So I Started Tokyo Ghoul...

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Tokyo Ghoul. I have read seven volumes.

[00:00:02]So, I'm not done with it. You're just getting my initial thoughts. This is the beginning. It seemed like the right place to pause because it seemed like things were about to change drastically from from where what I had been reading and where I landed. That's what it seemed like. So, I've read volumes 1 through 7. That's what we're going to be discussing today. Spoilers for those volumes. If you haven't read them, I haven't watched the anime, but I have so much to talk about just in this section.

[00:00:26]So, I just really wanted to turn on the camera and shout for a minute. When you think about where the story started versus where it is just seven volumes in, it's such a rapid but well-paced change. In the beginning, we learn that not only are people being killed and eaten by ghouls, but there are some ghouls that are eating far more than they need in order to survive. They've essentially become serial killers, hiding among the humans, unpredictable until they attack. So, right away we understand the threat and we watch it happen firsthand through our main character. Kaneki is an awkward book nerd who's been lured in by a ghoul. But after she dies and he's saved by the doctor giving him her organs, he's now half human, half ghoul. And now it seems like this is a retrospective act and one that seems to be coming true. Now he views his life as a tragedy. If he were to write his own story, it would be a tragedy, which is certainly the way he seems to be viewing himself throughout these volumes. But watching him go through the struggle of trying as many foods as he can, looking for any solution other than the one right in front of him, that he really has changed and how that's basically the most horrifying thing to him, that he against his will has been turned into a monster.

[00:01:43]like those that we saw in the introductory chapter on the reporting about indiscriminately killing for the sake of killing. And now as he sees the people around him, his human instincts have been replaced with ghoul instincts to the point that he seems to be losing himself to them. He no longer feels human. He's lost his own humanity, and he's willing to do anything to remove the ghoul side from him, even if what he does could kill him. His thought is, "If I'm lucky, they'll give me new organs."

[00:02:13]Which means that he knows that he likely won't get a third chance, but he'd rather die than live out life like this.

[00:02:19]What's happened to him becoming a ghoul is something that was completely outside of his realm of influence. It wasn't something he chose. It wasn't something that he did to himself. It was completely done to him. And now this is his life. Now this is what he's stuck with. And to him, he's now become a monster. And everything about his new instincts is repulsive to him and is the worst kind of fate that he could possibly have. Which is why he goes to Toka completely desperate, telling her, "Please, I need your help. You're the only one that I know of that could possibly help me. My life has been miserable. My life has been horrible since I became a ghoul. I need some kind of help." And for Toka, that's like a slap in the face, you know, like in two ways. It's you think being a ghoul is like being a monster. You have no idea the struggle we go through every day simply for being alive. And two, you don't think my life is worth living just because I'm a ghoul. But that's exactly the lesson that Kaneki has to figure out. He has to be introduced to the ghoul world so he can see the nuance of it and to realize that both human life and ghoul life are worth living. In the beginning here, Kaneki has to figure out how much he's willing to give in this new life. To survive, he has to eat. But what that means is eating humans, which to him feels like giving up his humanity to the ghoul. So he starves himself, but his instincts still push him to the thing that most repulses him. And this is one of the main conflicts for Kaneki in his new life. To him, his soul is a human and his body is a ghoul. To him, the ghouls are nothing but monsters. and he has to do anything he can to cling to his humanity, to fight his instincts, his body, and cling to the thing that he views as who he truly is. This internal struggle is shown physically in several different ways. We have the one human eye, the one ghoul eye, the eye patch that covers the ghoul eye. Even when both of his eyes would appear human, he still keeps the ghoul eye covered just in case. probably just in case it would light up red, but also probably just as an inherent rejection of what that eye could turn into. So, best to keep it covered up at all times. Of course, then the ghoul mask that reveals the other eye. There's so many things that the story does to kind of play with his shame and with his divided sense of self. Uh, feeling that he doesn't really fit either in the ghoul world or the human world. He isn't really truly accepted, understood, or in line with either anymore. Even though he wants to be in line with humanity, he still now has these instincts that set him apart from both. So, he's constantly shutting away or hiding away the side that he finds more shame in. But then you also have the mask that that focuses on the other side of things. But all the ghouls have to wear masks because if they're not wearing masks, then they're vulnerable to the investigators, which could then make them hunted down and killed. So, they have to wear masks. But also, the humans have to be on edge constantly because at any point they could be killed. The ghouls have to eat, so they eat the humans. The humans are fearful, so they hunt the ghouls. The ghouls are hunted, so they seek vengeance from the humans. It's this terrible cycle. Though, there does seem to be answers. there does seem to be options for them to not go to the worst side of things that makes this whole cycle continue to go on and on and on and on. And the more Kaneki lives with the ghouls, the more difficult it is for him to cling to his already established view of the world. The CCG are doing nothing wrong. It's the ghoul's fault that they're being hunted anyway. But why couldn't I save them? He's seeing the ghouls as individuals rather than inherent monsters. Yet he still sees himself as monstrous ever since he became a ghoul. Toa is the contact he has with the ghoul world, but she's also challenging his perspective on what it is to be a ghoul and his idea of their monstrosity. But she also challenges him to decide which one he's going to be.

