Tokyo Ghoul

At this point Tokyo Ghoul has became a giant in the anime and manga community, for years it was impossible to ignore. Unfortunately the anime adaptation it got is nowhere near as good as the manga.

Story: 8/10 The story of Tokyo Ghoul isn't exactly unique, however it is still enjoyable regardless. While reading this I was constantly trying to guess what would happen next. Its good about making you wonder where character will end up when this all ends.

Art: 9/10 This manga was a lot of fun for me, the art is always interesting and I just love how expressive the pages are. Sui Ishida is easily one of my favourite artists of all time, even on his tight schedule he was able to draw better than almost all his contemporaries, its a shame we most likely won't see him produce another manga for a very long time.

Characters: 7/10 This characters in Tokyo Ghoul are a mixed bag. Some are layered and interesting while others are generic and cookie cutter. Overall I love most the characters, and the character design of this series is simply fantastic. One thing I can be sure of is you'll me you forget the main cast.

Enjoyment: 10/10 The fight scenes are fantastic, the abilities of Ghouls and the weapons of the investigators are amazingly well drawn and creative. Which makes for some incredible fights and tense moments. All I can say is it was indeed quite a ride. This series has great re-readability.

Flaws: It has somewhat of a weak start, and ends of a HUGE cliffhanger. Some of Kaneki's character development may seem a bit forced. The characters can sometimes look a bit abstract during fights, this is up to opinion and I personally love it but I can see why some people wouldn't.

Overall: 9/10 Don't let the lackluster anime adaptation trick you, I assure you will have a great time with this series. Don't forget there is a sequel series named Tokyo Ghoul: RE

I'll start off by saying that Tokyo Ghoul is about ADULTS. As a college student who has loved anime and manga since my pre-teens, growing up and finding relatable anime is basically impossible. The mature themes (and no, not the dirty ones) and subtle complexities are a breath of fresh air in a high-school-age-character dominated market. But anyway.

This. Is a BEAUTIFUL piece of work. Ishida crafted this series like literature. You could re-read this more than twice and always find new details, things that you had completely missed, and so much symbolism to make any reading nerd squeal. The characters are fleshed out, multi-faceted beings that develop realistically-for a fantasy manga-and endearingly. Good and evil are allowed to exist in the same space in Tokyo Ghoul-like in real life- and the plot moves the story without overwhelming the characters or theme. This story requires you to do a lot of thinking and is very engaging. There are some tacky details-like the suitcases and the dove's outfits haha, but they really don't take away from the story.

But please remember this is a tragedy. This is one sad, depressing work.
But there is a sequel!

And its-I daresay-even better.
His art has improved tremendously-the beginning of TG was a bit rough as far as art goes-as well as his storytelling ability.
I can't say much more or I'd give it away! Haha.
But basically if you watched the anime and though "this is cool/alright I guess but it feels kinda flat" then I would HIGHLY suggest reading the manga. So much more happens and it won't disappoint.
The anime is basically the sparknotes version with a poop (and incorrect) ending.

There is no way to properly convey my affection for this series, but I PROMISE you won't be bored, and if you're unlucky like me, you'll be hooked.

Ive never been this emerced in a manga before. Firstly I will run through the pros of this work. Tokyo ghoul has some interesting charecters that support the main one Kaneki. I wont name them as there are many due to the show always introducing new ones. However I will say many of them are that interesting that they should have individual manga on them. The manga shows specific things about their pasts making me want to know more. Also I love the manga's vast lore aswell. I love how all the ghouls have danger ranking and cool codenames, the different types of kagune etc. However there are a few cons on this manga. Firstly the art of this show felt cheap or odd as a better way to explain it, however near the 30s to 40 chapters it began to improve and by the 50th chapter it looked great. Also many people tend to hate this work because of its cliffhanger ending. Personaly I think the ending suited the show and if you continue onto Tokyo ghouls sequel Tokyo ghou.re youll be satisfyied with the ending anyway. In the end I believe its worth youre time, and that you should see the anime adapation after reading this.

A really well written and well structured tragedy, with perhaps the best female characters in any manga I've read. Kaneki is a relatable and likeable, yet very flawed, MC, and he works as a deconstruction of a heroic sacrificial character. Amon, Suzuya, and Touka also have fantastic arcs, and the paralleling and foiling is top-notch. The story is disturbing and dark, but the darkness makes the beauty in it shine all the brighter. The last arc is absolutely gut-wrenching, and very cathartic despite being tragic.

The art steadily improves, and the writing quality never drops. The only thing that holds it back is that it very much feels like an incomplete story--which it's supposed to, as :re continues the saga.

I remember reading it a few years ago and the storyline just didnt appeal to me. But recently I tried picking it up again seeing as the sequel was finishing too. I was blown away by the nuances and the storylines and backstory of all the characters. This manga to me felt much better than the sequel in a way that this one really focuses on Kaneki and his struggles to try and fit into the ghoul world and having to adapt and learn. This story felt more personal compared to RE and really immerse you with the story and world building. 10/10 would recommend and read it again.

0/10, A fails by concept series, three notable and sinking problems with Tokyo Ghoul:

- Problem 1 - the titular fails by concept; I’m not going to feel sorry for the poor little ghouls and their hardships (hardships such as not being able to eat people). I am certainly not going to feel sorry for the poor little ghouls in comparison to their human, and other ghoul victims.
Tokyo ghoul focuses on the ghoul perspective, tries and fails to make them sympathetic characters. The fact of the matter is in this case one could make the case for hunting them down. There are binge eating ghouls who lead people way to eat them alive, ghoul restaurants where people are kidnapped and eaten for sport, a terrorist organisation who wants to wholesale slaughter humans. Anyone could be a murderous ghoul out to kill you horribly; they need human flesh to survive. It’s tough to make a, “oh humans can be just as bad as ghouls, and we need to get along” when you have rather large problems like psychopathic, flesh eating ghouls, and issues including the ones below:
The glaring problem with ghouls is compounded by the fact that the supposed nice ghouls, like Touka are unintentionally just as bad as the sadistic ghouls. It’s hard to sympathise with Touka when (spoiler) she was fully aware that Kaneki was being led away to what would have been his brutal death by Rize (had Rize succeeded, Touka would have also seen a troubled Hide looking for his missing friend, she’d know full well what occurred, but likely remain aloof, a major problem: an apathy to the extreme suffering and distress of others). Main character Touka’s likability goes completely out the window when she kills random people, out of revenge no less. Not to mention she’s annoying (“oh look at me in my mysterious rabbit mask” vomit) physically and emotionally abusive to others, not attractive, and the second rate dog food option to the prize cut steak of Rize.
Similarly Ayato knew what Yamori would do to Kaneki (working with Yamori he knew he liked to torture underlings, to death, for fun, and said he was a “torture loving pervert”). That was a huge echo chamber they were in when Yamori was going to town on Kaneki’s digits, Ayato must have heard his screams, and yet the torture didn’t even seem to register with this sociopathic mess that were supposed to feel for. Both Touka and Ayato’s indifference makes them the worse villains of all. They weren’t psychopathic, they could recognise the pain in others (Ayato’s troubled reaction when Kaneki was being beaten demonstrated this) but the rather blasé attitude to it all quite frankly puts them at the top of the hit list, and who would miss such boring, uninspired characters?
A fundamental tipping point is that this series is like trying to garner support for unfeeling, sadistic monsters/unrepentant terrorists, it just does not work. There’s no excuse, their choices define them, and the wrong choices they (indeed most of the ghouls, considering their two faced natures) embrace can’t be overlooked or dismissed, that the lovely ghouls are content with watching people walk away knowing full well the outcome. And when it comes right down to it they’re just not interesting and shouldn’t be front and center, potential likability is thrown out the window with the over focus on them.
In an utter failure of an attempt to make the viewer feel sorry for the ghouls, we are apparently supposed to bleed our hearts out with grief for Tsukiyama, who only wants to be near Kaneki to eat him (wink wink, nudge nudge, will discuss this later) and falls into a depression when Kaneki disappears because he can no longer cannibalize him, the poor ghouls and their hardships, it really tugs on the heart strings as well, where are the violins.
Another notable example, Shinohara is in a freaking COMA! But were supposed to bawl because poor little Touka’s café has burnt down, hoo boy the tears are flowing. That horrible scenarios are befalling the humans but were supposed to feel bad for the living the dream life ghouls is fantastically surreal (not in a good way) and quite frankly inappropriate; humans are dying left right and centre but the ghouls can’t continue to murder them, where’s the ghoul pity party?!
It also transpires that some of Kaneki’s supposed ghoul friends enjoyed his misfortunes, the deceptive nature of ghouls, that they enjoy violence does not make them the same as humans. Do not buy the premise that humans can be just as bad, even the nicest ghouls are a problem like with Touka. Sure, people may commit just as bad actions, and view the ghouls in a certain light but the notion that were supposed to root for the ghouls is misguided, it must be promptly rejected, as both courses make for a failed concept.
It was a novel experience to show a perspective from the villain’s point of view, unfortunately for them, there’s a real reason why they’re being hunted, and a real failure of a manga to not notice this, especially when there were more interesting scenarios to explore, and, unforgivably, more interesting characters to be focal points:

