Manga Review: Tokyo Ghoul
No. of Volumes: 14
No. of Chapters: 143
I started this manga for various reasons. For one, people said that the first season of the anime adaptation, while it was faithful, was an adaptation that was rushed to hell. And that the second season was not based on the anime at all and was anime-original. Now I don't care if an anime is not faithful to the manga, but I do get curious when there's an overwhelming opinion out there that the anime adaptation has butchered the manga. I'm lukewarm on season 1 of the anime, and I didn't like season 2, at all. When season 3 came, it was announced that it was gonna adapt Tokyo Ghoul: Re, the sequel manga, but the second season didn't cover the rest of the chapters of the original Tokyo Ghoul manga, so I knew it would be confusing to watch it, and well, I started this manga.
Plot:
Ken Kaneki is a bookworm college student who meets a girl named Rize at a cafe he frequents. They're the same age and have the same interests, so they quickly become close. Little does Kaneki know that Rize is a ghoul - a kind of monster that lives by hunting and devouring human flesh. When part of her special organ - "the red child" - is transplanted into Kaneki, he becomes a ghoul himself, trapped in a warped world where humans are not the top of the food chain.
Review:
The whole theme of this manga is about the exploration of morality, how everything isn't black and white. From the first volume, we are lead to question which side is the greater good, or rather, the best of the worst. Kaneki is important in this exploration, for obvious reasons, him being human for all of his life, and suddenly becoming a ghoul, and trying to deal with the dilemma of surviving as a ghoul whilst trying to not harm humans. On the other side is the CCG, the ghoul extermination police force, in which we are made to follow Kotaro Amon, an investigator who has a strong sense of morality, and duty, and makes it his mission to destroy ghouls.
You all have probably seen the Tokyo Ghoul season 1, and it covers the first 7 volumes of the manga. Up to this point the manga is brilliant when it comes to character development and depth. It's done in a very gradual manner and we don't feel like there's a sudden shift in tone. The action in the manga can be good at times, but it can also be confusing. The artwork is very good(obviously, it's a Jump manga), but not extra-ordinary.
The whole controversy about season 2 is how it deviates from the last 7 volumes of the manga, and this is the main reason why I read it. And here's the thing: the manga is infinitely better. And I as I mentioned above, I don't really care if the anime adaptation deviates from the manga, but comparisons should be made in such a case, especially if the adaptation is just plain bad. And I didn't feel that way just because I read the manga, or because I came to know that it deviated from it, I genuinely didn't like season 2 when I watched it back in Winter 2015, when it came out. Spoilers ahead:
Overall, the Tokyo Ghoul manga is a genuinely good that has great characters, pretty good arc, great thematic depth and a pretty good narrative with twists and turns, that's damn entertaining to read.
Score: 8.5/10
No. of Volumes: 14
No. of Chapters: 143
I started this manga for various reasons. For one, people said that the first season of the anime adaptation, while it was faithful, was an adaptation that was rushed to hell. And that the second season was not based on the anime at all and was anime-original. Now I don't care if an anime is not faithful to the manga, but I do get curious when there's an overwhelming opinion out there that the anime adaptation has butchered the manga. I'm lukewarm on season 1 of the anime, and I didn't like season 2, at all. When season 3 came, it was announced that it was gonna adapt Tokyo Ghoul: Re, the sequel manga, but the second season didn't cover the rest of the chapters of the original Tokyo Ghoul manga, so I knew it would be confusing to watch it, and well, I started this manga.
Plot:
Ken Kaneki is a bookworm college student who meets a girl named Rize at a cafe he frequents. They're the same age and have the same interests, so they quickly become close. Little does Kaneki know that Rize is a ghoul - a kind of monster that lives by hunting and devouring human flesh. When part of her special organ - "the red child" - is transplanted into Kaneki, he becomes a ghoul himself, trapped in a warped world where humans are not the top of the food chain.
Review:
The whole theme of this manga is about the exploration of morality, how everything isn't black and white. From the first volume, we are lead to question which side is the greater good, or rather, the best of the worst. Kaneki is important in this exploration, for obvious reasons, him being human for all of his life, and suddenly becoming a ghoul, and trying to deal with the dilemma of surviving as a ghoul whilst trying to not harm humans. On the other side is the CCG, the ghoul extermination police force, in which we are made to follow Kotaro Amon, an investigator who has a strong sense of morality, and duty, and makes it his mission to destroy ghouls.
You all have probably seen the Tokyo Ghoul season 1, and it covers the first 7 volumes of the manga. Up to this point the manga is brilliant when it comes to character development and depth. It's done in a very gradual manner and we don't feel like there's a sudden shift in tone. The action in the manga can be good at times, but it can also be confusing. The artwork is very good(obviously, it's a Jump manga), but not extra-ordinary.
The whole controversy about season 2 is how it deviates from the last 7 volumes of the manga, and this is the main reason why I read it. And here's the thing: the manga is infinitely better. And I as I mentioned above, I don't really care if the anime adaptation deviates from the manga, but comparisons should be made in such a case, especially if the adaptation is just plain bad. And I didn't feel that way just because I read the manga, or because I came to know that it deviated from it, I genuinely didn't like season 2 when I watched it back in Winter 2015, when it came out. Spoilers ahead:
As you know, around the end of season 1, Kaneki was tortured by the Aogiri Tree, and his personality and looks change immensely as a result of that. Whereas in season 2 he joins the Aogiri Tree and becomes an emo edgelord, in the manga, he actually gangs up with a few members of the Aogiri Tree who hate the organisation, escape it, and then go in search of Akihiro Kanou, the doctor who transplanted Rize's organs into Kaneki, which possibly resulted in him becoming a ghoul. Circumstances lead to him discovering major secrets about the doctor, his various experiments, and various secrets about different people. And why is the plot in the manga better? He doesn't join Aogiri Tree in this, and that makes no sense whatsoever. And it's not even explained properly in the anime. The only major commonality is the climax, in which the CCG makes a major attack on the Anteiku Cafe, but the difference is the narrative that leads to it: in the anime the means is not properly explained and they just get to that point, whereas in the manga each thread is woven properly and they only slowly get there. And the ending in the anime is just... plain bad. However, the ending in the manga isn't all that praise worthy. It feels a bit rushed and has a lot of unanswered questions. While there's a sequel manga called Tokyo Ghoul: Re that subsequently released, the review is for this manga alone and so I can only comment on this. And also, in the second half, it does sort of become more focused on the action, than the primary themes the series initially focused on.
Score: 8.5/10
