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There are spoilers in this review.

The first three episodes were great! And then everything went downhill from there.

I never read the book this is based on but as the story went on I’m not quite sure what the writers were going for.

The strange middle arc at the “temple” suddenly throwing supernatural elements into what was a disaster story didn’t make any sense. I can see what they were trying to do and the person who had scientific data on what was going on was somehow located there so it was necessary to visit that place but... everything else didn’t make sense. I thought ... there was a Midsommar scenario going on the way it was progressing.

Then this final arc of trying to get off land and onto a boat and then finally drifting at sea once separated from everyone wasn’t realistic. The situation was somewhat real but the reactions by the characters were not. Let’s just have a boat with your mom flip over and then you’re stuck on a raft but you have no reaction to that at all??? I would be crying that my mom died or something. She’s not dead yet but I don’t know that. At that point I was so disassociated from the characters due to their reactions (or lack thereof) that the rest of the series fell flat. I couldn’t take anything else seriously.

One bonus was this random rap battle which was the only enjoyable thing in the last 3-4 episodes.

But between random supernatural shrines, a girl that lets a cut on her leg go untreated for the entire series to the point of amputation, and a random secret underground cavern with some mysterious data that merely says Japan will rise again one day... I’m done.

Watched the whole thing and the first 3 episodes hooked me. Unfortunately, nothing good came after that.

The most unforgiving thing is the characters. The first 3 episodes had decent character development and then afterwards everything else just went unexplained.

Lastly, half way through I thought the animation company switched with another. From episode 6 on it was like a completely different company. Proportions and facial expressions were all out of whack.

This series could have been great but because of some serious flaws, pacing issues, and lack of character development this series is meh. It’s okay but I could’ve spent that time watching something more enjoyable.

I picked Ajin up perchance one day because I needed something to read while I was at the doctor’s office and boy did I have something to read! Ajin far exceeded my expectations. I am completely enthralled and wrapped in the story. If you like cat and mouse type of stories like Death Note then this is for you. I honestly think this gets compared to Death Note so much for the simple fact that you get the same “ooohh” and “ahhhh” moments when a twist appears and is then explained. Overall, this series is phenomenal and I can’t wait for the next chapter to ... be released!

I'm not one to write super long reviews or go into much detail so I will just mention what my main problem is with the manga series as a whole. My one problem is that filler story arcs, that you would typically see written into an anime adaptation of a manga series, are specifically written into the plot of the manga. I don't understand why Yuki Tabata has made this decision. Maybe it's to give him more time to flesh out his own thoughts but regardless of the reasoning I find it frustrating to be reading the manga and then all of a sudden we're ... going to have a dating chapter or a trip to a hot spring.

While there are some elements built into these "filler but not filler" arcs that move the story along it seems very cheap to use these tropes within the plot of the manga itself. I've seen reviews of certain episodes of the Black Clover anime adaption that reference it being "a filler episode" only to turn around and tell them it's actually not filler and the entire scene was really in the manga to begin with.

It's for this reason that I give the manga, overall, a 7/10. It's good but since this manga isn't supposed to be in the slice-of-life genre I don't expect to see mundane scenarios written directly into the plot. Save that stuff for the anime and please don't pad the story-line of the manga.

Edit: As of chapter 172, I still rate this a 7/10 but for a different reason than mentioned above. There is very little to no padding going forward after chapter 100 or so. With that said, the reason why I keep this a 7/10 is because of the art design. Without spoiling anything there’s a certain arc that kicks off around chapter 120 that is non-stop action/mayhem. While the story is exhilarating, it is very hard to follow the action i.e. can’t tell who hit who and can’t tell which person is speaking. It’s minor but was enough of an irk for me to get frustrated while reading. All in all though, the way the pacing is going right now I would 100% check this series out.