My general thoughts on movies, dramas, anime, RPG games, and music from East Asia.(Japan, South Korea, and China.(Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China) Please note that this blog is not a review blog nor do I clam to be a professional. I just like talking about East Asian pop culture. My opinions are my opinions good or bad. It's no hard feelings. Feel free to comment your thoughts as well. Youtube/Twitter/Instagram @Rico is 에리코(Erico)
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Tokyo Ghoul(東京喰種) Vol 1-14 Manga Thoughts
Tokyo Ghoul is a manga series created by Sui Ishida. The series was his debut and to date, has sold over twenty million copies. Volume 14 finally was released state side, slating the last volume of the original series. Japan has had numerous releases related to the series like video games, anime(which was released outside of Japan.), a spin off, and an upcoming live action film. You know about the novels already since they were released along side the manga in North America.
A young boy has ghoul parts implanted into his boy after having an accident with one. He his now the borderline in a war between humans and ghouls.
My experience reading Tokyo Ghoul in Manga form will be different from, lets say a reader who knew nothing about the series before picking up the first volume. Yeah… I got a head start on the series because of one of my friends telling me about the anime while it was airing in Japan. This isn't a bad decision for the people who want to watch the anime before reading the manga or just want to watch one and not the other. The anime follows the manga storyline mostly but doesn't keep every single detail that happened in the manga. sensor laws in Japan forced the anime to edit a few events. Could have been that the anime creators wanted to make it different from the original at least a little as well. I constantly heard people chatting about the manga being better than the anime. Don't listen to others, instead form your own opinion. A select few Otakus say anything to make themselves feel superior to other people. They're basically saying, "LOOK GUYS! I READ THE MANGA BEFORE ANYONE ELSE! DON'T WATCH THE ANIME!". Anyway, The manga goes all over the place in fun destructive glory. I'm talking pain on top of pain that makes you flinch looking from one panel to the next. Pacing in the manga is planned out creatively between each volume. Ishida keeps readers engaged with a world that was never on the right path to begin with. Each character in this ghoul vs. human world brings a color of life for the reader to relate to. Its not about you even choosing who is the hero and who is the villain. Both sides have their own reasons to fight for survival. Also unlike the anime, Tokyo Ghoul the manga goes into more detail about the protagonist, Taneki's inner war within himself. I myself felt for him more in the manga while I wanted him to become stronger in the anime, so I didn't care too much about the life changing evolution he went through. Later volumes really become more about the other characters until Taneki drops in for a final time to kick ass. Heads up though, the ending of the anime and the ending of the manga are different….. VERY DIFFERENT. Please be ready for the unforgiving nature of the manga's plot. It does not spare reader's feelings one bit. I understood why the ending got to that point. That's what happens when you can't come back from the point of no return. Hyde(Taneki's friend) was much sharper in the manga too. Just something I noticed.
Tokyo Ghoul's art is done very differently from other series. You can see growth in Ishida's drawings as you read however, his work never be put in the same category of other's works. For one thing, the covers are eye catching in themselves if you look at them closely. Each volume contains a cover that looks like it was drawn with pastels originally. It gives the visual a blended look. Then in the inside of the manga, Ishida draws the character and locations with fine pencil. I always loved the bare feel of Tokyo Ghoul's presentation like nothing was crossing the line in order to be shown in this world. You don't ever forget the brutal honesty of character emotion that's draw in such a realistic what that you get scared. Action scenes also are drawn like the battles could leap off the page into reality. Some of Ishida's color pages always looked so mosaic to me. They almost belong in a church chapel somewhere.
I hope that Tokyo Ghoul:Re(The series's continuation.) and Tokyo Ghoul:[Jack] gets licensed for them to be brought over to the states soon. I know that they are probably both online but I don't read anything online unless I have to. I don't watch anime online much either if I can get my hands on a physical copy. Tokyo Ghoul is a very good manga for those who want gut wrenching action mixed with a good storyline and a rememberable cast of characters.
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