Inuyashiki

TL;DR with a brief, spoiler free comment on the ending: the initial premise is very solid and gripping, the art is alright, the characters are unappealing except for one, the pacing is somewhat grueling at times and the ending genuinely made me feel like this whole affair was a waste of my time. Read this series only if you deeply enjoyed Gantz for whatever reason, or if you're curious to find out why I hated the ending as much as I did.

As for the review itself:
I initially decided to pick up this series upon seeing some out of context panels floating around on the Internet. The art style looked vaguely similar to one of my not-so-favorite manga, Gantz. And as it turned out, they were indeed made by the same author, Hiroya Oku. I was willing to overlook his past transgressions and give him another chance with this story. It started out quite good, with an original premise that I hadn't really seen before, some decent art (compared to the early days of Gantz, at least) and one very unconventional protagonist, both visually and in the context of other manga that I have read.

Story: 8
The plot has a great hook, that of a gentle but dying old man and a psychotic teenager being accidentally killed by aliens, only to be recreated by the aliens as super powerful machines with godlike powers. A showdown between these two characters will obviously happen at some point since their ideals are completely opposite from one another, and it really shows as almost every chapter focuses on fleshing out these two characters as they continue living their day-to-day lives and attempt to cope with the changes made to their bodies in their own ways, using their new powers for both good and evil things in accordance to their own respective morality. It's a very dualistic set-up, kinda like Jonathan and Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Speaking of which, there's some slight body-horror in this work, like a character opening up their body like you would do with a computer case only to reveal the complex machinery that's inside it, with nothing human or even organic remaining. The idea of what makes someone ''human'' came up in my mind a lot as I read this manga. Overall, pretty interesting concept that I've no problem with at all.

Art: 6
I'm not a very huge fan of Hiroya Oku, truth be told. Without getting into too much detail, I find his style of drawing to be very bland and inorganic, since he relies a lot on his assistants creating 3D models for him to trace over with a pen in order to create a scene. Characters often looked very rigid and samey-looking in Gantz because of this. And I was happy, for a while, when I realized his art had improved since Gantz. Characters have way more variety in their facial expressions, there's a lot more motion going on a lot of times and it generally looks pretty appealing, with a nice coat of realism in a lot of places. I'm giving the art a 6 because some panels look very similar to others for no reason, and could be positioned more appropriately to create a better flow and a less repetitive reading experience. Some assets aren't ''drawn over'' either, being left as their original 3D models, like airplanes and certain objects in the environment, for instance. Things like these looked particularly ugly and jarring since they obviously aren't 2D objects like the rest of the things on the page. I've seen this sort of ''2D mixed with 3D'' technique applied before, especially in Asano Inio's works like Oyasumi Punpun, and seeing it being done so poorly here only makes Oku seem more like an unskilled artist to me.

Characters: 5
The plot had me deeply invested in the titular character, Inuyashiki. I couldn't recall reading any other manga that featured such a relatable character, that of an old family-man who has one foot in the grave and whose family isn't very fond of him because of his frail nature. He had me interested in the plot until some cracks started showing in the character department; some characters behaving in rather jarring ways that felt unnatural, which broke my immersion at times. That's one of my main issues with this manga, the characters suck, safe for Inu. There's barely any progression going on for them.

One very early example of this that I can think of are the aliens that accidentally kill Inuyashiki and a nearby youth called Shishigami in the beginning of the story by crash landing on Earth with their spaceship. Immediately upon realizing they killed two earthlings, they begin to swear and curse each other out like teenagers in a VERY uncharacteristic manner (maybe a creepier portrayal would've been more effective) and proceed to revive the two men using alien technology, turning them into two incredibly powerful machines with godlike powers. It just so happens that Inuyashiki is a very kind person who intends to use his new powers to help humanity, while the young Shishigami happens to be the edgiest, most brutal psychopath on the planet.

