Inuyashiki is the second manga I read from Hiroya Oku and my expectations were... well, not too big. But once I started with it, I remembered why I fell in love with Gantz (arguably Oku's best work). It has some of the key elements from Gantz like alien technology, the sensation of agitation while reading, identity crisis, etc., but the story acquires such a distinct concept that escapes the "it's a copy!" argument.

What I appreciate the most is the exploration of power and morals of the main characters once they realize that their lives have changed. It seems to me that this topic is also present in Gantz but is not the focus of the story. Power is introduced as the alien technology that makes up the bodies of the protagonists, which gives them superhuman abilities, and it’s the responsible of funding multiples ideas of dichotomy: the good and the evil, the young and the elder, the foolish and the wise, etc. Therefore, we have a traditional fight of good and evil, but not too spectacular. How their interests collide is not the main plot of the story, but rather the development of Shishigami Hiro as a character.

To me, Shishigami is the best of the story: an adolescent who forgets humanity as he becomes an alien killing machine but struggles to be a killer and keep his relatives safe. While this is cool and all, the story of Ichiro is not of my interest; sure, I like how he is able to save people, but the construction of his family as ungrateful and ashamed on the first chapters is forgotten by a majority of the manga,

Now, regarding my “sensation of agitation while reading”, it is a feeling that I had while reading Gantz and felt it again with Inuyashiki, apparently it is a watermark from the author. But how does this even happen? By the rapid succession of panels that do not have dialogues in them and only show movement, action, pain or fear. While I do not recall this as great panel design, I do recognize its effectivity while reading. When you are immersed in the reading you would notice this design and fly across the pages of the chapters.

The identity crisis is another topic that I liked a lot, because it explores how memory shape our identity instead of our material bodies. It might not be the greatest exposition of this topic, but I like how Oku plays with it again in this manga.

The city where the story unfolds is good but not too ground-breaking, the design it’s mostly pale. The inhabitants of the cities are your usual doses of nihilistic people that Oku employed on Gantz, you know, to make it more "realistic". They do not add much to the story, but certainly they remind you how boring would be if you started a conversation with one of them.

Inuyashiki is a good manga and a nice reading experience, it has its peaks as a science fiction manga, but it tends to be weak in its story. Shishigami Hiro is the best developed character, suppressing Ichiro’s development and goals. I love how this reminds me the time when I read Gantz, so, if you are a fan of Gantz, I encourage you to give it a chance to this one.