Tokyo Ghoul V. 3

 

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Tokyo Ghoul volume 3 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.

Spoilers alert

Picking up where volume 2 left off, Kaneki and Touka are training to fight. Touka then convinces him to accompany her to the Commission of Counter Ghoul’s office to give false statements regarding Hidami’s whereabouts while also learning what they know about her. This is also where some of the physical differences between ghouls and humans is explained, specifically a protein in ghouls called RC which can easily be detected. This is also the point where it’s emphasized how doves see ghouls. “Ghouls aren’t human. They are a threat to us. They deserve to be exterminated.” This is also where we learn Kaneki’s RC levels are human, thus he can’t be detected as a ghoul unless he reveals himself.

We also get to see how the doves work together and how Amon sees the world. “The world is wrong” sums up his outlook. He believes himself to be a defender of the innocent, especially children who are “robbed of their loved ones” by ghouls. This is the world he sees and is determined to change.

Meanwhile, Touka and Kaneki plan on killing the dove’s responsible for the death of Hinami’s mother, but their plans are changed when she runs away upon learning of the death of one of the investigators. This leads to a feverish search for Hinami that ends in a battle between Touka and Mado and a second battle between Amon and Kaneki. 

It’s this battle that really sets Kaneki’s character in stone. He recognizes that both sides have been harmed and both are allowed to be angry but there’s no end to that cycle. So, as the only half human half ghoul, he’s in a position to show the world that both are wrong. He fights to buy Touka time, even biting Amon to give himself the strength to fight, but after disarming the dove, he tells Amon to run before he loses control. This causes Amon to begin questioning why a ghoul might cry over a fallen enemy and why they’d beg a dove “don’t turn me into a murderer.” 

Hinami and Touka discover the weapons used by the doves are actually kakugan stolen from slain ghouls. Mado is using the kakugan of Hinami’s mother and father to fight Touka. This causes Hinami to reveal her own kakugan—the protective shield of her mother and the defensive tail of her father. She refuses to finish him off because she doesn’t want any revenge. Mado attempts to kill her from behind and Touka kills him instead. The ghouls are safe for another day but Amon now is seeking revenge for his slaughtered mentor. 

This volume finishes with some backstory of Amon and Mado. We see how a young Amon is being trained by the eccentric Mado who saves him from a ghoul. This starts a close friendship between the two which ends with another dove superior telling Amon how proud Mado was of him.

This volume sets up more with the doves and gives a little more of their perspective, though it is still from Kaneki’s perspective. Amon is developed; he’s not a mindless monster, he sees a problem with the world and the people suffering because of it and is becoming a great investigator in order to stop it. In any other manga, he would be the hero.

Mado is more of the mad scientist, heartless monster-hunting-down-kids-type character however we also learn he was married and has suffered at the hands of ghouls. He is old and bitter and has convinced himself his work is for the greater good.

The very end also introduces more investigators, including Shinohara who is a high ranking investigator. We’re starting to get a structure behind the doves.

This volume does a good job of creating sympathy on both sides—at least understanding of the different motivations—and showing how some characters have accepted their roles in the world and how some characters don’t want to be what the world expects them to be.

The visuals are great as always. This is one of the most beautiful covers. There is more action in this volume and it is done well; movement looks smooth and everything has weight. Blows appear to have impact and consequences. The death of Mado is swift but gruesome. It’s nice that they don’t hide the deaths off panel and they don’t obscure it. A character is injured and/or dies and there is no possibility otherwise.

This volume focuses most on the question of justice, corruption of the world, and who deserves to be in it. Do the people who eat humans to survive deserve to be killed? Do the men who hunt young children because of something they can’t control deserve death? When a cycle of revenge has lasted as long as the feud between ghouls and humans has, how is right and  wrong determined?

I will say I was a bit confused why Hinami would run to the place that Touka and Kaneki told the doves she was hiding out at. After rereading that part, I know it’s because Mado put her mother’s hand there in the hopes of luring her out. It’s not really explained by anyone and readers are left to figure it out on their own which isn’t hard, but it wasn’t obvious at first so it took a closer examination than what I was doing while caught up in the search for Hinami. 

Again, this is one of my favorite manga series. I like seeing Amon really believe he’s doing good. I like seeing Kaneki discovering his place with his new powers. And I like seeing Hinami refuse to become a monster even after Mado’s turned both of her parents into weapons and used them on her and her friends.  By this point, I would hope you are enjoying the series and its steady growth as both sides are explored.