YMMV / Choujin X

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Where to even begin with Azuma? There are so many different interpretations of his character that it would be impossible to list them all here. For starters, why did Azuma try to rescue Tokio from Umezawa and Ricardo? Was it truly out of care for his friend? Was it out of a desperate desire to reassert himself as Tokio's hero? Could it be both? And for that matter, what about Azuma getting involved at Minami? Was it because he simply believed that the matter regarding Palma was unrelated to the opium? Was it because he was scared at the prospect of Tokio surpassing him? Was it because he felt threatened by Ely's and Tokio's friendship and was terrified of Ely seeing him as "inferior" to Tokio? Was it all three? For that matter, why did he agree to help Tokio save Palma? Did he see her as a valuable source of intel? Was it because as soon as she ceased to be a "nameless" enemy and became someone he knew, he felt an obligation to help her? He's one of the most talked-about characters, in large part because there's no unanimous consensus on how to read him.
  • Was Queem always the murderous tyrant we see in Sora's flashback? Or was he, like Zora, a Well-Intentioned Extremist who fell victim to his dwindling sanity? Hell, did Queem actually hold any grudge against God like Yamato Mori suggests, or was that just a biased narrative written by Sora? Queem doesn't show up outside of flashbacks so it's impossible to say for certain, but what little screentime he does have could certainly be read multiple ways.
• Awesomeness Withdrawal: Choujin X is known for having a very..... inconsistent release schedule. Unlike most manga, there is no predetermined deadline for when a chapter comes out, instead just being released when the author, Sui Ishida, finishes it at his own pace. Sometimes this means waiting one to two weeks for chapters, but this can be as long as multiple months in other instances. While the manga has managed to garner a cult fanbase, one of the most commonly cited reasons at to why it's not as popular as its predecessor, Tokyo Ghoul, is that the release schedule is a turnoff for a lot of people.
• Complete Monster: "War Choujin" Queem Macman was a vile Choujin X who used his powers to launch a military coup and become President of Guelta. Starting the Great Choujin War, Queem personally advanced weaponry, and, hell-bent on conquering the world, forced his Choujin troops to painfully Raise themselves from death unendingly. Using enemy territories to hunt for sport, Queem massacred civilians and conducted religious purges, the horrors of his crimes fracturing human society, which is still healing even 70 years after his death.
• Cry for the Devil: Zora is one messed up piece of work, make no mistake, but her circumstances are so tragic and outright pitiful that it's hard not to feel at least a little bad for her.
• Cult Classic: While nowhere near as popular as Ishida's previous serialization, Choujin X has managed to garner a small yet devoted fanbase.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite effectively being a one-off joke character, Package Choujin is rather popular among the fanbase.
  • Nari is the first notable antagonist faced by Tokio and, although she doesn't get a ton of focus after the first arc, she's a very popular character due to her fun personality. The fact that she's extremely attractive certainly helps too.
• Epileptic Trees: It is a Sui Ishida manga, after all, and as such the fanbase tends to be highly prone to making theories about the exact direction the story is going in.
  • One especially popular theory is that Ely is the Dark Calamity prophesied by Zora. While the theory had always been around for a while, it really took off in chapter 47 when Ely admits that she plans to steal Zora's power. It also ties nicely into how each era's Choujin X was shown to ultimately accomplish the exact opposite of what initially they set out to do, as Zora was the one who indirectly awakened Ely's powers by ordering Chandra to attack the plane.
  • Another popular theory involving Ely is that she's related to Antitise on her father's side. The main logic behind this theory is that while the other main characters all have powers directly connected to a legendary figure of the past (Tokio with Sora, Azuma with Queem, and Palma with Bill Morth), Ely's powers are seemingly a total anomaly. If one were to connect her to a major historical figure, the only one remaining would be Antitise. And given that Sora committed genocide throughout Antoland to wipe out Antitise's lineage, it's entirely reasonable for Ely's unnamed father to have been a refugee who joined Ely's mother in her band of thieves. Many also argue that it fits rather nicely into how, of all the main characters, Ely is the one who Zora has it out for the most.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Zora, particularly her past appearance as Sora Siruha, is twisted, beautiful, pitiful, and extremely badass all at once.
