Title: Choujin X Vol. 12
Author: Sui Ishida
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 231
Genre: Supernatural, Battle
Publication Date: May 19, 2026
The Story
The battle within the tower continues as we rejoin Azuma taking on Bador Vlad; however, Azuma has succumbed to chaos. His consciousness is depicted inside an odd-looking dimension where a headless person is talking to him. Here, we learn the truth about Azuma and what his fate is about to be; however, outside, BB uses the last of her strength to rescue him. With Vlad finally taken down and Azuma in critical condition, Sandek needs to re-evaluate the remaining forces to determine who can still take on Zora.
Before they can even make their move, Nue, aka Batista, pays Zora a visit. He demands the mark be handed over, but Zora resists. He enacts his master plan, which is to take her on using the powers he has accumulated through his research, along with the injection of the drug he perfected. All was going according to plan until Zora pulled out a trick that he wasn’t expecting. Soon after, Sandek and the remaining troops arrive, and it’s time for the final battle…
…that is, until Tokio shocked everyone by saying he wanted to talk to Zora. After asking her a series of questions, he makes a decision, one that throws the entire operation into an uncertain future!
Characters
First off, we received a massive development on Azuma. Thanks to his consciousness having that discussion with the headless man, we learned about his true nature, his origins, and what his true purpose is. It’s a massive reveal that you’ll need to see for yourself; however, it was interesting that he was told that his fate was sealed, and somehow, he was able to defy it… for now. What will become of Azuma once he recovers remains a mystery, but it will be really interesting to see what happens when he wakes up and recalls everything that was told to him.
Tokio’s conversation with Zora was also interesting. We got a couple of new flashbacks to when Yamato Mori was founded, and learned that even through everything that Zora has done up until now, she has not renounced her original principles. She still believes in good and evil, and can clearly define which is which. She still believes that a great calamity is coming, and the one to inherit her mark will be the one she prophesied who will be able to stop it. Her prophecy contradicts the one Mado had, though, which brings up a lot of questions about who is right. Tokio believes he knows who is, but is trying to play devil’s advocate here. Zora’s decision brings a new dimension to her character… or perhaps… it reinforces something about her that was already established. Either way, I loved this development here!
Final Thoughts
It was another action-packed volume, but the fights weren’t spread out as before, as the majority of them concluded in the previous volumes. With the Vlad fight over, the volume did a great job hyping us up for the final battle with Zora. It built that big fight feeling only to serve us up a helping of misdirection. While everything seemed as if it was heading in an interesting direction, the final page gave us a nice cliffhanger that tells us that there is still some unfinished business to attend to.
What I found rather curious was that Ely stopped Sandek before the march on Zora’s chambers, talking about if they kill Zora, then everyone who inherited her mark will also die, which includes Tokio. Sandek thought it over, and they came to the conclusion that even if Zora died, as long as the mark itself survived, there would be hope… but when Tokio mentioned the fact that he would die if Zora died, Zora remained silent on the matter. That was rather peculiar. One would think that she would confirm that little fact, which might influence everyone’s decision on whether or not to kill her, but she said nothing.
I have a feeling that there’s more to this than it may seem, but before we can find out, it appears that there will be a final battle, after all… I’m just not so sure we are going to see a conclusion to it, but one thing is for certain. We know who will be the ultimate roadblock for Tokio in the future… and I have a feeling this roadblock is also the prophesied calamity that Zora spoke of, but that’s just my guess.
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media
