#otta ely

I appreciate so damn much that Zora turned out not to be the big bad, but just one more cog of the cause & consequence machina that seems to be one of Choujin X's themes.

Zora's a villain in the instance that she feared the future so much and trusted in her visions so blindly that another faction led by Mado's dreams and nightmares assembled to fight against her own. Yet Mado's own beliefs obviously led to a lot of damage on her side, because it was all mostly done for the purpose of "protecting people" against Zora's visions.

In that aspect, it makes so much more sense that leadership-in-the-wrong is not what we're fighting here, but regrets are :

Hence Batista going insane about wanting to protect & recreate the past, a time when he still had a choice about the path he wanted to take, before both leaders basically destroyed his life (amongst others) by fear of the future (probably triggering that exact future, because we love time paradoxes).

This, in turn, really echoes with the main trio's path in the story : as @kakujaeto pointed out in this nice post, Tokio's acceptance of being used as a tool is contrasting a lot with Azuma who, upon learning of his true nature, rejected that concept entirely (which also makes sense considering he wants to be a hero so badly and heroes definitely can't be defined as someone else's pawn, right ?).

This is particularly interesting considering that, until recently, Azuma seemed to 100% believe in Mado's faction, while Tokio was more open about negotiating with Zora's. Meanwhile, as always, Ely was the opposite force (ch47)...

...meaning she mainly believes in herself and her own capacities, following her own moral compass, no pressure of being neither a tool nor a hero hindering her, no one dictating her life.

With Batista having stolen the mark (if I got that right), things have gone batshit crazy and I do enjoy that this recreation means the different narrative parallels are becoming very intricate : on the one hand, we have Batista who became a big villain thanks to the joint effort of Zora & Mado (many thanks, ladies) ; and on the other we still have the ongoing parallel between Azuma as Queem's heir, Tokio who was supposed to inherit Zora's mark and maybe Ely as Antitise (unless Tokio inherits that role now that Zora's mark was taken by Batista ?). What a cliffhanger !

If Azuma is Queem's copy...

while Tokio just agreed to inherit Zora's mark...

does this mean my girl Ely is a soon to be confirmed parallel of Antitise ?

Azuma keeps on learning the hard way that he’s not the hero of Tokio’s story anymore

“if I can’t have the power, then at least Tokio should get it”

Bless Ely, this girl is the absolute soul of this story

oh Tokio, my sweet, very sweet, summer child (poor boy can’t take on the heat of the hero trope)

okay so yeah we definitely don’t stan a goddess cult leader who forces her “prophecies” on a whim onto people around her

finally, i have my doubts about how long that trio of theirs can keep on working half decently without Azuma someone eventually leaving but…

i do enjoy them, they’re cute xD

TL;DR

(additional thoughts on the series overall under read more)

Hi Anon, sorry for the delay!

To be perfectly honest, I’m following Choujin X from afar. :3 That means, I check for updates every now and then and often end up reading three chapters in a row. 

I caught up to answer you though! To be fair, I do enjoy reading the series from time to time, because I enjoy Ishida-sensei’s work very much. However, so far I cannot say that I’m super invested in the story and I have identified a few reasons as to why. 

BNHA vibes

Ok, no offense, but Sandek and Yamato Mori school really reminded me of this series’ settings. In other words, the novelty of this aspect in Choujin X? Meh, not so much. 

However, with ch15, it seems that we’re going to be stranding further away from the BNHA-like narrative path, so I’m looking forward to it!

the pace & lack of worldbuilding so far

Fifteen chapters in and the worldbuilding, as well as the antagonists’ goal, are less than defined for me. Which is fine, because 15 chapters is not a lot and it seems like this series is going to go a long way, but at the same time it doesn’t allow me to really get invested because I don’t have enough info on the worldbuilding and the antagonists to create enough cliffhanger, even though the story is only starting.

Since it’s Ishida, I’m aware it could be a narrative trick so I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt to catch up later. :)

Also the slow pace does allow for the two main characters (Ely and Tokio), who are young kids being thrown into a world they don’t know, to take the time to really think about what they want to do, which is actually enjoyable and sets up the start of promising character developments. 

&

the characters

Ely and Tokio aside, because I’m very interested in them and I love their dynamic...

the rest of the cast appears really bland. Be it the other students, the few minor antagonists we met and the mentor-like adults who... so far hardly played that role, I’m quite bored. 

Again, knowing Ishida, it could be a narrative choice that will be useful for later, which is why I’m catching up on the chapters from time to time, but overall so far this isn’t really a series that is grasping its readers’ attention, making us ache for more content. Or so I find. 

I’ll keep reading, but for now that’s it. :) 

I think Choujin X has potential though and it reminds me of Chainsawman, in a way. CSM was very violent since its beginning but, for a good chunk of it, as a reader you hardly understand the rules of its universe as well as who the antagonists are and what they want. No spoiler, but Fujimoto-sensei really played with that aspect until a certain narrative peak, which made a dramatic plot twist and as such I think it’s really a series that’s worth a read if you can handle the violent imagery.