  • Queem doesn't show up outside of a handful of flashbacks, but let's be real here, a sentient B-2 bomber with multiple, gun-fingered hands protruding out of the bottom is an awesome design.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • Unsurprisingly, with Tokyo Ghoul, as both are by the same author.
  • With Chainsaw Man, although a more one-sided example due to the latter being far more mainstream. Both are New Weird action series with similar tones and premises. It's especially noticeable with Part 2 in particular, as both series are running concurrently and, as many have pointed out, the true nature of the conflict in both stories turns out to be strikingly similar, in which everything is revealed to center around an apocalypse prophecy (In turn inspired by the real-life Y2K craze) with different factions butting heads on how to stop it. It helps that the authors are actually friends in real life.
• Growing the Beard: Few, if any, fans are going to tell you that the first few arcs aren't good. However, many fans will point to either the Moon Beast arc (chapters 18-24) and beyond as when the story truly comes into its own, with the initially confusing plot revealing itself to the audience and the characters breaking past their initial archetypes and growing into layered, three-dimensional individuals.
• Heart Warming Moments:
  • The conversation between Tokio and his father in chapter 35 is often cited as one of the sweetest moments in the manga. Tokio's father had more-or-less been in the background prior to this and, even when he did show up, he didn't really have much in the way of significant dialogue. However in just this one scene, the audience is able to see him as a genuinely loving, supportive father who has Tokio's back no matter where his path in life takes him.
  • The ending of Chapter 41, where Palma awakes from a nightmare to find herself being carried by Tokio midflight. It's in all likelihood one of the very few acts of kindness she's received throughout her miserable life.
  • Chapter 43. After Momoma dishes out some serious Brutal Honesty to Tokio and Azuma, the two of them finally decide to stop avoiding the issue and talk to each other again. The two of them break out into a fistfight over their feelings of resentment. Azuma then comes clean to Tokio about having feelings for Ely, to which Tokio initially expresses shock but subsequently tries to give Azuma some advice, and the two of them return to Yamato Mori together. While it's clear that the issues between them are far from being resolved, seeing them finally make an effort to repair their relationship is definitely satisfying.
• Memetic Badass: Takeru Monda is a super minor character who's brought up only twice in the entire series. Fans commonly joke that he's secretly the single strongest character in the manga and is the true identity of the next generation's Choujin X.
• Memetic Loser: Simon has the dubious honor of being labeled as a "Jobber" by the fanbase for his less than stellar win record. Tying into Simon's in-canon characterization as a dork who outwardly projects a "stoic badass" persona, many frequently crack jokes about Simon "jobbing" to everyday situations.
• Memetic Mutation: Shoujo X^ExplanationFollowing the timeskip, there was a rather noticeable increase in focus on romance between the cast, Tokio/Palma and Azuma/Ely in particular. Many have started to jokingly refer to Choujin X as a Shoujo series. The fact that the author, Sui Ishida, had developed an Otome game certainly contributed to it.
• Moe: One of the main reasons for Palma's popularity. She's a friendly, awkward, lonely young girl who has a dark past and is desperate for any kind of companionship.
• Moral Event Horizon: Her tragic character aside, Chapter 49 cements that Zora is far far beyond the point of being saved or reasoned with during Mado's flashback, in which it's revealed that Sora spearheaded a genocide in Antoland which took the lives of over 200,000 innocent civilians. Her reason for this? A dream, which might not even be true, told her that Antitise would one day be a threat.
• Ship Mates: Although neither were especially popular at first, it's common to find people shipping both Tokio/Palma and Azuma/Ely, especially as it became increasingly clear that both romantic subplots were going to be a major point of focus. It also helps that both relationships are very different from each other, with many liking how much they juxtapose each other.
• Shocking Moments: The arc at Omega Tower pretty much recontextualizes the entire story leading up to that point. Prior to that point, the story was something of a Kudzu Plot with several seemingly random events happening one after another. Once the reader finds out why all this is happening, all the previous events are cast in a completely different light.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: While you'd be hard-pressed to find many fans who think the first couple of chapters are bad, the story does take a pretty long time to reveal what the actual overarching plot is. The first 24 chapters are the story's prologue, with them mostly being dedicated to setting up ideas and character arcs. And while said ideas and arcs do get payoff later down the line, the slow-burn pace can be a turnoff to some people.

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