Some spoilers in there.
Plot/Narrative:
There isn't anything groundbreaking in here but I think it starts pretty good, mostly with what happens to Kaneki and the proposal of a pretty "grey" story morally in both sides of the conflict. However, I think it extends more than it should and in the second half of the story it opens way too many branches that end up being in detriment of the enjoyment of the story, and I even feel all those branches weren't closed efficiently (considering there is a sequel, I let that slide though). It has some pretty good and interesting gore moments, but there is also some narrative turns that for me where pretty cliché and not at all applied efficiently (spoiler: Rize being alive, all the scene of Kaneki and Touka in the bridge and Kaneki being "far away" from Touka to "protect her"). I too think that the amount of fight sequences is in detriment of what the manga wants to tell, and by times it seems like you're reading a shonen. I personally thing that the CCG scenes don't really work because they are portayed like a "detective" story but WE KNOW what it's happening to the ghouls that the CCG is researching so it gets pretty boring to read the deductions of the police.
It's not a bad story itself but it's excecution could be better. (6/10)
Art:
I read a lot of people in the reviews here calling the art "ugly and sketchy" and I couldn't disagree more. I think Ishida is pretty good at using the monochrome to his favour, so much that I can't imagine Tokyo Ghoul with colours, black and white just works perfectly to transmit it's vibe. The characters have very cool designs that add to their characterization (there is a reason why the mask of Kaneki is so iconic). I loved the watercoloured drawings, specially how the Ukkaku was drawn, it's beautiful.
The only thing I'd critique on an aesthetic level is the coreograph of the fights, they aren't easy to follow and they are weird to read (and there is more fights that this kind of manga should be allowed to have) (9/10).
Characters:
I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I think most of the characters are well characterized, but a good portion of the cast suffers of: 1. being very uninteresting or 2. being unbearable. The first point applies to almost all the CCG members and the second one to a good portion of the ghouls, whom as much as the plot would want me to love them, I couldn't stand them (Tsukiyama and Rize to mention the easiest examples, and the ghoul that doesn't understand complex words too).
Kaneki is for me a good protagonist and he works, I don't like all the desicions he makes but I think there is a good job done with the place in which he finds himself and all the emotional debacle that he suffers (though his transformation it's a little bit too sudden). Those scenes are hard to watch and they work, for the most part. Though, get away from any asshole that has Kaneki as his pfp on Twitter.
The rest of the Ghouls have the problem that some good characters (Yomo, Touka, Uta, Hinami) are left aside in the second half of the manga in favour of much less likable characters, and this specially bothered me in the last arc. I hope they participate more in Re.
From the CCG I only managed to care about two people: Juzo because of his eccentricity (He has the best flashback by far) and Akira because she was the only woman in the CCG that did something important (the lack of women in the CCG for like eight volumes was quite bothersome for me, it took Ishida quite a while to add a woman in there) and I think she was the only character that added something interesting to the CCG scenes.
I didn't like Amon, but he isn't badly characterized, I simply find it hard to care about characters which their only personal trait is being obsessed with their job. Sadly I'm spoiled of something that happens in Re with him and that does end up taking off some weight of what Amon does at the end of this story (It's also a pretty common shonen trope, to make things worse).
The rest of the CCG were all pretty forgettable and boring (I was pretty annoyed by the constant hype the story had with Arima just for him to act all mysterious and then do nothing interesting at the end), though I liked the relationship of Juzo and the big guy, it's one of the few relationships that work well in this manga, with Kaneki and Hinami and all the relationships the old man in Antieku has (he also offers a quite good story in here).
Hide being a pig enthusiast disappointed me but I guess it made sense in the plot.
Then the rest of the "strong" relationships in the manga weren't treated well imo. Touka and Kaneki, to me, were introduced as a less toxic but less interesting version of Asuka and Shinji of Evangelion, and despite that, I was kinda down for it, but then Touka is set aside by the plot with the most cliché excuses used to build romances in fiction, and I didn't like that at all, aside from the bunny scene, that shit was cute.
My biggest criticisim in the relationship area has to do with Amon and Akira's relationship. I thought they had interesting interactions and conversations, but the sexual undertones of some scenes of both of them REALLY bothered me, specially because Akira is the DAUGHTER of the dead ex-workmate of Amon. I know nothing really happens but the manga does hint it in a way that's not subtle at all and I though It was unnecesary and uncomfortable.
Well, I generally feel that the characters itself arent' wrong, I just feel they could be better written and better utilized in the story. None of them blew my brain neither I thought they were memorable or complex and that says a lot. (6.5/10)
Some other things:
-I'd like to know how the fuck a Ghoul becames a Ghoul, there is a big plot-hole here imo because if I was a CCG pig I'd be investing in researching that, I think It would help them quite a lot.
-The power system starts fine but then with that buffed jojoesque kagune of the cannibal ghouls every sense the scaling had disappears and by times it's just a manga of "guys full of steroids fighting" and tbh this isn't JoJo so I didn't sign up for that. This makes the manga look EVEN MORE like a shonen and it's not good.
-The exploration of sexuality and romance is ass. I hope that it gets better in RE and that they don't do this fucking flashfoward shit of everyone married and happy.
-I think it's really unsensitive that in a manga in where the act of "eating" to survive and all that is that important to the plot, while at the same time there are jokes about how we women eat "less" because we are women and "like to take care of ourselves", because it's pretty obvious that they are baseless and cliché comments written by men that have no idea how we women eat. Really these comments don't add anything to the story and its inclusion bothered me.
-Was there necesary to portay the homosexual side-character in such a hackneyed and awful way?
This seems like I'm being unfair, but I do thing the manga does a few things right (good gore story, though too edgy by times) and I liked the tarot symbolism (though I'd like it to be more explicit and not that undertoned).
Some very liked reviews in here say it's worth to read it again because of the hidden symbolism, but tbh I don't think I'll sit all those CCG scenes of them talking to see that.
I'm not that excited about Re as I thought I was but some day I will read it just to know how this debacle ends.
Well, It wasn't what I was expecting and If you wanna read a good detective story or a good mystery manga, go read Urasawa's work.
