The end is in sight. Humans and ghouls alike say their goodbyes as the CCG conducts a giant raid on the 20th Ward and the One-Eyed Owl. The penultimate volume, and the road to “Tokyo Ghoul :re” begin here.
Written & Illustrated by Sui Ishida
Investigators from the 20th Ward launch an initiative to take out the Ghoul known as the One-Eyed Owl, who has possible ties to both Akira and Yoshimura. An all-out assault on the Anteiku café, where the Owl is supposedly hiding, results in full-fledged battle.
“Tokyo Ghoul” has never been a happy series. If we take the words of Renji Yomo in this volume, it’s about enduring with the loss. The world will beat you down, and it’s not a guarantee you’ll get back up. But that doesn’t mean we have to see the ending alone. Make peace with the people around you, because the end will come sooner than you think. As the investigators of the CCG begin a giant raid on the 20th Ward, Anteiku in particular, hunting for the One-Eyed Owl and Aogiri, many will be caught in the crossfire. Kaneki, Touka, Hide, Mr. Yoshimura, Amon, Akira, Seidou, Juzo. It’s time to make peace before the end.
Because if there is a theme in this volume, it’s “endings”. The first third of this volume is very quiet as we see both humans and ghouls with the weight of the oncoming storm on their back. As procedure before a large operation, the investigators are required to write a last testament for their loved ones. Not an easy thing to do, as we see some struggle in fear, like Seidou, or with trying to figure out what loved ones they have like Juzo. Juzo is a tragic one since we finally learn more about his backstory here and if you’re going to read it, I have to issue a big content warning. Juzo’s backstory involves child enslavement, torture (mental and physical) and straight up body mutilation. It makes you want to hug the hell out of Juzo and it makes his interactions with Shinohara, who has essentially become Juzo surrogate dad, more heartwarming.
On the ghouls side, we have more time with some of the more supporting characters, the other staff members of the Anteiku coffee shop, Enji and Kaya. It shows that this place was more than a coffee shop. It was a refuge. It was a home for a lot of ghouls that made mistakes or were desperate for help. Not every ghoul that was taken in became like Ayato and it was thanks to an old man who lost his family. If one was to compare it to anything, it’s -sigh- the X-Men. People finding a family together. Maybe this resonates more with me more because “Tokyo Ghoul” lacks the baggage, the character inconsistencies and the genre conventions of the seminal superhero work, but one could make the comparisons.
As an artist, Sui Ishida has evolved to a great degree since “Tokyo Ghoul” began. When he is drawing quieter, less Nightmare Fueled scenes of violence and insanity, he has begun to utilize a softer approach. There seems to be more and more of the use of detailed eye expression, something more seen in shojo manga, to tell a story. Juzo’s childlike inquisitiveness looking at a giraffe in the zoo, quickly moving to brief longing as he spots a loving family are communicated through the change of what seems to be dull black eyes. Juzo is far from the only example; Seidou, Touka, Akira, Kaneki and especially Yoshimura all have their emotions expressed through a similar technique.
When the raid itself begins, Ishida gets to put on a full display of character skills with the impact they all deserve. From Enji and Kaya’s high-speed attacks against CCG grunts, to the more brutal impacts of investigators like Tanakamaru and Hachikawa, many of the fights show a graceful touch with attention to firm linework to sell them. Hachikawa’s scenes against Kaya in particular are quite vicious, fitting his more obsessive personality.
Let’s finally talk about Kaneki, his final talks with Nishiki and Tsukiyama, and joining in the battle. Ken Kaneki has grown a lot from a timid bookworm who just wanted to go on a date. He has been pushed to and beyond the breaking point and has tried to reconstruct himself into someone that ruthlessly protects those he cares about. He’s not like Nishiki, who is on his way out of here before it gets too heated (with a final twinge of sadness that he has to leave Kimi behind). Nor is he like Tsukiyama, whose hedonism can outright control him at times. As we see him join the fray, going through investigators and coming face-to-face with Amon as the volume closes, I truly don’t know which Kaneki we’re going to get.
Continued belowOne minor quibble: the cover. I’ve always dug the series’s watercolor covers that have ranged from heartwarming to madness-inducing, and this cover of Arima Kishio conveys his calm and controlled personality well. It’s just that the senior investigator is barely in this volume. I think he had like two scenes in this whole volume. Yeah, a comic cover lied, that’s never happened before! But it’s still bothersome.
Throughout these volumes, “Tokyo Ghoul” has been an experience. It’s had peaks and plateaus. It made me care for characters I never expected to (I remember in the beginnings of this series outright groaning when focus went back to the CCG). We are now on the edge of the finale to this series, with the sequel series “Tokyo Ghoul :re” hopefully distributing in the West this autumn. Even on its own, Sui Ishida has crafted a remarkable series that I can’t wait to see the conclusion to.
Final Verdcit: 8.6- Sui Ishida crafts a somber and heartwarming prelude to a catastrophic final battle.
