Review by Ian Keogh

Tokyo Ghoul 9 picks up six months after the battle between the CCG investigators and the Aogiri Tree ghouls of Tokyo’s Ward 11. While the CCG believed they’d won a great victory, the end of Tokyo Ghoul 8 revealed that it had just been a diversion, a sacrifice of lesser operatives while the main force targeted a ghoul detention centre and released many dangers back onto the streets.

The opening chapters focus on the CCG, as we’re told of new assignments, promotions, and speculation regarding what’s happened to previously very active ghouls. Amon is among the promoted, although not entirely happy to be partnered with his former mentor’s daughter, and there’s a look into his past as he visits a ghoul inmate. While new characters are introduced and new relationships established, half the book spent with the CCG isn’t exactly thrilling.

Enjoyment picks up halfway through when Ken Keneki puts in an appearance, and Sui Ishida has him wanting to find out more about the doctor who experimented on him way back in Tokyo Ghoul 1. It seems Kano is still at large and experimenting on others and Kaneki was the starting point, not the finished product. That should be a matter of concern for everyone.

After the mayhem of the previous two volumes, this is very much the quiet interlude taking stock and pushing the way forward. You’ve got to be majorly invested in a fair amount of largely unsympathetic people to enjoy what’s on offer here. However, there’s one shocker of an ending to take us into Tokyo Ghoul 10.