If Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 7 was your introduction to the world of half-ghoul Ken Kaneki, you might think it was a Rated M fighting manga, as this volume is much less introspective, showing the progress of two different groups toward two related objectives. As the CCG besieges the Aogiri Tree ghoul gang, the Anteiku Squad infiltrates them as well to rescue Kaneki, who is being tortured by Yamori, a sadistic cannibal ghoul. While CCG officers and ghouls are ripping each other apart outside, Yamori and Kaneki also take turns dismembering each other, although it is of course much less polite than I’m making it out to be.
A lot happens in Volume 7, much of it combat of a literal or figurative nature, with the CCG fighting for their lives outside and Kaneki fighting for his sanity during Yamori’s cruel tortures, and Sui Ishida is such a good storyteller that he’s able to fuse this super-melee into an exciting chapter that I found interesting, despite a few problems that prevented me from actually enjoying it.
My first criticism of Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 7 is that the alliance with Tsukyama strains credibility, so that any time he appeared on a page, I would think “this would never happen.” Perhaps it is because I caught up with volumes 4 to 7 all at one time, but I found it extremely unbelieveable that Touka and Nishiki would ever work with Tsukiyama after the events of Volumes 4 and 5, in which Sui Ishida did his best to build up Tsukiyama to be a villain more respulsive than Yamori due to Tsukiyama’s chilling refinement. Not only would Touka and Nishiki never want to be reliant on or beholden to such a monster, they would surely relish destroying him again. Tsukiyama was such a more elevated villain than Yamori is, and a more developed character as well, that I can’t help thinking that this is like Two Face helping Catwoman and The Red Hood take down Joe Chill.
My second criticism of volume 7 of Tokyo Ghoul is that it ends, through Kaneki’s ingesting of ghoul kagune, with his metamorphosis into a kind of ghoul hero that has accepted his transformation, and I believe this may end up being an unfortunate turn of events for the story, much of which has hinged on the ambiguity of Kaneki’s dual nature and the contrast between his otaku-ish nebbishness and the bloodthirsty kagune that he inherited from Rize. Before, not only was he a college freshman trying to cope with his ghoulishness through his usual nerdy strategies of introversion and introspection, he was also a kind of ghoul underclassman as well, learning the ropes of being a ghoul. It was a delightful contrast that injected some black humor into Kaneki’s life, even at its darkest moments, such as being surrounded by the ghoul restaurateurs of Vol.4-5; now, all this amusing ambiguity may be devoured by a Kaneki that has become the Jason Bourne of ghouls. As a coming of age or rite of passage, it comes across as shallow and undignified for that to be Kaneki’s defining moment of manhood, and I’m hoping that Dark Kaneki will be a short-term development.
Also, I should mention that while all the volumes of Tokyo Ghoul so far merit their T+ rating, Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 7 was extremely explicit in its description of Kaneki’s torture, and it deserved an M rating from Viz. If you are a reader—or a reader’s parent—for whom ratings are important, take note of the more violent content in volume 7 .
Overall, Tokyo Ghoul Vol. 7 was a letdown for me compared to other volumes, as the author seemed to be forcing the protagonist into a much darker role. In volumes four and five, Kaneki had to be rescued when he was at Tsukiyama’s mercy, and in volume seven, a Kaneki who is pretty much the same person suddenly turns the tables on his captor and becomes a god of ghouls. Moreover, I would be as inclined to believe Leonard Hofstadter capable of cannibalizing Sheldon Cooper as to believe that Kaneki, even under extreme torture, would be capable of cannibalizing another ghoul at this point in his development. If Sui Ishida wanted to write a different kind of story about a different kind of character, he could have started a new manga rather than forcing this one down this path without a long character arc to sustain this development.
(Editor’s Note: Tokyo Ghoul Vol.7 was published on June 21, 2016 by Viz Media, who sent the review copy.)