[00:06:28]While he seems to view himself as neither. When he realizes that he can't resist his hunger, so he can't be around Hyde anymore, he feels as if there's no place for him in life and no community or friend that he can be with. He's alone. He doesn't belong anywhere. So much like the ghouls, we have a complicated group of people within the CCG. This kind of world is wrong is a sentiment that keeps getting repeated.

[00:06:55]He's fighting for a better world. There are traumas that the humans have suffered that put them in this perspective. And you can see how they got here. They're living in fear and pain because of this world, too. This world is wrong. We have to correct it.

[00:07:11]This idea is repeated over and over again from both sides. So, I think it's pretty significant for what the story is ultimately building to. But then you have those that revel in the hunt who would use a mother's kagune to kill a child for the fun of it. He too wants a better world. A world where disgusting ghouls don't pretend to have human compassion. One thing I love about this panel is the shading of his eyes. Here, one is light and one is dark, mirroring Kaneki's eyes, showing that on either side of this war, there can be monsters.

[00:07:43]And there's a similar mirroring that happens here with Kaneki and Ammon, which I think is significant for those that are fighting for a better world with better intentions. sort of the light and the dark actors on either side. And for the ghouls too, you can see how they got here. Not just eating because they have to survive, but hunting the doves. We see the trauma that got them here and that shaped their worldviews, too. And we can see plenty of ghouls that revel in it as well. And once again, we see it from Kaneki's perspective. In both the human and the ghoul world, he's the one being hunted, which makes everything really up close and personal for us, so we don't run the risk of thinking one side is all good and the other side is all bad. We're experiencing both sides firsthand with him. And as we're watching him go through these horrors on both sides, it's also reinforcing the fact that he really doesn't feel like he belongs on either side. It's clear that there are ways that ghouls can survive without having to do much killing. And much like the CCG, there are bad actors that revel in that killing. So, we can see that there are opportunities for a way forward, but there are enough bad actors on both sides that how do we get there?

[00:08:56]So, we see that there is love and humanity as well as wickedness on both sides. We just need a bridge all through this as Kaneki is okay. Sure. lay down right there. That's fine. All through this as Kaneki is uh working through his rejection, absolute rejection of ghoul society and ghoul life as a whole. And then he gets to know uh people that he realizes have plenty of humanity in them and have a lot of struggles and he sees what those struggles look like. As he's doing all that, um, we see him start to make slow compromises in these absolutes that he once held. Things like, okay, I do want to be able to defend myself and others. So, Toka, teach me how to use my Kagun, or however you might pronounce that. This is a concession. This is him accepting a little bit more help, accepting a little bit more of his ghoul nature. now in order to protect and at the same time we're seeing that world view shift as well specifically with the little girl uh whose name I've forgotten as well as with Toka realizing that he wants to protect them that he does have affection and even a place with them teaching her the little girl teaching her how to read kanji and talking to her about books and making these connections still clinging to his humanity while no longer viewing the ghouls as inherently monstrous. So, we see his worldview as well as his stances of of where his own line is shifting very slowly long before a lot more happens later on in this section. Ammon asks if Kaneki has ever considered what it's like living a life where family members are snuffed out for no reason, where they're being hunted and killed for food. Again, he says the world is broken and it's you monsters that are distorting it. Kaneki is the only one that can see the irony here that both sides are suffering at each other's hands and he's been at the brunt end of both of it and the only way to stop it is to understand each other. Raz was one of the ghouls that fed for fun.