- Problem 2 - Deliberately ignores the interesting characters (Amon, Hide, Rize, guy Mado, and Itori to some extent) and instead focuses on the boring uninspired characters (Touka, Hinami, Uta… basically most of the ghouls, definitely everyone working at the cafe) and Kaneki is thrown into the latter group to interact with, and share a focus on fantastically dull plot lines.
Amon’s a powerful fighter with his head switched on, I wanted to see him fight more, use his detective skills more, instead on the rare occasion he’s given page time were treated to some truly bizarre out of place, almost an office sitcom with his work colleagues. It was wacky, his storyline was just in a different universe and so out of place in this manga. It done nothing to contrast it, indeed it’s evident the author had a different story idea and thought, “sure I’ll just plonk it in Tokyo Ghoul” the badly mismatched Frankenstein limb of a side plot sticking out of this manga is hard to miss…
Guy Mado was a fascinating character, the ultimate foil arguably for the series itself and what it wanted (but failed) to explore. His prejudices and how people can be as bad as ghouls was a crux of the series and clearly what Tokyo Ghoul thought of doing, but evidently didn’t know how to. Mado is interesting, quirky, would have been brilliant to see how he played out throughout the series, instead the focus shifted onto his daughter, who is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Akira is unusually bland and, again in Tokyo Ghoul fashion was designed to be as monotonous as possible. A true linchpin character, complete with the backbone of the issues to work through, and who easily could have helped carry the entire manga, was instead replaced by some engineered bimbo (author: “the guy can be a great character, the woman can be the opposite, who needs gender equality?!”) presumably because they were desperate for a rom com sitcom, and a clumsy love interest for Amon. A huge waste of potential and a fine salt to pour into the wounds with this lousy replacement, who has zero chemistry, with anyone if you look, and a mediocre love interest to boot.
Hide was insightful and should have definitely been capitalised for his full potential, rather than going from a great best friend to plot device (note: Hide does appear to be a part of the end story, he’ll appear right at the finish to play whatever cards he has, if any, it’s Tokyo Ghoul, don’t hold your breath for anything dramatic or purposeful). It was an unacceptable waste of a great character right of the bat, he was kept firmly out of the picture (by the authors hand, in real life a friend like him would have brought Kaneki away from the ghouls, all of whom wish him bad, and to a better place, say the detectives institution where he works, ‘Ajin’ would later pick up the ball where Tokyo Ghoul dropped it here, succeed where it failed). Hide appears so sporadically he may as well have not even been included, the author should have brought him in back to back with Kaneki, he can keep his secrets but remain an interesting character for the series to pivot round, not that you should care mind, it’s easy to detach yourself from Tokyo Ghoul, the author burns his own bridges.
Rize was the girl Kaneki liked, but the creator was like “oh I see you’ve noticed a good character, psyche! The story’s focusing on the abysmal ones! What’s that? Kaneki you like the gorgeous, clever Rize? Too bad, here’s car crash face, Meg from family guy, emotionally and physical abusive, doesn’t warrant a second glance Touka!” It would have been excellent Rize taking over Touka’s part, Kaneki interacting with the ghoul who played such a pivotal part in his life would have been a unique path to explore (and fits in with the central theme of Kaneki developing Stockholm syndrome and liking the ghouls who try and kill him) more than reducing her to a figment of his imagination, but you want great plotlines? Too bad, here comes a huge Emo fest!
In regards to likability, the café ghouls are notoriously pointless, from forget name here to what’s her name who I can’t even remember, heck even hipster white haired ghoul Yomo should theoretically have been memorable, but, whom was I talking about again? Weirdly, even a sweet little girl like Hinami draws no positive emotive response, even with her experiences the plot and her character was carried out so awkwardly, anyone could watch rather casually without feeling emotionally affected by them. It’s because the whole time the impression was who gives a what to some featureless, shouldn’t even be focused on pointless girl, give the interesting characters page time already. There is a detachment between the reader and these drawings on paper/certainly not characters that doesn’t invite us to empathize with them. Hinami is one of many flags showing Tokyo Ghoul demonstrating it’s uncanny ability to create shallow, uninteresting characters with zero likability. Guess that’s impressive, quite hard to actually pull that off. It was points like these that made you realise, “great there’s other stuff going on but they’re focusing on this?” Major let down.
Including the rest of the characters, the entire cast is bland. Simply drab, cut and paste, insert generic bores here, twins, bin brothers, masked people, to spare the imagination of thinking of original characters, three of the same people, nice going Tokyo ghoul. Don’t forget the generic police people, how can you even make something so plain?! Tokyo ghoul shows us how, aside from Kaneki, (Spoiler in re all his development is retconned because … you that’s why) none have any development, indeed even though many are given an Emo feel so theoretically they should stand out, they’re still largely forgettable, no idea how that works but go figure. That stands as another fundamental failure, to supposedly construct a character building manga with backgrounds for all, and fail at it to such an extent; and when it is done right it’s kind of awkward because it's a huge who cares moment, it’s uncomfortable to acknowledge. That all the while we were focusing on the garbage characters and plots whilst there were better ones wanting to be seen is also inexcusable. To spite the reader further, and this is where Tokyo Ghoul really sinks is by the time you’re waiting for the good stuff to happen, the manga’s already taken up and filled with tripe like this. Put Tokyo Ghoul back where you found it and wash your hands.

