Ajin, Worth my time? Manga or Anime?
To All,Ajin. A seinen manga about Demi-Humans written and illustrated by Sakurai Gamon.
First off, Ajin are immortal humans who live among us and do not actually know that they are Ajin until they actually die and revive. Cue in our every so adorable cold-blooded elite cream of the crop protagonist, Nagai Kei, who got knocked down by a truck one fine sunny day. While the driver goes into hysterical mode and takes snapshots of the green traffic light to prove that it isn't his fault for knocking down the kid, Kei regenerates himself and stands back up, much to the horror of his 'friends' and by-standers.
And now, cue in the humans, who are constantly afraid and thirsting to know more about the unknown, these hostile humans have all identified Ajin on the Wanted list. Thus far, there are 3 identified Ajin in Japan, inclusive of the protagonist, Nagai Kei.
A boring plot? Think again.
We will have a number of helpless humans firing tranquilizer guns at Ajin and hoping that they will drop asleep, while on the other hand, we have these fantastic and capable Ajin tossing their lives away and reviving constantly just to stave off the effects of the tranquilizers.
Shingeki no Kyojin? No, it's nothing as amazing as their human versus titan main plot line which we had a taste of in the first season. In Ajin, it's Ajin versus Ajin, with elements of terrorism.
Gore on the level of Tokyo Ghoul is a nice change of pace from the Slice of Life shows populating my watch list. And watching Ajin's psychological downfall and going from the "I'm not an Ajin, I'm human!" to the "Would I come back to life after I die this time?" to the final Ajin mindset where they just simply commit suicide to revive and recover from wounds.
The power of immortality.
And I'm pretty sure if you liked the concept of Tokyo Ghoul, Ajin would be a show for you. Moreover, Ajin will also have three upcoming anime films. And I'm also sure many would recognize the animation studio Polygon Pictures, well known for their 3DCG animations (Knights of Sidonia, anyone?), which I (unfortunately) am not really a big fan of.
Perhaps Ajin's anime would have been better and more fluid if it had the traditional animation and quality, but let's not go down that line of thought. At least not here, not now.
But what I didn't like most about Ajin's anime was how they had subtle changes from the manga itself, which tuned down the gore factor for the anime (PG and all of that, I understand) but at the same time, it tunes down character development as well.
For instance, in the manga we have...
And in the anime film. we have...
Which is quite a bad adaptation in my opinion because I always thought that the purpose of showing Kei's fingers being cut off was to show his character development, where he is finally developing the Ajin mindset. But no, Polygon Pictures had to go ahead with PG and change those fingers into shoes!
Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Perhaps.
Probably.
But there are times when I enjoy watching an anime sticking close to its roots, which I would very much appreciate in this case. But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the anime. I certainly do.
And I would actually seriously recommend it to everyone who doesn't mind 3DCG, or would be able to put up with it for a good plot and whirlwind of events. If not, I'd recommend the manga instead.
In fact, I'll recommend getting your nose buried in one of those manga volumes right now, before you even touch the anime films!
Written by Your Fellow Manga Reader,
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