An exercise in pointless action
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Sui Ishida
Translation: Joe Yamazaki
What They Say
While Kaneki and his friends tangle with Ghouls from the Aogiri Tree organization, the Commission of Counter Ghoul’s ongoing investigations bring them dangerously close to discovering Kaneki’s secret.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As the volume kicks off, we get more from the investigators. They at least do close in slightly on what actually happened with Kaneki and Rize, which I guess is something, but it’s more like just a rough recap of earlier events in effect. We then jump to Kaneki’s group trying to squeeze some information on Kano from a nurse, but another group of Ghouls jumps in as well. And amongst them is Shachi, the 6th ward leader who had been held in the detention center. He’s kind of the focus of this volume, but he’s so one-note and uninteresting that it’s actually pretty frustrating. There’s no depth to him here at all, and instead he’s just a big buff guy who’s really strong and… that’s about it. He feels more like a pure obstacle for Kaneki to overcome rather than anything else, and that’s just not especially exciting. Anyway, thanks to Shachi mainly these Ghouls do indeed win the battle and then escape with the nurse.
We then cut to a halfhearted backstory for “Madame A”, who our heroes then kidnap as an alternate source of information. The investigators also continue to close in on the truth, visiting the café in the process, but it’s again not especially interesting. But they do in turn effectively also catch on to Kano, and thus get roped into the same mess as everyone else, so that’s… something? Oh, and we also get a bit of Kaneki training in order to catch up to Shachi.
Finally, the time comes for our heroes to raid Kano’s mansion. But unsurprisingly, the Aogiri Ghouls show up as well, and a big battle breaks out, with Kano’s bodyguards thrown into the mix as well. Oh, and those bodyguards do also get a bit of background as well, but it’s a bit generic and not terribly in depth. Anyway, though this should be a big climactic event, it just feels kind of empty more than anything. There’s certainly plenty of action, and it’s just fine technically with a bit of flash, but there just isn’t any real flow to it. It’s just a big bundle of blows being exchanged, but there’s no depth to it, in terms of technique or powers or even the match up of personalities. About the only thing that actually lands well is a bandaged character verbally thrashing Shiro and Kuro, and then getting in a nice one-liner on Banjo. Even the big confrontation with Kano doesn’t really have anything to it, amounting to just a fairly generic villain/evil scientist speech, at least for now. He even throws in a dig about Yoshimura being behind Aogiri Tree, but it’s so empty and nothing that even that doesn’t land well. And then finally we end on a cliffhanger on seemingly a new form for Kaneki, bringing things to an underwhelming close.
In Summary
Though the series has obviously taken a heavy shift towards a focus on combat, it’s here that I’ve come to realize something critical: it’s just not very good at that. In the best series, you’d have strongly defined battle styles, a real flow to the combat, blows in which you can really feel the impact, and a solid interweaving of themes into the fight itself, using it to elevate the depth of the players involved. But this has none of that, and as a result just feels empty. Sure, there are a few decently flashy panels here and there, but there’s nothing behind them, and they aren’t tied together well, leaving them as a whole lot of nothing. On top of that, the old characters just don’t seem to have gained any depth to them in the slightest, and the new ones don’t really have any to start with. Shachi is in theory a huge focus for this volume, but about all I can say regarding him is “he’s strong,” and that’s certainly not much to work with. It’s a real shame, as the series had some definite potential at the start, with some very intriguing themes and ideas. But now that’s all shriveled up, and what’s left here is a shallow husk with nothing behind it but decent art.
Content Grade: C+
Art Grade: A-
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 16+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: December 20th, 2016
MSRP: $12.99
