Ajin

No Spoiler Review

Poor animation.
Weird Sound quality.
An attempt to disgrace the Manga ?

An attempt to make a better version of Tokyo Ghoul. (a failed attempt)

If you can handle the poor animation that makes your eyes hurt and ignore the weird sounds that make you want to take your headphones off every few seconds, you might be able to get through the first three episodes. The story line itself is not terrible, execution is hardly proper.

it is 2019. The animation quality of this age is SOOOO far ahead of what this anime has put across. Honestly, I have seen better animation from anime that is over 2 ... decades old.

I apologize if my review is biased to the quality of the anime, but it is hard for me to enjoy an anime if the viewing quality is at all subpar.

I highly recommend reading the Manga though.

Painfully average. I've been meaning to watch the second season for about a month, but I just never found the will to do so and instead spent my time doing other things and watching other, more promising, anime.

The story is pretty unique for a supernatural drama/thriller. However, as unique as it may be, it just doesn't feel substantial. Maybe I'm simply not a fan of the genre, but I never got invested into the plot. It felt like I was just sitting in place, consuming the content of every episode, rather than fully processing what's happening in an episode and being hyped to see what ... happens next.

The art is alright. It's a RWBY-esque 3D style, but better. I don't have much else to say about it.

Further making it feel even more average, there was nothing about the sound or music that particularly stood out to me. The gunfire is pretty good, but that's just a fraction of a sliver of the show, and only serves to impress firearm enthusiasts like myself. Speaking of firearms and gunfire, the shooting scenes are very good. Not 100% realistic, but very fun and filled with action. Shame there's only two or three of these scenes in the first season.

Overall, you may enjoy it if you like supernatural stuff. To me, it just felt average, and it didn't get me invested.

Story: 8/10
The story of Ajin is executed in a way that was filled with suspense and dragged you in for more, making you want to find out what happened. This was honestly my favorite anime of Winter 2016, and yes, I did watch this real time, every week. The thing is, I haven't read the manga as of writing this review, so I'm not sure how closely it followed the manga's story, but I have to say, as a stand alone series, Ajin did a great job at bringing an already existing concept, but adding a new breath of freshness to it. The whole concept ... of the "Ajin"s are done to make the audience pity them, but at the same time question which side you should cheer on for, the Ajins, or the police, which makes the story far more complex and well thought out.
Overall I have to say the story had plot twists and great moments, so I can't suggest it enough if you like Psychological thriller series.

Art: 8/10
Now I don't like CG in anime, and I think many people would agree with me on that. The thing is though, what I just stated there is only for 2D hand drawn animation that has 3D CGI in certain scenes, which makes it look very strange. With Ajin, it's completely different. The whole series is in CG meaning that nothing feels like it sticks out. Sure, the first episode was a bit clunky, but after it became smooth, it gained a sort of charm that I'd never seen in anime before. The "artwork" is done well in it's own unique way, and I wish more people would accept it for what it is.

Sound: 7/10
The sound in Ajin had a few tracks that were so good, like the ones used in the Ajin battles or escape scenes. However, I felt like there were too many tracks that weren't very memorable at all, and that's why I gave this a 7. Apart from the OST though, the opening is superb. It is hands down one of the best openings I've heard recently, and is definitely worth the listen. As for the ending theme it was rather, dissapointing. It wasn't bad necessarily, but it wasn't very good either. And that's why Ajin gets a 7 in sound.

Characters: 9/10
The characters are where it shines with Ajin. This series just has great characters who grow over the course of the 13 episodes, and you can really get to love one character or another. Some of my favorite examples are Nagai Kei as he grows and you can really see him getting smarter during each episode, as he deals with his own problems by himself near the end of the series. As for my favorites, Tosaki and Shimomura, they are both very well designed and have great moments throughout the series. All the characters' designs are solid, and the way they interact with each other is also something that we can appreciate.

Enjoyment: 9/10
The enjoyment in this anime was crazy high as i just couldn't wait every week anticipating for the next exciting episode. Gladly, for anyone reading this review that hasn't seen this series,have fun because you can go ahead and marathon the whole thing. Oh, I also can't wait for season 2, coming out in October this year. (2016)

Overall: 8/10
Overall Ajin gets an 8/10, for having a story that is common, but is done in away that makes it feel new, whilst having an eerie atmosphere and mysteries everywhere that makes watchers curious as to what will happen next. This series has some fantastic characters, and I'm sure you'll get something out of it if you're remotely into Psychological or Horror anime.

Check it out, you won't regret it.

I'll be honest, I like the 3D animation. It took me a while to get used to it, but it's not terrible to me. And I'm an artist myself. It's not out of pity or something stupid like that, I genuinely liked the way it looked and felt throughout the show.

As for the actual show, I watched it after watching TG seasons one and two and wow was it refreshing. The entire show itself is pretty refreshing overall. There is less of a focus on our main; Kei which is nice and allows you to really see the whole picture from everyone else's ... pov. The character design is simple but it fits the feel of it all. Satou is a really good villain too. The kind that doesn't fudge around, which makes it all the more entertaining.