Although Inuyashi felt relatable and grounded, like someone that could really exist, Shishigami just doesn't. He's a cold-blooded, cruel monster who kills other people for pleasure with his powers and uses those he doesn't kill for his own personal gain. But at the same time he's also a loving son who cares deeply about his mother and would do anything for her happiness... These two contradicting elements just don't add up, but I'll admit they probably could've worked if Shishigami had been written better as a character, like Guts from Berserk, who can simultaneously be portrayed as a murderous demon and a caring, protective person on the inside, with both traits pertaining perfectly to his character. The rest of the cast is quite forgettable. Overall, Inu is the only one worth paying any attention to.

Enjoyment: 5
Started off strong. Weakened in the middle part. Turned into complete disgust by the time the final chapters rolled out. Never seen a story go south this quickly in terms of enjoyment. It had some pretty whacky moments of intense escalation that raised my eyebrows, but it's all ruined by how the story ultimately ends.

Overall: 5
Only read if you've enjoyed Gantz, any of Oku's other works, or if all the negative things I said in this review don't sound all that bad to you. Just remember to enjoy yourself. Cuz by the time I finished this, I wasn't enjoying myself anymore.

this could be considered as the most hilarious/unique manga of all time.
imagine with me.........when you become an adult, your life is boring, your family doesn't like you, your wife is ugly....and to top it of you still have only 3 months to life because of a stomach cancer....but one day you wake up and you find out that you became a machine ( jetpack - invincible - your life is not in danger anymore....)...yeah i don't know what you would do in a case like this, but this manga manages to answer this stupid fantasy question:
Inu Yashiki is an 50 years old but looks like an old geezer, he already have backache, he have a wife, too kids,and passing with the same situation i mentioned before. of course he is the MC for this story. after realizing that he's life is at the border in the same night he is already killed in a crash landing of aliens (you probably didn't expect that). next moring, he wakes up not realising he's already dead, but soon after the accident he discovers that he was rebuilded by those aliens and now he became a machine.
here is a little idea about how strong he got.....you can say he is far more stronger than the terminator ^^.
so how will his life change now that he is a machine?
ok then, the arts here are the kind of realistic and suited for everyone arts. the characters are not that beautiful.. actually they get really ugly sometimes, so it's clear that the manga here tries to approach he's drawing to reality. i personally like this kind of style since it does a great job at emulating human facial.
charcters:
this is where the manga really shines, while the drawing try to approach the reality from one side, the characters do the same from another side. you got your main protagonist geezer who is very emotional hate violence and does his best to erase it.
the normal reaction.....or should i say, the real reaction of his kids to their old father, it almost brings me to tears in the 2 first chapters.....wait right now you're thinking about whether there is an antagonist with the same power or not...well yes there is one. Hiroshi Shishigami is high schooler with the same superpower became a serial killer rather than been a hero like our MC.
this is not a comedy manga but still there are some scenes that don't give you a choice other than laughing so hard especially those double pages scenes where an old men is beating up a other people, a gang , or even yakuza!

overall i enjoyed reading Inu Yashiki, it was a quick read since there's only 29 chapter and still on going but hey you don't see a manag with an old man beating up people with a super machine fist right ?
story: 8
art: 9
characters: 9
enjoyment: 9
aaaand an overall of 9/10 year! definitely recommended to everyone for a change of pace :)

Explaining the appeal of Inuyashiki, taken from my instagram:

Inuyashiki is a manga from the mangaka behind Gantz and is important as it shows that Oku (the mangaka) has the capability to create not one, but two fantastic works of fiction. He took some of the best and often underused elements from Gantz and put a lot more focus on them. This gives Inuyashiki its own identity despite coming after the massive success that was Gantz.