- Problem 3 - homophobic undertones: I wonder what were supposed to infer from the many villains being homosexual stereotypes? And the ghoul scene and lifestyle, it’s very subtle you see you might have to squint just to notice. I can’t imagine what the author is trying to tell us? Editor to writer of Tokyo Ghoul “er, hey fella, the whole Nishio, followed by Tsukiyama, and then Nico and Yamori… well… dude, that’s just not discreet!”
In a fun game of “guess my personal views” the author went to great lengths to portray the ghouls in a certain manner, and ghoul society, just what is the message? Well, funny you should ask, Tokyo ghoul could very easily be read by anyone as an out dated, extremist paranoid vendetta on LGBT people, let old frazzled brain, homophobe explain how good Tokyo Ghoul is! “Those yucky ghouls/homosexuals are monsters out to prey on people, they abuse one another and view each other as pieces of meat to consume with no emotion between them.” Very subtle indeed, please continue creator of Tokyo Ghoul. “Well see this guy called Kaneki caught the gay disease and was turned into a ghoul/gay person, but wait! He caught AIDS/the ghoul condition through a transplant, AIDS can also be transmitted through blood transfusions; it isn’t just the gay disease dammit! He doesn’t have bad AIDS/ghoul condition so it’s Ok to sympathise with him!” The author does try, be nice and patient with him, but oh wait; he’s just getting started.
After contracting the condition, Tokyo Ghoul jumps straight in with commentary on the ‘struggles’ with same sex desire. Meet Nishio, who grapples with his same sex attraction/ghoul affliction (his hunger for forbidden human flesh/guys – he was bringing both Kaneki and Hide back to his place when he made his move when they were on their own, (“get it?”) But later manages to fight the urges by trying to be with a girl friend. Kaneki also gets thrown into ghoul/gay society, and he lives a miserable existence with those low life deviants (the implied message of course) “but wait! He managed to get out of the ghoul/gay scene and was happily married to a woman near the end (in Re, the exact same manga just with even worse characters, somehow) hooray! Meanwhile those yucky gays/ghouls die because that’s the outcome for them in these situations, all the gays have to die or be redeemed you see. Good thing I can use this softy-softy parable to show how awful those queerosexuals are!” Said the author giggling with glee as his wrote Tokyo Ghoul, his allegory of ‘LBGT society’ and the people within it.
Characters like Tsukiyama and especially Nico were designed with the express intention of having the audience (the guy version of Twilight fans, Emo basement dwellers who go wild over super mysterious rabbit babe Touka) go “yuck look at the disgusting gays/ghouls!” (Didn’t fall for it, have an IQ over 0) And Tsukiyama just desires to be around Kaneki to eat him, even inviting him over where innocent Kaneki showered before hand, for who knows what, all because those ghouls/gays don’t view other people as friends, no they look like people but sinisterly in their monster minds they just see pieces of meat to tear apart and consume (who hurt the author). On that note Yamori is the predatory gay/ghoul who stabs Kaneki from behind with his kagune (“DO YOU GET IT?!”) and the manga hints at rape, not just of Kaneki but other ghouls, but of course that’s what those yucky homosexuals do. The author also has him call Nico the equivalent of the other ‘F’ word, anything to depict ghouls/gays as horrible as possible. Give a hug to the author and tell him everything’s going to be alright, seriously.
Not to be outdone, Tokyo Ghoul is also patronising to non-LGBT people, what does it want people to say? “Look! Naki does feel emotion for Yamori! Nico performed a kind act to make up for a brutal one, look Mom look! Tokyo Ghoul teaches us that those yucky homosexuals/ghouls can feel feelings as well! Wow isn’t Tokyo Ghoul vastly ahead of its time?! It’s teaching us that those ghouls/gays are like people too! Who would have thought!” Yes, yes run along with your brand new worldview, don’t forget those blacks have feelings too, now!
Surprisingly, the author has failed to turn me against LGBT people; I would rather be friends with different people than racists, friends with men and woman rather than misandrists/misogynists, and friends with LGBT people and keep broken homophobes at arms length, and out of the picture. LBGT people should not be held in contempt, people who choose to be prejudiced towards them should be mocked and ridiculed, and if they won’t want society to hold them in contempt then they should stop their prejudiced behaviour, or keep doing it, why should the thoughts of Twilight or Tokyo Ghouls fans hold any weight?

Tokyo Ghoul will be remembered as the product of a terrified, needs a hug author who made an entire manga, with the express premise focused heavily on depicting LBGT people as awfully as possible. Most themes, indeed every arc has homosexuality at the very forefront. It is now understandable why the author forgot about the few good points he had, his mind was solely fixated on this objective. Right away catching the gay disease and having his life ruined, Kaneki met other ghouls/’gays’ and they were all awful, horrible beings, he helps redeem Nishio by joining him with a girl friend, but then it’s full steam ahead with every last homosexual arc villain, from Tsukiyama to Yamori and Nico. It all comes to a close with Kaneki being stabbed through the head to wipe his memory, the only way to make people forget about how horrible those homosexuals are.
Now Tokyo Ghoul can be correctly identified not just as a travesty of a series in terms of story, characters and the direction it takes, but one that relied on crude stereotypes to demonize an already maligned minority group. We can look at it at this very moment the same way we look back at old racist cartoons and think really, this is the sperm that won? The people who made stuff like this? Make sure Ku Klux clan members don’t turn you against people of colour, don’t soak up anti-semantic material demonising Jewish people, and utterly reject the garbage message Tokyo Ghoul tries to impose upon us concerning LGBT people. It will surely make the authors blood boil to learn that we’ve seen through his diseased, prejudice riddled brain, that though this manga is trying to condition us to loathe LGBT people and see them in an extremely negative light, it has failed.

- And for the rest: - Story: 0/10 - even disregarding these terminal problems, Tokyo Ghoul is, to put it plainly: boring. Understand it was custom made for the Emo “my mom made me take out the trash, my life is such a black abyss” crowd and do feel dirty for looking at it, just have to say it how it is, thanks for understanding. It is a rule of thumb that plot wise Tokyo Ghoul has to take the most banal course of action. Want some action packed thriller with Kaneki, Hide, Amon, a changed Rize fighting problem ghouls? Too bad, Touka, Nishio and Hinami are far more remarkable, clearly. Maybe some cool suspense with Amon, Mado and Hide’s detective skills solving the problems? No, no, no have to focus on the homosexual allegory, like have everything centered around homosexuality. A supportive Elite team of the best of the best? No, cannot have team spirit, everyone has to be on their own and surrounded by people, sorry ‘people’ who want to hurt and kill you.
Opted for the Emo gutter route, which is drab, especially in comparison to what could and should have been. Indeed with the focus on the right characters the series could still explore the gore and violence and would work better with good stuff to contrast it, rather than everyone breaks up and goes to their own tunnels to dwell in, and everything in the mire, it's less effective that way. Still, fans that relish gobbling up liquid garbage can enjoy their cat faeces, magnum opus of a shockingly bad conception of a manga story wise.