Also, I have to mention that I just love the whole "omg there is some scary mutant form of human that actual humans hate because they're basically rampant monsters. gee i sure hope im not one of em." trope. Its so amusing to see the protagonist suffer, cry and scream as they realize their life has taken a turn that they're desperately trying to deny. Although it doesn't seem to hit Kei that way so minus 2 points.

So if you like anything i just described, go and watch it. Nothing to lose except 4-5 hours of your life :D

To preface, I am up-to-date on the manga.

Story:
Event based, just like the chapters the anime covers within the manga. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of characterization, but with so many events taking place, it's very difficult for the story to dig into the ensemble cast.

With events at the forefront, holy cow are they good. While I had some issues with the pacing, at first (mostly errors due to the fact that producers need to hook their audience within the first episode, sacrificing a sense of stability), each event flows virtually seamlessly into the next. Not only that, the events that take place have a slow ... increment of increased intensity that makes for a brilliant thriller that has a solid cool down for its final episode (which takes a relatively different route than the manga, which is understandable as a television program is different from a monthly released narrative. It needs a more dramatic, although resolved finale). In regards to changes from the manga, they're subtle, or don't affect the written progression already established.

Events aside, the characters are fairly flat in the first arc within Ajin. This works well with the events, as stated above, because characters follow a believable pattern that doesn't surprise. Again, this is great, because the events themselves can be quite surprising. However, this means those watching will not find any interesting character arcs, or dynamic growth with anyone within these 13 episodes. The following arc delves into a stronger self-awareness in character development, so I don't mind it as a whole, but I won't grade this work for what's to come, I will grade it for what it is by itself.

But I digress. Without characterization, we also miss out on the potential to teach a moral or lesson of any kind. It's unfortunately quite barren in these regards, but the events themselves overcome these issues so you, the viewer, don't find it all that bothersome.


Art:
3DCG, but we're in an age where 3DCG isn't much of a bother anymore. It flows really well, micro-expressions are prevalent, and the action sequences look fantastic, but because this is a television program with a much smaller budget than a full-fledged film, there's some cheats and work-arounds that are quite visible.

Let's get the negatives out of the way first, though. Conversation driven sequences are quite choppy, as if playing a video game at 16 frames per second. This is cheap, and kind of stupid. I don't know what's wrong with making it flow better. Either way, still dumb. The backdrops being water color painting looks great, and while it doesn't stand out so much, it looks quite barren. In fact, there are some scenes in which I thought to myself, "There should be more people here..." It's, again, due to lazy animation...

Positives: Wow. Gotta mention it again. The fight sequences are excellent. Although people have issues with 3DCG, it looks pretty damn fantastic watching 3D models duke it out. It's in these scenes that I question which I like better: 2D or 3D fights? Perhaps if this anime did what the Berserk: Golden Age films did - animate dialogue in 2D and battles in 3D - then this anime would have had a better time.


Sound:
Absolutely fantastic. This sets a standard. The combat sequences, or any scene in which an IBM is mobile, are humbling. As if the IBM's themselves weren't a little freaky, the anticipation of their audio presence is an added sense of dread. However, it's not so much their voices, but the sounds made as their bodies move, whipping around and demolishing their surroundings, people, or better yet, other IBM's.

Other than the sound effects used for the IBM's, the gun sounds are really quite excellent, sounding fresh and realistic with proper effects used to amplify their surroundings. That, along with the other sound effects used in tandem make for an experience that I, quite honestly, want to participate again, but with headphones this time around.

The soundtrack is also quite great, but there's a song or two that are used a little too much, which is my only gripe with the series in regards to the sounds. One of the better parts of the OST is that its main theme has variations to accommodate for the emotional weight of a scene. Seldom do scenes go beyond a thriller tone, but in some cases, one can hear a similar theme but played with softer instruments, or louder. This needs to happen more often with, like, all anime OST's.


Character:
Mentioned in the story section: vacant, but does its job. Each character stays pretty rooted in their established personality, and it's not until the following season/story arc that we'll experience their inner-workings on a more intimate level, as this part of the narrative is strictly event driven. Outside of this, there really aren't any issues, as the characters themselves are well-grounded in interesting and engaging environments, that also make for interesting and engaging reactions. Everyone, for the most part, is quite likable, from our protagonist, antagonist, and supporting characters.


Enjoyment:
A rocky start, as I haven't watched a lot of 3DCG, but after I'd grown used to it, I ended up thoroughly enjoying each and every part of this anime. It's fun, suspenseful, and there were times where I was floored by how excellent it executed some scenes, despite the fact that I already had knowledge of them (due to reading the manga.)


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Do you enjoy shows with no sympathetic characters? Do you like rooting for a team of protagonists that fail at every possible turn without seeming to learn from their mistakes? Do you like seeing a bunch of people, both complicit in great evil and innocent alike, massacred in sometimes spectacular fashion by the principle antagonist? If so, this show might be for you.

Let me first say that this series is extremely plot-driven. Despite all my issues with it, I felt compelled to keep watching to see what happened next. In that respect, it reminded me on many occasions of The Walking Dead: I'm frustrated to ... death by the decisions made by the characters I am supposed to be rooting for, but I just have to see how this plays out!

