Sui Ishida (石田スイ, Ishida Sui), born December 28, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese manga artist In 2010 he won the Young Jump 113th Grand Prix award with Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種, Tōkyō Kushu). In March 2011, the same oneshot was published in the 2nd Issue of Miracle Jump. And later in September 2011, Tokyo Ghoul started as a series in Weekly Young Jump 2011-41 Issue. In December 2011, he made another oneshot about Rize that was published in December 2011 in Miracle Jump 6th Issue, which was later collected in the 6th volume of Tokyo Ghoul. In 2013, he also started Tokyo Ghoul: Jack in the digital magazine Jump LIVE.
Sui Ishida is his penname; nobody knows his real name or what he looks like.
I love this strange brand of horror that Sui Ishida had mastered; it echoes some of my other artistic favourites like Chainsaw Man and Berserk. There were so many creepy choujin that made appearances in this volume, and Tokio’s (+ the other main leads’) encounters with them made for some incredible battles, even just visually. The scope of this world has been expanding exponentially for some time now, and the strange Tower of Mourning Tokyo was dragged into to meet Zora, the mother angel type choujin, was so atmospheric. The plot is ramping up to have disastrous consequences should our main squad fail… I’m so curious to find out how they’ll get out of this.
LOVED this volume! Wow, the beach training was great and then the party is crashed and we get some PHENOMENAL fights and crazy art! This is a feast for the eyes.
2025 I think we need to be asking Ishida if he is okay. The shakey imagery of god and mother panels, the storyline, it all. At least this one is more cohesive than TG. I do say that maybe it’s a bit early on to be screaming about prophecies.
Ely is just so fucking cool and the more we learn about her choujin abilities the more badass she gets!
2024 Bless my access to viz. i also don’t know what happening. There’s a prophecy?? They don’t know which guy the prophecy is about?? Who’s this chimera man??
Ishida has improved in making action scenes clearly understandable. Interested to see where the religious themes go, though I’m not necessarily on board so far.
Chojin X Volume 5: It's Summertime, And the Livin's Beasty ...
This one is mostly an extended battle scene as a gang of old and new baddie chojins try to kidnap our young heroes from their training trip on Beast Isles. It definitely reverts to the typical Chojin X silliness in places, as some of the villains' powers definitely have a humorous slant -- Hiroto Mori brings a whole new meaning to "death metal", our resident Baddest Body-horror Babe Yubiko pulls out some body-extending moves that bring to mind an even more unhinged (and less serious) Tomie of Junji Ito fame, and Tokio gets a kick out of throwing off his enemies by beastifying and unbeastifying super fast. Still, the stakes are high enough for this volume to be exciting, in a very action-shoneny kind of way, and towards the end, legitimately kinda scary. Once the Nue Chimera shows up, this party's over ...
Tokio and his friends are dragged to the Tower of Mourning and things get real spooky as the absolutely terrifying big boss Mother Zora reveals herself in all her Biblically-accurate-nightmare-fuel-angel glory and begins to reveal the ultimate plan behind a coming apocalypse of Biblical proportions and Tokio's potential role in preventing it.
The story is really starting to pick up, with the worldbuilding filling in and the ultimate stakes being introduced. We're heading towards a turning point where the characters are going to be forced to mature and make some hard choices. I would definitely say that starting around 5/6 with the Tower of Mourning arc, Chojin X starts actually reaching its potential and it is (mostly) only up from here.
For CX As A Whole (So Far):
I started reading Sui Ishida's absolutely incredible Tokyo Ghoul a few months ago, so when I found out the author has a second, still ongoing, manga series, I was eager to jump on the bandwagon.
At first glance, Chojin X (or Choujin X) shares a lot of surface similarities with the mangaka's previous smash hit, Tokyo Ghoul . An every-boy protagonist dealing with sudden, grotesque changes to his body, themes of alienation and injustice, rival organizations of super-powered folk with their own mysterious goals ... it's all here, too. At the same time, though, it isn't really fair to compare this series to TG. It is its own beast (or rather, its own bestial Chojin) and even in its early stages, there are already a few key differences.
