Author: Sui Ishida
Translator: Joe Yamazaki
Series: Tokyo Ghoul
Publisher: VIZ Media LLC
Released: February 17^th, 2012
Received: NetGalley
Warnings: flesh eating, graphic imagery

I received a copy of Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1 in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Written by Sui Ishida, and translated by Joe Yamazaki, Tokyo Ghoul is a series that I’ve heard so much about. But it was only recently that I decided to pick up the first volume and give it a try.

Once upon a time, Ken Kaneki was nothing more than a shy student. All he wanted was to hang out with his best friend, and make excuses to spend time with his crush. Unfortunately for him, things didn’t go quite as planned.

His first date makes even most dates look downright amazing in comparison. You see, the girl he liked didn’t actually want to date him. She wanted to eat him. And so his story begins.

Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 1 was simultaneously everything and nothing like what I had expected. I’m so glad that I finally gave it a try, even after all of these years. I can see why people talk about it so much. Even so, I can also see that no description had ever really done this series justice.

So, am I basically saying that I liked this series more than expected? Absolutely. Though I suppose I can only speak for volume one, so far. It was a morbid yet fun twist on the whole ghoul thing, with some excellent character development along the way.

I also can’t speak for the anime, which I haven’t seen. I think once I read a few more volumes of Tokyo Ghoul I might give that a try as well, but we’ll see how I’m feeling when I get there. I am relived that this series doesn’t appear to have been over-hyped,and am looking forward to seeing where it takes us from here.

In case it wasn’t obvious, Tokyo Ghoul is actually pretty graphic. I mean, it’s a series about ghouls and how they eat people. Fairly obvious, right? All things considered though, they do a pretty decent job of handling that nature of their characters. Sometimes they embrace it, other times they try to fight against it (like the lead character).

Ken’s character is…interesting. He’s been put into a difficult situation, through a series of crazy circumstances. It’s pretty compelling, yet made all the more interesting by the characters revolving around him (something that I find happens a lot in manga).

I’m looking forward to reading more of this series, even if I am totally behind on the times for it. Oh well, better late than never, right?