Review: Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 1 by Sui Ishida
Title: Tokyo Ghoul, Vol. 1
Author: Sui Ishida
Pages: 224
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Publish Date: June 16, 2015
Genre: Manga
Synopsis: Shy Ken Kaneki is thrilled to go on a date with the beautiful Rize. But it turns out that she’s only interested in his body—eating it, that is. When a morally questionable rescue transforms him into the first half-human half-Ghoul hybrid, Ken is drawn into the dark and violent world of Ghouls, which exists alongside our own.
If you follow me on Instagram (or even check out my sidebar), you know that I’ve decided to venture into the strange yet delightful world of manga and graphic novels. And I’m reviewing them on my blog! (So if you have any recommendations for a newbie like me, leave them in the comments!)
I picked up Tokyo Ghoul for my first dive. I saw it at B&N the last time I was there, but didn’t want to buy it so instead I picked it up at my library. Great resource btw! I’ve also heard a lot about this particular series. It’s an Anime show, but it’s also a manga novel. I haven’t seen the show (yet), but I wanted to see what everyone was talking about.
Can I just take a moment to OMG this book? (I’m going to call it a book, so sorry if that’s not the technical term.) (Fight me.) I need to squeal! This book gave me literal feels! AHH!
First off, I know I said this on my Goodreads status update, but manga books read from right to left so it was trippy at first! For the first fifty pages or so I had to concentrate more on this books than I do a normal book. Sometimes I would skip over a box, and I’d get confused so I’d have to start the page over. It’s quite odd at first, but it’s actually kind of cool.
Tokyo Ghoul is about these “ghouls” that eat human flesh and can kill a lot of people. They are also disguised as humans so no one knows where the ghouls are at. The main character, Ken, likes this girl and goes on a date with her but it turns out she’s a ghoul. She tries to eat him, but she ends up dying. Ken’s injured so her organs are transplanted into his body. So he’s a ghoul/human hybrid, and now has to deal with the consequences of that.
OMG Tokyo Ghoul is just pure greatness. It’s gold in the form of pages. I loved it! The storyline was so creative! Like why can’t they make a book this cool? It’s original. It’s addicting. It makes you keep turning the pages because you just have to see what’s coming next.
The artwork is just amazing! I don’t know much about manga, but I think this art is pretty cool. I love all of the different facial expressions and just seeing how the artists expresses something. It adds so much to the story.
Surprisingly, the plot was witty. There were some parts where I was actually laughing. I didn’t really expect that with this kind of book because the synopsis makes it seem very dark.
I love Ken. He’s just a great main character. Actually, all of the characters are great. I think my favorite has to be Hide. He’s just funny, and I love how he acts around girls. Personally, I think he would be a great friend.
If you are looking for something new, something different, try manga. And if you’re interested in manga, Tokyo Ghoul is a great place to start with. It’s such a quick read. It probably took me a couple of hours to read. I couldn’t put it down. It has a great story, and I’m just dying to learn more about this world. I love it! I highly recommend Tokyo Ghoul. (And hey, there’s an anime series for this as well so you can watch it too!)
About the Author
Sui Ishida (石田 スイ, Ishida Sui), born December 28, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, is a Japanese manga artist.
In 2010 he won the Young Jump 113th Grand Prix award with Tokyo Ghoul (東京喰種, Tōkyō Kushu). In March 2011, the same oneshot was published in the 2nd Issue of Miracle Jump. And later in September 2011, Tokyo Ghoul started as a series in Weekly Young Jump 2011-41 Issue. In December 2011, he made another oneshot about Rize that was published in December 2011 in Miracle Jump 6th Issue, which was later collected in the 6th volume of Tokyo Ghoul.
In 2013, he also started Tokyo Ghoul: Jack in the digital magazine Jump LIVE.
Sui Ishida is his penname; nobody knows his real name or what he looks like.
2 Comments
I haven't heard of this one but it sounds cool, I like the whole ghoul idea. I read a lot of manga when I was younger so I know how disorienting the right to left thing can be at first. But once you've read you'll be used to it!
ReplyDeleteThe ghoul idea is so cool! I love it! After a couple of pages, I was speeding through it pretty quickly. I think that old saying "practice makes perfect" works well for manga novels haha!
Delete-Kayl