Reviews

The tale as old as time; a Shounen Jump ax that relentlessly strikes down any work that fails to reach its standards. Most of the time, this seems to occur for an author’s first attempt, giving them experience to then try once more, often with far more success. However, the case of Ayashimon is somewhat different, as it was hardly mangaka Yuuji Kaku’s first work, also author of the well-received Hell's Paradise. And, while it showed initial hope, Ayashimon eventually found itself receiving the ax as well. As with any Jump series that ends to this fate, the question begs itself; did Ayashimon deserve this fate? Well, at least in my opinion, not in the slightest bit.

To begin, Ayashimon has one of the more interesting premises I’ve seen from a new shounen in quite some time; filled with both a wacky world and fun characters, it promised to be a good time tackling the varied and many of the titular creatures. The few instances we did get time to witness of this worldbuilding going wild were fantastical and intriguing, pulling from Japanese folklore, common phobias, and other interesting ideas to form a truly varied and crazy world that felt like it had so much more to give than what we got.

And, as mentioned, a large part of the charm in Ayashimon comes from the characters that the story follows. As a protagonist, Maruo is somehow simultaneously extremely generic yet also unbelievably different, with Urara complimenting him with her own charm and great design. These two form the backbone of the characters in this series, further complimented by the numerous supporting characters that pop up around them. All around, it’s a colorful cast full of great designs, personalities, and interesting powers to toy with, one I’m sad didn’t get more time.

And, if there was one area Ayashimon excelled in, I would say it was the fights. Maruo being a straight-up brawler doesn’t really lend itself to all that interesting of fights on its own, but the art and paneling still gave his blows a feeling of power that made it satisfying nonetheless. Further intrigue came more from his opponents and allies, the yokai who all wielded odd and interesting sets of powers. They made for pretty exciting and fun battles that were a joy to read through.

Unfortunately, Ayashimon’s main flaw comes in part due to its cancellation. Simply cutting off the story at 25 chapters means that any promise the story and characters held for continual development or growth is regretfully stilted as the story has to be either rushed for an unearned finale or cut off short entirely; and it is this latter one that Ayashimon chooses to do. For what it had, it was fine enough, but only really made me wish there was more to be had.

In all, Ayashimon was certainly not a perfect series, and its early cancellation left much to be desired, but with a compelling main cast, interesting world and plot along with killer action, I believe there was definitely the makings of something greater here, something we’ll unfortunately never get the chance to see. Yet for what we still got…I think it was quite good.

Grade - B