The world was once threatened by a “devil” who bears a hundred pair of metal arms, which only exacerbated the strife and distrust between the people who have either one pair of arms or multiple pairs of them at the start of this manga. We follow an unusual one, Ashidaka, who, along with his friend Geji, live outside a nearby city as no one trusts anyone with multiple arms. But one massive centipede destroying said city later, Ashidaka no longer can sit idly by — he wants to stop it from wreaking havoc elsewhere, so alongside Geji, they attempt to end its reign of terror.
The problem? As soon as they go on their venture, they begin to learn more about the state of the world and centipedes, and also a resistance group that wants to kill the centipedes as well. That’s when how the resistance group wants to destroy the centipedes and what might happen if they can’t comply is where Ashidaka runs into a new issue!
Clashing ideals and the art are the strongest things that stick out after reading ASHIDAKA — The Iron Hero’s first 8 chapters. The story is your typical one, where oppression and discrimination exist in a world that’s trying to overcome the centipedes. These obviously aren’t typical ones — they’re essentially mechanized droids that feature ones taller and sinister enough to be called demons or devils. When one ends up wrecking a city, it doesn’t leave much behind. It takes powerful warriors in order to beat them.
At first glance Ashidaka doesn’t seem like he could be a warrior — but that’s because he’s able to dismantle mechanical parts and construct them in a way that can suit his benefits. One way he was able to do that is using enough parts to create a moving ride. But in other ways, his dismantling also can mess with his arms, so all it takes is his ideals and desire to not see anyone die — he doesn’t want anyone to experience what he did in seeing his mom killed by a centipede for example — that keeps him going.
However, those ideals become challenged when he runs into a resistance group. They want to do the same thing he does, and that is destroy the centipedes. However their methods — using parts they need and discarding the rest, having people sacrifice their lives (even if they volunteered), and more — conflicts with Ashidaka’s, and this is one thing that was engaging, even if the resolution to this was expected. That said, we have to see how that resolution ultimately plays out.
The art is the other thing that Sumiyoshi really nails here. It does feel a bit confusing in the early chapters, but soon seems to smooth itself out a bit to where the flow of battle is understandable and great to look at. It helps that all of the designs are dynamic. We can see a crazy looking creation with a bunch of arms and a whale of a evil centipede droid about to wreck havoc on a number of people and building. It’s a clear standout which, for me at least, makes it worth reading.
But yes, many questions abound in this manga. It starts with including who Ashidaka really is since, as the main character, there’s more to his abilities that we don’t know and even he doesn’t know. There’s also a group of heroes that were said to come in conflict with a demon large enough to swallow a city whole, and a couple of the characters’ motivations in the resistance group that need to be explored more. There’s a lot to uncover in this world, so we’ll have to see if it will get explored in any meaningful way. But so far, it’s off to a solid start.