Warning: SPOILERS for Choujin X chapter 30An upgrade that the eponymous monsters in Sui Ishida’s Tokyo Ghoul receive upon cannibalizing their own kind appears in his newest manga Choujin X – and it doesn’t have any of the same limitations.
In Tokyo Ghoul, ghouls who feast upon their own kind eventually become so-called kakuja. And as a kakuja, their predatory organ known as the kagune undergoes a mutation where one or a few appendages covers their body. Except for Ken Kaneki, the overall aesthetic concept of every kagune remains the same upon a ghoul’s transformation into a kakuja. It just becomes a more extreme version of the original. For example, the ghoul Roma Hoito’s normal kagune consisted of eight tentacles, which apparently belonged to a Lamprey fish-like monstrosity because the lower half of Hoito’s body gets embedded inside such a creature’s forehead when she evolves into a kakuja.
In chapter 30 of Choujin X, Sui Ishida reveals that his eponymous superpowered beings can enter a berserker state known as chaos that causes them to lose a portion of their humanity every time they “peer” into the abyss. Before achieving this state, an evil choujin known as Yubiko can copy and extend her limbs, usually to wrap her body parts around her victims including one of Choujin X’s heroes, Azuma. Her limb replication and extension abilities take the next logical step aesthetically when she attains Nirvana Mandala Chaos. Although a very intricate look, Yubiko’s chaotic form essentially consists of many limbs wrapped around each other to either form otherwise normal ligaments or to emphasize them in unnatural ways.
How Kakujas in Tokyo Ghoul are Similar Chaos Choujin in Choujin X
Connecting the kakuja’s kagune in Tokyo Ghoul and chaos choujins in Choujin X is that both beings can achieve these forms after undergoing an inhuman experience. Ghouls are naturally the opposite of humans, but their divergences are exemplified in the dichotomy between the hybridity of Ken Kaneki’s human and ghoulish sides. The more humanity Kaneki loses, the more ghoulish he becomes, and cannibalizing ghouls is probably as inhuman as any creature can get. So it’s appropriate that this results in the most ubiquitous aspect of the ghoul (the kagune) to spread across their entire body. This is the exact phenomenon that transpires in the choujin world. Ishida even goes out of his way as the narrator to say that choujin who stare too long into the abyss either lose much of their humanity or shed it completely. This act is therefore Choujin X‘s equivalent to when a ghoul cannibalizes their own kin. And when both of these things happen, the powers of these choujin and ghouls take on a more terrifying form.
The major difference between them is that even the most terrifying ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul are usually unwilling to participate in cannibalism for understandable reasons. Those who do are looked upon. This phenomenon doesn’t seem to exist in Choujin X where the act of peering into this abyss for far too long is considered taboo. It also doesn’t seem to be as unpleasant. It’s just more of an uncontrollable urge that can overtake choujin. Meanwhile, ghoul cannibalism is more of a choice and can be done out of necessity. Sui Ishida’s description of chaos also creates the impression that staring into the abyss can be an enjoyable experience. Of course, this could always change, but as of now from the reader’s perspective, getting lost in an abyss in Choujin X doesn’t sound as bad or disgusting as cannibalizing ghouls in Tokyo Ghoul.
