“If you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be… A tragedy.” -Ken Kaneki

Recently, I got an opportunity to finish one of Japanese’s highly anticipated animations of the summer, Tokyo Ghoul. Quick synopsis: Tokyo Ghoul focuses on the story of an ordinary student, Ken Kaneki, who lives in a world where society is split between humans and “ghouls.” Ghouls are the creature who must feast on humans in order to survive. Ken Kaneki’s life turns around when he gets involved in an accident with his local friend, Rize Kamishiro. Put into a dire situation doctors replaced Ken Kaneki’s organ with Rize Kamishiro; however, this operation led to the result of Ken Kaneki turning half ghoul, half human.

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In “Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog“ by Carolyn R. Miller and Dawn Shepherd, one of the key focus were self expression and how it is executed through the blog. Similarly, Ken is put into a situation where he lives as half human, half ghoul. To protect his identity from his friends at school and the general public, Ken has to carefully choose how to express his emotions and actions in his community. Ghouls are not seen as friendly citizens in society, rather they are seen as hunger driven animals who’s only purpose is to binge eat humans.

One of the main dilemmas Ken faces is whether to fit in his community as either a human or ghoul. Resisting the urge to eat another human being, Ken confronts the difficulty of adjusting to the lifestyle of ghouls. The immediate question poses to audience, “where will he fit in society?” Living on both sides of the spectrum, Ken is caught on the line of separation. It is interesting to see a character’s freedom ripped apart and having to force them to adopt a separate identity. Similarly, this situation could be related to present day where many people have to act out of their norm to fit into a particular group.

Nevertheless, the story has yet to finish and the second season has already been announced for January 2015. Hopefully in the next half of the story it will further explain in detail which path Ken has chosen. If you were turned into a ghoul, how would you choose to place yourself in society?

/Vinson Tam

References:

Ishida, Sui. Tokyo Ghoul. Shueisha, 2011. Print. 

R. Miller, Carolyn, and Dawn Shepherd. “Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs: Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog.” Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs: Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog. Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_the_weblog.html>.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=16087