TOKYO GHOUL: CONTEXTUALIZING SOCIAL POLLUTION THROUGH IDENTITY
Date
2025-05
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This thesis examines the concept of social pollution within Sui Ishida’s manga
series Tokyo Ghoul, investigating how the narrative critiques societal anxieties
surrounding purity, identity, and exclusion in a Japanese cultural context. Social
pollution is defined as the perceived contamination of normative social structures,
which is explored through themes of ethnonationalism, xenophobia, class, and gender
identity. By employing a close reading of the full Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:re
series in their English translations, this research contextualizes the portrayal of ghouls
and marginalized identities in relation to real world Japanese constructs. This includes
ideas of Nihonjinron, the historical discrimination of Burakumin, and expectations of
gender conformity. Through this analysis, the thesis argues that ghouls serve as
metaphorical representations of those socially excluded, revealing the persistent
societal tension between inclusion and the fear of the “other.”