- Characters: negative points/10 - see above, all bland and generic, the focus on the dire ones has backfired spectacularly. Third-rate bit characters are given prominent positions to show their terrible features and take part in an unremarkable plot. It is unfortunate, but the series went to great lengths to take this direction. You want Rize? Too bad here’s Touka, Hide seems interesting? Have café person number 1 instead. Amon and guy Mado seem cool? Nonsense you can have Ayato, who is afflicted with an unusually potent case of whiny brat syndrome. By the way here’s troubled Juuzou, who can replace Kaneki as a main character if the reader gets bored with him later, and unlike Kaneki, Juuzou is more like a naughty pet to be trained, thrilling right?
It was actually quite cruel of Tokyo Ghoul to give us a glimpse of remarkable characters, both human and ghoul but instead veer off to give the time to the especially substandard ones. Whether it’s Yomo (a real shame because he looks cool and can certainly be vital to the series, if the manga would let him) Uta (the quintessential should be memorable based on looks but personality and featurelessness dooms him) insert named but move on from person here, with no quirks of note. For an extra slap across the face (the non sexy type) little to no development over the course of an entire Seinen manga. (Then the author stuck one too many crayons up his nose and retconned their development in the sequel, because remember plot, character and concept wise, this series needs to be as big a chronic, shoddy laughable failure as possible, and in that sense it succeeds with flying colours, well done!.

- Art: Whatever/10 - not even interested in rating it, manga as a whole has the notable ability to draw you in with the illustrations themselves, and impressively the appalling state of this manga overshadows the little that is good. Even having said that, when it comes right down to it, why rate something that doesn’t inspire you? Remarkable when something can be so dire it can usually score points if the art style is at least nice to look at. It could be the best art in the world but it would go down with the sinking ship that Tokyo Ghoul is. At any rate the style is fairly generic; it can’t keep this floater above water though artistic depictions of open sewer holes have their charms to some people I guess, enjoy.

- Summary - Tokyo Ghoul is a rare fails by concept series. The story fails, the characters fail, and the fact that it’s a front to demonize LGBT people has also failed. I get focusing on the bad things makes it different but there is a reason it doesn’t work. It’s like making a cake with man jam instead of icing, salt instead of sugar, and a choice human yeast infection instead of flour, there’s a tried and tested reason that uninspired, cliché plot lines, and mundane, irksome characters remain inadequate for anything, let alone a manga that wants to be enjoyed by something sentient.
It does have it’s niche though, it’s one of the few manga that has fully embraced the Emo/Goth/”my Mom told me to do my homework, but I said in a minute, I’m so criminally edgy” crowd. Twilight had loads of… urm, really nice fans to be polite, and Tokyo Ghoul appeals to the my chemical romance, reject crowd (speaking as a matter of fact, people rip on Twilight fans, my little pony fans, and Tokyo Ghoul fans, obviously not meant to be personally).
Tokyo Ghoul, including the later RE, is a singular brand of toilet paper that will leave an even filthier mess on you when you started, read an inspired and good manga and be better for it. If you are unlucky enough to come across a copy of Tokyo Ghoul, be a decent person and immediately flush the chain. Or dive right into the steaming pile if you feel sorry for people who are sick-makingly unlikable through their own bad actions, enjoy seeing potential good characters and story routes, but being yanked the other way and tricked into wasting time on shockingly wearisome characters, and plots, Tokyo Ghoul might just be the cistern you would want to dunk your head in, go, go, go! Just kidding, find something good and fill your mind with awesome things, you deserve good things.

Warning this review may contain spoilers.

First impressions,
So after watching the first season of the anime,
I got pretty hooked into Tokyo ghoul so I decided to check out the manga to see what happens next and what not and for the most part I wasn't disappointed,
But after reflecting on my experience with Tokyo ghoul I realized it had quite a few problems which needs to be talked about and addressed.

Story, 6/10

" if you where to write a story about me, Then it would certainly be a tragedy"
And that is definitely what this story is about.

The story of Tokyo ghoul is pretty much about these humanoid beings known as ghoul's who kill and feed on humans there basically glorified vampires, who are hunting down by the CCG ( which are basically ghoul hunters)
So you see it's one of those humans Vs insert treat to humanity here type of story's similar to eflen lead, ajin and parasite.
The story begins with are Main character ken kaneki who is collage student waiting at a coffee shop for a girl named rize who he has interest in and it seems like she is also interested in him,
so after getting the chance to go on a with date with rize, He soon finds himself into very deep shit when it's revealed that rize is a ghoul who has plans to make him tonights dinner, so after trying to escape he ends up in a building site where he ends up badly injured, but it seems like fate had another plans in Mind as a bunch of steel beams fall on rize almost by accident and kill her with kaneki on the verge of death,
He then wakes up in a hospital and finds out that in order to save his life the doctors transplanted some of rize organs into him.
Which has now transformed him into a human - ghoul hybrid,
With him now unable to eat human food and can only feed on human flesh,

Now with his life thrown into the pits of despair and so begins the tragedy,
(But in all honesty I think the real tragedy here is that he wasn't able to tap that sweet piece of ass)

But luckily he is found by a group of peaceful ghoul's known as Anteiku who decide to take kaneki in and teach him how to live life in his new half ghoul state.

So the first half of Tokyo ghoul is mainly focused on kaneki trying to find his footing in a world which is completely alien to him, so on his journey to trying to become useful
For his new ghoul ally's and find his place in the world now that he no longer human any more, We learn about the culture , politics , social aspects of the ghoul world,
Which was for the most part interesting to watch how ghouls operate in human society and how there society is very parallel to our world, it almost like its a shadow world that takes place with out us knowing about it.
It is also In this part of the story where we get into introduced to the Main concept of Tokyo ghoul which is the kind of gray morality conflict between humans and ghouls,
It basically trying to do this social political thing with ghouls, where there misunderstood and discriminated against and there not all evil monsters so on and so forth , with Kaneki trying to show to humans that ghouls aren't just all killing machines.

So around the halfway mark as kaneki is getting a good flow going what happens next,
He gets kidnapped and tortured by a ghoul organization known as aogiri tree and becomes ka-edgey as a result and has decided he is going go on his own for awhile in order to achieve his goals of protecting his friends and his place in the world,
It basically where he becomes an anti hero,
(in edge we trust I guess)

So the second half of Tokyo ghoul is focused on kaneki quest for answers,
Like who was rize, the disappearance of the Doctor who did his operation, and what is aogiri tree plans are.
So In this part it's mostly kaneki fighting people and being a badass about it while finding out vague information which won't be of any relevance intill Tokyo ghoul:re,
It basically telling you that there is some sort of conspiracy / mystery going on in the background,
it basically one of those you kind of know the answer but you some more information to be more accurate.

So after Getting over his anti hero phase he decided to return to Anteiku,
Which is where We get to the unexpected ending
Which came out of nowhere,
And it pretty much ended on then most pain In the ass cliff hanger and thank god there is a sequel manga because it leaves you with more questions than actual answers.

Now I am pretty sure a lot of you are going to ask me this question,
Biogundam why didn't you talk the mature themes of Tokyo ghoul and how it's a very mature and what not,
Well good question because I am going to talk about that right now,
I would like to state that Tokyo ghoul isn't a mature series or as mature has some people hype it up to be, and before you down vote me the hell let me explain,
a Mature series is all about subtlety and yes Tokyo ghoul dose have the theme's and concept's that could make it mature,
But when it comes to theme and concept exploration it is as about subtle as a brick to the face, because it mostly relies on over the top edge to try and get its point across,
Now you can argue that the violence makes it try hard but in all honesty I think it trying way to hard when it shouldn't have to.
I think what they could have done to fix this is add more slice of life moments or just add more chapters focused on that, because it really doesn't give you enough time to breath every time a death happened or something fucked up happens,
They could have done something similar like parasite where we had a lot of slice of life moments that fleshed out more of the concept and also when shit hit the fan it had more impact, because we had more cool down moments.