We develop some early sympathy for our primary protagonist early on, due to society's willingness to brand him as "other" and "less-than," which may remind viewers of the allegory for the Civil Rights movement that the X-Men represented. It's mostly the story beats that are drumming up our sympathy for him, though - he's victimized and the underdog, so we put ourselves on his side. It's not until 4 or 5 episodes in that we realize our protagonist is... a sociopath. Great. Probably could have been made clearer early on, as that's a pretty central characteristic, but this is emblematic of the lack of characterization we see throughout the series. There are 2 characters in the series who get more than 12 seconds of background, and the rest are hollow. Let me be clear - ALL of the characters in this show are flat. A few are two-dimensional, while most are one-dimensional. There are some HUGE ethical quandaries that could be addressed by this setup - something that X-Men did very well. This show doesn't ignore the ethical completely, but rather than engaging in a real discussion that might allow some characters to grow or change, the complete amorality of the decisions made by the military-industrial complex figures in the show lowers the stakes all around. Our antagonist is out for... revenge? That's cleared up somewhat in Season 2. But if he's killing off these horrible people, do we really care whether he's stopped or not?

Now let's talk failure for a second. It's fun to see protagonists struggle. If they succeed at everything without any real difficulty to overcome (Overlord, Tensei Slime), that makes for a boring story. In this story, the protagonists seem to have a pathological aversion to learning. They are CONSTANTLY failing. The government team that we kind-of, sort-of side with (again, who's our hero here?!) is absolutely useless. They accomplish nothing, and suffer no consequences other than getting yelled at by higher-ranked, equally ineffective people. Our antagonist demonstrates very early in the series how effective one individual with "the power" can be in a battle scenario using tactics that are only possible for an individual with said power. Our protagonists NEVER use these tactics in any engagement with the antagonist. They are consistently ruined by basic stuff that, oh, let's say, one bullet would fix. Worst of all, our chief protagonist demonstrates early on that he understands this capability OUTSIDE of combat, and he's presented as a tactical genius (later in the series, at least), so how are our good guys SO BAD at fighting?

A quick note on the fighting - the "black ghosts" are not very well defined or differentiated visually, so any action scene that relies heavily on ghosts is weakened significantly. Kind of like watching a fight in the Transformers movies - we can't tell what's going on, so we're just waiting for it to be over so we can see who won. Our characters sometimes suffer realistic damage, while other times they're absolutely smashed in the face and come out looking fine. Sato can die 15 times in a firefight and come out with 2 small bloodstains on his shirt. The lack of detail in the art actually works against the action in highlighting how extreme the fight scenes are.

Needless to say, I found this series (both seasons) extremely frustrating. But I watched it all, so that says something! As others have said, the best thing this series has going for it is the antagonist. He may not be a well-developed character with sympathetic motivations, but he's got a personality that's fun to watch, and the peerless competence he displays is much more satisfying than the floppy, impotent attempts by our hero team to stop him. If that's enough for you, have fun. I can't say I recommend this to anyone.

This anime is so underrated compared to others that are so bad and they still have a great score. Yes, so the graphics weren't up to your standards, big deal. The story is good and it kept me going. Its different but at the same time, you may have seen some of the details elsewhere.

Story: 10/10
I went to bed at 3 am because I couldn't stop watching it. The first episode hooked me instantly and don't get me started on the 2nd one.

Art: 6/10
Ok so the art is not that flashy or "anime-like". But that's what I like about this anime. The ... characters are normal and it gives you a sense of familiarity.

Sound: 7/10
I love the opening. But to be honest, I didn't pay attention to it too much. It was ok anyways.

Character: 9/10
OK so let's talk about the main character. Kei Nagai is a master of the poker face. I have never been so confused in deciphering his character. One time you think he is nice, the next one he is cold and regards others as unimportant. But I actually liked that, because it kept me guessing and I still don't know what he is REALLY thinking or what he is going to do next.
Next the old guy, Sato. After I saw Hei from Darker than Black I thought I was not going to get another badass and unexpected character but this guy surprised me. I thought he was another cold-blooded killer, but he was smart and witty so props right there.
The rest of the characters were ok to me, except for Nakano, that guy was hilarious.

Enjoyment: 9/10
Like I said, there are good animes out there but this one should be up there. I liked it since I never knew what was going to happen next. I usually lose interest in an anime when I know what is going to happen or the ending of it so of course I am going to love this.

Overal :9/10
I have nothing else to say except that you should watch it and don't judge a book by its cover. I did and I almost didn't watch this amazing anime. And don't pay attention to the graphics, there are worse out there and people still like it.
So happy binge watching!!!

Warning: Some minor spoilers

The treatment of oppressed peoples and human cruelty is something that anime as a genre does not seem to take up very often, or at least is not done very well. The only anime I have seen that comes to mind as addressing this issue well are Fullmetal Alchemist with the Ishbalans, and, albeit more indirectly, Now and Then, Here and There. Though the plot to Ajin may look like a fairly standard dark anime plot at first, there is more than meets the eye here; Ajin deals with the topic of oppression in a more philosophical light, by asking the ... question what it means to be human.