Unlike Gantz, Inuyashiki is a story that focuses more or less exclusively on the two main characters and those who they interact with. There are still the occasional side stories that Oku has grown so accustomed to implementing into his core narrative, but for the most part Inuyashiki feels more personal. Perhaps the best thing about Inuyashiki is the two main characters, more specifically their extremely contrasting personalities. On one hand, there is a caring old man who desperately wants to be be loved by his family who have grown cold towards him. And on the other hand is a student who, despite being popular at school, cares for no one but his childhood friend and would do anything to protect him. Upon receiving power, both of these characters have polar opposite reactions. The old man uses his for good, attempting to help anyone in need, whereas the student uses his to murder entire families in their homes. These two characters are the personifications of good and evil. It is this character dynamic that drives the plot forwards and keeps you engaged. The two very different ideologies that these characters posses lead to some great conflict.
As for the art, as you may have expected from Oku, it is absolutely brilliant. The art in Inuyashiki is even able to surpass Gantz in some aspects, this is mainly due to the more advanced technology that Oku now has at his disposal. Similarly to Gantz, the art is very realistic and helps to ground the story in reality.

Inuyashiki was clearly made to be more of a character study, which I think worked well, considering Oku seems to have already exhausted every possible idea when it comes to a large scale narrative in Gantz. There is a decent anime adaptation of Inuyashiki but I would still suggest you read the manga over watching the anime
Score: 9/10

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.

The thing about this manga is that it started out pretty interesting.

We have Inuyashiki, a man who hasn't aged as well as you'd hoped. Burdened by the responsibility of being the main breadwinner of the family, a wife who is no longer affectionate with him, a daughter who introduces him as her ''grandpa'' because she's ashamed of how he looks and a son who harbors resentment towards his father because he's being bullied at school (i.e. bullies take his lunch money and pick on him because he doesn’t have enough of it. Though his father is unaware of what his son is dealing with), has left this family man an awkward, shivering and borderline anxious mess. But despite how unfavorable his family treats him, he still loves them very much.

One day, Inuyashiki is diagnosed with stomach cancer and whatever light he still had in his life, quickly went out once he realized he wouldn't be able to be there for his family anymore. Naturally, he had to tell his family about his dire situation, but their continued blatant disregard kept Inuyashiki from sharing the news; too afraid to have confirmed that they wouldn't care whether he lived or died. In tears, Inuyashiki ran away from home and that's where our story picks up pace.

Caught in an explosion from an alien invasion together with the charming young high schooler, Shishigama, Inuyashiki's and Shishigama's human bodies are destroyed. The aliens, realizing that they had just killed two people and might have a war on their hands if anyone found out, tried to fix their mistakes by putting them back together. But without any human flesh left, they were forced to transform them into machines.

Inuyashiki decides to use his new found abilities for the greater good. Shishigama decides to use his powers for evil. You might think this would end up in an interesting clash between a unconventional old superhero and a charming young villain, while Inuyashiki attempts to also retain his humanity and live up to be the husband and father his family might love. And perhaps we might also get to learn about these suspicious aliens that suddenly showed up on earth.

But you're only half right. That's what the story was going for. Most of the story is dedicated to showing us the good things Inuyashiki has done and the bad things Shishigama has done. And don't get me wrong, that was pretty interesting to read about. We get to see how saving people gives meaning to Inuyashiki’s life, and with the old guy being treated pretty unfairly at home, you can’t help but feel for him and smile when you see how fulfilling his life has become. On the other hand, you get to see Shishigama’s warped and downright psychopathic tendencies; killing for the heck of it, and yet he still loves his mother and later on a high school girl. But what had seemed like a solid story line, quickly changed course. We were almost supposed to feel sorry for Shishigama because everyone found out that he had gone on a crazy killing spree, simply because his mother ended up taking her own life after she found out that her son was a mass murderer. He became an outcast and wandered around, running from the police and not doing anything worth mentioning. When he fell in love with the high school girl, I was left to wonder what Shishigama’s deal was. Why did he like killing people, but was he able to fall in love so quickly at the same time? What drove him exactly, what was the reasoning behind his actions? Sometimes you’d see him cry in grief over losing his mother, be a good and kind friend to one of his closest friends and treat the girl he likes with love—and all of that was genuine. And yet, he could also indiscriminately murder hundreds of people—and for what? I didn’t understand the balance. I could never grasp how both of those opposing feelings could live side by side inside of him without any reasoning. What exactly drove Shishigama? We never find out.

