After the harrowing and emotional events of the previous volumes, both Anteiku and the Ghoul Investigators begin to reassess, just in time for another group to enter the fray.
Written & Illustrated by Sui Ishida
Things heat up in the 11th Ward as the CCG investigates the high rate of Investigator deaths. Kaneki has an explosive run-in with Aogiri Tree, essentially a Ghoul Gang, run by a Ghoul known only as the One-Eyed King.
To start, I want to show my appreciation for the Recap Page:
This is the first volume to actually incorporate a recap page and it really highlights how important recap pages have become. As a comic review/journalist scum, my colleagues and I read and think about this stuff way more than we should, so a lot is always lost in the interim. It’s made more difficult with this book since it’s been two-ish months since last volume. It’s to the point where I do not understand books in long-form storytelling that don’t do it. That said, this recap is how you do it. Neat, precise, gives you all the information on major characters — the ghouls on one side and the boring humans on the other — without being overbearing or betraying the aesthetic of the book. It’s a far cry from saaaaaaay, the recap in Hickman’s “Avengers/New Avengers”, which was about as helpful as a petition to get more Star Wars Legends material.
All that aside, let’s get into the book. If volume five was the emotional crescendo of a lot of threads spread out from the beginning, then volume six is the setting up for the next act of the series. Lots of threads with Anteiku and the Ghoul Investigators are set, specifically in the form of Aogiri, a group of ghoul supremacists that took over 11th Ward and are beginning to make an even larger move for power, taking special interest in Kaneki.
While Kaneki does have the second half of this volume, the first half has more of an emotional exploration for Touka as she encounters one of the members of Aogiri: Ayato, one of the most dangerous members of the group… who is also her little brother. Combining that with what she has been going through from the aftermath of the last volume, it lends to a very sympathetic character after several volumes of gruffness.
It’s also this reunion of siblings where we have a majority of the combat in this volume. Ayato has a similar kagune to his sister but it’s a bit more… inky? That seems like a weird description but Ishida’s true home is when he’s drawing these surreal kagune, the creepy black sclera eyes and the distorted faces. This book is horror and while there is a lot of “horror of the human/ghoul condition” in this book, it is always good to see Ishida cut loose.
So, I talked about the ghoul side here, but what about the human side? Well, welcome my friends, to the most boring parts of this series. To put it simply, every time I have to be pulled away from the ghouls to focus on the Investigators, this book feels like a slog. What made it worse this time? Well, they decided to have a big chunk of “World Trigger Development” smack dab in the middle of the volume. What do I mean? Well, I coined the phrase from the manga “World Trigger”, a shonen action manga that I could only get two volumes into because it decides to do nothing but explain things, from how the world works to character motivations.
And that’s what is here. When we get back to the Investigators, there is such a slog about what kagunes are, the cells in a ghoul’s body that produces it, the different types of kagune. It was to the point that with each page I just wanted to jump into the book, grab the dude by his throat and yell “Shut the feck up, ye gobshite!” Father Jack style. Point is, with the exception of Juzo (who’s really only sticking point is the audience asking “Where did this kid come from?”), the Ghoul Investigators are insufferably boring. Even from a design aesthetic they’re boring. Look at that recap! Ghoul’s got a variety of hairstyles and clothing. The humans? Dude in a suit. Other Dude in a suit. Slightly Younger Dude in a suit.
Basically, while the ghoul (basically the oppressed hunted) parts of this book are great and help plant a lot of seeds for the future, every time I get yanked back to the Investigators (basically the cops), this book feels like a shit version of “Witch Hunter Robin”. I still love the book and it’s still probably my favorite thing coming out, but we really need to get to a point with these humans already!
Final Verdict: 7.0- While all the seeds being planted plot-wise and emotion-wise on the ghoul side of things is fascinating, the Investigators really drag the book down.
