Book Review
Title: Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1 by Sui Ishida
Genre: Manga, Horror, Fantasy
Rating: 4 Stars
I decided to start this series because it is one of my best friend’s favourite and I’ve never read it and I haven’t seen much of the anime either. We are following Kaneki Ken who is a first year college student, he is just chilling with his best friend, Hide, when he notices a pretty girl. Eventually they end up discussing the book they are both currently reading and he asks her out on a date and she agrees much to Hide’s surprise. On the date, Kaneki has fun with Rize and wants to see her again when she reveals herself to be a ghoul and attacks him.
In this world ghouls are born just like humans but they can only gain nutrition from eating people rather than regular food. One of these ghouls we have already met is Touka who works at the café that Hide and Kaneki go to frequently. Kaneki fights Rize but he is no match for the ghoul’s superior strength, however, someone appears and deals with Rize and draws attention to Kaneki allowing him to get medical attention. In the hospital, Kaneki needs a kidney transplant and the doctor end up giving him Rize’s kidney unaware that she is a ghoul making Kaneki a half ghoul. He isn’t aware of this at first but soon comes to realise what he is and turns to Touka for help but she rejects his offer because she doesn’t feel that he is truly a ghoul and doesn’t want to help someone who doesn’t understand their struggles.
Touka is eventually forced to help by the older ghoul who looks after her and he provides Kaneki with some prepackaged meat but he can’t bring himself to eat it knowing what it is. He pretty soons tumbles into trouble when he wanders into another ghoul’s territory as he is feeding which is apparently a big no no in the ghoul community and has to have his ass saved by Touka. Touka ends up explaining a little about ghouls and how his hunger won’t disappear until he feeds and he notices it is even becoming a problem to go to school and be around his best friend.
Kaneki also realises how ghoul can enter human society thanks to their human appearance and the same ghoul he pissed off earlier is friend’s with Hide. When that ghoul invites Hide back to his place, Kaneki knows his best friend is going to die so tags along with him hoping to prevent it from happening. The ghoul knocks Hide out intending to eat him and accuses Kaneki of wanting the same but Kaneki loves for his best friend forces out his more powerful ghoul side and the pair fight but Touka ends up coming to stop the fight before they draw too much attention and deals with Hide’s injury and Kaneki’s hunger in one blow which Kaneki isn’t happy about as he doesn’t want to be seen as a monster but he is willing to learn more about these ghouls that are passing for human. For the first volume it was a good entry but there were some pacing issues that made it feel like this volume should have been a little more drawn out.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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