The clash between Inuyashiki and Shishigama was anti-climactic too. It was wrapped up quickly and Shishigama was once more left to wander the world, and finally decided to save the planet alongside Inuyashiki, because the girl he loved and his good friend were still there.

Which brings me to another point. The way this story ended.

Donald Trump—yes, you read that right, Donald motherfucking Trump—shows up nearing the end of the story, calling Shishigama the greatest terrorist ever. And the next time Trump shows up, he’s talking about how a meteorite is about to fall on the earth and wipe out the entire civilization so now everyone is free to rape, steal and kill whoever they want (don’t get me wrong, Trump is crazy as hell and I don't like him, but was that really necessary to put inside this story?).

And yes, you read that right. Donald Trump called for the purge.

I’m confused as well.

So I thought, hey, maybe that part was put in there to show us how quickly people change when all rules are stripped from them? Will this turn into a philosophical question? With the veil of standards and morals stripped away, are people actually that warped inside? Leaving you to wonder whether Shishigama was really that crazy compared to the rest of the human population.

But none of that was ever explained. Again. Seriously. Inuyashiki and Shishigama end up saving the day in the way every tragic hero does (and apparently in Shishigama’s case, unexplained evil guy who does something good for once?) and the story ends. Everyone just goes back to their daily lives in the span of about 5 chapters nearing the end. We don’t get to find out anything about the aliens, we don’t get to understand Shishigama, we don’t get to see Trump ranting about Shishigama on his twitter, but hey, at least Inuyashiki’s family ended up giving him the love and respect he had always deserved... except for the rest of humanity. From being known as a godlike superhero with videos of him healing people everywhere, people sure forgot about Inuyashiki quickly.

I have to give props to the art, though. It was very detailed. Very beautifully done. Though it seems opinions vary on this matter. I personally enjoyed how realistic it looked and the details that had been put in the background scenes. Well, to each their own, I suppose. But all in all, what started off interesting and had a good plot line, wasn’t executed very well and ended as though the author had ran out of ideas.

I love this and totally recommend it. I heard about the anime coming soon and the story interested me so much, i read it. The story, the character, everything is so unique from the usual. I mean the MC is an old man. That's pretty unusual. The first few pages were boring cuz it was about a sweety old man and his family who doesn't seem to like him. Btw this is the first manga i completed. I've watched over 300 anime, but this my first manga and i love it. Got me totally hocked. Give it an 8. I was mostly satisfied with the ending.

SUMMARY: The story is about Inuyashiki,an old man in his 50 who was living pretty normally. He works as a salary man and tried his best to provide for his family. One day, depressed, he sleep in the park and wakes up as something not human. An alien ship crashed on earth and kills him. They then reconstruct him as a machine. What will Inuyahiki do? Will this change his life?

SPOILERS: I wish if they gave us more info about the aliens. I wanna read the daughter's manga. it seems so interesting. if anyone knows such a manga tell me about it. Why did inuyahiki have to die? After all the good he's done. It's quite sad. :(

This manga...is something else.

I was drawn into it entirely by the cover and the synopsis, but I was expecting something like a slice of life where an old man becomes young again and gets a second chance to achieve a happier life with a family who actually cares for him. Instead, I got something quite unexpected.

You know that concept where a senior protagonist is presented in an environment with a bunch of thuggish, unruly teenagers and the work sort of presents as if modern days is getting more dangerous and reckless? Imagine if a mangaka gets a hold of that idea and you'll get Inuyashiki.

In this manga, our protagonist, Ichirou, gets killed accidentally and rebuilt into a metal body. He looks exactly the same, but is now, well, a robot and has all the perks that comes with that. What would you do in his situation? Because he decided to become the Japanese robocop.

His environment is FULL of unruly and thuggish teenagers who goes around seemingly attacking adult men. Inuyashiki appears just in time to save them and punishes the young evil-doers. However, he has a nemesis with the same capabilities who is committing crime. The nemesis is, of course, a teenager and it is up to our hero to save the good people of Japan from the unruly teenager! Can he do it?

How is the story, though?

