WARNING: These will be really long, because I will have a reaction for each chapter. Each Chapter. And it will contain Gory scenes, and Violence. Each chapter will be posted in separate articles.
So, I have started reading the Tokyo Ghoul manga about a few weeks ago, and this will be a little reaction sort of pointing out the differences seen in the manga and anime. If you haven’t taken the hint, I’ll throw it at your face This reaction will contain spoilers from both the anime and manga. Mostly the manga. So if you don’t like spoilers, don’t read this. If you’ve read up to a certain chapter, read up to that certain chapter. Or read it, it’s your choice, but . . .
You have been warned!!!
Before you grab your torches and pitchforks shouting about how the manga is the best, I will tell you now. I know. But I still think it would be fun to touch up on a couple things the anime missed, just to see how close they really are. So put down those torches and pitchforks and any other harmful objects Let’s get started.
Tokyo Ghoul Book 1’s cover features Ken Kaneki and contains nine chapters, with the first page colored, featuring Ken Kaneki, Touka Kirishima, Renji Yomo, Yoshimura, and Hinami Fueguchi. The second page contains info of Ken Kaneki such as birth-date, blood type, age, zodiac, school, size, and likes. Tokyo Ghoul was created by Sui Ishida.
Chapter 1: Tragedy
The first page of the actual story already starts off with why the manga has it’s title, Ghouls. Just from seeing the title of the chapter, and having already seen the anime, I know what to expect. *(Ugly sobbing in the background)*
The story continues inside of the lovely little coffee shop, Anteiku, where Kaneki and his best friend Hideyoshi (Hide) Nagachika are ordering as they hear the news about ghouls. Kaneki wonders what they look like, and how spooky it is that the creatures who eat humans to survive live among him, like everyday humans.
Here is your warning, if the chapter title was not enough. If it starts out nice and goofy with a title like that, then prepare to have your heart stomped on. A few hundred times, give or take a few more.
Anywho, we progress inside of Anteiku where Hide wants to call out Kaneki, trying to figure out who his special lady friend is that he usually meets inside Anteiku. While trying to point the girl out, he points at one of the waitresses, Touka Kirishima, where he scares her by asking the strangest question, along the lines of “Do you have a boyfriend?” *CoughHidePleaseCough* Kaneki tries to calm down his friend, fearing that they’d be banned for being obnoxious, for the coffee shop was the only connection he had to his lady friend.
Mid-sentence the girl walks right in and takes a seat. Hide tells Kaneki to give up, because the girl is out of his league, and takes off. Kaneki notices that the girl is reading a book written by an author he admires, Sen Takatsuki, and the title of the book is Egg of the Black Goat. Egg of the Black Goat is about a woman who his a serial killer called “Black Goat” and her son. Her son is disgusted by his mother’s sickness, but has to acknowledge the same cruel impulses inside him. Wow. Okay then. This was not in the anime. The description of the story I mean.
The girl bumps into Kaneki, who was literally reading Egg of the Black Goat also. Small talk happens, and they decided to go out to eat “To talk about their favorite books” on a later date. Kaneki learns that the girl’s name is Rize Kamishiro and he becomes excited for the outing the following day. The next day they talk about their favorite books and such, but Kaneki notices that Rize rarely ate any of her food claiming she was on a diet and she excuses herself to the bathroom as he wonders why such a thin female is on a diet. She took like literally a bite out of her sandwich. A nibble. c’mon Rize, you’re wasting a good sandwich smh.
After they’re get together Kaneki began to walk in the same direction as Rize’s home and they spoke about all the things they and had in common, Blood type, taste in books, age, etc. Kaneki thinks this is going great, as our lovely waitress Touka passes by. She stops midway and turns around, and her friend she was walking home with was wondering what the hold up was. Touka replied that it was nothing and they kept going. Kaneki was prepared to leave once they hit a fork in the road, but Rize was too scared of the ghouls around her street, as she trembles about how afraid she is to sleep at night *Zoom in on lips* Kaneki being the nice guy he is continues to walk her home as they walk down a dark spooky alley. So very romantic~
Suddenly, she stops. She flings herself on him, and Kaneki’s heart begins to race. She starts a conversation, talking about how she noticed the way he looked at her. *Louder heart beats* *Zoom in on lips*
Oh my gosh, is he gonna get a kiss? A Kiss? A—
CHOMP!!