Before I go into analyzing the plot too much (and my analysis may include some minor spoilers to some up to around episode 5), let me take care of some preliminaries about the art. Ajin is almost universally bashed for its 3D CGI-based animation that is rendered in a fairly low frame rate, dipping almost below 15 fps at some points. It is commonly remarked that this animation is completely ugly, feels unnatural, and falls into the "uncanny valley" of animation: looking just close enough to realistic, but far away from realistic. I completely agree, I almost universally hate this style of animation and low frame rates, even when done for "cinematic" effect, seriously bother me.

But at the same time, I would argue that the ugliness of the animation is among the best features of this anime. I thought there would never be a situation in which this style of animation would make sense, Ajin has proven me wrong. It is so radical that it has made me rethink what "good animation" actually is. It's a series about a type of people who are on the borderline of humanity and treated as if they are not human at all, and about humans who are betraying their humanity by being entirely cruel to others. It is only fitting, in the face of ugly actions and demi-humans, that the animation should be off-putting, close to truly realistic and familiar, yet so far away. The discomfort it causes truly matches the themes of the plot, it causes an anxiety and discomfort akin to the feeling of confronting the face of the Other for the first time. Sure, it's not pretty; but I appreciate it it for the same reasons that I appreciate atonal music, it accurately portrays the relevant themes. Good art is not necessarily beautiful.

Now for the plot. I find the MAL plot summary a bit lacking, so to give you a better idea, I'll stray outside of convention and give a slightly better synopsis, albeit with minor spoilers. A few years prior to the exposition of Ajin, a special type of people rumored to have supernatural powers and who cannot die were discovered, named Ajins. To the general public, Ajins are just a curiosity to be othered like any other obscure fact. This is how our main protagonist Kei Nagai felt about Ajins, until he discovers he is one. In Japan, any Ajins discovered are taken into government custody. The first few episodes center around Kei attempting to evade government custody, and the media who treat Ajins like a circus in typical sensationalist fashion, until other Ajins get him captured by the government in a bid to get him to detest humans. Then he discovered Ajins are used in brutally cruel, inhumane experiments in which they are tortured and killed over and over again for pharmaceutical and weapons research. Despite this, Kei refuses to kill humans and manages to escape to try to live out a peaceful life in a rural village. (This is where the theme of oppression I was mentioning earlier comes in.)

Meanwhile, a group of other Ajins led by a man named Satou plan on using violent terrorist methods to try and get the government to stop the experiments. Good and evil get completely obscured as almost every character winds up having dark, and Kei, at first ruthlessly selfish and pragmatic, begins to discover his own human empathy. A number of great themes are touched on here, the nature of human cruelty, the ethics of revenge, and what it means to be human are all analyzed through a riveting plot that continually has you engaged with suspense.

The characters, though, are where this anime could use a little bit of work. They are engaging enough, but occasionally their motivations and actions are obscured, inconsistent, and contradictory (especially when it comes to Kei, I can't explain exactly what I mean without presenting too many crushing spoilers), especially near the end. I have not read the manga so I do not know what happens next, but a number of these issues could be cleared up easily in the second season (if there is one, which there most likely will be). We'll have to see how the plot progresses to get a full view of the characters.

The sound, also, has its issues. The voice acting in the sub is superb (though avoid the dub like the plague), but the music can be a little unrelated to the visuals. In general, the music is very well done, however there are several parts where the music will be playing an intense, fast pace, suspensful theme and all that is going on in the screen is some dialogue. At several points, it creates the feeling that the show is taking itself too seriously to the point of being campy.

But the directing style is absolutely where this anime shines more than anything else. A number of unique camera angles are taken on at several points. The shots can be awkward in the same manner that the animation is awkward, where the perspective will be obscured by a fence, or from the back of a room, or zoomed up intensely on someone's face, but they add to the viewing experience in the same way the animation does. The animation and directing style together create a sense of anxiety in the viewer that connects wonderfully with the anxiety of the story and themes.

However, there is a drawback to that avant-garde directing style and animation. Though intellectually I appreciate it, it does take down the enjoyment of the anime. It's enjoyable in the an aesthetic sense, but not enjoyable for the sake of entertainment. This is not to say it isn't entertaining at all, the off-putting atmosphere of the anime is made up for in the suspenseful nature of the plot, but I can easily see why many people wouldn't like Ajin, just like I can see why people like Naruto even though I don't think it's particularly good.

Despite it's flaws, Ajin is perfect if you're willing to take on a thought provoking, if dark and uncomfortable, anime with a very original concept and suspenseful plot.

Overview:
Story: 8/10
Art: 6/10
Sound: 7/10
Character: 7/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 6/10

Story: 9/10

its rather unique i havent seen one like this, its definately not for everybody but i do find it underrrated, it definately worth a watch.

Art: 7/10

i really dislike the 3d animation, infac if they sticked to the regular one im sure it would have attarcted even more attention, but regardless of so, the plot is pretty good enough to keep me in it.