It is genuinely appealing. For one, there is a lot of humor, but it is the kind of humor that comes from the sheer absurdity of the situation. You'd see Ichirou taking his shirt off in the park in order to use his jetpacks, punch the lights out of some reckless hoodlums that is twice his size, and use the video recorder in his head to ruin some kids trying to murder a homeless guy.

That doesn't end it either. At times, things that are happening are so bizarre (or perhaps daring is a better word?) that you're left wide-eyed wondering if you're actually seeing this. Here's an example: In a typical battle manga, how would the author pump up a new villain to be someone strong? Something along the lines of have him beat a known powerful character and have other characters talk about how strong he is, right?

Want to know how the author of Inuyashiki, Hiroya Oku, does it? Well, I won't reveal it, but I'll say this: try not to gag.

Moving on, though, another great part of what makes the manga really good is that it's genuinely heart-warming. Ichirou is the kind of 'down-on-his-luck' person you can really get behind to wish him a second chance. The way he bumbles about trying to figure our his new powers and trying to use it to help people simply to feel as if he did something wonderful in his life really makes one smile at times and adds greatly to his 'ordinary person' persona.

Another thing to note is that the art is something to be appreciated. It inclines towards the 'realistic' to begin with, but at times, it will intersect drawn images with real life shots, which lends a strange feeling when reading the manga. I suppose it's to help make the manga even more realistic (and do it inexpensively). Does it work, however? To be honest, it doesn't blend in well as it's always immediately noticeable, but it doesn't become distracting either so it's not necessarily a bad thing.

Overall, though, I rate Inuyashiki as a great read and highly recommend it. I've stumbled onto it by luck and I'm thankful to be able to read it.

What? That's just my review for this manga lmao, it starts out with a good premise, but after a few more chapters you just want it to calm down and slow the pace down. Like dude, they introduce new characters and the author obviously wants you to care about them but the pace is too f**cken fast for anyone to give a flying sh*t, and the part that had me intrigue the most was about the aliens and how they crashed down to Earth and killed our two main protagonists and made them into basically weapons.... well guess what, the only time you'll ever hear about them is at the end and we still don't know why they did what they did.... The art can be good but it's nothing special, and my enjoyment is an all time meh, the only thing that kept me reading was to see why they became super weapons but like I said above, that never got explained why. Maybe I missed something but it doesn't matter, I don't care too much to ever read this again lol.

In conclusion, you're not going to miss much at all by skipping out on this but at the same time you might get one of the best reads in your life time but I 99.9% doubt that, so maybe at the end of day you'll get the same type of boring enjoyment I got out of this manga.

~Shaney

Writing a review for Inuyashiki is hard because my feelings for the story have warped so much since the days I first began reading it a few years ago. It starts out so strong and ends up spiraling out of control midway focusing too much on what I essentially consider "despair porn" chapters and moments.

What drew me into this series was the idea of an elderly protagonist. It's rare in manga to see something like this, as many writers tend to gravitate towards highschool students to try and appeal to their target demographic. Instead what we got was a fascinating view of the life of a humble, modest man nearing the end of his life, and how he copes with protecting his family and dealing with the idea of having new alien robotic abilities. Through his actions we see him question what it means to be truly human or alive. Coming to the aid of innocent people in order to feel any sense of life and to convince himself that even after the accident, he still has a human conscience.

Another character in Inuyashiki begins to undo the niceties of our protagonist in chapters I previously described as just being despair porn. The story begins to focus less on what it means to be alive and the introspective of personal morality, and more about how many innocent people can we show being brutally murdered to try and nail in the fact this guy is a bad dude. I wont mention the characters name due to spoilers but it's frustrating to see an actually interesting character being overshadowed by another generic highschool student who listened to one too many linkin park albums.

The artist Hiroya Oku has a very distinct and expressive art style to his work. However a lot of his backgrounds tend to look like photographs he just filtered to look drawn. Apparently this is a style unique to him and some are okay with it. I however thought at times it looked very jarring. It also took a lot of the enjoyment out of double panel pages.

