Title: Tokyo Ghoul:re Vol. 13
Author: Sui Ishida
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Genre: Fantasy, Battle
Publication Date: October 15, 2019
The Story
Tokyo Ghoul:re Volume thirteen kicks up at the action as predicted. With the end of the series coming closer, it was time for the final battle to begin. I can’t believe it took Sui Ishida a total of 27 volumes to get to this point but he finally learned how to focus on one battle at a time! It’s like a miracle has happened in the twilight of this series!
The first battle sees Kuroiwa and Urie confronting Furuta at the CCG headquarters. Here, Furuta knows he’s backed into a corner and unleashes ghouls on them… more specifically, the clowns. The battle is intense but the outcome is even more interesting. Marude shows up with some doves as backup. Furuta ends up escaping and joining up with the Oggai squads that are carrying out our second battle which is Operation Goat Sweep.
Mitsuki is one of the prominent members of this operation as she hunts down Kaneki and his ground. The White Suits enter the fray to help buy them some time as they escape through the tunnels and into the forest. Furuta shows up and commands Juuzou’s squad to pursue them. The battle takes a grim turn for Kaneki and his goat faction. Furuta thinks he’s won but then, the unexpected happens which is…. Something you’ll have to read for yourself!
That cliffhanger ending, though! Of course, if you’ve read the Japanese scanlations or watched the anime, you pretty much know what’s about to happen at this point in the story but to those who are purely reading the English releases of the manga, the moment has finally come where we get to see a certain character in a long-awaited form! Things are about to get kicked into high gear as we approach the conclusion of this series, which has three move volumes left.
Characters
As the series winds down, character development usually comes to a halt. We do end up getting to know Urie a bit better through Kuroiwa. It is because Kuroiwa’s decision to help Urie in this confrontation with Furuta that we learn how Kuroiwa is connected to Urie’s family and how that was the sole, driving reason for him helping out.
It’s also during this battle that we learn about Roma Hoito, one of the members of The Clowns. We saw her at the auction raid and now she gets her backstory fleshed out. We learn how her parents were doctors that were killed by ghouls when they refused to hand over any “surgical leftovers” to them. Uta ends up taking her in and the rest is history. Of course, since this backstory is right smack dab in the middle of a battle, it’s safe to say what kind of flag is being planted here. If you’ve seen enough anime and/or read enough manga, you pretty much know what’s coming next.
Final Thoughts
Now that the final battle has begun, we can expect a lot of action from here on out. Furuta has taken shape as the main villain of the series and yet, even with the end coming, it still feels like there’s more we haven’t seen from him just yet.
Again, I really loved the decision to focus on one battle at a time in this volume. It makes a world of difference to the reader when you can stick to a single subject. This has often been a flaw of Ishida’s. With such a massive cast of characters, it’s extremely easy to lose track of who is who in the middle of a massive scale battle when you keep dancing around from scene to scene, leaving the previous fight unfinished. I understand that you want to show the scope of the battle by flaunting every fight at the same time but it just makes for a confusing read. Coupled with the fact that the art can, sometimes, be sloppy, the characters will oftentimes look slightly different and that leads to even more confusion.
Plus, when you’re constantly adding names and titles to each character whenever they appear, it just adds to the confusion because now you’re trying to remember 50 names and titles within a short span of time. Here, we got to see Urie, Kuroiwa, Furuta, and Marude all within the scope of one entire battle from start to finish and that allowed me to soak in everything and remember who was taking part in that battle. Often times during a review, I would have to go back and re-read battle scenes just to make sure I got the characters in that scene correct. It made reviewing this series a giant pain in the ass so I’m incredibly thankful that we got to witness two battles separately.
Still, a great read for an action-packed volume. With the way it ended, expect pure and utter chaos in the next volume to come!
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This item was provided for review by Viz Media
