Premise: In modern-day Tokyo there are creatures called Ghouls, who look and act like humans, but wield bizarre powers and eat human beings to survive. Protagonist Kaneki Ken is an average university student who goes on a date with a cute girl at the bookstore. While walking her home, she reveals herself to be a ghoul and tries to eat him. At that moment, part of a building collapses, critically injuring Kaneki and fatally injuring the girl. At the hospital, the girl’s organs are transplanted into Kaneki, and he wakes up as a ghoul- with all the consequences that come with it.

Tokyo Ghoul is one of the best manga I’ve ever read. Its writing is PHENOMINAL, its characters are three-dimensional. There’s no anime tropes, it reads very realistically. It’s also incredibly gory and dark. It doesn't hold back the punches. It starts out a bit slow, but once it gets going, it GETS GOING.

Tokyo Ghoul is complete at 143 chapters, but there’s a sequel running, and Tokyo Ghoul alone reads more of a Part One than a full story.

There’s also an anime, but don’t bother. It cuts out major plot points and ALL the gore.

If you're not sure, read the first few chapters. Seriously, this manga is an easy 5/5.

 

It gets super shounen-y in later chapters. Still entertaining in the same way that GTA is to 13 year-olds, but it lost some of the substance and nuance that was there in the beginning.

 

I watched the anime a few days ago, loved it. Watching the main character change as the story progresses is incredibly satisfying. Won't spoil it for anyone, but terrible things happen to him, and it's awesome.

I finished reading the manga a little bit ago too, and also loved it. I think it's heavily implied by the creator that there will be a continuation.

Having seen both the anime and the manga, the anime is really well executed. I don't understand why you say it cuts out the major plot points, vira - it actually adds content, if anything. There's a lot more character development, and it follows the vast majority of the plot points of the manga really well, except in a slightly different order.

They've restructured things a little so that they occur more at the same time instead of in arc-form, which made the main character's development even more satisfying. There were one or two things that didn't make it to the anime, more significantly at the end, but they honestly did a really amazing job with the anime and it's really worth watching.

I'm getting very into this series, like I would a good book. I tried looking for fanfiction but there is nothing worthwhile yet. So I'm writing my own, even though I'm terrible with writing. It's been a long time I was this inspired, though.

One question I have: why is everything regarding Tokyo Ghoul happening now? All the fanfiction seems to be recent, this thread is new, I only found it recently, etc. I would have thought the manga had been around for a while.

 

I guess the anime pulled in new viewers. I hadn't even heard about the series until the anime came out. Also, the sequel to the manga started in October, so that may have contributed too.

 

Wait, okay. I'm about 30 chapters in right now, give or take, but I wanted to ask before I continued:

Should I keep reading the manga, or just watch the anime?

Because I always prefer a good anime to a good manga. Would I be missing a ton if I made the transition?

 

No. The anime is only 13 episodes long. Chances are you've already read everything that it covers.

 

The anime covers the manga up to chapter 63. Like I said, really enjoyed the anime. They pack a lot of content into those thirteen episodes. The anime is going to resume in January, or so I hear.

 

The reason why there's so much attention on it right now is that it just ended a few weeks ago with no warning (up until people looked back and saw the shitton of foreshadowing that has been going on since chapter 1). So far there's at least one side story manga, and the proper sequel has actually already started since I've read the first few chapters. But in all honesty, the best part of the manga is when you read the entire thing in one go and see how he's planned everything from the start.

Hell, one of my favorites is the fact that chapter 72 is named halfway. In a 143 chapter manga. And like I said before, chapter 1 has so much foreshadowing in that it's not even funny.

Ignoring all that, characters are awesome, plot is great, art looks amazing. Easy 10/10

 

The continuation is already out. It's called Tokyo Ghoul:Re and it already has 6 chapters out for it.

 

Hmm... I'm not entirely sold on the continuation yet, with only Mado Akira being a familiar character(no really going to count Hiraku Take).

Although the last two chapters had some food for thought...

Of course, there is the question of why the CCG is so casually using part-ghouls all of a sudden in the continuation, that has yet to be answered.

 

From what i've heard from everyone watching the anime, they didn't cut out all the gore, they censor it sensibly. And that aside, i've heard mostly nothing but glowing reviews and from the few episodes I have seen, its doing an amazing job.

It is only 13 episodes however but the 2nd season of the anime has already been announced for 2015. Honestly don't think you'll regret watching the anime, but the manga is better as the anime being so condensed does skip out on certain elements.