Tokyo Ghoul Manga | Volumes 1-8 Discussion!

 STOP! This post contains spoilers for Tokyo Ghoul by Ishida Sui. If you have not read up until volume 8-ish or to chapter 81 of the manga, I suggest you stop reading this once you get past the summary. Or if you're okay with spoilers, then keep treading buddy.

So if you haven't seen my Summer Anime 2014 First Impressions post then I strongly encourage you to do so (because I spent a long time working on it xD.) You will notice that I didn't mention watching Tokyo Ghoul in that post. I didn't really want to watch it because I noticed one of the genres was horror and like, the first few seconds was this psychotic woman brutally tearing a person apart. Yeah. Lovely.

The hype just finally won me over and I decided to sit and watch the whole episode before I judged anything. And HOLY COW. I LOVED IT. I didn't like how they put Rize (as I later found out her name) in the beginning with that brutal murder but that's something I now see is the epitome of the whole series (look at the manga; pretty gruesome.)
If you know me well, or know anything about me at all, you would know that I don't usually do horror/gore stuff. I prefer to avoid it if I can, UNLESS, there's just too good of a storyline, too well-developed characters that I just couldn't pass it up. Eden no Ori was one manga like this that I let into the exception (it also had ecchi, another genre I don't read much of) as well as Tokyo Ghoul.

As of the publishing of this post, there are only 3 episodes of the Tokyo Ghoul anime. Granted, it took fewer episodes than that to make me pick up the manga of other animes but DANG. It was just so interesting. And I am SO GLAD I decided to pick up the manga because I thought it was even better than the first few episodes I watched. I love it SO SO MUCH.
Although the scanlated manga only has about 8 volumes out and is still on-going (in Japan, there are 12 volumes out SO JEALOUS), I wanted to make a short review so I can get my feelings about this out. I NEED to tell the world how fantastic Tokyo Ghoul is.

What is Tokyo Ghoul, you ask? 

Great question! I posted a summary of it in my words on Anime Amino, which is a great anime/manga social media app, so I'll just re-type it here because I'm lazy:

Types of Kagune

 "Tokyo Ghoul is an amazing horror adventure about a modern society with two distinct species living together: Ghouls and Humans. Ghouls are far superior to humans in terms of physical ability and endurance. They consume humans for survival, and each Ghoul has a kagune, a weapon made from their body, to aid them in hunting down their prey. Ghouls are pretty much sophisticated zombies if you think about it that way. 

We follow our protagonist, Kaneki Ken, a normal human, who winds up falling for a gorgeous but psycho female Ghoul, Rize. She lures Kaneki in with her charms, and then attacks him. Miraculously enough, he is saved at the last second by a steel pillar that comes crashing down ontop of Rize. Kaneki is heavily injured and rushed to the hospital where he discovers that Rize's organs where transplanted into him! This operation caused Kaneki to turn into a half-breed; his taste now caters to humans, but his soul and mind are very much human. After this incident, he is recruited in Anteiku, a restaurant for humans with Ghoul waiters/waitresses, by Yoshimura, the manager. There, Yoshimura helps Kaneki with his new predicament and life as a Ghoul"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Story/Characters(also a little speculation)
So I didn't plan out what I wanted to type for this review so I'm just going to put down whatever first comes into mind. Because I'm so well-prepared.

Anteiku is the home-base of this manga. It's where we see practically all the main characters gather and talk about important stuff and some main events happen here. I think it's really interesting that they have a restaurant for humans (they also help out fellow Ghouls too), even though the the workers there are Ghouls. This establishment was nice because it showed that it was possible for Ghouls and Humans to coexist with one another, peacefully. As peacefully enough to know that the person preparing your meal actually ate your neighbor yesterday...just as a situational example.
Even though they seem like a nice community, I'm still getting mysterious vibes from Yoshimura. I don't think that he's a bad guy, but I think he's still hiding something.

Speaking of secrets and people hiding things, let's talk about Doctor Kanou. If you don't remember, he was the one that did the operation on Kaneki; transplanting Rize's lung into his body. It's been stated in the manga that Dr. Kanou may have been involved with Rize's "accidental" death and that it was deliberate and Kaneki was just bait to lure her out. I didn't really think much about the accident towards Rize's death, even though it was fairly cliche and just perfect timing, it does make sense that someone would deliberately drop the steel pillars on her. But who? If it was Dr. Kanou; did that mean he wanted to create a mass army of Rizes? Because they(not sure who) said that he might be transplanting more of Rize into other humans and turning them into halfbreeds like Kaneki. I don't know when the plot will be pursuing this but it is a very interesting idea. It hurts to picture innocent humans suddenly having this inexplicable taste for human meat; it broke my heart to see Kaneki suffer like that in the beginning. Speaking of which, is it really possible for him to survive just on those sugar cubes and coffee? Now, I'm not sure on how much the Ghouls need to eat (like every day or every other day or how long can they go without food, etc) but it's been a pretty long time since the time he got turned into a ghoul and from then, he hasn't really eaten much meat. So I'm a little concerned for him but I assume whenever he gets back injured and unconscious, Anteiku feeds him some human meat.