So while we're on this topic let me also address some other problems,

For one there seems to be quite a few gaping holes in logic,
For example when kaneki was in the hospital after his accident ,
Why wasn't there any police or some sort of health and safety organization that has questioned kaneki or having a investigation into what happened,
Because you would think that a event like that would have been invested,
It was big enough event to end up on the news.
Another example gaps in logic I would also like to talk about the holes in the ghoul hunters logic or CCG as they are called,
If ghoul anatomy and physiology are so different from humans then why is it that no one can tell the difference, you would think that they would come up with more precise and simple ways to find out if someone a ghoul or not,
and those are just a few examples of the gaps of logic you will find here.

Another problem I had was that the pacing was Very slow and it made things drag out a bit longer an they actually had to.

Now I know that I have been mostly negative though this review,
Well it time for me to talk about what I think Tokyo ghoul dose quite well,

It has a very good sense of atmosphere, you can feel tension you can feel the emotions of the characters while there going through there events,

It also contains a lot of world building, that mostly involved the ghoul world and how things work and what not.
Another thing I would like to add is that it's narrative has good foreshadowing all the events that happen don't always feel random because Tokyo ghoul dose have this sense of grand scale planing,
but the problem which I was talking about before is that it forgets the small details it try's to establish.


Characters, 6/10

The main character of Tokyo ghoul kaneki ken was interesting for the most part,
At first glance I definitely thought he was a bitch though,
He was pretty much like your typical shounen protagonist,
He has no back bone doesn't know what the hell he is doing,

But then I had to take into account that In the first half that there was some decent development there so I give his character credit for that and also the fact we get a lot of internal monologue with him so we what exactly is going on in his mind,

But Instead of a gradual transformation to not being a Bitch and being more alpha,
He gets tortured and suddenly transform into this total badass
Which was cool to watch,
But in all honesty it kind of came out of nowhere,
I mean development stops right there and the only thing we actually see is how psychology damaged he is,
Which was good fleshing for his character and also some foreshadowing to things that we won't be told intill later or the sequel


The side characters,
Most of them where very uninteresting and pretty one note for the most,
Now the main side characters for the most more interesting,
They all had an descent personality for most part,
The good parts about them are,
You could pretty much call ether two or three dimensional characters,
Quite a few of them have good reason for doing what there doing,
They some off them also get some fleshing out,
We get know some back story about them and also get some decent inner monologue,
there also a lot of turmoil.
Now the negative are,
That by the first 20 chapters we already have 20 + introduced to us
And the it's feels very disjointed at times when the story try to make them all relavent and I know it's the manga way of trying to make this inter connectable Universe
Which is pretty good on paper,
But for the most part A Good majority of these characters don't actually have much of impact or importance to the plot intill much later on and some of them won't have any intill the sequel.
Another problem with the big cast of characters is for most I forgot who half these people are, I actually have to go to the wiki to see who half these people are,
And it doesn't help that quite a lot of them don't have enough characterization in order to help differentiate them.

I really like the character interactions and some of them where pretty interesting to see.



Art, 6/10

The artwork at the start looks very cartoony but it starts getting better after the ch 30,

At times the artwork can be choppy at times Especially in fights scenes
Because some times you can't tell what the fuck is going on half the time and speaking of fight scenes the gore is pretty well done,
But my one complaint is that it seems like at times they tone down the blood a bit because there are parts where you would think there would be a lot of blood and by lots.
The back grounds are very basic.

It has a vary edgey and depressed looking style to it.

The character design where quite nice,
Because there is pretty decent variety there In Character Designs and also you can also tell most of the characters a part which is always a plus,

But I don't really like how some of them are so cartoony especially some of the antagonists
Like there this one character who has bug eyes and looks like a walking corpse.



Enjoyment, 7/10

I really enjoyed this series and it was a pretty interesting ride over all,
I was never bored while reading this and I was always on the edge on the my seat,
Wondering what you happen next and honestly I found the things it talked about very interesting and also how ghouls try fit in human society which was pretty cool and even though it's concept has been done before,
I think it did an alright job with it.




Overall, 6/10

So if you looking for a story that covers basic ideas of ethnics and morals and is full of edge and all that good shit then Tokyo ghoul is what your looking for.

But if you looking for something mature or something that doesn't use edge to get its point across then probably look some where else and if you like the concept of Tokyo ghoul them probably go watch/ read parasite.

This is my first review, so please go easy on me :)

Story (10) - The story is outstanding and for many reasons. I'm going to say it now, but the foreshadowing is out of this world. The author hid so much information in front our own eyes, yet the majority of us weren't able to see it. Then, when the detail was revisited, it would amaze you at how well it worked (both in the writing and foreshadowing part.) The pacing (to me,) was perfect and I felt that every chapter was important to the plot in its own way. The symbolism was well thought out and really open to interpretation, which I really like because it invokes discussion.

Art (9) - Now don't get me wrong, the art was amazing, but I only gave this part a 9 because, at times, I couldn't make out what was happening in the story. Maybe it's just me being a relatively new manga reader, but I think some of us can agree that some panels were a bit too graphic (and not in that way.)

Character (10) - The characters. Wow. Just wow. The characters are what (in my opinion) blew up this manga. You see how much they struggle, how much they go through and you see how much they change because of it. I think that's why many people are attached to some of these characters. Not to mention some of their inner dialogue. It really makes you reconsider some stuff. (P.S. Seeing the changes happen right before your eyes really hits you there and makes you go >O<)

Enjoyment (10) - I really had a lot of fun reading this manga. Every page led you on to read more. Whenever I would finish a volume, I would always need a moment to review everything because sometimes it was too much to digest at once. Some cliffhangers made you go WHAAAT or NOOOOO. Overall, I had a lot of fun reading and I think you would too.

I would definitely recommend this to someone wanting to start reading manga or even if someone just wants an interesting read!

Disclaimer: I'm treating this as a review of both Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:re, since :re is not so much a sequel, but rather a direct continuation of where TG left off. Also, I normally don't write reviews, but for TG, I feel as if it's one of those series where I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't tell people why its worth their time to read.

I don't want to go into detail about the actual story, rather I want to touch upon a few things that make a story great, and why TG succeeds generally. In terms of the concept, TG may lose points by more dour readers due to its adherence to convention, but makes up for it tenfold in its brilliant execution. Mangas are unique in the sense that they are released by chapter, at fixed intervals, rather than all at once. Thus it is rare, especially for such a long on-going and complex series with so many moving parts, to display such a tight control over the narrative. Astonishingly, almost as if every scene has been meticulously forged in his mind before beginning, with no need for improvisation, Sui Ishida wastes hardly any moments and preserves the continuity of the plot throughout; a true artisan. There is no fat here.

Ishida's masterful usages of symbolism, allusions, parallels, and foreshadowing seamlessly integrated into the plot also adds deeper layers of storytelling. Moreover, TG holds its cards tight enough to its chest to build up real drama through meaningful suspense and mystery, yet not tight enough to drown the possibility of more keen readers sifting through the panels to uncover future developments.

