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A review by juushika
Tokyo Ghoul, Tome 1 by Sui Ishida
3.0
Review of the series entire. A college student's life is radically altered when he receives transplanted organs from a man-eating ghoul. Ghouls take vampire tropes, make them even messier, and remove any pretense of ethics--so this is highly relevant to my interests. When it works, it's delightfully grotesque and unsettlingly intimate. But the style is so anime, and the overdesigned characters and exaggerated reactions share the heightened tone of the ghoul elements. Imagine the narrative this might be if the protagonist's revulsion towards human food didn't have the same tonal register as his --if the violence stood out, if the unsettling moments weren't drowned out. Sometimes it lands better, but rarely without caveat (see: volume 7 is honestly great, but the subsequent shift to much less interesting characters is a let-down; the bitter tone of the ending is brave, but the plotting sucks). I like this, but like it by cherry-picking and extrapolating those best bits that the work itself doesn't have time to differentiate before introducing a new character design. I don't like it enough to read the sequel.