Me: Wait, what?
Sui Ishida: Lol this chapter is called Tragedy.
In the middle of that chomp, she says she’s noticed him too. As her eyes don’t look the same. Kaneki is confused, because she bit him. Swallowing that chunk of meat she took off that poor boy’s arm she compliments that it’s delicious. Well you got that going for ya, Kaneki. He focuses on her eyes, Red iris’ and black sclera with red veins across the eye into the skin. As Kaneki had fallen back in fear, Rize stated that she had a scene in Egg of the Black Goat that she really enjoyed, it was when the Black Goat would rip out the guts of a man trying to run away, and no matter how many times she read that part, it got her excited every time.
Wow. Okay then.
If it wasn’t already obvious, Rize tells you, she is in fact a Ghoul.
Kaneki, you poor soul. Your first date with a girl ended up being with a ghoul. You poor thing.
Kaneki now makes a break for it, Good choice, Kaneki. Rize has four claws on her back that she uses to trip him. She tells him that she’ll rip out his insides gently.
Rize . . . Hasn’t anyone ever told you not to play with your food?
Kaneki is able to quickly get away once again by stabbing one of her claws with a mechanical pencil from his bag. As he runs he thinks about the series of events, Her meeting him, their first day, and figured out it was all calculated. As he runs to quickly escape into the street
BSH!! “Oh look, I’ve been impaled”
Rize has decided to impale him with one of the four claws. Ow. She then slaps him against a building, where he is about to pass out. As she walks closer to him, she asks if he’s dead. Continuing the conversation, she exclaims that she likes bodies like his. Not too much fat, not very muscular so he’s tender, and she wonders if he’ll taste better than the two she ate earlier that week. There is a zoom in on steel beams above the building Kaneki slammed into, showing that they were wobbling and then the rope around them snapped. As she got closer to Kaenki, the steel beams landed on top of her.
I laughed, hard.
Splurting out blood, she qoutes, “Why . . . Me? . . .” *Cue eyes rolling into the back of her head*
Why you? Why you, Rize?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN, WHY YOU?! Girl, you know why you. People find Kaneki and Rize after hearing the Steel Beams fall, and call an ambulance to get them help. The next page starts dark, with Kaneki awaking slightly, only able to hear few sentences of the doctors working on him, “Abnormal . . . Injur . . .” and “He needs . . . Organ transp . . .”
The head doctor, Doctor Kano, decides to use Rize’s organ for the transplant because their blood type matches. They could not reach his or her family so Dr. Kano responded that he’d take full responsibility.
As Kaneki begins to awaken, he quotes “I’m not the main protagonist of a story or anything . . . I’m just a normal college student who likes to read . . . but . . . if I were to write a story with me as the main character . . . it would be . . . A Tragedy.
The doctors exclaim that the operation was a success and Kaneki opens his eyes, with his left eye looking like Rize’s eye when she revealed she was a ghoul.
WELL THEN. I will forever understand why this chapter was called Tragedy. That being said, my heart did hurt a lot. If you enjoyed reading this, go ahead and leave a comment or so expressing your thoughts!
You are totally allowed to hurt me with torches and pitchforks and other harmful objects now, because I have realized I may have crossed the line in some places, or made jokes about things not everyone would like. But understand, this is my article. BRING ON THE HURTING
If you know of any spoilers, please keep them to yourself. I have only read up to book two, and spoilers after chapter one in this article will not be appreciated. For this article only covers for chapter one.
Please do not spoil for any of the other books either, that would be extremely rude. Especially since the United States has not finished translating all of the books, and not everyone would like to read online translations.
Thank you for understanding, and stay tuned for the article on Chapter 2: Oddity
This is Karsyn, Signing off~
Tokyo Ghoul is published by VIZ Media, in VIZ Signature Manga
