The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

Ayashimon

What's It About? 

When the Enma Syndicate's chairman dies, Japan's supernatural underworld is turned on its head, leaving gangs of Ayashimon poised on the brink of war. Urara, the late chairman's daughter, has plans to come out on top, and she's found an unlikely ally to help make it happen—Maruo, a human who dreams of being a manga hero.

Maruo always wanted to be like the characters in His Favorite manga. Unfortunately, his training efforts have paid off a little too well. Now he breaks everything he touches, can't find a job, and wins every fight too easily. However, when he encounters a girl being pursued by a group of thugs who turn out to actually be monstrous ayashimon in disguise, it seems like his real-life manga story is about to begin!

Ayashimon has a story and art by Yūji Kaku, with English translation by Adrienne Beck and lettered by Brandon Bovia. Viz released its first volume both digitally and physically on March 7.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

Many manga creators preface their first volumes by saying things like “this manga is full of stuff I like,” but that's rarely felt so true as in this case. There are a lot of twisted backstories to get through before the plot feels like it actually starts, to the point where at times it beggars belief. Most of us aren't nearly as skilled at mimicking fiction as Maruo, the protagonist of Yūji Kaku's Ayashimon, because where we typically failed, he 100% succeeded.

As conceits go, it's a delightfully self-aware one that provides the otherwise relatively familiar supernatural thug story with a good gimmick. Maruo constantly makes references to his favorite series, like Dragon Ball, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and Fist of the North Star, and Kaku includes plenty of visuals to go along with them (with copyrights carefully noted, so he doesn't have to fudge the details). Sure, Maruo can't use an energy blast in his Kamehameha, but he can still use the pose to couch a powerful fist to his opponent's face. He's living the dream in a lot of ways. That in itself masks the darker truth about his past. Although we're not explicitly told or shown anything, the very strong implication is that Maruo grew up with an abusive father, and he began idolizing shounen heroes because they could fight their way out of bad situations. He seems to have realized that no one was coming to save him, so he is determined to become his own hero. When he eventually takes on his father, however, he's disappointed that the monster of his childhood turned out just to be a man, and the “victory” ultimately left him feeling empty. Maruo's quest, therefore, isn't just to find a place to belong or to feel useful, it's a search for a reason for everything he's been through. What's the point, after all, of being a hero with no monsters to overcome?

Luckily for him, his search for a job (which was going spectacularly and entertainingly badly) lands him in a park when what looks like a young girl runs by, being chased by yakuza. This is Urara, and needly to say, she's not at all what she seems. Linked to one of the biggest crime syndicates in Kabukicho, Urara is looking to carry on the legacy of a dead dad she can't risk revealing, and when Maruo saves her from her pursuers, she immediately offers him a job as her bodyguard. He's delighted to accept, but there's just one little detail that's a sticking point (for people who aren't him): Urara and the guys chasing her aren't human. They're yokai, and all the yakuza in Kabukicho are a specific class of yokai called “Ayashimon.” Thus is Maruo set up to fight actual monsters, to be the hero of a ready-made story. It's still very much in the setup phase here, and it isn't as instantly engaging as Kaku's Hell's Paradise, but I think that given a little more time, it could be a good supernatural action story with some nicely self-aware twists.

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

If you're gonna make a story about yokai: you need, need, need to bring your artistic A-game. Similarly, you need, need, need to bring in the grime from the streets if you're going to tell a story about yakuza. And, brother, does Ayashimon pull it off. Amusingly steeped in Shonen Jump lore, Ayashimon is a gritty action series where the main threats are stylized yokai yakuza, thanks to protagonist Maruo's obsession with old and battered copies of Weekly Shonen Jump.

Maruo veers close to being an invincible protagonist, à la Saitama. But his sheer joy at fighting larger-than-life threats with larger-than-life strength nevertheless has that quintessential "Shonen" energy to it—even if this is a gritty story about people getting eaten, and disemboweled yokai watching helplessly as their body bursts into a shower of yen.

The key is the understated emotional angle. Maruo's victimization is framed as a child finding solace in unrealistic action comics. Meanwhile, Urara serves as the true heart of this story: vicious beyond her size, intimidating beyond her meager stature, and hiding untold grief behind her endless thirst for revenge. She's conniving and underhanded, reveling in the destruction her new pet Maruo wreaks. They're perfect for each other.

Ayashimon veers dangerously close to being all “id”. Yet, it's gripping in its violence and simplicity. Sometimes, all it takes is a knucklehead and his new big sister-oni. It's fun to see Maruo and Urara raise hell, and I'm totally game to see them rise even more. I strongly recommend it.

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Sometimes the answer to solving all your problems is to hit them really, really hard and sometimes that can be the solution to writing a rather fun, simple manga story. Ayashimon is basically another One-Punch Man type of situation where we have a character that is super powerful after spending a good chunk of their life training to the point where they feel lost and bored with the normal world. Thankfully, there's an entire secret underground of demons in mafia gangs for him to beat up, and conveniently, most if not all of their major squabbles are settled with one on one slugfests. This is basically the wet dream for every kid that grew up wanting to be Goku and I kind of can't help but smile at how unapologetic the series is with having that kind of tone.

There's definitely a lot of foreshadowing for this world of demons and a lot of the designs can come off as legitimately creepy with extra shading around specific parts that really helped them leap off the page. However, you won't be staring at these designs for long as our main character literally pummels them into oblivion with all the grace of…well Goku. I feel like I should be getting whiplash but instead, I just find myself laughing and I think that was intentional. The comedy is pretty spot on with this series and I did walk away from my volume with a smile on my face. However, I am cautious about what the future of this story has in store. Will we try to stick to this style of humor and story structure from beginning to end or will we mix things up as we get more involved with this criminal Demon underworld? Hard to say but this first volume won me over enough to at least be willing to give it a shot.