Tokyo Ghoul

Author : Ishida Sui

If I have to kill someone to survive, is it wrong to kill someone? Is my existence any less important than my victim’s? 

Premise: 4/5

I do like dark fantasies and Tokyo Ghoul fits the bill. 

It is set in a world where ghouls exist alongside humans and prey upon them. They are indistinguishable from humans for the most part except for their eyes which turn red with black sclera and predatory organs called kagune which manifest in many ways.

Since most of the ghouls do hunt humans down for food the government has formed a bureau which hunts them down with extreme prejudice, Commission of Counter Ghoul. Most of the members are orphans who have lost their families to ghouls and hence have a great deal of hatred towards them.

And in the middle of all this is a half-Ghoul. They have only one eye changing colour and are said to be stronger than an average ghoul. As an existence they are a paradox, humans forced to live by consuming humans belonging to neither world that have made them.

Plot and story overall 4/5

The overall plot follows the life of Kaneki Ken, a university freshman and a bookworm with a penchant for tragedies and mysteries. By a stroke of luck he scores a date with a beautiful girl he meets at a coffee shop. Unfortunately the girl in question is Kamishiro Rize, a ghoul and Kaneki was her prey.

Things go awry when she is mortally wounded during her attack being unable to kill Kaneki. He is taken to a hospital where the doctor on call transfers Rize’s organs into him to save his life. It works. He survives but he becomes a half ghoul and much like a real ghoul he must consume things of human origin to survive.

The rest of the story involves Kaneki’s induction into the ghoul society, witnessing the brutality committed by humans and ghouls in their war with each other. Naturally he grows stronger with his abilities and even becomes a bit deranged (come on! Its seinen! No free power ups here) as his ghoul nature begins to overtake his mind.

Special insight is given into other characters life which become important in the major story line.

Unfortunately the manga is complete but the story is not. Too many loose ends which need to be resolved. Those will hopefully be dealt with in the sequel Tokyo Ghoul :RE

Characters 4/5
The characters are all a little dark, some more than a little. With the possible exceptions of Nagachika Hideyoshi and Fueguchi Hinami

Kaneki Ken is exquisite as a tragic hero. No matter how strong he gets he screws up and someone else gets hurt and that spurs him to do anything, even sell his soul to get stronger. Especially loved the bit where he seems almost reasonably insane where he fights Kirishima Ayato, calls him out on his bullshit and his half-assed stance and tells him that he is not going to kill him as that would make Touka-san sad. He would however half-kill him. And then he proceeds to break 103 bones in his body while naming them all camly ( because the adult human body has 206 bones..)

Kirishima Touka barely holds much attention even when she is on page. But her childhood is a painful one as she and her brother live as fugitives

In the CCG the most interesting character by far is Amon Kotaru. He was an orphan raised in an orphanage by a ghoul who used to eat ‘adopted’ children. He was taken in by the CCG and became one of their most effective agents because he sees himself as he agent of justice. I look forward to seeing what he does if it turns out that the CCG is corrupt.

Point is the characters are all very interesting although the one given the most development is Kaneki Ken.  

Art & Design 3/5
The art is graphically a little dark and edgy. Blood cant be shown well in black and white but gore is a different story. While they don’t show much of the ghouls eating people part I think it is a good idea for the readers imagination to conjure the images themselves.

The fight scenes are well done especially the ones between the ghouls and the CCG.

The characters have no real distinguishing features like hairdo or hair colour but they are all unique. The only one with any true distinguishing feature is Kaneki Ken whose hair turns white after days being tortured by Yamori. Even his eyes take on a noticeably haunted appearance after that incident.

The Mangaka does a good job of showing a range of expressions on a person’s face and especially how he makes them uglier when they begin to exhibit cruelty.

Overall verdict:

While the manga is dark it is not depressing at all probably because the circumstances are completely fictional. If you are a fan of protagonist growth, even if it is a painful one, do not miss this.

Only demerit is that you will probably want to start reading the sequel which is not a completed series.


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Beck

BECK

Author : Harold Sakuishi

The balls to do to something you love in-spite of all the shit the world throws at you, that is what this manga embodies. It seems to say that if there is something you absolutely love doing any effort spent on it is worthwhile.

This manga comes across as a the manga equivalent of “Rudderless”

Premise: 3/5
The story follows the life of  a few people who get together to form an independent rock band. In and off itself, not earth shaking. 

How ever as a slice of life manga it does capture the hardship that the life of a musician often contains as he remains in obscurity and is sidelined by society for daring to think he could make it. Its not all bad though as when they show the bands genius they show it quite well. There are no actual lyrics written except maybe for three songs but there are lots of references to the old rockers – Beatles, Lost Peirot, Nirvana etc.

Music is something that is dominated by feels, It is rather surprising that there is not much of hardcore emotional stuff that happens. The love story in  here is quite understated (still cute though) and never takes the spotlight from the band.

And naturally since this is an independent rock band they become the underdogs fighting against the man. As a band they have to over come the blockade set up by a bigwig in the world of Japanese music.

And finally the infighting within the band, which seems to happen in all movies of such type. It is considerably milder here though, just awkwardness instead of a full on brawl

Plot and story overall 4/5
Yukio ‘Koyuki’ Tanaka is an average preschooler destined for a soulless life as a salary man. His life is changed however when he meets a high-school bad boy Ryusuke "Ray" Minami. These two along with Tsunemi Chiba, Yoshiyuki Taira and Yuji "Saku" Sakura form a band called ‘Beck’ named after Ray’s Frankenstein dog. Together they go on a difficult journey to have their music recognized not only in Japan but in the world. Yup, they are that good.

 The story is pretty simple and straightforward although the number of people against this band is a bit over the top. Although in the beginning it looked like a schoolboys slice of life manga that changes when Koyuki drops out of high-school. After that the manga pretty much focuses on the Japaness Music industry.

Representing the Everyman among the bands of course they would get stonewalled but they remain true to each other and surprisingly managed to stay together. Although Yukio has prodigious talent there is nothing that makes the other band members replaceable. Each and everyone of them are an integral part of BECK. The dream they all share involving great rock legends is a nice touch, gives a ‘chosen’ feel to them 

Characters 3/5

The characters are well rounded and non obtrusive, each person with his own problems and charms. The story never focuses on anyone's life as such, just making oblique mentions of their situation. The only one who gets that kind of attention is Yukio Tanaka. Each character is developed not in his own storyline but rather together as they travel the narrow and difficult path to fame.

Even the villains are well made with the right air of menace to one, and shitty pathetic obnoxiousness to the more minor ones. The only extra in this respect is the presence of Kenichi Saitou a middle aged salary-man who is also a bit of a pervert. He provides much needed humour at the right places.


Art & Design 4/5

The art really good. Each character is drawn in a realistic fashion, and no one has shounenesque distinguishing features, not one of them look like a half-assed job. Each band member has their own unique presence though, and the  character appearance allow each persons personality to shine through. Not as much attention to detail as Oyasumi Punpun, but still a pretty solid work especially the scenes of their Final concert, and the Rock Star Legend dreams...goosebumps people!

I should probably mention that there was a mild amount of fan service in the beginning but it kinda disappears in the middle.

Overall verdict:

This is a definite read from me. Go ahead. I am sure most people would like it. Definitely for you if you are a fan of Rock music and enjoyed reading Bakuman.



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