Tokyo Ghoul is a character-driven story, and as such the characters themselves make or break the actual product. Thankfully, rather than cartoonish, archetypal interpretations of individuals through heavy use of tropes, Ishida's understanding of human psychology goes a long way in his construction of characters that feel distinctly human. Quite possibly, the most enjoyable moments of this manga derive from pondering over and watching play out the character's internal conflicts, changes, motivations, desires, and growth, if for no other reason than because they are portrayed brilliantly and with class, especially in the case of our main character.

However, I don't want to make it sound as if TG has no intellectual worth beyond this. In its most basic form, this is a story about humans dealing with predators living amongst them, and conversely, predators dealing with the changing tides of society that are driving them into hiding more so than ever before. Thanks to Ishida's expert writing, seeing this interplay through the eyes of our cast of character's is a true treat. I could say much more on this point, but I think it's best to experience all Ishida has to say about society and the world generally by actually reading the story.

Tokyo Ghoul is a true breath of fresh air in a sea of mass-produced, low quality, generally unimpressive manga. If you're looking to read an adult themed, dark, supernatural story with a strong plot and as impressively grounded and real characters, you'd be hard pressed to find a better one to sink your teeth into.

This.. This is amazing! This is what a masterpiece is. Truly. Honestly.

First things first, I gave it 8 in art but I think the art is 10, why? I had sometimes trouble keeping with the pace of the manga, fast talking scenes, mumbeled sentences.. I read the official translation of my country so maybe the japanese one is better, but I base my review on the official translation. (English in Israel)
On a side note this also helped to the flow of the manga, added to the insanity feeling so I only took 2 pointsfrom the score.
Damn those SFX's Ishida! Damn you for being so awesome!

Now I am sure many reviews were given so I won't go into what others already explored. I'd like to concentrate about the Insanity concept of this manga.
And damn that was, the best Insanity concept in manga I've ever seen. Yes, Chaos;Head is out there, but it is not nearly enough. This is just pure insanity!! Breserk and other names I heard as a comparison are just not enough. They are good, they have their own insanity but no one, NO ONE, done it better than Ishida.
I am psychology student, from that point it does lacking a bit but most of the readers doesn't have a PhD in mental health so ...

I have a thing with insanity, I write about it, explore it, study it. That was one of the more enjoyable experiences. I found myself couldn't sleep at night just reading.

Storywise until chapter 70 or so until mid Aogiri Tree saga(won't say more) it was okayish. Kaneki was another character just like many weakwilled protagonists. And then he just wasn't. Then he became in a matter of 3 chapters top godlike character. Or like the Gourmet said in the same chapter:"What is this?! Badass Kaneki mode? Now I want to eat him even more!"

Also Kaneki's power. His power ups were a bit forced at the beginings, felt really a Deus Ex Machina (strong involvment of the creator to solve otherwise unsolveable problems)
But then after the change in Kaneki, it is easily explainable - his power isnot Rize's, his power is his. Insane people are the strongest out there. Trult insane man will never lose in a battle, even if he is weak he will fuck the shit out of you because he is insane.

Truly masterpiece. I hope the sequel won't be less than that.

Like many people I started the manga after watching the anime. When the first season was airing, I couldn’t wait every week for a new episode so I spoiled myself by reading the manga. I glad I did cause the anime didn’t do the manga justice. If Studio Pierrot had adapted the manga they was the mangaka, Sui Ishida, envision his/her story, the anime would have reach Attack on Titan level in popularity.

The story focuses on an ordinary college student, Ken Kaneki, who had a crush on a beautiful woman, Rize. After a ‘chance encounter’ they got to talking and found out they one thing in common, their love for reading. After a book date, Kaneki walk Rize to her apartment where she took a bite on his shoulder and revealed herself to be a ghoul, a man eating monster disguise a human are only able to feed on humans and other ghouls. As Kaneki struggled with her, she stabbed him in his stomach. Before she could finish him off, multiple steel beams crushed her. Kaneki’s organs were damaged so the doctor, Kanou, transplant Rize’s organs into him. After Kaneki woke up from his operation with a ghoul eye his left eye, he thought to himself that his life would now be a tragedy.

That was just the first chapter, the story get so much better as the story continued. As Kaneki now live his as a half human and half ghoul, he learned ghoul life isn’t easy. He meets ghouls that run a local café and each of them helped Kaneki their own ways of living and surviving the world that wish to exterminate their existence. Kaneki learned the ghouls are not all that different from humans as they want to be accepted by others and will to live and believe that there could be a way for humans and ghouls to coexist together. There are investigators dedicated to exterminating ghouls, mysteries surrounded in the city of Tokyo and its characters, crime organization, secret organization, legend of an all-powerful king, and hidden meaning that foreshadow events later in the series.

What a love more about Tokyo Ghoul are it characters. Of course the premise is what gets people interested to start the series but stay to watch the characters to the end. Each character have sad backstories that explains why they as the way they do. They also have amazing development and the reader will grow to care from them and cry when some characters meet the demise. Even characters when they first appeared to be the antagonist but are like that cause of the incidents they were in and care for them as well. I like how Ishida bring back characters that introduced early in the series and reintroduce them later as they are important and relevant to the progress of Tokyo Ghoul.

The art of Tokyo Ghoul are incredible. When you first start the manga, the art are just ordinary, but Ishida’s art improve noticeably especially in volume 14. His art looks astounding in his ongoing sequel ‘Tokyo Ghoul:re’, that would compete with the art of monthly series. It is unbelievable he could draw amazing art of this beloved series weekly.

Overall, Tokyo Ghoul is a breathtaking series and I hope anybody who read this review give this series a try and support the mangaka. I promise you will be glad you start it.

It's very gore-y and messed with my head at times but I couldn't stop reading it! The fighting scenes were sometimes hard to picture but that might just be me. Definitely a good story with always new surprises and insane in just the right way. Maybe some more explanation and background could be of use here and there, but maybe the sequel will tell...

Especially love some of the characters, like Juuzou and Eto, but sometimes so many are introduced and then never seen again that it can be hard to keep track of who's who.

I love how there are little details in everything, even those that most writers dare not venture like exact sounds and specific flowers. It has certainly created many fan theories and analysis and I think different people might interpret things differently which is amazing.

Tokyo ghoul definitely is a very good dark manga. I watched the anime a few years ago but I decided to read this too.

The story is pretty solid. Humans have been on top of the food chain for as long as possible but the species known as ghouls have been feasting on humans. The world consists of humans and ghouls constantly fighting each other. Ghouls need to eat humans to survive they can't eat food of other sources. The humans wil of course not accept this and have decided to exterminate all ghouls from the world.

The main charachter know as Ken Kaneki has been leading a normal life, but a nightmare befalls him when he meets a certain person. He has been suffering ever since then. His life now consist of pain and sorrow.

(Spoilers) ↓

The part where he gets tortured by Jason was pretty gruesome. When he put a centipede in kaneki's ear it send shivers down my spine. I kept wondering how it must have felt being tortured to the brink of insanity.

I really didn't expect that Kanoe intentionally turned him into a ghoul.

Kaneki went from weak to strong. He keeps striving to be beter and to protect his loved ones. In the end when Anteiku was getting destoyed by the elite of the CCG. He went to protect his home without a second thought.,but unfortunatly failed and got defeated by Arima.