Sound: 8/10

... i dont really pay attention to it, but the opening is pretty dang good and fitting for it.


character: 8/10

i really dislike coward characters, but the development is pretty steady adn well so far.

Enjoyment: 8/10

regardless of the 3d animation, the storyline itself is really good and gets exciting, the cliff ahngers do get me frustrated but its definately enjoying to watch.

What does it mean to live and be alive? Ajin may or may not answer that question but it is a story that focuses on life, death, and human-nature.

Plot/Story 10/10:
The story revolves around Kei Nagai a student who discovers he is an immortal "Ajin". This discovery takes Kei a wild journey from going on the run, to hiding out in a small town, to eventually facing his problems. The episodes do very well to progress the plot, the pacing was well done, and each cliffhanger made me want to immediately watch the next episode. The overall story about the Human-Ajin relations is very well ... done and is somewhat reminiscent of human-robot/cyborg relations in some series.

Animation/Design 7/10:
The animation was decent for CGI, though admittedly I am not a huge fan of CGI anime. It wasn’t horrible though and I felt it actually worked well with the darker tone of the story itself. The character designs were a bit lackluster overall in my opinion, as none of the characters really stand out, that being said it wasn't bad as I have seen worse. The landscapes and backgrounds are gorgeous and I felt the art style did a great job of making the world feel alive.

Audio/Soundtrack 7/10:
I watched the English dubbed version; the voice acting was pretty spot on from what I can tell and I have no real complaints. Sato’s voice actor did a great job of making him feel intimidating, while mostly being calm and cheerful. The soundtrack is nice but nothing revolutionary. I won’t be listening to the OST on YouTube as I read the manga or anything, but I don’t have anything bad to say about the OST either.

Characters 8/10:
The protagonist Kei Nagai is not the most endearing protagonist in anime as he is kind of a “jerk” as his sister called him, but realistically he is just an emotionally detached, logical thinker. This leads him to come across as an anti-hero at times as he strives for self preservation. The antagonist Sato is a very deep and complex character, though not much about him is revealed in the anime at this point. He is military trained, tough, very smart, and calculating individual. Most other characters are pretty deep and well layered, as they all seem to have pretty compelling reasons for doing the things they do.

Enjoyment 10/10:
I really didn’t know what to expect going into this anime and was surprised at how it made me think about what the Ajin go through. I really enjoy anime like this that get to the heart of the dark side of human nature. For me Ajin was a very enjoyable, deep story that made me think about human nature and the human experience in general. While not the best the visuals and sound did a great job of creating a realistic and interesting world. The characters bring a depth and complexity of real world proportions to the anime realm. How do people act when they are faced with the unknown? I think this question represents one of the major themes of the series. I give 8.8/10 rounding up to an 9/10.

I saw a friend of mine from the Philippines express his excitement that they were releasing this anime. I believe he was a follower of the manga (though I have read some followers of the manga expressing disappointment). I started watching the same week it was released and at first found the animation awkward and stiff... but the plot was too interesting to stop for that reason.

As the episodes progress on you get more pulled in. I am looking forward to a second season. Its a show about this mysterious human-like being known as Ajin. They look like humans but they are almost impossible to ... die. Nagai Kei, the lead protagonist and an Ajin, is a character who stands out from the others. Sometimes his actions are puzzling and while in the beginning you sympathized with him, throughout the plot he seems to battle with how much he should get himself involved in the Ajin situation in his country. At times he seemed to become much like a villain himself. He was having a moral battle but by the conclusion of this season he had come a resolve that makes viewers look forward to what the next season has in store.

I liked the show (good plot), but the first season's last episode is not an ending at all. Whether there are additional seasons or not, I don't know. But it would be nice if the creators at least tried to make the last episode some sort of ending with a "to be continued" cliffhanger or something. Instead, the last episode is just like any other episode. My other complaint is about the main character's inconsistency. (Spoilers coming.) In the beginning, he seems like he is a good person who tries to always do the right thing even if it ... will hurt or kill him. He tries to save people. So it doesn't match at all when his sister says he's the worst and is cold and calculating. But then in subsequent episodes, that description is proven true when he poisons someone and locks him in a truck. He is like a completely different person from who he was in the beginning. There is no reason for it. If his character were consistently cold and calculating, then he would have joined Sato immediately, and ESPECIALLY after being tortured. Who WOULDN'T hate people after being tortured like that? Only someone who is pure good, how he was only in the first couple episodes.

Despite all its shortcomings, Ajin: Demi-Human is a decent addition to the supernatural/mystery genre that may be worth your time.

This is not an anime for the fainthearted as the level of violence is taken to extreme lengths. Without giving away potential spoilers, repetitive killing and torturing children are heavy components of the story. Whilst Ajin employs a lot of elements of suspense and horror, it is not a downright scary show. Rather, what is presented to the viewer is a mysterious premise, with a number of clues along the way. One can either put the clues together or simply just await the shows conclusion for ... a better understanding of the supernatural elements.

Ajin introduces an array of characters that may pique your interest. Admittedly some of the character archetypes feel recycled, and character development could also be considered a weak point of the show. Nevertheless, honestly just one character is mysterious and peculiar enough alone to warrant your attention – you would know who I’m referring to if you’ve already watched the show.

