Title: Ayashimon Vol. 1
Author: Yuji Kaku
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Fantasy, Battle
Publication Date: March 7, 2023
The Story
Ayashimon centers around a boy named Maruo. Maruo has super-human strength but that strength has led to a life filled with struggles. He tried getting into boxing, into sumo wrestling and even working at a bakery but everything he touches gets destroyed and he ends up getting kicked out. He loves manga and wishes that he could be just like a manga protagonist, going around beating up bad guys and looking cool. He’s so desperate to achieve this that he even asks some common street thugs if they could hire him to do some fighting.
Along comes a girl who is being escorted by a large number of yakuza members. One of them turns into your classic cocky punk and ends up getting taken out by Maruo in one punch. This is when a ritual barrier is put up and their leader challenges him to a one-on-one. Maruo wins and ends up wiping out the entire group. He takes the girl and runs who offers him to join the yakuza since she has her own faction consisting of her and… soon to be… Maruo. Since he would be allowed to fight, he agrees and joins her.
They make their way into the heart of the city where their goal is to set up shop and to do so, they need a base of operations. They decide to hijack and take over a weak gang’s base and almost as if it was on cue, a boy named Ten is being bullied by another man. Maruo steps in and lays waste to him so Ten takes them back to their hideout where Maruo, as you would expect, beats Ten’s boss and takes over their base.
Maruo and the girl, Urara, have now entered the world of the Ayashimon… spirits that can take the form of humans… most of which are in the Yakuza. The world of the Ayashimon is in disarray as Kioh, the former chairman of the Enwa Syndicate had died two years prior. Everyone is now vying for control of the yakuza as a result. Urara is one of those people and she is bringing Maruo along for the ride!
Characters
Maruo breaks the mold of characters in his role. Typically, they would be meek, timid, and powerless until they get their power that makes them super strong. Instead, Maruo loves to fight. He already has a cocky, yet naïve, attitude and doesn’t care what he has to do. As long as he can punch someone in the face, he’s happy. Even though he’s just a human, many who witness his strength liken him to a monster. When Urara thinks about it, she remembers ancient times when there were humans who used to hunt Ayashimon and possessed super-human strength. She figures that Maruo could very well be a descendant of these people. Outside of that, there really isn’t much to him as a main character. He’s pretty one-dimensional in the sense that he wants to punch things and if he can punch things, then he is happy. It’s a rather simple formula for a rather simple-headed character.
Urara, on the other hand, has a bit more depth to her. She starts off under a shroud of mystery. She makes you ask why the yakuza are after her but soon we learn through a meeting with an acquaintance of hers, an Ayashimon named Hashihima (chopstick princess… ha!) that she’s actually the bastard child of Kioh! If people were to find out her true identity, utter chaos would ensue. Despite being Kioh’s daughter, she doesn’t really want control. She just wants her family’s artifact returned to her possession. Why? That is a question left to be answered.
Ten is just your typical moyashi (bean sprout) with no spine who is thankful for Maruo setting him free so he’ll follow him to the ends of the earth if need be.
As for the Ayashimon… I get Akame ga Kill vibes in the sense that they boast their powers for a page and then get thoroughly killed on the next. They don’t stick around to really get to know them but they are simply spirits with powers… some have skin harder than steel, some can create flames, and others can turn their heads into a stone block and hit people with hammers (ok?). With the fodder out of the way, there are some higher-level ones to contend with. I just hope the upcoming fights last long enough to savor.
Lastly, we have the counterfaction to the Ayashimon… the Onmyo Bureau of Public Safety. They are really powerful and have the ability to stop Ayashimon dead in their tracks. They make it clear that they are keeping a watchful eye on Urara due to Maruo saving Ten without putting up a ritual barrier. It seems that as long as a barrier is up, they don’t really care what happens or gets destroyed but if you destroy property or kill without a barrier, then they step in.
Final Thoughts
I will say that this manga has promise but I think it needs to slow its pacing down. It reminds me a lot of One-Punch Man in the sense that Maruo can settle fights almost instantly and the person he’s fighting is reduced to irrelevancy. I will say that he doesn’t just settle fights with a single hit as he’s not impervious to damage like Saitama is. Maruo does get his rear end handed to him several times but he does bounce back and finds a way to win. The formula works a bit better than in One-Punch Man because it makes Maruo seem vulnerable but when the end result is him winning all of the time, it seems like a waste to put him in any sort of danger right off the bat. I would have had him experience that in his first major battle. Let him get cocky and overconfident and then put him in his place… put him in some real jeopardy.
Urara’s goals are interesting and it does set up a bit of an end game for the series. Whether or not recovering the artifact will be the true end goal remains to be seen but thanks to Hashihime, we know that there are four major gangs that they are going to have to go through… setting up future arcs that could last a while. There could always be more after that so there is plenty of content here to explore.
So far, though, I will have to say the series does need some improvements. Maruo is already old as a character after the first volume. He needs more polish and depth for him to be interesting. Urara’s journey is enough to keep the series going but her journey alone isn’t going to carry this series on its back. She needs help from Maruo and possibly Ten but I can’t see either one of them really helping carry the load at this point. The fights need to be a bit more meaningful. I get that they are short to flaunt Maruo’s strength but even when he fights his first Ayashimon vs a normal human, there isn’t enough there to really make me believe that an Ayashimon is a major step up in terms of threat and that’s all attributed to the length of the battles.
It is only the first volume and while it does a decent job of setting up the atmosphere, it left me wanting more… not in the sense of “I need to see what happens next” but more like “I wish things were fleshed out and had more meaning.” Again, it’s a decent start and something I’ll have to read more of to see if this series can shape itself into something amazing. Right now, it’s just decent at best.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
