Tokyo Ghoul: re - Volume 4 (Review)

By: EyeSpyeAlex

Missed my last review? Check it out here!

There be spoilers ahead!

This Christmas season is upon the Quinx squad! Sasaki has Mado, Arima, Juzo, and others over for a Christmas dinner celebration. He also gets his “kids” various presents which they seem to be receptive to, as well as a small present for both Arima and Mado. It appears that a secret admirer of Sasaki’s is also in the giving spirit as he receives his old ghoul mask in the mail addressed to Ken Kaneki. Luckily this instance does not trigger another ghoul relapse.After the Christmas season we quickly transition to spring, which is promotion season. Sasaki is promoted to Senior Investigator. The other Quinx squad members also receive promotions, with Saiko and Ginshi receiving a promotion to Rank 2 Investigator. Urie, Mutsuki, and others receive promotions to Rank 1 Investigator. In a shocking but exciting move, Juzo is promoted to Special Investigator, and is one of the youngest to receive that title.It wouldn’t be a volume of Tokyo Ghoul without some ghoul interactions occurring. Sasaki meets with Fueguchi and brings her a book of poems. She tries to get him to remember that he’s Ken, as this is something Ken has done in the past. Unfortunately, Sasaki does not remember his past, but he also doesn’t, relapse which is good.The Quinx Squad prepares for another co-op mission and  meets with Kori Ui’s team to discuss taking down the Rosewald family in operation Rosè. The Rosewald family is closely associated with The Gourmet, who has gone crazy over Kaneki’s death. Resident photographer Hori tells Kanae (the Gourmet’s lackey)  to fix this by telling him Kaneki is alive.She gives Kanae five envelopes with photographs to open for The Gourmet.The Gourmet asks to go see Kaneki and throws himself at Kaneki’s feet upon seeing him. Since  Kaneki is Sasaki and has no memory of his old life, he obviously doesn’t recognize the Gourmet. This leads the Gourmet to start planning on getting Sasaki alone in order to help him get his memory back. When he visits Sasaki at a later date, he casually mentions reading and Kaneki’s favorite author to him. While he is delighted to find that Sasaki enjoys the author, his good times are interrupted by the arrival of the Quinx Squad. If he’s going to restore Kaneki’s memory, he’s going to need to do something about the Quinx Squad.Meanwhile,Sasaki visits Uta, who is the one who sent him the mask. He tries to return it but is told to keep it. Then asks to order a custom mask. The Quinx Squad will be going undercover as Ghouls. However, the higher ups aren’t on board with the plan and view Sasaki as dangerous.Despite that the Quinx Squad scout out areas where the Rosewald family inhabit, when they are suddenly ambushed by Ghouls, which includes Torso. The ambushers vastly underestimate the power of the Quinx Squad and are quickly overwhelmed and retreat. While that is happening Saiko ends up cornered by a delightfully disgusting Ghoul, but is saved by a large mysterious figure.

The Review

This latest volume of Tokyo Ghoul: re provides a great progression of the story. It’s really cool to see the Quinx Squad progressing and moving up the ranks. It’s a small thing, but it helps the story avoid the trope of keeping characters exactly where they are because their exposition serves no purpose. The Quinx Squad as an extension of Sasaki, is integral to the plot, and their role in his duality is I’m sure going to be addressed soon.On top of that, we finally seem to have a catalyst in helping Sasaki revert back to Ken Kaneki: The Gourmet. At the end of the volume we see him confronting Touka and his undoubtedly hoping she’ll help him get Kaneki’s memory back. I was wondering how Tokyo Ghoul: re was going to address this, and it seems like I have my answer. The only downside to having the Gourmet spearhead this mission is I’m worried it will detract from his connection to the Rosewald family. We got a ton of great backstory on his and Kanae’s relationship in this volume, as well as the liability he poses to the Rosewald family. I hope that plotline continues into later volumes.Tokyo Ghoul: re Volume 4 also gives us some great illustrations. The battle scenes are intense and detailed, and the depictions of ghouls is incredibly gruesome. Standing out to me the most in this volume is the ghoul that confronts Saiko during the Quinx battle. He seems to be positively oozing creepiness, which I loved. An honorable mention also goes to the absolutely depraved looking Gourmet.Fans looking to pick up Tokyo Ghoul: re Volume 4 can find more information about the release here.Note: Viz Media provided us with a digital copy of this manga in exchange for our honest review.