[00:11:07]She was part of the reason the divide is so strong and now Kaneki has the chance to redeem that. I think him having her kagune might be extremely symbolic in that way. Not just redeeming what she did but redeeming that divide as a whole. There's a part of me that thinks that the bridge might start here. I'm curious if Ammon would be willing to listen in future volumes because of this encounter, but then there's other things that make me think, yeah, probably not right away if at all. But the bridge is also shown in the gourmet arc, probably my favorite arc of this section, where they all try to save Kim, or they do save Kimi. We have a group of ghouls, some of which we've already seen the brutality of, risking their lives to save a human. When Sukayyama kidnaps Kimi so he can feed on Kaneki while Kaneki feeds on Kimi, he shows brutality and excitement over the idea of taking the best meat for himself. Nishiki is introduced to us as this sick ghoul that wants to kill Hyde. And we can see how he got to this point of how he views humans, but he also has life experiences that put him here where he'd die saving a human. It's complicated and it's messy. And I think that's the point that the series is making. So we get to the point where Toa and Kaneki are both too weak to fight and it seems impossible to save Kimi until she feeds on Kaneki.

[00:12:27]They did the very same thing that we saw one chapter ago with Nishiki and Kimi.

[00:12:32]The very thing that has been a threat to humanity and that Kaneki was just in danger of. It's now being used as self-sacrifice for survival and I think as a significant moment of trust. And look at her. This entire arc, the gourmet arc, I love because Sukaya Sukayyama is an incredible antagonist.

[00:12:55]Just his his he reminds me a little bit of Hizoka. He's just very intense, crazed, will do anything to get that thrill of eating the perfect meat. He's this idea to an extreme. You know, we have the extremes of people who just kill for the fun of it and and they or ghouls that kill for the fun of it and they're just looking for um the the they view humans as as subpar to them and who cares if we kill them. They kill their meat, we kill ours. What does it matter?

[00:13:29]And then we have this one who takes it to the extreme of I want the delicacy of it and I'll do what it takes. And then you still remove the humanity. He still removes the humanity from the humans to get this delicacy. He's a fascinating character. The way he's drawn, the different poses that he makes as he's reveling in the excitement of smelling Kaneki's blood, the extents that he'll go to to have the most dramatic feeding he possibly could. But also, I think this is a really big turning point. Not just because we have ghouls going in to save a human and because we have the connection that Kimi has with Nishiki.

[00:14:06]Sorry, the the names haven't completely latched themselves to my brain. Will they ever? We'll find out. the connection that they have and what that is symbolically for the series, but also I think the feeding being shown as a as a voluntary choice for the sake of helping others I think is huge for Kaneki and the way he views the world and his shift in character in the agency that he's taking here or rather in the shift that he's taking in his world view. no longer completely rejecting all of these things, but rather embracing it for the sake of protecting others, which will only be built on in the next arc.

[00:14:47]But it's still Toa that takes the reigns here. As he is making this big shift for himself and as he's making this choice, he came up with the plan of allowing himself to be fed on and using this uh for the sake of saving people rather than for the sake of destruction. Even as that is, Toa is the one that takes action here. So in the next arc, he has to be the one to take action in order for us to continue moving forward in the arc that Kaneki is on. But for Toka, in the end, survival is more important than saving Kimi. If Kimi knows about them, she's at risk. But Nishiki makes very clear that her life is more important to him than his. But Kimi loves Nishiki.

[00:15:30]She knows exactly who he is, and she's able to see the beauty in Toka, too.

[00:15:35]even without her mask, which is horrifying to her. I think it's because she's struggling with being a ghoul, too, a lot more than she lets on. Not that she outright hates it, like Kaneki did at first, but rather seeing the worth in her own life as a ghoul. Maybe some of the things that she's said to others has been something that she's been trying to believe for herself, too, but doesn't fully. I don't know yet. I still have a lot to learn about her before I can understand her. But there does seem to be a struggle there for her in a different but similar way. Oh, and Toa also has this history with her brother and with her dad. And I'm really excited to dig into that in future chapters. I think it's pretty clear that her brother stands for the antithesis of what Kaneki stands for, or at least that's true of where I am in the story.

[00:16:25]I don't know how much Kaneki is going to shift in the future, but that's where I am here. Okay, I'm going to skip over some of the setup for the next arc and get to the meat of it because this video is starting to feel kind of long.

