Choujin X Chapter Five Review: An Anticipated First Meeting.

Sui Ishida is still maintaining his quick pace with releasing new Choujin X chapters, and chapter five is another good one.
After last chapter’s cliffhanger, I thought the snake Choujin would try to eat Tokio, like Rize tried to eat Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul, since both the snake Choujin and Rize cornered their prey in similar ways.
However, the opening panels of this chapter instead reveal that the woman, whose name is Nari, was hired by the masked man to hunt down Tokio and kidnap him if his abilities are dependable.
From here, the chapter cuts to the present, where Nari begins her testing of Tokio.
But first, she reveals an interesting tidbit about Choujins, that they can sense one another when their powers are used.
Nari used this to her advantage by allowing Tokio to sense her last chapter.
This technique is also probaly how Hoshi found Chandra attacking Ely in Chapter Two.
Once this information is revealed, Nari gets down to buisness and provides the rules of her test for Tokio.
He gets three attempts to prove his worth to her and if he fails then she kills him.
So begins yet another chase sequence, only this time Tokio is far less competent with his Choujin powers than Ely was in her chase scene, as he cannot find himself to muster any defence against Nari.
What results is a scene that is full of both great comedy and intriguing flashbacks.
First comes the comedy, with what is undoubtedly the funniest moment in the manga so far.
This moment comes when Tokio is fleeing from Nari and hears the birds surrounding him begin to make bets on who will win, him or Nari.
I laughed my head off at this gag.
Also, I do feel kind of sorry for the lone bird who bet on Tokio, the guy clearly was not going to win anything.
This is the same in the intriguing flashback as well, with a young Tokio shown to be losing a relay race for his team.
The reason this flashback is intriguing is because of Azuma.
Not only does this moment serve to again highlight his strengths compared to Tokio, as he wins the race single-handedly, despite Tokio holding him back, but it also potentially highlights his darker side once more.
As Tokio runs towards his friend, we get a close look at Azuma’s face and he does not look happy at all.
In fact, I would say his look towards Tokio is rather disdainful.
Yet, this look completley vanishes when he wins the race and goes to help Tokio.
Interrupting this flashback, which gives us further insight into Tokio and Azuma, Nari continues to torment Tokio, catching him twice and infecting him with toxic venom to motivate him in this chase.
Unfortunately for Tokio, this has no effect and he is captured for a third time and dubbed “ordinary” by Nari.
She goes to kill him, when suddenly an unexpected person literally falls out of the sky to help.
Ely bursts onto the scene, tumbling through her Choujin smoke before salvaging it with a suitable superhero landing.
She and Tokio look at each other and both with confusion ask,”a person?” bringing an end to the chapter.
This cliffhanger is interesting because not only does it finally result in our two main characters meeting but it also highlights how they are different from the other Choujin in the story.
The two of them have both been called Choujin constantly by others, Ely by Hoshi and Tokio by Nari, yet here they are the first ones to refer to the other as a person.
Along with this, Ely’s appearance does raise a few questions about what happened in between her being rescued by Hoshi and now.
I assume she was alerted to Tokio’s situation, either by his cries for help, her sensing Choujin powers or both, and rushed to help.
Now that she is finally here, I wonder how Nari will react to her?
Chandra said Ely was full of potential and Nari could see this and try to recruit her as well.
I also wonder where Hoshi is, since Ely was with him last we saw of her?
Not to mention the question of how much time has passed for Ely since Chapter Two.
If I am not mistaken, she is wearing the same clothes from that chapter and canonically speaking that was at least three days ago, unless the time difference between her story and Tokio’s is different, which could be elaborated on later.
Either way, I expect that what led Ely to Tokio will be explained in the beginning of the next chapter.
Overall, Chapter Five is another great chapter for Choujin X, as it provides another fun chase sequence, an interesting flashback, hilarious comedy, and the long awaited meeting between out two main characters.
I am intrigued to see how Tokio and Ely will interact with one another next chapter and in the future of the story.