【Tokyo Ghoul】An instant hit amongst fans of dark fantasy themed manga!

Tokyo Kushu, or more commonly known as Tokyo Ghoul, is a dark fantasy manga series written and illustrated by Sui Ishida. The manga was serialized in Weekly Young Jump – a magazine by Shueisha that aims at young adult readers, from September 2011 to September 2014. A sequel, titled Tokyo Ghoul:re, was also serialized in Weekly Young Jump from October 2014 to July 2018.

Both Tokyo Ghoul and its sequel Tokyo Ghoul:re have sold a total of 44 million copies in print and received praise for the engrossing story, diverse cast of characters and deep philosophical meaning. In 2018, the series was nominated for the 30th Harvey Award for Best Manga.

The first season of Tokyo Ghoul’s anime adaptation by Pierrot was aired in 2014 and its opening theme song “Unravel” by TK from Ling tosite Sigure became an instant hit amongst anime lovers. Since then, 4 seasons have been released, which amounts to 48 episodes.

Ken Kaneki, the main protagonist, was a normal college freshman. He was timid, quiet and loved to read books.

That fateful day, Kaneki was sitting at a coffee shop named Anteiku with his best friend Hideyoshi. They were talking about the recent incident involving ghoul, which have been all over the news. Ghouls were said to be monsters that eat people, and they would disguise themselves as humans to lie in wait of their next victims.

Rumors – that were all Kaneki and Hideyoshi have known of the ghouls since they have never encounter one in real life.

While they were speculating how would a real ghoul look like, the waitress came and asked for their order.

That was when a beautiful long-haired woman stepped inside the shop. She was the reason why Kaneki liked to frequent this particular coffee shop. “Kaneki”, Hideyoshi signed and said, “Sorry to say this, but give it up!”.

She was way out of his league; Kaneki knew that but he couldn’t help being attracted to her. She was not only beautiful but Kaneki also noticed that she was reading the same book as him, “Black Goat’s Egg” by author Takatsuki Sen.

As the woman stood up to leave, she passed by Kaneki and accidently bumped into his table, making him drop the book he was reading. When picking it up, she saw that it was “Black Goat’s Egg” and initiated a conversation. “I was just reading that too”, she smiled at Kaneki. This might have been his lucky day – Kaneki thought.

The woman that Kaneki has been crushing on was Kamishiro Rize, and he finally scored a date with her. The date started out fairly smooth as they talked about their favorite authors and books. Kaneki noticed that Rize hasn’t taken a single bite out of her sandwich, but Rize just said she was on a diet lately.

On their way back, Rize asked if Kaneki could walk her home because an incident involving ghoul recently happened in the area around her house. When passing through an empty alley, Rize suddenly stepped close to Kaneki, her face slightly blushed as if she was about to confess something. She said she noticed that Kaneki has been watching her and she was, in truth, watching him too......

However, it was not as a love interest. Rize watched Kaneki as a predator scouting out her prey.

Rize’s eyes turned dark red when she abruptly bit Kaneki’s shoulder. Her face became twisted while Kaneki dropped onto the ground, his whole body shook in fear. Red eyes were the unique characteristic of the ghoul. Kaneki realized that his crush was truly a vicious ghoul.

Rize finally showed her true self, her body grew larger and claws with piercing sharp tips sprouted from her back. She laughed at Kaneki and started to pursuit him as he franticly ran away.

Unfortunately, Rize’s claws reached out and caught him in a heartbeat. While struggling to free himself from Rize, Kaneki grabbed a sharp object on the ground and stabbed her claw. The moment Kaneki turned his back and tried to run away again, Rize’s claw extended and pierced through his stomach. Blood started to gush out as Kaneki’s consciousness faded away.

When Rize was inching closer to Kaneki’s body, she said that she loved humans with body types like his because they have the proper amount of fat, they are soft and easy to eat. That was why she targeted him. Engrossed in her prey, Rize didn’t notice a shadow looming over......

Giant metal beams fell from the scaffold above. It turned out that Rize has chased Kaneki into a construction site. The beam instantly crushed Rize, blood trickled down her cheeks like tears as she exhaled her final words.

Surrounding people heard the loud noise and came to check. They found Kaneki and Rize at the scene and rushed them both to the hospital. Kaneki briefly saw the doctors when they were about to operate on him before passing out. The only words that lingered in his mind was “......transplant her organs in him!”.

The darkness engulfed Kaneki when he woke up from the operation. I’m a normal college student who likes to read that you could find anywhere – Kaneki thought, but if you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be a tragedy. His eyes started to open as Kaneki slowly regained consciousness. One of his eyes was black but the other has turned dark red, exactly like Rize’s eyes.

Has Kaneki been turned into ghoul? How will this tragedy unfold?