Manga
The manga that were hits in Japan in the 2020s.
2020S HITS
About
Best friends Tokio and Azuma do everything together, even if most of the time it feels like Tokio is just stumbling along in Azuma’s cooler, more talented footsteps. But when they’re attacked one night by a superhuman mutant called a choujin, Tokio finally has a chance to shine—by turning into a choujin himself! Being a superpowered creature isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, though. Tokio has to hide his transformation from his family and dodge a truancy charge at school, all while dealing with the increasingly odd incidents happening around town!
Character analysis
Tokio spends most of his life a step behind Azuma, his more naturally gifted best friend, in basically everything. An attack by a superhuman 'choujin' changes that abruptly, turning Tokio into one himself, but the story doesn't treat this as a clean wish fulfilled. His new power comes tangled up with real body-horror discomfort and complicated feelings about finally being exceptional at something, especially once it starts changing his relationship with the friend he always felt he was living in the shadow of.
Azuma is talented, confident, and used to being the one people notice first, with Tokio quietly tagging along. Once Tokio becomes a choujin too, that dynamic gets tested in ways neither of them expected. The story is less interested in making Azuma a villain for this and more interested in what happens to a long friendship when the power balance between two people suddenly, violently shifts.
Ely exists within the same hidden layer of society that choujin and the people who manage them occupy, the world Tokio gets pulled into the moment he's attacked. Characters introduced at this level usually carry information or authority that shapes how much the audience, and Tokio, understand about what he's actually become.
Johnny is part of the wider cast surrounding the choujin phenomenon that Tokio is thrown into, the kind of figure whose specific allegiances and goals matter more as the story's larger conspiracy comes into focus. Without a closer read of his appearances, it's hard to describe his personality with full confidence.
Kinako shares Tokio's surname, suggesting a family connection that keeps at least part of his life tied to something ordinary even as the rest of it turns into a hidden, dangerous secret. Family ties like this in a transformation story usually raise the stakes of keeping a double life hidden, since the people closest to him have the most to lose if his secret gets out.
Status evaluation
The art has a striking, unsettling visual identity, from the author of Tokyo Ghoul, with strong body-horror-adjacent design.
The psychological-action premise is tense and well-regarded, built on a sharp friendship-turned-rivalry hook.
The tone stays dark and tense overall, with minimal comedic relief.
Friendship, jealousy, and identity themes between Tokio and Azuma land with real weight.
Body-horror elements and sustained psychological tension keep this genuinely unsettling.
Transformation sequences and action violence are shown in graphic, visceral detail.
A hidden-world conspiracy around choujin adds a moderate amount to track as the story expands.
This is an ongoing series. The exact current volume count has not been confirmed against a current source and should be treated as approximate.
“Finally getting the power you always wanted turns out to be a lot more unsettling than it sounds — this one gets under your skin.”