Page 45 Review by Jonathan
"Boy eats girl... da da da, dara da da, da da da dara da da..."
With sincere apologies to Haircut 100.
So... we finally got in the manga title seemingly everyone's been desperate for and I thought I better give it a read. Set in a modern-day Tokyo haunted by 'ghouls' with a taste for human flesh, it's a horror with comedic undertones for reasons I will elaborate on shortly.
No one has ever caught a ghoul, but people suspect that they are walking amongst the population hiding in human form. Then, occasionally, the half eaten remains of some poor unfortunate will be found on the pavement in the morning. These attacks aren't frequent enough to cause mass panic, or indeed apparently to stop people walking the streets alone at night, but obviously people are concerned.
When our shy central protagonist, bookworm Ken Kaneki, is invited out for a dinner date by the glamorous Rize, it all seems too good to be true. It is, obviously, as she is a ghoul who's decided Ken is going to be her Special Of The Day. Fortunately for him whilst she is in the middle of pouncing on him and his kidneys (after he's chivalrously offered to walk her home) some scaffolding collapses, killing her instantly. Unfortunately for Ken, after her late-night snack, he's in need of an organ donor. Now where you suppose they might find somebody, without any bothersome next of kin to say no to such a worthy request?
You got it, poor old Ken ends up as the recipient of various ghoulish innards - instead of ending up as the contents of them - and that's where his problems really start. Unable to turn to anyone human including best friend Hike for help, in case he decides to turn them into a sandwich, he's forced to seek succour from his new-found half-brothers and half-sisters. And their social skills leave a lot to be desired...
Hmm. I can't honestly say I was as instantly gripped this as I was by say, ATTACK ON TITAN. It's an interesting enough premise, but I think it is going to be far too much battle manga-esque for me. Which is a surprise given it is on Viz' signature Ikki imprint. But then again so was MARCH STORY and I thought exactly the same about that. So: upmarket battle manga with a decent premise, then.