I recently picked up the first two volumes of Tokyo Ghoul and by the time I had reached the halfway mark in the first volume, I knew I had made a mistake by not ordering more. Fast forward a week and I had the complete box set in my hands and was ready to binge the rest of the series. Overall, I thought this series was a really good read and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it. There were a few instances where I felt the storyline could have been fleshed out a bit more and honestly, the ending left me minorly disappointed, but, for the most part I thought this was a very good read.

The story was good, but I would say the strong point of this series was its characters and character development. Particularly the protagonist, Ken Kaneki, introduced to us as a mild-mannered college student whose sanity slowly crumbles as a result of his experiences throughout the volumes. With that being said, I did enjoy the story. However, there were a few parts of the story that seemed to magically click together without explanation to move the plot forward. This gave the plot a mildly rushed feeling which was more pronounced in the final volumes. Another gripe of mine was the vagueness of the ending. Given enough time to digest the last volume and do some flipping through the earlier ones I feel confident that I mostly pieced things together, but I was disappointed at the open-ended conclusion of volume 14. I understand this was done to drive the readers' interest towards the follow-up series Tokyo Ghoul: Re, but I was not a fan of this tactic.

Despite my gripes with the story the strong cast of characters made up for this with their likeable personalities and robust character development. The reader is given a glimpse into the past of most main characters and this strengthened the bond between each character and the reader. Characters that I initially didn’t like slowly but surely grew on me as the story progressed and one of them became one of my favorite characters by the end! Wanting to know what would happen to everyone is what kept me turning the page through all 14 volumes, and the cast made this series a winner for me.

While it wasn’t a perfect read, Tokyo Ghoul engrossed me within the first two chapters and kept me wanting more the whole way through. I felt the ending was mildly anticlimactic but not in such a meaningful way as to tarnish my view of the series. I liked the characters and enjoyed the plot twists that arose from time to time, and even the ending I keep complaining was quite cerebral and psychological. This is a series I would recommend without hesitation and one I imagine I will enjoy re-reading in the future.

Tokyo Ghoul Manga Review - Non Spoiler
Chapters: 145
Mangaka: Sui Ishida
This is my 1st manga review so I dunno how it'll go.

Well, let's start off with the obvious that after reading the manga, without a doubt I can say that the anime messed up and the manga is a near Masterpiece.
The manga was really great, the dark theme element was perfect where as I found the anime a bit too friendly regarding the blood and gore theme.
PLOT:
The manga handled the plot beautifully, answered every question and had the back-story of most of the important characters which the anime didn't even bother with which I highly enjoyed (I mean everyone enjoys a plot where the loose ends are tied up). Comparing to the anime, S1 was the most canon after that everything pretty much went to hell with the anime (and here I was thinking S2 was good).
Also, the manga did a good job of showing Kaneki's badass personality and development.
Oh, forgot about the music.. Err oh well I liked the SFX mainly swoosh, chomp, pow :V
ARTSTYLE:
I'm mainly an anime watcher and this was my 7th manga so I can't really say much except that the artstyle was very much in-sync with the theme, from happy to Kaneki's rage moments were perfectly drawn (You could make an easy mental picture of that's happening). The artstyle in short was "messy" with no neat boundaries and with alot of heavy brush strokes which in turn gave it a good thriller-horror feel. (Pics Below)
FAVORITE QOUTE:
I’m not the protagonist of a novel or anything…I’m a college student who likes to read, like you could find anywhere. But if, for argument’s sake, you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be… a TRAGEDY
                                                             - Kaneki Ken
RATING:
I'd rate it 8.7/10
If you've read it, share your ratings and thoughts about it.
If you haven't read it yet do try it especially recommended to those who are following the anime.

This could have easily been one of the greatest manga to have ever graced the medium, with its brilliant artwork and its story, but there is a point in it that is a make it or break it point for any that will read it.

Without going into much detail, the protagonist Kaneki is undergoing a slowly yet horrific transformation against his own will and he comes into a slow understanding of what he is becoming. As the audience, we care about this character and watch as he has to come to grips with what's happening and it becomes something reminiscent of the Universal horror character, the Wolfman, a sympathetic character who is transforming into something that they don't want to become against all their good intentions.

The problem for this story however is that Kaneki reaches a literal breaking point within the story where he goes from being the sympathetic main character to being the "A #1" badass that my 12-year old self would have been cheering on as he delighted in becoming the very thing he did not want to be. This personality shift completely and utterly destroys any semblance of the intent and it feels like the cheapest way out for a character to change.

Once this change has happened, the story becomes secondary, it feels like there isn't much else for the characters to go to and falls into the similar tropes you see in various Shonen series.

Was meh. The universe of Tokyo Ghoul is very small and if you don't like any of the characters, you won't like this manga.

Story 6/10:
The premise about Tokyo Ghoul is centered around the ghouls and the ghoul hunters. There isn't really an end goal/end plot. It was mentioned way in the beginning "let's unravel how and why ghouls came to existence" but that really hasn't been covered much as far as I'm concerned. New characters are introduced often(sometimes just out of nowhere) in one of these 2 factions, they get a background story and some foreshadowing and then they go off and fight or something really. Oh and you get a good amount gore service if you're into that.
A little spoiler, I feel like it's the same antagonist all the time. Rize, Tsukiyama, and Jason? All of them have that edgy "torture, power power power" trait. It's annoying.

Art 10/10:
Great.

Characters 7/10:
Not too bad, some generics around but overall, eh. Some of these characters are just flat out there for the gore service. Not many "unique" traits in terms of characters if you are an anime veteran. These characters do have unique designs so its not all bad. I really didn't sympathized with any of these characters. Actions of the characters seem very very predictable and I often feel like I know where/what they are going to do next, which spoils the thrill for me.

Enjoyment 6/10:
Was average. Tokyo Ghoul emphasizes a lot on characters and gore but
I prefer stories with much more emphasis on atmosphere and story. It started pretty slow and things were hardly explained in the beginning. Everything just seemed like it was being thrown. Here's your main character, here are the ghouls, here are the ghoul hunters. Sometimes you even get thrown characters out of nowhere when things are pretty calm.


Overall 6/10:
If you like character driven, gorey manga, then this one is the right for you.

If you have the feeling of no end goal/end story progression, then this series is absolutely not for you.

Mystery is pretty great but it is hardly explored because of course, this is a character driven manga.


The series isn't bad but I would recommend Kamisama no iitoru or Deadman Wonderland for the best of both worlds in terms of mystery, characters and atmosphere.

On this series that consists of 14 volumes, Ishida introduces us to Kaneki Ken, a 19y/o college student who is the main character and "accidentally" ends up becoming a half-ghoul. Through the pages of these wonderful volumes, we get to see and understand the physical and psychological challenges Kaneki Ken has to go through as his life changes and as he accepts that he has no ordinary human life anymore after becoming a half-ghoul. But that's not all, we also get to meet the dark ghoul world that lives around Tokyo (and maybe the world), feeding from humans, fighting between them, or trying to have a normal life pretending to be humans, and running from the CCG (also known as Doves or the Commission of Counter Ghoul), who are the people specialized in hunting them down if they cause any big troubles.

