Tokyo Ghoul V. 1

 

Update 9/28/18: I am now an affiliate with Z Publishing House. I do receive a small commision for each purchase through this link (http://www.zpublishinghouse.com?rfsn=1831564.e6264) if anyone is interested in anthologies of emerging writers.

Tokyo Ghoul volume 1 was written and illustrated by  Sui Ishida in 2011 and published by Shueisha. This story is a dark fantasy rated OT for older teens for gore and serious psychological elements. Trigger warnings ranging from abuse to depression to torture—be careful going into this series.

Tokyo Ghoul volume one begins the story of ordinary college freshman, Kaneki, wanting to ask out a girl he’s seen frequenting a local coffee shop. While the date is going well, readers are informed of the dark creatures of this version of Tokyo—creatures called ghouls who can only survive by feeding on human flesh-- and a particularly nasty ghoul who is never satisfied and continue to gorge on humans which is not normal for ghouls. After an accident, Kaneki wakes up in the hospital, his date is dead, and her organs were used in a transplant to save his life. He is now half ghoul—unable to eat human food anymore and slowly going insane from hunger yet not consciously able to bring himself to attack and eat another person—and must try to find his place in this new world without being killed by another ghoul, captured or killed by the special ghoul-hunting unit of the police force known as doves, or murdering his best friend.

While the first volume is a little clunky in its set up, it does attempt to make a comparison to Kafka’s Metamorphosis which is a short story about a young man who is turned into an insect. Tokyo Ghoul applies this concept to a real world—though still fantastical—scenario and lets the characters run with it. 

You can read this as a dark fantasy or you can look at it as a question of what does it mean to be human? What is humanity and morals when it comes to survival? There are oppressed groups and police brutality on one side and protecting the innocent and survival of another group on the other. Depending on how deep you want to read, you can enjoy this series over and over again.

 Kaneki is a shy and kind-hearted character with little confidence in himself but he’s still resourceful, doing his best to figure out his new situation and protect his friends, but he does whine and cry quite a bit. Hide—Kaneki’s best friend—is more outgoing and is depicted as a goof-ball character, though he does prove himself to be caring and observant.  Touka is the typical female badass but she is also the ghoul character who spends the most time with Kaneki, forcing him to learn how to survive while criticizing him for his humanity.

Visually this series is amazing. The covers are absolutely gorgeous. The internal artwork is a great balance of light and dark panels with clean lines, interesting angles, and not overly complicated or busy. Granted there isn’t a lot of fighting in this first volume so that may change, but it does make it easy to read. Every character is distinct and emotion is expertly depicted to show both personality and character dynamics. 

As I said, the opening is a bit clunky. I blame this on attempting to set up such a strong comparison to Kafka so quickly instead of letting it build on its own. There also seems to be two beginnings that confuses the plot at first but once you get into the rest of the story, it starts to get easier and the metaphor is slipped into the background instead of shoved in your face. This is a darker story so characters tend to be more serious and any jokes are short and between characters. Symbolism is incredibly important, so keep an eye out for this; references to stories, animals, and change are key to reading further into this series.

Now I will confess, I’ve read most of this series already and it’s one of my favorites. I love seeing Kaneki develop and grow as a character while still trying to hold onto his morals and humanity. I like seeing how both humans and ghouls think of each other as animals and being unwilling to give any ground because of the abuse each side has received in the past. Everyone has some kind of personal stake in this story. That being said, Kaneki’s whining and crying do get a bit old after a while but I know that this changes as the story progresses so I forgive it.

Tokyo Ghoul is an incredibly popular series and with good reason. If you can forgive the opening and the slow build and discoveries, it is well worth reading. Again, this series does deal with some more mature themes so read with caution.