Tokyo Ghoul

deideiblueeyez Dec 18, 2015

5.8

This is a personal review, not an objective one. This manga just didn't click with me like I wanted it to and I honestly don't really get the hype around it. In fact I can make many, many parallels to Deadman Wonderland, which I personally feel pulls off the "depraved, crapsack world" full of tragedy, special abilities, persecution, sociopathic "heroes", and insane villains with a bit more finesse and feeling. I got a similar feel with Ajin, in that it seemed promising but way too much bureaucracy was thrown in. I honestly did not give a crap about the Ghoul Squads (or whatever they were called). I simply skipped past all the pages that featured the inner-workings of the system, their motivations, and the "bonding" time among the members. I get that you're developing the system that these characters live in and nothing is worse than having a vague villain organization that you know little about, but honestly it just read like the in-depth discussions you'd see among the police officers in Death Note.  I don't. Care. At all.  I found the protagonists' motivations yawn-worthy as well. Kaneki wants to save and protect his friends? Who doesn't? The only difference between him, Naruto, Ganta, Ichigo, Luffy, and Eren is that the guy eats people and experienced a bout of Marie Antoinette syndrome halfway through the series. Nothing new was brought to this character "development" except more tragic circumstances in how it came about. I felt nothing for the majority of the characters except perhaps Nishio because I like assholes with glasses.  The depravity of the characters seemed to be built in or a Freudian excuse. "He tortured me so now I'm insane".  I don't know, I feel like Deadman Wonderland really made nearly all the villains sympathetic if you were a bleeding heart. For the villains in this story they're just despicable, especially Ayato and that crocodile-shovel-face freak that tortured Kaneki.  Near the end of the story things got into a certain dark twisted psychological spin that I felt much more comfortable with, but then the story ended and I sure as hell don't want to read about the Ghoul Squad or whatever the hell it's called. Call me disappointed. Except Uta, Tsukiyama (played hammily by Michael J. Tatum in the English dub), and Nishio, all the characters can piss off for all I care. And yes I'm aware that my score may not be accurate in regards to calculation, but I don't really care.

HDeer Sep 15, 2014

8.5

Truly spectacular work full of potential and credible characters tightened to the border of their abillities. Unlike the anime inspirated by the Ushida Sui pattern, in pure manga there is no such a thing as censorship which greatly increases the impact of individual story events. The very description of the created world it's dark, I would say even darker that in other manga motives, but its of course lightened by some kind of relief firstly from side of very mild protagonist, next following minor characters like Banji, Uta or even Hide. This contrast it's interpreted through all the chapters suggesting that humans neither ghouls have truly defined their nature by their race. Art Style First resembling at pretty average, art style of Tokyo Ghoul is actually really good. In many situations neat and detailed, possessing with an abillity to literally devour the reader. But that's mainly the case when the story goes smoothly without action or some dramatical events. Even I don't know many types of battle depictions in manga, these haven't seemed zo be very clear to me and many times I had to decipher following scenes - sometimes without bright discovery what moves character really did. This was in my opinion the main weakness in conjuction in art style representation. Characters When speaking of characters I always imagine that silent bookworm that Kaneki once was, coming into that wicked roundabound survival. Despite early thoughts, character development is in this manga real thing, very often returning into previous events that preceded the original story. This makes every Tokyo Ghoul character more complex and justified in the eyes of the reader which usually leads they start to sympathize with him/her. What I constantly admired was also the greatly balanced comparison between different fractions for example Anteiku Ghouls, Gourmet Restaurant Ghouls, Aogiri Tree Ghouls or even the doves. Each of them shows some side of humanity (even actually majority of them are ghouls), reasoning and also the brutality (the brutality from the human doves dedicated to their archenemy is many times stronger that ghoul's). What I missed about the characters was that we didn't follow them thoroughly but only in fragments maybe except Kaneki which was really worth to be noticed. As the main defect of character line I consider the constant monitoring of Commission of Counter Ghoul department because in many times it wasn't even necessary and the characters they showed, especially Marude were not important for the story development at all (maybe ocassionally). SUMMARY: (be aware of spoilers if you haven't finished it yet) Tokyo Ghoul is one hell of the story which really lasted in me while I was waiting for the new chapters. Regarding to its violent and agonized ending I suppose, that there is a space if not the need of sequel which would at least elucidate the fates of leading characters not mentioning slightly outlined newcomers like for example that writer girl which talked to Amon in one of late chapters. It's true that story ending seems to be forcibly concluded same as unexpectedly, but I have to admit that it was a spectacular ride full of tremendous twists that really fullfiled their duty and created unforgettable experience - which I doubt can be followed by anime.

casandra29 Nov 21, 2015

9.5

I really enjoyed Tokyo Ghoul the manga (Toukyou Kushu). Although It took me a while to get used to the art style. I would not say that it is Bad just unusual. Tokyo Ghoul is a unusual manga in general and as time went on I was really able to come to appreciate the art style. Although, to me, it is not of the same level as something like Berserk or Green Blood in terms of Art. The Characters are interesting. Out of all the characters I would have to say that the main character Kaneki originally reminded me of a slightly less whiny shinji from Evangelion. I did not really care much for his character originally but he really matured well throughout the story and became a much more interesting character in my eyes. The rest of the cast is very unique to say the least. A lot of thought must have been put into their creation. Many of them were relatable and their trauma’s and goals were for the most part understandable. To me the story was what made Tokyo Ghoul really stand out. It is extremely well written and I especially liked that as a avid reader it was for the most part unpredictable. Deaths of the Ghouls and Investigators were believable and hard Hitting unlike how things have been in it's currently running sequel. I don't want to spoil anything. So I will not speak too much on the controversial ending. Many people complained about it. However, to me, I couldn't have asked for a better ending. Even if there didn't turn out to be a sequel. I would definitely suggest giving this one a try if you are someone who is into Supernatural types of a darker nature and also make sure to read this one if you saw and liked the anime. If you start to read because you watched the anime make sure you read from the beginning because there is a lot of differences especially between what was written and the second season of the anime and also the ending...