The 3D rendering is also a big talking point of Ajin. Suffice to say, the action scenes are amazing. But this reviewer still found it difficult to watch; movements outside combat appear jerky and stiff. Perhaps with a better budget Polygon Pictures can look to improve their overall CG animation for season 2. One can hope.

For what it’s worth, here’s a summary;
+ Supernatural elements are mystifying and interesting enough
+ Action scenes are mostly well-done
+ Excellent start and a well thought-out ending
- Dip in the middle of the show will give you the shits
- 3D animation is polarising
- Character development is overall weak

For better adaptations of horror/supernatural works, you may wish to see Tokyo Ghoul or Parasyte the Maxim – the latter is often highlighted as the masterpiece of this genre.

It's definitely not something you've never seen, but it doesn't mean it's not good.

The main character has similarities to main characters from Parasyte and Tokyo Ghoul.
A young high school teenager being alienated from the society and struggles to adapt with his new found powers. Also the MC's voice actor is the same who voiced the MC from Death Note and both were beforehand living like an empty shell.
Art-wise I personally can't say I like 3D animation like Knights of Sidonia and Ajin in particular. It's still underdeveloped and has room for improvement, you could say it's stiff and colouring (like shading) too smooth. But ... you soon will overlook the art due to the nice character development and story line.
You start to pick up the interest for the story at the end of episode 1 so it doesn't really drags on about.
Sounds are amazing and fits the scenes. Music keeps giving me goosebumps and chills.
It's one of those animes you could keep on watching till you're done even if it means you have to pull an all-nighter.
Very captivating and thrilling.

Ajin was an anime that I never thought of watching at first, but it's theme, fantastically written characters, and the story behind it was what got me hooked. I learned about this anime in a Japanese Club at my university, and didn't think I'd watch it because of the art, but since I had watched RWBY, I thought it might be worth it to. The art is by far what I disliked most about this anime, because I'm not used to 3d graphics, and I prefer the 2d art style of traditional anime.

Now, for the story of this series. I haven't read the manga, so ... I'm not qualified to write about if it's accurate or not. I found the story of this show to be incredibly complex and unique, despite shows like Tokyo Ghoul and Parasyte becoming really popular in past years. This took an incredibly realistic approach to a supernatural being like the Ajin, with many of them being tested in labs and not being able to live normal lives. It also got to the heart of how I feel many people would react in situations like these.

The music in this anime is good, despite being relatively limited. A lot of the background music in the show is downplayed to further the action showed, and bring forward a lot of the dialoue and other background noise that's present.

The characters are by far the main reason why I decided to watch the show. The character of Nagai Kei surprised me by having characteristics that I wouldn't have expected out of the main character, and nearly all of the side characters have been highly developed as well, such as Kaito, Satou, and Tanaka Kouji. You find yourself rooting for many different characters all at once due to their nature and how they all deal with this situation differently.

Overall, I found this anime highly enjoyable, and I hope that they make a season 2. I definitely found this anime more intriguing than many of the other shows that I have watched recently, and I may even read the manga after finishing this review. I highly recommend watching this anime, despite the strangeness of the artwork.

(This review is the first one I've made, but I felt like I needed to finally write one for this anime. I hope you guys found this helpful!)

(First time writing a review. I'll try to keep it as short as I can and without waffle. You may not agree with all of it but this is my personal view of Ajin Season 1).