One of the most stunning scenes in the manga

It also seems that Rize plays a bigger part in this story than I thought she would, seeing that she died early on. Another thing I found interesting was her part in the Yakumo torture scene. OH MY GOODNESS. The torture scene. It literally shattered my heart to pieces. Why do you do this to your readers, Ishida-sensei?
Before, Rize had occasionally popped up in Kaneki's hallucinations and pictured her as a separate entity from him because, of course, he was different from the Binge-eating Ghoul. She would usually be the "evil" or the "devil-on-the-shoulder" opinion, trying to convert him over to her beliefs. During the torture scene, she further enticed Kaneki until he reached his breaking point and his hair turned all white and he was just like, "F*ck it all, I'm gonna kill this guy." He proceeds to consume Rize, figuratively, and this is a representation of how he began to embrace the fact that he was now a Ghoul, human mind or not. This was a brilliant character development scene, as much as it broke my heart.
Although, Yakumo was a freaking prick for hurting Kaneki like that, I felt sorry that he had to go through the rough torture in his past that screwed up him up today. Despite that, I don't condone retribution like this. Just because despicable humans made you go through hell and back doesn't mean you have the right to do the same to others.
And so, the memory of this scene prevails in my mind far above many others.

My collage of Uta

Now for some lightheartedness, I want to talk about some other beloved characters. My first bae in this series was Uta. Like, I didn't even see him in the anime or the manga to love him, I just saw gifs of him on tumblr and instantly fell in love. When I watched the first couple of episodes of the anime, I got a peek at his personality and ugh, I just adore him a lot. I don't even know why. He just seems like a quirky character and I'm typically drawn to those types of characters. His appearance is also very notable and stands out from the rest of the cast. For example, he doesn't hide his kakugan, which is strange, seeing as he runs a shop (for ghouls mainly but still). Maybe it's just one of the manga loopholes? Anyway, he seems like a nice guy, and I hope he gets more panel time.

Holy crap, dominating trio

Yomo. He was another character that struck my eye. He doesn't say much throughout the manga but regardless, I am very interested in him. I just adore his relationship with Uta and their backstory with each other (there really needs to be a spinoff dedicated to Yomo and Uta's past!)

In the picture on the right >, there's my two favorite characters along with Tsukiyama, who I don't really like that much. According to tumblr, he's a "trash" king, and I have to agree as well. Some people like his character, but honestly, Tsukiyama just makes me feel really uncomfortable because this guy could immediately change sides and back-stab the group (and eat Kaneki.) Regardless, he's an interesting character. The force of all three of them is bound to be overwhelming and I wish Ishida-sensei showed them in action. Also, Tsukiyama is clearly lusting for Kaneki. *wink* I can see it happening. OTP. I'm just kidding. It would only be a one-way relationship, ya know what I'm saiyan?

Badass Kaneki

Speaking of Touka; wow my transitions are on point today; she is my favorite female character of this manga and probably one of my favorites in the anime/manga world. She is very hardworking, tough, and even has physical capabilities of holding her own ground. Of course, she has her flaws but overall, I think she's a nicely shaped character. There are times where she is so earnest and lovable, it's great. But then we get to the scene where she's fighting her brother, Ayato, and wooooooo the male protagonist comes in to save the day. This manga doesn't dumb down females or make them a damsel-in-distress but for Touka; I feel that she was more helpless than helpful. Like, she would go into fights and only get half of the job done. Which, is more than enough, but it seems like she can't hold her ground with another Ghoul just by herself, even though she is the infamous "Rabbit". I'm guessing it's the side-effect of eating the food her human friend gave her, which was a sweet action but definitely not good for herself.

ANDDD the last character I want to talk about is Kaneki's bff, Hide! Hide reminds me a little of Armin from Attack on Titan, with his innocent features hiding his sharpness. I'm pretty sure he already knows that Kaneki is a ghoul, as well as maybe a few others, not sure who exactly though. Characters like Hide especially intrigue me because I would love to take a peek inside their mind and observe what they're thinking. Definitely more panel time for this bae, Ishida-sensei!

Now, one final thing I want to cover in this Story/Character part of my review, the most important arc of the manga so far, the Aogiri Arc. The plot definitely got moving after this. We start to see the beginnings of a war, not only between CCG and Ghouls but also Ghouls against Ghouls, and also Kaneki's ability awakens. Honestly, this arc was kind of a blur for me because I was just so excited throughout reading this because it was intense and action-packed that I don't remember most of what went on here. But I felt like I should mention it. xD Oh my god, I feel so bad; I am definitely re-reading this so I can give more detailed thoughts on this arc. But I felt more compassion towards CCG this arc because of the backstories of a few of them, plus Amon, oh beloved Amon. I wasn't sure if I liked Amon in the beginning, but he's definitely growing on me. I think he's going to be one of the first humans in CCG that recognize the equality of Ghouls and humans, seeing as Kaneki had made quite the impression on him.

Art/Misc.
The art is gorgeous. Not my absolute favorite style (TAKESHI OBATA 5EVER) but it is still very good. I especially like the art on the volume covers; I really dig the soft paint look. The horror/gore art is well done; and I also quite like the action scenes.

Cover of volume 9: yay new character!

Cover of volume 8

Also, the little comics at the end of volumes (or is it some chapters? not really sure) were really cute. They're  omakes and they showed alternate endings to a chapter, mostly with comic relief. I LOVED them.




Okay! Well, I went all out on this review didn't I? Doesn't really seem that mini. xD
Sorry about that, I couldn't resist. Tokyo Ghoul is such a good manga and I highly recommend it! Please check it out if you haven't! I can't wait to read more of it.

My Overall Rating (subjected to change):

 Have a great day! Happy reading manga!