Tokyo Ghoul: A dark and memorable series

Rating: 10/10

Mangaka: Sui Ishida

Synopsis: Shy Ken Kaneki is thrilled to go on a date with the beautiful Rize. But it turns out that she’s only interested in his body—eating it, that is. When a morally questionable rescue transforms him into the first half-human half-Ghoul hybrid, Ken is drawn into the dark and violent world of Ghouls, which exists alongside our own.

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“The wisdom that sleeps in the written word is overcome by the despair that lurks within”

The first 30 chapters or so I thought I had too high expectations for Tokyo ghoul because there wasn’t anything mind-blowing happening but I was wrong. The manga just one up itself each chapter especially at the end.

I felt like I was watching a movie that was adapted into a manga. The starting and ending of each chapters and the changing of panels seems familiar to that of movie scenes. Feels a bit like Jason Bourne who is try to find about the doctor turned into an assassin and for what reason he did. In the end Tokyo ghoul was an amazing series that deserves the massive popularity it’s got.

The following review contains major spoilers and this post written only by reading Tokyo Ghoul and not Tokyo Ghoul:RE.

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Story

Tokyo Ghoul in its entirety deals with a lot of intense topics. Ghouls eating people with grotesque ways and a lot of body horror, all of these things are integral to showing how brutal and twisted the world can be.

The author reveals the ugliness, unfairness and coldness of the world right from the very start. The world continues to give birth to sorrow and anger, struggling and killing one another so it’s natural that everyone is trying to justify themselves. There’s no good reason to kill someone, the act of taking away life is equally evil.

In this world everyone is fighting for survival for a glimmer of hope that will become their strength to guide them through life.

The humans feel the surviving people’s feelings, sadness and pain, their empty lies all because the ghouls murdered innocent people to fulfill their desire to eat. It’s the same for ghouls, it’s certainly true that many ghouls have brought forth a countless amount of sadness however even ghouls have feelings, that part is no different from a human. They both blame each other for corrupting the other’s world.

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t disagree with the CCG. What they’re saying and doing though it may be cruel it makes sense. If you look at from their perspective what they’re doing is right and if it were me I would’ve done the same but that “Justice” does not equal to every ghoul. Ghouls are like humans. There are both bad and good ones.

And it’s really amazing to read it in kaneki’s point of view who’s both half-human half-ghoul. He understands both points of view, how the humans feels and a how the ghouls feels. He takes it upon himself to deliver the message, to make everyone understand that it’s a dark and brutal world but everything in it is not wrong.

Usually there’s not much “torture” in action mangas, it’s pretty much borderline but in Tokyo Ghoul it takes it to the next level. Even with all that bloodshed it still has some lighthearted moments which I appreciate because it shows that even in a dark world like this there are still some moments of happiness.

Sui Ishida shows the readers both perspectives of the world, ghouls and humans. I respect that, I think in order to fully understand this manga looking at different perspectives is important.

“Life is to constantly sin, life is evil itself”

Justice

The more you read, the more you start pondering over the question “Which is Justice?” and the line between villains and heroes gets blurrier and blurrier by each chapter. It’s like the 2 sides of the same coin, the Humans and Ghouls. Each have their own different ways of dealing with the situation and finding a solution.

In Tokyo Ghoul, humans that ostracize the ghouls, and the ghouls that resent the human world for not being accepted. Two things that are regarded as two parts of the same thing. These problems may seem unrelated but they are really two sides of the same coin.

Humans want to get rid of ghouls because their safety is threatened by their existence, and ghouls retaliate because their place in society is non-existent. Both sides thus falling under a false sense of justice, while in reality just being consumed by self-righteousness.

Who is right and Who is wrong? Which is fair and Which is unfair?

What is justice?

The story itself has lot of links to the current society, about how our world is unfair in every way. The story piqued my curiosity from the beginning, at the end of every chapter I felt what would happen at the end? With each chapter my view of the world changed and prediction of the end also kept on changing. Tokyo ghoul is a story for the ages and I can’t wait to continue it in Tokyo Ghoul:RE.

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Art

Sui Ishida’s art style is easily one of my favorite in the whole medium. There’s something unsettling about Sui Ishida’s artwork. The art is not really that complicated or anything but the dull blackness of each panel and the use of screen tones is weirdly exhilarating. If the same story was used in a light and more clear artwork, I don’t think it would’ve been this big of a hit.

It’s like every time I look at the dull blackness, it’s like I’m getting pulled into a eerie world where all that seems to surround me is the raven. The inky panels also help maintain the dark atmosphere of the series. The art is consistently good and when it needs to blow away the readers, it does just that. It has some of the best art I have ever seen, and I have no complains about it.

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The fight scenes are unparalleled to none.

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Sui Ishida’s coloring is just spectacular.

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Characters

Each and every character has proper development and significance to the story, the characters have realistic personalities, and none of them are just ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Each character is well developed and continue to develop and none of them are completely innocent just like how it is in real life.