[Art-Rated 9]: The art style helps to set this anime apart from others. Although at first it may seem "ugly" you get used to it after about the second episode. Rather than using bright, bold colours (like a lot of animes use) they've used slightly duller and more realistic colours. I think this helps to draw the viewer in and help it to seem more life-like, as well as setting ... the tone to the story line. Despite the art style not being my personal taste I rated it so high because of the individuality, they could have easily gone more a more eye appealing approach however I don't think this would have been fitting. It's meant to be "ugly" as it fits the "ugly" story (not saying the story is bad, I mean that as in a lot of deaths). What mainly makes the art style so unusual, at first, is the amount of shadows given to the faces which have given it more of a 3D effect rather than the normal 2D that we often see. To sum the art style up it’s your normal, detailed looking anime with a hint of modern day, life-like game art.
[Sound- Rated 8]: From just watching Ajin once I noticed that they gave attention to detail in terms of sound. Where the sound effects could easily be ignored they have added both noticeable and subtle effects. There are times when I felt as if the sound effects for things were a bit too loud and made them seem out of place. By adding just the right about of subtle effects they help to bring the story to life, for instance there’s small sound details like footsteps, doors opening, the burning of a cigarette and the movement of items such as glasses. Personally I quite liked the ending and opening theme songs. The first is quite upbeat and energetic whereas the ending is slower and has a sad tone even when the backing music becomes more upbeat. The overall all sound to the last song is quite beautiful and seems fitting to credit’s animation. The opening song and animation has your stereotypical crime mystery/action style giving you a sense of excitement.
[Character- Rated 7. Story- Rated 9]: You don’t feel much sympathy for the main character or any characters at all, in fact the character I did feel for (for being selfless) you didn’t see after a few episodes. As I haven’t been following the manga (which I assume is further ahead) I’m not sure whether many of the characters you see in the beginning even return later in the story which gives a missing/off feel to the anime. The lack of sympathy felt is due to the lack of character background, we’re shown a bit but not enough to build any attachments. Another reason is that we’re made aware of the selfishness and lack of caring all the main characters have. Despite this being a negative thing for character development I see this as being a positive for the story as it creates a moral without being too outright, allowing you to notice it yourself. There is a strong theme of “if it doesn’t affect me why should I bother?” which is something most people can unconsciously relate to when we see something happening to others, whether that’s a stranger in your street or multiple people in another country. I may have missed it but as far as I saw there was no reason for the Ajin to be attacked nor were the society given one, leaving you to question how moral everyone is/was. The society wasn’t bothered as long as they were given a reward of money for their help. This again picked at the idea of people being greedy, selfish and ignorant, allowing you to reflect on yourself. Money, personal survival and aiming to gain something out of your actions were quite strong themes throughout. I had originally rated the story 7 or 8 but I think the use of these messages (whether they were intentional or not) brought it up.
[Enjoyment- Rated 8. Overall- Rated 9]: There were three clear sides/teams of the story with times where I felt siding with one team over another; however I always biasedly favoured the side of the main character for varied reasons. Each time one side looked like they were gaining an advantage they were ‘brought down a step’ creating suspense and with little idea what will happen in the next episode or even next season. This helped draw the audience in, ignoring the un-favoured art style as mentioned before. The amount of action in each episode thickened as the story progressed and made it clear that the story would either have an abrupt end or would have a second season. Luckily the ending of episode 13 made it clear that it was the latter option, otherwise it would have made a disappointing ending to an otherwise good story. The reason I gave it an overall 9 was for the story, art style and the background messages that can be seen. The uniqueness of art style and somewhat risk they took with it gave the story its own feel/aesthetic. I think those who can “persevere” with the style and get past the initial dislike will not be too disappointed with this anime.

Ajin has been placed into a very thoughtful rank for me, I actually gave 8 but I wanted to give 10.

Here is why:
The history of the anime is actually outstanding, the goal the characters have developed, the way the episodes link together. Thats all very great, but for me and other viewers the 3D is a huge bother, it almost made me drop this amazing anime.

Lets talk about the 3D, first i'm not against 3D, quite the opposite I would like it to be as improved as possible to be able to include the amazing graphics it posses. The lightning effects in ajin are great, ... vehicles like cars and motorcycles are filled with details, some background art is very rich. Towards this points I really think the 3D works great, but when it comes to animation Ajin seem to be "bad acted" and how it would be "acted" if there is no actors? Well, lets say a crucial moment of showing emotions comes up, the way its animated and how it is shown are very poor, so poor it actually disgust me and lot of watchers, and is actually not that hard to animate a good 3D, take a look at MikuMikuDance (MMD) videos, there are some amazingly done, that people make just for enjoyment. Said that if ajin were given to lets say Madhouse Studio and got draw graphics, the whole concept would have changed and most likely received my 10.

About the anime: Ajin has a very provocative plot, its messes with you to see unrighteousness, but at the same time it contains great villains that are crucial to the history development. One of the main characters has a amazing mind that surprises the viewers as the outcome isn't expected, its very well planned and this is something I must give credit to the anime.

Overall it was a Very Good anime with an outstanding story, I'll consider reading the manga to see if it surpass the anime errors.

Thanks for reading my review :)

Do you miss Light Yagami, everyone's favorite villainous megalomaniac character from Death Note? Sure you do. Well, miss no more, because I'm glad to tell you that Ajin features one of the best, most intelligently written villains since Light or Lelouch. Yes, the 3D animation is divisive (personally, it didn't bother me), but the casting is spot-on and the writing is simply fantastic. The main and supporting characters are all likeable and interesting, and play well their part in the story. However, once the story really starts moving, the villain completely steals the show.

If you are longing for some quality Seinen anime, give Ajin a ... try, you won't regret it.

A warning, though: Ajin is a slow starter. Stick with it and it will definitely grow on you.

Ajin is a good choice for you if you're pretty interested in the possible moral dilemma's behind immortality, as long as you don't mind and can tolerate anime CGI.

Because the thing that turns off people most from it's the fact that it's CGI. And I think I can see why. I don't know if it's a common problem in CGI'd anime, but in Ajin, the normal scenes, basically where there isn't any action and there's just the characters casually moving around and whatever the animation looks like it moves like 3 frames a minute, to quote a friend, which kills any chance for the animation ... to look fluid in any of those scenarios. However the animation does have some moments where it does pick up, specifically action bits, because there's movement and the frames aren't mandatory. The only two excuses I can find for the animation being framefucked are these: A) The lightning effects and shadows take a toll on-engine which may lag it. B) The transition to the "ideal" frame rate doesn't translate well. In engine the frame rate probably was far higher but due to the fact the frame rate used in anime on average is 24 frames per second, they lowered it to fit that quota.