For one, Chojin X feels a lot more like a shonen manga than its predecessor. The characters are several years younger, and their personal struggles feel more teenaged than young adult, though Ishida being Ishida, the psychology is still expertly well-drawn. The arcs feel more like self-contained adventures, there's more emphasis on big fights, and the themes feel more focused on friendship and figuring out one's purpose in life than the intense moral and psychological questions of TG. There's a school for young superhumans, and the accompanying training montage scenes, as well, all of which feels solidly shonen. There's also quite a bit more wacky humor, which I have mixed feelings about (see below). So rather than comparing Chojin X to TG, perhaps a better comparison would be to new gen shonen like Chainsaw Man, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Jujitsu Kaisen, Dan Da Dan, Kaiju #8, Sakamoto Days, etc. -- and in comparison to the aforementioned titles, Chojin X, while less accessible or tonally consistent, manages to hold its own. Despite its other weaknesses, CX's outstanding art and psychological drama give it an edge in the world of new-gen shonen.
Tokio and Azuma's friendship, with its heady combination of mutual admiration and mutual resentment, is the real heart of Chojin X, and it is by far the best thing about this series, especially in its early parts. Tokio's decision to become a chojin is ultimately motivated by his desperate desire to be someone self-assured and accomplished like Azuma, and the hideous vulture form he takes is pretty much an externalization of his repressed feelings of shame and resentment towards his friend. As in TG, Ishida really excels at expressing his characters' complexes and hangups through beautifully insane body horror. Still, though, I'll also admit that I did not find Tokio, Azuma, or Ely as likeable or interesting as even the secondary characters in early Tokyo Ghoul, but we shall see.
The art is incredible, with cute but distinctive and detailed character designs and bold, sketchy strokes bringing the run-down world of Yamato, the Chojin body horror, and the subtle facial expressions of the human characters beautifully to life. It feels more stylized and shonen-y than Tokyo Ghoul, but it is still quite recognizably Ishida, and it is truly a cut above the typical manga illustration style. It's well-worth paying $15 each for the oversize tankobon volumes for the cover illustrations and artwork alone.
I think if there was one word I would use to describe Chojin X so far it would be "indulgent." That's both a criticism and a compliment. On the plus side, Ishida seems to be having a lot of fun with the process this time around, and his enthusiasm is infectious. An artist this talented being given this much freedom to let his imagination run wild is a joy to behold. The experimental art style yields some lovely surprises at every flip of the page. The sheer coolness factor of the Chojin powers and transformations (as well as the intricate worldbuilding that undergirds Chojin physiology and history) is pretty enjoyable. And even some of the sillier, what-the-hell-even-was-that sequences are at least visually fun.
But unfortunately, the level of authorial self-indulgence starts to become a bit of a problem for the story itself. To put it bluntly, Ishida just isn't as funny or clever as he seems to think he is. That's not to say he's not funny -- Tokyo Ghoul had its lighthearted and comedic moments, too, and those were deployed masterfully to make readers care about the characters (and give them a much-needed reprieve from the relentless violence and angst). But Chojin X's wild swings between genuinely affecting character drama and wacky shennanigans including superpowered baseball, an ill-fated attempt at eating pancakes while having a vulture skull for a head, and a high-speed tractor chase (yes, really), honestly felt more distracting than charming to me. So far, I feel like the silliness of this manga undermines the big story moments rather than building on them like TG did. It's like Chojin X can't decide whether to be a serious, dark drama like, say, Tokyo Ghoul or Attack on Titan, or a wacky, unhinged romp that never takes itself too seriously, like Kaiju #8 or Dan Da Dan. Instead it tries to split the difference and ends up falling short at both. It is unserious but it still takes itself way too seriously, if that makes sense. Though I will say around volume 5/6 it starts to become more serious for the most part and gets quite a bit better.
Oh and speaking of indulgent ... I feel obliged to say that the fanservice in Chojin X is absolutely heinous. Like I do not know how Sui Ishida managed to make the boob jokes in CX feel dirtier than the literal chapter-long sex scene in TG: re, but, somehow, he pulled it off. What's worse is when the fanservice jokes are at the expense of the younger female characters -- Ely, Maiko/Momo, and, eventually, Palma -- who are minors (Ely is stated to be 16 but looks like she's about 13. Momo is 18, and Palma is 16). Now, look, I know fanservice is just part of the deal with shonen manga/anime, considering that the primary audience is teenage boys, and, well, teenage boys like certain things. But I am genuinely pissed off because I know that my boy Sui Ishida-sensei is capable of better so I don't know why he doesn't just DO better.
