not to mention that the way Ely became a Choujin seems to be a completley different from how Tokio did since he did so by injecting himself with the strange serumn.
Coming back to Chandra, he offers to teach Ely everything he knows about her power but she obviously does not accept this offer, thinking back on the kind elderly woman who Chandra murdered in the first chapter.
However, she does seem to hit a nerve with Chandra when she calls his power “worse than a turd.”
Chandra is clearly a very insecure person because this insult causes him to nearly go all Firelord Ozai on her face.
He would have succeeded too, had it not been for Hoshi Sandek, “Yamato Prefecture’s Choujin Protector,” or as I like to call him, Captain Chin.
Seriously, his chin is so freaking gigantic it takes up more than half his head.
Ely is clearly enamored by him, based off the heart eyes Ishida draws her having.
Not to mention that this guy resembles her imagined husband she talked about in the first chapter pretty closely, so of course she would have an instant crush on him.
Hoshi’s arrival on the scene also proves one of my previous theories to be false.
I predicted that because of what Azuma said in Chapter One there were no good Choujin, but there clearly are based off Hoshi.
We will probably get more information on the Choujin system when his character returns, along with Ely.
It would also be good to know what exactly his power is.
We seem to see him use it but I cannot quite tell what it is yet.
Following Hoshi and Ely’s first meeting, we get a pretty cool cut to Tokio’s story, as Hoshi asks Ely, “What’s your name, little Choujin,” only for us to then see Tokio’s sister calling her brother’s name.
Tokio has reached home after his transformation into the Beastial Choujin but his vulture-like appearance has not dissipated yet.
As he rests in the shower, Tokio wonders if he has become a Choujin, which should be pretty obvious to the guy, given what his face looks like.
This brings an end to what is a pretty good chapter.
The chase between Ely and Chandra is entertaining and quite funny at times, especially one joke where Chandra’s car is hit by a truck that says “we love saftey.”
Along with this, Hoshi’s appearance raises some questions about the Choujin system that I am interested to see answer.
One criticism I do have is that the action is a little bit hard to follow during the chase scene.
The artwork is still great, though, so it mostly makes up for that.
So, overall, Chapter Two does a good job of continuing Ely’s story and I am intrigued to see how it will progress further.
Chapter Three:
Out of these three chapters, Chapter Three is definitley my favourite because of how it handles the aftermath of Tokio becoming a Choujin and its impact on his and Azuma’s friendship.
The chapter begins with a flashback to Tokio helping Azuma after he collapsed due to the injection.
However, Azuma wakes up after Tokio falls over and looks horrifed at his friend’s appearance.
Tokio is just glad that Azuma is okay and says he will take him to the hostpital.
Azuma is quick thinking, though, and tells Tokio that if people find out he is a Choujin then he will never have a normal life, so he should just go home while he goes to the hostpital.
Tokio takes this advice, yet I am not so sure that Azuma’s actions were quite so innocent here, especially given how he acts later on in the chapter.
Also, keep in mind that the two still did not know if Azuma had Choujin powers here, so Azuma going to the hostpital could have exposed him to being a Choujin if he was one, yet he suggested Tokio go home.
From here, the chapter cuts to the present again where Tokio’s vulture face mask has still not come off.
Tokio fakes being sick so he will not have to go to school and be revealed as a Choujin to everyone and we get some really good artwork of what his face looks like now as he tries to eat breakfast.
This makes it really funny when, in subsequent panels, Tokio’s Choujin face honestly looks pretty derpy.
I am sure this is intentional by Ishida and it has great comedic affect.
Again, Ishida cuts the comedy short, this time by Tokio breaking down into tears because he is scared he will look like this forever.
This leads to him going to see Azuma for reassurance after he doesn’t pick up his calls, acting like he is going out shopping to his father and sister, while hiding his face.
He calls Azuma outside his house and this time his friend picks up but is very standoffish.
Azuma claims to have gone to the hostpital and got a bloodtest, only for nothing out of the ordinary to be found.
Azuma then makes the connection to Tokio looking like a vulture because it is the form he desires.
This leads to Tokio asking Azuma what he should do, only for Azuma to yell at him to think for himself for once.
Tokio hangs up and leaves, even more depressed, before Azuma can apologize.
Azuma says to himself that it isn’t Tokio’s fault, but his actions make me wonder if he is jealous that Tokio got these Choujin powers instead of him.
It seems many other readers are starting to suspect Azuma and Tokio may turn out to be rivals in the future of Choujin X and I am beginning to think so too.
Think of it as the opposite of Kaneki and Hide’s friendship from Tokyo Ghoul.
After this great scene, which may be hinting at a potential rivalry between Tokio and Azuma, we then cut to the Mr Fantastic Choujin, Johnny, and the masked man who gave him the injection.
It is here that I see what may be another Tokyo Ghoul refrence, since the man’s mask looks a lot like the ones the Clowns would wear.
The masked man learns about Tokio turning into a Choujin but not who or where he is, and kills Johnny when he refuses to say anymore.
His Choujin power seems to be related to cutting people up, since he decapitates Johnny fairly easily.
This looks to be the main antagonist of the story, or at least this part of it, as he seems to be preparing to hunt down Tokio, maybe for the same reasons that Chandra wanted to recruit Ely.
Overall, Chapter Three is a great chapter that does a really good job of characterizing both Tokio and Azuma, while getting us hyped for the future of this story, as we get more insight into the mysterious masked villain who is now after Tokio.
Chapter Four:
Okay, so Ishida had to have had a terrible first date, right?
I mean, first he has Kaneki nearly get eaten by Rize in Tokyo Ghoul, and now Tokio is currently being eaten by a snake Choujin in Chapter Four.
It can’t be a coincidence.
Jokes aside, Chapter Four is another good chater of Choujin X that starts off by continuing to expand on Tokio’s power set as a Beastial Choujin.
This comes through the comedic surprise of Tokio being able to talk to pigeons, who refer to him as the bread atelier, due to how much he feeds them.
It seems that talking to animals is not just a power only Tokio has, though, because the snake girl also appears to talk a snake in the chapter.
This makes me think that there are different categories of Choujin.
For example, the Beastial Choujins, which includes Tokio and the snake girl, would be in its own category and those who have it can talk to animals but only the ones that resemble their specific Choujins.
Tokio is a bird Choujin so he can talk to pigeons, and the girl is a snake Choujin so she can talk to snakes.
If only Tokio was observant about this, it may have saved him from becoming snake food by the end, as the girl lures him into a zoo and leans in to kiss him, only to take a bite, just like Rize did in Tokyo Ghoul.
Again, it really seems like Ishida is trying to tell his readers how awful his first date was.
Much like Kaneki, I do expect Tokio to get out of this one, he is the main character after all.
Maybe he will be able to gain help from the vulture he couldn’t communicate with at the zoo.
Maybe he will unlock part of his Choujin powers to escape.
Or maybe he will be tracked down by the masked Choujin currently after him.
It will be interesting to see if any of these happen or if it will be something different entirely.
All in all, the fourth chapter of Choujin X is another solid one, with a great blend of horror and humor, which seems to be the norm for this manga.
If I had to rank the chapters we have got so far, I would probably go with Chapter One, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, and then Chapter Two.
They have all been really good reads so far and I am excited to read more of Choujin X and keep reviewing it.
So, you can expect a review for Chapter Five whenever that comes out.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 