VIZ MEDIA – @VIZMedia
[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]
MANGAKA: Sui Ishida
TRANSLATION: Joe Yamazaki
LETTERING: Vanessa Satone
EDITOR: Pancha Diaz
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0742-3; paperback (April 2020); Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”
338pp, B&W, $12.99 U.S., $17.99 CAN, £8.99 UK
Tokyo Ghoul is a dark fantasy manga series written and illustrated by Sui Ishida. It was serialized in the Japanese seinen manga magazine, Weekly Young Jump (Shueisha, Inc.), between September 2011 and September 2014. It was later collected in fourteen tankōbon (graphic novels). It had a sequel series, Tokyo Ghoul:re, which also was serialized in Weekly Young Jump – between October 2014 and July 2018. It was collected into sixteen tankōbon volumes.
VIZ Media published Tokyo Ghoul as a 14-volume graphic novel series from June 2015 to August 2017, under its VIZ Signature imprint. It published Tokyo Ghoul: re as a 16-volume graphic novel series, bimonthly, beginning in October 2017, under its “VIZ Signature” imprint. VIZ published the sixteenth and final volume this past month, April 2020,
Tokyo Ghouls is about “Ghouls.” They look like humans and live among humans, but Ghouls crave human flesh. The Commission of Counter Ghouls (CCG) is the only organization in the world fighting and exterminating Ghouls and investigating Ghoul-related crimes. Haise Sasaki was in charge of an unruly CCG squad, “Quinx Squad” (or “Qs Squad”), but among the secrets of his forgotten past was the truth that he was Ken Kaneki, a half-human and half-Ghoul.
As Tokyo Ghoul: re, Vol. 16 (Chapters 165 to 179) opens, the Ghoul-CCG alliance has rescued Kaneki from his “Dragon” form, the monster within which he was entombed. However, the creature continues to spew forth mutant Ghouls, and some of these things to which the Dragon has given birth are infecting humans with a horrific form of “Ghoulism.”
The only way to stop this is to go deep inside the creature, and who will go into the belly of the beast to find a cure? It is Kaneki, of course. There, he will face the ultimate conspirator, Nimura Furuta, and also, someone who was very important in his life. Will Kaneki's ultimate act of bravery be the final strike that will end the Ghoul-human war or will it be his and everyone, Ghoul and human's, last stand?
[This volume includes an illustrated “Afterward” by Sui Ishida.]
THE LOWDOWN: The Tokyo Ghoul: re manga has come to an end. When Tokyo Ghoul began, it was a dark fantasy series that took readers into a mysterious new world that seemed horrifying on the surface. The truth was that this new world was more complicated beneath that surface.
Tokyo Ghoul: re Graphic Novel Volume 16 is a wrap-up of what the narrative became in the second series – a tale of racial conflict and of the conspiracy that created that conflict. Without spoiling this final volume, I can say that creator Sui Ishida has not only ended the narrative, but he has also revealed that life goes on.
To the end, Joe Yamazaki's translation captures the intensity and mania and the ebb and flow of the action. Vanessa Satone's lettering conveys the chaotic nature of that action, while she finds a way to cherish the end of the series while suggesting the continuation of the story. Whatever happens beyond the pages that we can only imagine is not as important as the fact that between Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul: re we have thirty volumes of imaginative, inventive, and unique manga.
I READS YOU RECOMMENDS: Fans of Tokyo Ghoul will want to dine on the “VIZ Signature” title, Tokyo Ghoul: re.
9 out of 10
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"
The text is copyright © 2020 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.
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