Because the CGI choice makes sense for Ajin. I wasn't sold on why it would be a good idea but the way the IBM's are animated looks pretty good and the world does look quite well. What I'm trying to get at that the CGI doesn't look bad because the animators couldn't do a good job. As an example of good animation in the series I'd say you could look at the ending of the series which actually looks quite well as an example. (Which is also not CGI)

I'm basically trying to say that the complaints aren't necesarily only due to style of animation but also the animation doesn't look bad because there wasn't any effort put into it.

But all of this is no excuse for the series looking bad if the series does look bad for you. As I've said, it looks like it moves on 3 frames a minute and nothing does really change that. You get used to it after a while.

What I wanna talk about is the adaptation of the source material being followed with a couple of logic gaps in the series. I'll use some early episodes minor spoilers which shouldn't ruin the experience for you but it does tell you how the course of actions envelop so you might want to avoid this if you don't know the plot of the first episode, although I will try to not give it completely away. I'm saying this primarily for those that read the manga and are interested in the adaptation. So okay, there's these two characters that escape on a motorcycle and head out somewhere and one of them is chased by the police and known in the entire country by face. In the manga, the fugitive wears a cyclist helmet, while the driver wears none. Also the fugitive has some clean clothes on. In the anime? The fugitive has his clothes bloody and torn and while the fugitive does wear that cyclist helmet I have mentioned, guess what the owner of the bike does wear? A motorbike helmet. If you haven't seen a motorbike helmet ever it covers your entire head entirely, there's no chance anyone would recognize you by face. In the manga it looks like two teenagers running away, scared and having no idea what to do. In the anime it looks like two goddamn morons having no idea what they're doing and can't use a little bit of logic. Which is rather important since one of the character's personality is supposed to be that he's a logical thinker detached of other people. And in the first few episodes he looks like a complete idiot.

Anyway, there's many more logic gaps in the series, which either weren't as apparent in the manga or at all there. As an example that is non-spoilery, I'll just give you a minor but broad example. Say you're immortal and your clothes are bloody and torn. Toss them away, don't continue wearing them while you'd easily arouse suspicion. There are also some minor changes from the source material made but they're mostly made to fit the narrative and it's generally pretty faithful and most changes are for the story to make sense or to fit animation. Still most changes in the series, be they cosmetic or for the sake of the story, can be traced to some sort of problem more often than not.

Which makes it the story far harder to take in without rolling your eyes at certain points.

The story's central theme is morality which I have to say it does do a good job on that, (considering the source material) the series providing a cause for the seemingly amoral or poor behavior of someone and their take on it while trying to show their side. Although I have to say most characters don't have a lot of depth and their personality is generally really limited their actions are usually explained by their background and motivation and the series deals a lot with "does the goal excuse the means". They have a purpose and they're representated in that scope. It's often done ok, but given that I don't really remember the source material well enough to make a comparison of which one does a better job on this, I don't know if the character representation has more depth in the manga. But the series does still regardless do a good job with displaying morality.

Other than that, the only things I also have to mention about the series that it does have a solid OST, with a very good selection of themes to set a very good and fitting tone for the series and that the fighting scenes do look good. I'm glad to have seen a variant on screen and the fights do hold up despite the atrocious frame rate chosen for this series, as well as the tactical nature of them still being represented quite well, despite what I have had said about logic gaps previously. I also have watched the english dub over the japanese one because I wanted to make the argument in case it's not as bad as rumored that if you're interested in the premise and you think of CGI as the bane of anime, if the series was done as well as I'd hoped I could've suggested you to watch it dubbed and try not to think of it as an anime to try and avoid some prejudice, but that didn't happen, but I'll the dub some credit that it was better than the average anime dub and the voice actors did sound somewhat decently, even if the character voices were somewhat similar to one another.

You probably won't enjoy this series if you really hate CGI, you do get used to it at one point but the frame rate still will probably bother you & if you don't enjoy the occasional logic gaps, in the source material they're not there or not as noticeable. (or justified) The only thing I can say is try to not judge the source material based on the direction its taken and try giving it a chance if the theme of it does interest you, but keep in mind that the odds of tackling these problems lower by a lot if you choose reading the manga instead. Overall, I managed to enjoy Ajin, despite thinking it's a poor adaptation, but there's very little people I can actually recommend it on its own, let alone over the source material.

Awfully mediocre, forgettable and full of holes.


What appears to be a great premise and plot quickly turns into a drivel directed and written by sugar-rush dazzled 10-year olds.

[story]
The plot lines tend to start up interesting but lose any sort of progress or meaning just after 1 episode - it's as if the creators were working on something else, weren't happy with the product and cut the whole thing up into this Frankenstein of a monster.

[presentation]
While the 3D animation looks weird and jank at some points at others it looks surprisingly well. On rare cases in managed to capture the ... indifference of citizens the show is aiming to portray.

[enjoyment]
Overall I found the first few episodes to be quite intriguing, while the rest was boring, bland and pointless. I wavered through the remaining episodes to get some answers regarding the plot line just for it to end on a semi-cliffhanger for season 2.
What a waste.