The supporting characters are also written well, and unlike a lot of other stories, they actually continue to serve a purpose after their initial introductions and they stay relevant till the end.

Ken Kaneki

He was originally a human and a normal college student until he encountered a female ghoul named Rize who was posing as a human at the time. Rize managed to lure him into an alley and tried to eat him but ended up dying when construction beams fell on top of her. Kaneki ends up in a hospital and has some of Rize’s organs transplanted into his body. This results in him absorbing some of Rize’s powers and characteristics, such as a ghoul eye, powers of regeneration, and the inability to stomach human food.

Kaneki single-handedly uplifts the whole manga into a whole new level. His character development is one of the most gratifying moments of the story, I’ve never seen a better character development in an action manga. I have a whole new post on him, so stay tuned for that.

Touka Kirishima

Touka is a ghoul successfully posing as a human and working as a waitress at a cafe which serves as a gathering place for other ghouls, as well as a food resource. She saves Kaneki’s life at one point and acts as a reluctant guide to him and his adaptation to the ghoul society. She is very serious, tough and hard-working, trying to keep their district as safe for ghouls and humans as possible.

Touka is a great character, she’s head strong and powerful which makes for a perfect partner for Kaneki. Her powers and strength are also quite great and she makes for a formidable opponent. I’m kinds sad that there was no role for Touka in the second half of the story but I hope see her more in Tokyo Ghoul:RE

Koutarou Amon

A first class police investigator who investigates Ghouls, also known as a Dove. He comes to the 20th ward with his mentor, Mado Kureo, to investigate Ghoul incidents in the area. He has a strong sense of justice, fervently believing it is the right and moral thing to do to exterminate the Ghouls. He hunts the Ghouls in order to prevent more human children from becoming orphaned like himself, and he often works after hours to achieve his goals.

My second favorite character after Kaneki. To me he is the perfect representation of human, his death at the end was more heartbreaking than seeing Kaneki because his relatability is more to me. From knowing that Justice is killing ghouls to slowly changing his perspectives. I’m still sad that we’ll never get Amon again but that’s what makes his character so amazing. Who knows maybe he might come back in Tokyo Ghoul:RE but I wish he stayed dead which makes his character more meaning.

Shuu Tsukiyama

Shuu Tsukiyama was the infamous Gourmet ghoul of the 20th ward. He was a fourth-year student studying Social Welfare at the Department of Human Sciences at Seinan Gakuin University. He comes from the extremely wealthy and influential Tsukiyama family which his father, Mirumo Tsukiyama was the head of. Tsukiyama himself became the head of his family after the Tsukiyama Family Extermination Operation. He was also a member of the Ghoul Restaurant, known as MM until he betrayed them.

Reminds me of Hisoka from HxH. He’s a great supporting character, I know he’s basically the villain but I like his personality. Maybe it’s just something that draws us to insane characters. At the end Tsukiyama is still shown to have obsession for Kaneki and the thing that he doesn’t change even after going through all that just adds to his insane personality which maybe just me makes it his character more interesting. I’m curious to see how he will turn out in Tokyo Ghoul:RE

Juuzou Suzuya

A Rank 3 Ghoul Investigator. In the past, he went by the name Rei Suzuya. He is the partner of Yukinori Shinohara. He is a young man with androgynous appearance. He has many stitches used as both first-aid and fashion. His hair is tied with a stitching string in a roman numeral 13 pattern, with large pupils that leaves an eerie and frightening impression.

The last character I want to talk about is Juuzou. Juuzou is insane, maybe somewhat on the same level as Tsukiyama. Juuzou has a childish, careless behavior, does not care for the property of others, is enthusiastic, and often very resourceful in his job. He seems to have no qualms in killing ghouls. I hate Juuzou but at the same time I also like him, he’s definitely not a good guy, he’s merciless but also you can’t hate him because of his past. He’s a crazy character but a good one.

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END

“It’s going to end suddenly just like that, those days spent so naturally will crumble in a second. It’s always in an instant when the end comes”

It’s not a perfect series but it gets a lot things right. At times I felt like maybe I had too high expectations but the last 10-20 chapters just blew me away completely. It was completely remarkable, from the breathtaking fight scenes to the unexpected deaths, Tokyo Ghoul had one of the best end to a series.

There were some questions left unanswered but I’m fairly sure that they would be answered in Tokyo Ghoul:RE. I feel like even if there was no Tokyo Ghoul:RE, it would still be an stunning end but like always everybody likes to come back for more, so I’m going to go on and read the sequel.

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I’m just going to start reading Tokyo Ghoul:RE because I have been spoiled a lot while searching for information to write this post. From start to end, I’ve been spoiled a lot so I’m just going to get on with it. Anyway Tokyo Ghoul was a manga I’ve been wanting to read for a long time and I’m happy that I’ve finally completed it. It’s a really dark series so if you’re going to get into it be careful because there is a lot of intense themes.

Comment down below what you thought of Tokyo Ghoul.

Thank you for reading.

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