Overall I would give this a soft recommendation. If you're like me desperately trying to filter your way through the piles of generic cookie cutter manga then I wont lie and say this is what you've been looking for. But the chapters that revolved around Inuyashiki were always a good read. It's a shame this manga ended on such a dull predictable note, but there's definitely some chapters I'd consider a 9/10 near the start.

Inuyashiki is a Sci-Fi seinen manga by Oku Hiroya published in Evening magazine.
The manga tells a story of Ichirou Inuyashiki,a 52 years old grandpa who has a hard life - he has a badly paid job, his family ignores him and he's been diagnosed with cancer. One night Inuyashiki is killed in a alien crash and becomes a machine. He realizes he in not human anymore and wants to help other people as much as possible.
This may sound like a bad superhero story but the further you are into it the darker it gets. The art is amazing. The best part about this manga are the characters. They are normal and feel real. Not only the characters but the whole story feels like it could happen in real world.
This is my first "review" and it probably sounds bad, but if you are wondering if you should read this manga, definitely go for it. Overall, i rate it 9/10.

Note: Regardless of the score I give it, I rate this manga somewhere between a 7 and 8.

Many people that are familiar with Hiroya Oku will have come across him through Gantz. With the level of fame that Gantz received and it's fairly long lasting reputation, one can't help but compare his other works to it. The scale of the manga was impressive and, though I know there are many contrasting opinions on the work, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I mention Gantz here, as I feel that Inuyashiki bears many similarities to it.

Short summary of start:

The MC-Inuyashiki Ichirou-is a middle aged man, though, due to an illness, appearances would lead you to think otherwise. He his unhappy with his life, which is uneventful except for the constant arguing of his family. Following discovering he has cancer and only a short time to live, alongside his inability to tell his family who he feels would not care, he goes out alone to a park to sit and cry. While there, a spaceship crashes ontop of himself and one other person, killing them both. The aliens on board, in an attempt to fix their mistake, rebuild the two as machines that simply appear human before leaving again. The two retain their personalities, but are granted abilities as a result of their new bodies. Inuyashiki, who has always felt helpless, decides to use his newfound powers for good, treating the ill and saving lives while the other, a highschool boy, becomes conceited, believing himself above others and, simply because he can, decides to use his abilities to kill others and make himself feel "alive".

Thoughts etc.:

I think the idea behind the story is a very interesting one: what do people do when suddenly granted huge amounts of power.
Our two MCs are polar opposites and therefore destined to clash due to their differing opinions. The first part of the story is very well done, there are some great chapters where we see the two figuring out how to use their powers (both unaware of the others' existence) and how they change as a result of them. The tension is handled very well and when they finally meet there seems like great promise for the story.

It just feels like it accelerates too fast.

One thing I think you can never fault with Oku's work, is the art. The attention to detail is astonishing at times, faces are very expressive, characters are both threatening and sensitive where they need to be and, though the backgrounds can often be obviously photographed to speed up drawing times, it creates a great sense of realism that brings the story new life. The mechanisms of the bodies I think are the most impressive feature of this manga's artwork, the creativity and detail makes each page very interesting to read. The character designs in Inuyashiki are much more realistically drawn than the average manga; this can either work to your taste or not. It's something I've seen criticism over, but personally I think it aids in the storytelling.

There is an odd sense of the ending of this manga being both very good, but somehow rushed at the same time. I think the way it ends itself, was well thought out, though certain details of it seem like bizarre additions. I won't go into too much detail so as to avoid spoilers, but when threatened with a world ending catastrophe, both Inuyashiki and the boy end up using their powers together to help divert it consequently killing both of them. This comes only a few chapters after they had been fighting a battle that threatened the whole of Japan, a battle that obviously displayed the antagonist's lack of concern for the populace. This is what makes it, to me feel both rushed and conclusive. If there had been some event that brought some more middle ground between the two MC's the ending would have flowed more smoothly.

To summarise I do think it is worth a read. There are some definitely great moments that will stick in my memory and I did like it overall. I just feel that it didn't reach its full potential.