7- Khiem D. : The Dapper, Deranged, Dastardly, Devilish, Satō From Ajin

 The Dapper, Deranged, Dastardly, Devilish, Satō From Ajin

Before we get acquainted with the gentlemen on the left I would like to point out that this was technically a show on Netflix therefore through a loophole I technically am writing about a character from a show. This is by no means an advert for you to go watch the show as it is a stain on what the manga offers so as usual read the manga, it’s great I promise. Satō or Hat (Yes very creative I know) is a man from Ajin, who possesses the power to reform through these ghosts called IBMs making him essentially immortal as everytime he dies, he is reset back to the point his body was when he gained the power. He is the main antagonist of the entire series and poses a great threat due to his inventive usage of his power like when being tranquilized he would cut off his own arm or straight up kill himself to negate the effects of the tranq. Along with that he has an elite military background, an ambiguous amount of black market assets, and the aforementioned IBM, which is essentially a second separate entity that is essentially bulletproof and able to act on its own. With this it makes him a powerful adversary to compete with our protagonists and some very well choreographed fight scenes.

I would be lying if I told you he was an extremely deep villain with a layered backstory but simply put, he is just an agent of chaos. Everything he does is to satiate his innate boredom as an immortal which is an interesting dynamic as every time he seems to have some action that contradicts this, the audience is left wondering if he is truly genuine at that moment or manipulating the game, as he puts it. He observes the world as a game in itself as an immortal, he essentially has a save file so to speak with no actual repercussions. This allows him to keep evolving, finding new ways to use his powers and essentially min-max his way through many situations. From the aforementioned resetting suicide to having his regeneration disintegrate objects, the concepts keep building onto itself making it a very entertaining read. If I had to put it simply he is like the Joker (before the sad clown Joker movie version), only really serving as an obstacle but man is he an entertaining obstacle.

Once again if you haven’t sensed a theme here, I really recommend reading this manga as it is severely underrated mostly due to it’s terrible adaptation. Words cannot describe my hatred for the adaptation as it is on Berserk levels of terrible adaptations. The art in the manga was so immaculately drawn that the sheer sin that most of the adaptation is mostly CGI hurts my soul. The way the author choreographed fights is reason enough, yet it boasts stunning visuals, a whole host of unique ideas (most of which comes from the gentleman above), and overall a pretty gripping action drama story. 

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