Tokyo Ghoul, Volume 1

June 22, 2015
When Kaneki ends up getting an organ transplant from a ghoul—basically a vampire with bug attributes—things in his world slowly but surely change for the worse. As he starts to crave human flesh to feast on, he becomes ever more deeply involved in the savage ghoul world that exists behind the scenes in his neighborhood. Kaneki struggles with being someone who’s both human and demon, trying to retain his humanity while not going crazy with hunger. By the book’s end, he’s reached a delicate emotional truce between the two, though not without heavy sacrifice (and body horror). The book is a complex one; camera angles and allusions to Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” blend Western literature and Japanese horror cinema in a light novel–esque treatment. Ishida’s debut manga series has sold millions of copies in Japan, and he’s crafted a first volume that solidly delivers with much potential.