Title: Tokyo Ghoul:re Vol. 7
Author: Sui Ishida
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 250
Genre: Fantasy, Battle
Publication Date: October 16, 2018
The Story
Tokyo Ghoul:re Volume seven jumps right into the action as we get battles on two fronts: Rushima Island against Aogiri Tree, and Cochlea, also against Aogiri Tree as well as Ken Kaneki! It all beings after Takatsuki Sen’s press conference. She talked with Haise about wanting to make a deal; however, Haise says that he has one final mission with the CCG and doesn’t have time to grant her wish. Sen tells Haise her wish anyway which is for Haise, as Ken Kaneki, to slay the One-Eyed King.
The attack on Rushima Island begins. While Juuzo’s squad is one of the ones participating, the focus here it placed on Urie’s squad as it’s his primary mission to rescue Mutuski who has been captured by Aogiri Tree and being held captive by Torso. We actually don’t get to see too much action from here as the manga placed its main focus on the Third Cochlea Raid. Here, Haise Sasaki was assigned to guard the ghoul prison in case there is an attempt to break out any ghouls harbored there. This is due to all of the main forces of the CCG focusing their attention on Rushima, leaving Cochlea in a state of vulnerability.
Of course, their fears are correct as Ayato and the Gas Masks are, indeed, planning to set ghouls free. Shockingly, Yomo and Touka are among them, mainly because they learned that Hinami is also being held captive there. When they arrive, they discover that someone has begun letting ghouls out of their cells. The person responsible is Haise Sasaki as he has reverted back to being Ken Kaneki! With his memories back, Kaneki knew this was a suicide mission. His goal was to rescue Hinami before being captured by Arima, who was also at Cochlea. Kaneki manages to get Hinami out of her cell and like he predicted, he got caught by Arima; however, instead of going peacefully, Kaneki elects to fight him instead!
The battle between them is fierce; however, Arima gained the upper hand rather quickly. On the verge of death, Kaneki finds one last spark of hope inside of him and the volume ends before we see the outcome of the fight.
The two biggest stories to come out of this volume was Haise Sasaki reverting back to Ken Kaneki and the backstory of Rize along with the reveal of who dropped the steel beams on her way back at the beginning of the series! I’ll touch upon Rize in the characters section but we can take pride and joy that Kaneki is finally back! What a way to welcome him back to the series than to throw him into one of the big dream match-ups vs God/Reaper Arima. There was even a big revelation about Arima and the V Squad told to us through Eto/Takatsuki Sen as well that shed some big light on everything. Story-wise, the main story felt like it stalled a bit due to the two big battles going on, which is to be expected, but backstory-wise, this volume was incredibly rich with small mentions that had big implications!
Characters
As I said a few sentences ago… welcome back Ken Kaneki! One has to believe it was Eto who pushed Haise over the edge and caused him to fully revert back; however, we’ve seen this build up and up over the last several volumes and while I have no doubt Eto played a big role, she simply fanned the flames of a spark inside of him that was naturally lit. Either way, this is a huge turn of events and with nine volumes of this series left, I’m all but sure Kaneki will survive his battle against Arima somehow but what does that mean for the CCG now that one of its biggest secrets is known by Kaneki? This is going to get super interesting but with the Rushima battle going on, I don’t think we’ll see the results of that reveal for a couple of more volumes.
The mystique surrounding the One-Eyed King continues. In his interrogation of Eto, Furuya Washu mentioned the rumors that the One-Eyed King was merely a symbol but didn’t exist; however, with Eto flat out stating that he does exist and with her asking Kaneki to kill him, the question of his identity is now back on the table. I’m sure Ishida left a ton of clues throughout the book as to who the One-Eyed King is; however, at this stage, it still could be anybody’s guess.
Rize, despite being dead from the very beginning of the series, received some huge development here. I won’t reveal much of it because it would be huge plot spoilers but I will comment that we do find out who it was that dropped the beams on her. The person who did simply had interest in Dr. Kano’s research and wanted to see what would happen if someone like Rize’s life was threatened. This links Dr. Kano to someone other than the Aogiri Tree. This also supports Eto’s claim when she told Kaneki a little bit about Kishou Arima as well as the V organization within the CCG. Who knew that a deceased character could still add so much lore to a story? You don’t often see dead characters used like this so my hat’s off to Sui Ishida for going down that route.
We also received a little bit of Touka’s backstory in this volume as well. It was during the time where Ayato, Touka, and Yomo were fighting Arima in Cochlea. Yomo is wounded by Arima and begins to reminisce about how he came to know Touka and her father Arata. Yomo was the one who suggested to Yoshimura that she be hired to work at Anteiku. Obviously, she was and her brother Ayato chose a different path. Even though that was a big death flag for Yomo, he ends up surviving the battle and escaping down to the lower levels along with Ayato and Touka. Nice little swerve there, Ishida!
Final Thoughts
I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with this volume. So many intricate plot points were woven into the action that it created a nice balance, a high level of interest, and a reason to keep turning the pages. This was the first time I actually cursed that the volume ended when it did. With that begin said, I’d have to say that this is the best volume of Tokyo Ghoul:re to date. I have a feeling Volume 8 is going to pull off some pretty big moments so Volume 7 may not hold onto the title for very long.
My only complaint about the volume, once again, falls to the artwork. Sui Ishida’s art is always rather gritty and sloppy to the point where I could stare at a page for several minutes and still be confused by what’s happening. Other times, the art is crisp and you can understand what’s happening perfectly. There’s such a huge imbalance throughout a volume that it makes the series hard to read at times. Not to mention that the cast is so huge, that you really need crisper, cleaner art in order to make things easier to understand. Often times, Ishida would shift back and forth between character and between present time and flashbacks, that keeping up with everyone becomes a full-time job.
It’s been a complaint of mine since the very beginning of the series and I don’t see that getting resolved so I’ll just have to deal with it. At least the story is extremely solid. I just hope Ishida cleans up his art on whatever series he elects to do next.
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
