Warning! Spoilers ahead for Choujin X chapter 16!
After a two-month hiatus, Tokyo Ghoul mangaka Sui Ishida just finally resumed his follow-up manga Choujin X by adding a dynamic that had been missing between his new series’ version of Ken Kaneki and Hideyoshi Nagachika (aka Hide and later Scarecrow).
Sui Ishida made it evident early on in Choujin X that his new characters Tokio Kurohara and Azuma essentially flip these Tokyo Ghoul characters. Like Ken, Tokio transforms into his world’s version of ghouls known as Choujin while Azuma (and Hide) don’t. The difference, however, is that Azuma was already a superhero of sorts before Tokio’s transformation and Tokio still overly depends on Azuma like before after becoming a Choujin as though nothing has changed. Even though the shift in dynamics in Tokio and Azuma’s relationship promised conflict never before explored in Tokyo Ghoul, Choujin X mysteriously marginalized Azuma for many chapters – until the latest installment in chapter 16.
At first, Azuma only reappears in Choujin X to comfort the hero Tokio who feels as though he’s falling behind one of his other Choujin comrades named Ely. But later on in the chapter, Azuma can be seen reflecting on Tokio’s comments and essentially says that he’s the actual one who got left behind, not Tokio. Mangaka Sui Ishida couldn’t explore this feeling with Hide in Tokyo Ghoul because of who Hide was as a character. Unlike Azuma, Hide was never a minor superhero, so Ken suddenly becoming a ghoul doesn’t threaten his identity. Instead, Hide becomes overly protective of his friend and puts himself in dangerous situations – even joining the Commission of Counter Ghoul (CCG) – so he can keep tabs on Ken to make sure he’s okay. He then takes his involvement to a whole other level when he adopts the identity of Scarecrow and meddles in major operations, all with the means to help and protect Ken.
Although Azuma might adopt such a role in future chapters of Choujin X, he’s currently much too busy contending with his own emotional upheaval as he tries to grapple with his own shortcomings and won’t be able to better serve his friend until later. There’s also the fact that not only was Azuma originally the strong one of the two, but it was his idea to transform when he found the syringes in Choujin X‘s debut chapter, which only gave Tokio superpowers, not Azuma. Tokio had originally been much too scared to inject himself at the time and only did so he wouldn’t get left behind and lose his friend. Azuma actually wanted to become a Choujin for himself and didn’t. Meanwhile, Hide never sought power – and even at his most influential as Scarecrow, he still did everything from the shadows and wore a mask.
Hopefully, Ishida will continue to explore this dynamic with Azuma in Choujin X, which he obviously couldn’t do in Tokyo Ghoul with Hide. Ishida alluded to this possibility in an early chapter when Azuma snapped at the recently transformed Tokio, but this latest installment just made it official – and hopefully Azuma’s frustration will only get even more blatantly obvious in the coming chapters.