The one saving grace is that Ely, the female co-protagonist, is a pretty solid character. She's funny, she's smart, she's brave, she's tough, and she's deeply endearing. She's also, at this point, the strongest protagonist of the three. Momo is also cool and likeable, if underutilized, and Zora, the former hero of Yamato Mori turned mad witch is a powerful female villain who is, thankfully, not sexualized at all. The female characters are *just* cool, smart, and likeable enough that I can overlook the fanservice and not throw the book across the room, but do be warned: Chojin X has a fanservice problem, and unfortunately it does not get better later in the series.
Still, despite its uneven start and some lingering issues, Chojin X is shaping up into a solid series that, recently (volumes 11/12 as of latest serialization) has been getting very good. So it's worth powering through the earlier volumes to get to the good stuff.
Nonostante i combattimenti serrati, ogni tentativo dei ragazzi di andare contro i loro rapitori diventa vano. Mi sono piaciuti molto i poteri delle new entry e Ely al momento rimane il mio personaggio preferito insieme a Tokio. Cosa vuole davvero questa "Santa Madre"? Le sue azioni vanno nettamente in contrasto con il suo desiderio di salvare il mondo... Non vedo l'ora di leggere il prossimo volume, questo si chiude proprio sul più bello!
"Eres el único capaz de frenar el futuro e inminente desastre. Eso fue lo que vieron mis ojos, asi que, sin importar tus dudas y miedos, ese será tu cometido. Solo te queda aceptar aquello para lo que has sido creado."
Nuevo tomo le��do de esta obra, el cual se centra más en mostrar las habilidades en combate de los diferentes protagonistas que en avanzar en la historia en sí.
Aunque esto no quiere decir que no se avance en la trama, sino que más bien esto se deja para las hojas finales, dando revelaciones importantes para la misma.
También se nos empieza a mostrar al otro bando de este conflicto, cuyos miembros han ido saliendo conforme se iba avanzando en los tomos. Algo necesario para comprender de forma más detallada las razones de los supuestos villanos para actuar de la forma que lo están haciendo.
Con respecto a las peleas, me ha gustado ver como el prota ideaba diferentes estrategias para, al menos, obtener alguna ventaja frente al enemigo. También ha sido maravilloso ver que los personajes no han obtenido powers ups por la cara para poder derrotar a sus asaltantes, sino que se han tenido que valer por su propia fuerza y astucia.
While some time on a beach may sound relaxing, Tokio, Azuma, and Ely must fight to survive on their island training grounds. In the middle of training to improve their choujin skills, the trio and their Yamato Mori keepers are taken by surprise by enemies wanting one of the trainees powers. Through smoke, the dead has risen, and even the teachers are having a rough time taking in the surprise combatants. Can Tokio and his friends protect themselves and everyone else when they're still learning to control their powers?
The artwork keeps getting more and more beautiful, there are bold thick lines, but there are also beautiful sketchy scenes that are somehow imperfect, yet polished at the same time. Especially one panel at the end that I cannot explain or it would be a major spoiler, but I will say, not all mothers are kind.
This was a relatively quick read because there was a lot, and I do mean a lot, of action. There was quite a bit of plot revealed too, and we are now left with a cliffhanger. I can not wait to read in volume 6!
Este se me hace el mejor de todos los tomos que he leído, va para ser una buena historia marcada por cosas interesantes.
En este tomo comenzamos con la ida del profesor de la isla y en todos estos capítulos una pelea se armó. Esta pelea era por el hpta de Tokio.
El Choujin Bestia de una profecía bien pendeja que el tiene que evitar. Ahora hay que ver en que termina. Solo me resta un tomo para ver que tiro, que transcurre en todo esto.
Un tomo de los que tengo porque la hpta historia sigue y sigue ya que está en emisión.
Training camp on the Beast Islands is interrupted by a bad-guy choujin ambush who are intent on kidnapping Tokio because their mother(?) had a prophecy of doom.
So Tokio has some grand destiny to save (or possibly destroy) the world and he wants absolutely nothing to do with any of it.
** Lectura de la Versión en español en Manga plus** El Quinto número de este manga, los protagonistas siguen su entrenamiento en una isla con unos tutores, pero son atacados por los secuases de Chandra, donde capturan a Tokio, azuma y ely, descubre y conocen a la bruja Zora....