I have to admit that it wasn't so easy to get into like half of the first volume since you're being introduced to everything, but after that I actually couldn't stop reading it! The way Tokyo Ghoul was constructed and developed seriously is...ah, amazing. This series makes you want more and more and more and thank God there's more because I need it and I just. . .ok, I'll calm down. . .

Anyways, here on this series, we get to meet lots of characters and see their struggles as most of them just want "a normal life". And besides meeting the dark ghoul side of Tokyo, through some of the characters, we also get to meet and know how the CCG works and the struggles their workers face everyday risking their lives trying to protect humanity from troublesome ghouls. At the end, on this series, Ishida made sure to not only entertain us or mind fuck us, he made sure to open at least one of our eyes to make us see and understand how many challenges a person can face no matter who he is or what he has done, and also a lot of serious "things" that have to deal with our inner selves, just like with Kaneki.

We also get to see how easy it is to go through the pages of each volume and perfectly understand what the heck is happening because Ishida's way of writing and developing the plot was just great! Maybe, like I said before, you might be a little lost at the beginning, but once you understand and once you're inside. . .believe me, there's no going back unless you don't like it, obviously. But anyways, the point here is that this series is pretty amazing and it needs to get out there for more people!

If you've watched the first season of the anime or heard about it, Jesus! What are you waiting for? Take my example and give it a try after being stalked by people about it! I am completely sure you won't regret it and that Ishida's writing will easily help you get his messages as you see everything Kaneki and his fellow companions have to go through on their daily life; finding and accepting themselves and so on!

Here's my take after reading 144 dark and melancholic chapters of Tokyo Ghoul by Sui Ishida.

I was a little bit hesitant to read Tokyo Ghoul at first because I watched around 2 or 3 episodes of the anime and at that time I was looking for a similar tone of story as the masterpiece Kiseiju (Parasyte) by Hitoshi Iwaaki.

So to make the long story short, the anime fell short of my expectation so I had to drop it. Then after more than a year I decided to give Tokyo Ghouls manga a chance and it did not disappoint.

Tokyo Ghoul is a story that revolves around the timid bookworm Ken Kaneki who was trapped in between the world of humans and the world of ghouls after being lured by the ghoul Rize to be one of her "meal". Everything goes wrong where it ended up Rize dying and Ken being alive.

The main narrative of the story in my opinion is about Ken and his metamorphosis from humanity to monstrosity, and the struggle, doubt and confusion he undergoes in the process.

And this narrative is encased and adorned by it's supernatural ghoul universe, lore and abilities.

Art wise, the manga was drawn in a dark semi gothic grunge style that perfectly match the setting of the story which gives you a gloomy melancholic feeling. I believe that this was intentionally done to immerse you more on their world.

Speaking of the characters, there's a lot of characters that inhabits the world of Tokyo Ghoul: We have the Doves which are similar to ghoul hunters/police, we have the ghouls and the different ghoul group organization, hybrids etc.

But what I can say in general is that the main characters in the story are strategically fleshed out through the story which make you feel that you are growing with the character especially with the protagonist Ken so it is worth investing in the characters emotionally as it would not disappoint.

There are a lot of shonen type battles in the story which showcase the supernatural abilities of the ghouls as well as the counter arsenal of the doves.

What I like the most is it balances out the drama and action quite well although I did not enjoy the parts that had a ton of dialogue that I though was not that necessary to move the plot and just make the story hang a bit.

It's not a masterpiece but! I would like to emphasize that Tokyo Ghoul is an ongoing story that has the potential to grow into a well established manga like Hunter x Hunter or One Piece knowing that Tokyo Ghoul RE is still going strong with 147 chapters published.

So with that said, I would give Tokyo Ghoul my manga review rating of 9 black goat eggs out of 10!

And so I commence with my unpopular opinion of this extremely popular manga.

Obviously, Tokyo Ghoul gets on quite well with the darker portion of anime/manga fans, and I am definitely part of that darker portion. Due to several other people's knowledge of this (both online and in real life), Tokyo Ghoul was heavily suggested to me, the manga over the anime because of how drastically the anime strayed from the manga during the second season. I decided it couldn't hurt to give the manga a try.

For a long time, I wasn't sure what to think of Tokyo Ghoul. I kind of liked it, but there was something I couldn't name about it that kept making me put out while I was reading. Later, I realized it was Tokyo Ghoul's vibe.

For better or worse, Tokyo Ghoul is incredibly cynical, the key line/lesson of the manga being: "This world is wrong." I think that, for many people on "this" side of the anime/manga fandom, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. And that's fine. But I'm pretty sure your enjoyment of Tokyo Ghoul relies heavily on the philosophies you believe in and your view of the world.

Because I tend to believe the world is both terrible and utterly beautiful, Tokyo Ghoul's all-or-nothing "this world sucks" attitude was just not for me, and it got progressively worse as I continued to read.

I have actually only read four volumes of Tokyo Ghoul, but I looked up spoilers to become aware of everything that happened next in hopes that what I found would change my mind from wanting to drop the manga.

It didn't. It actually made Tokyo Ghoul even MORE infuriating to me. I don't want to give a very long rant on everything I hate about what eventually happens in Tokyo Ghoul, but long story short, I hate what becomes of Kaneki, and I hate what becomes of everyone else.

I know that, for many people, this manga is an incredibly emotional ride. Plenty of tears have been spilled over Tokyo Ghoul, I'm aware. Unfortunately, Tokyo Ghoul has failed at making me sympathize with any of the characters. It has, however, succeeded hugely at making me annoyed at all of them. Again, I think your personal system of beliefs contributes heavily to your enjoyment of Tokyo Ghoul--but, more specifically, your connection to the characters.

Kaneki started out as a startlingly boring protagonist. Even after he turned into a ghoul, there was nothing remarkable about him that allowed me to root for him, or even feel something towards him. I know what happens to Kaneki near the end of the manga and completely disagree with what the Tokyo Ghoul fandom apparently calls "character development"; I'd hardly call going straight from a sobbing, pitiful-but-merciful character to an absolute beast "character development." You could argue there's a journey on his way there, but in my opinion, I just don't think there is. He switches, and that's it. No matter how much he gets tortured, it doesn't make up for that in my eyes. (Also, for me, in contrast to what appears to be the rest of this fandom, I despise Kaneki turning into a do-evil-unto-evil ghoul.)

Touka is a stereotypical dark anime tsundere. She's not as lighthearted as the regular stereotypical anime tsunderes are, but she's just like every other dark anime tsundere. I couldn't decide if I liked her or not for a long time. There were times when I could feel for her and times when I only wanted her to shut up. She's nothing all that fascinating, either.

Ultimately, I found myself sympathizing with side characters because the main characters infuriated me so much. Which, obviously, isn't good.

Compared to the other things I've mentioned, this one is minor, but it still matters. Something that annoyed me about Tokyo Ghoul was the way the manga introduced new information, characters, etc. There were things that would seem as if you were supposed to pay close attention to them that ended up meaning nothing. But even more often than that was when the manga simply sprung something on you and expected you to remember it or immediately know it was important in spite of the fact that it literally came out of nowhere, and then you ended up being confused later when it was brought up again.

Honestly, I have no problem with the Tokyo Ghoul fandom, but I must say I've developed a strong disliking for Tokyo Ghoul itself and was supremely disappointed by this manga. The only compliment I can give it is on its art, which is actually quite good.