[00:16:36]Yamorei. He uses pain, forced regeneration, and the repeated counting exercise to keep Kaneki conscious while breaking him. The paneling here reflects his state of mind as he's tortured again and again and again. Because torture is the purpose, there is no escape, no end in sight. because breaking is the only solitude. This is the way I interpret the res scene. I think this is him breaking to an extent or maybe this is his subconscious keeping him from breaking by confronting things that needed that needed confronting. I think Kaneki and his mom are similar in that Kaneki is the type up to this point that would stay passive and accept any amount of suffering if it means keeping himself from being the type of person that would hurt others. His mom gave so much to him and she did so joyfully and his memories of her are so positive. It's it's really beautiful the way he looks back at how much she gave at how much she fought for them uh for him and her to to provide enough when the cards were stacked against them and and he saw her do so joyfully. He saw her give so much. He saw even even if the meal was simple, it was delicious and she put so much into it. He admires her so much, but ultimately she died of exhaustion. And Resz, sorry. Um, is challenging him not just to rehash his memories here and confront that nature that he has as well where he would give so much and accept so much pain and so much hurt. If it just means that other people will be okay. If it just means that he isn't going to hurt anyone. Not just that, but also kind of challenging his perspective and how much he's smoothing over the memories. Was she actually happy? Is the way you're reporting it true? This is a huge turning point for him realizing that ultimately what he needed was for someone to choose him, to live for him, to make a choice and take a stand. So, I think that's a deeper layer of this conversation that he needs to take action. Remaining passive doesn't save people. He has to choose to save someone or everyone suffers. I think my biggest concern for him right now is how far is he going to throw himself into this ideal? Like how dark is he going to go before he realizes he's gone too far? He does say that he won't become like those that take lives for pleasure. So I do have hope that he'll have some kind of balance, but one thing is for sure, we're changing the tone from here. He seems to be well aware that there is a risk of becoming like those that he hates the most. Did that becoming like those that would harm for the enjoyment of it just because they have the power and the ability or just because they're not on that side of this uh world. It seems like his desire is to fight for the sake of protecting others and for the sake of his own survival, not for the sake of pleasure or cruelty. So, I do have hope, but I do also have fear because I don't know how dark this is all going to go. But I want to circle back to chapter 3 because it was really impactful for me and I think it ties into where this volume leaves off.

[00:20:00]Chapter 3 feels like a person at their lowest point, the point of being willing to accept death over the life that you're currently living in. Kaneki is willing to die before he'll live as a ghoul. But even that isn't a choice for him. all he's left with really is to face the life in front of him even though that life seems unbearable. And I think that might be a theme of the story that we don't always choose what life we're born into or what life has been shaped into because of the things outside of our control. But what do we do with it from there? That question I think is what these seven volumes seem to be building up into. Kaneki spends a significant amount of time fighting his instincts, splitting himself in two because he's no longer wholly one thing.

[00:20:46]And finally, I think he's starting to accept what he is for the sake of everyone else around him. And his goal certainly seems to be to be that bridge to find a way to be both and use his connection with both. I think for the sake of that motif that I brought up earlier that the world is broken and we need to change it. How he changes it, like I said, there are some tangible things that we can already see like that the ghouls don't have to actively kill people that much uh in order to feed cuz they only need to feed once a month and because you know the people who choose to die themselves um they can feed off of those bodies. Like if the humans can see into the ghoul world even a little bit, then they can see that there's a lot more nuance there in how they live and in how they love than what they perceive currently. I don't know if this is a hopeful story. So, I don't know how much I should hope for that bridge succeeding. I can't imagine the world is just going to be all better by the end.

[00:21:52]But it does seem to be that living the life you have with purpose is a thought that's coming up with both Kaneki and with Toa. We'll see where it goes from here. I know this video was probably it probably felt a little bit all over the place because I've only read seven volumes, but there's just a lot that's happened in the seven volumes and it feels as if this is a bit of a turning point for the series. So, I just wanted to get my thoughts out there. Now, I'm going to go finish the series and then I'll I'll chat with you later about the rest of it. But if you enjoy the series and you want to talk about it more with me, I would love to continue chatting.

[00:22:26]Please give me your thoughts in the comments. But please, if you wouldn't mind, keep it to just the first seven volumes so that I can find things out on my own. And also feel free to correct me if I've messed something up, if I've misunderstood something. But please do chat with me more in the comments. I would love to continue discussing the series. I will continue reading it. I'm definitely hooked. Have been from volume one. I'll see you again soon. Bye.