Title: Tokyo Ghoul
Genres: Thriller, Psychological, Supernatural, Horror
Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars but enjoyable to watch
General Set-Up: Your main character, named Ken Kaneki, is a book-loving introvert/wimp. At first he seems like another whiny, unconfident main character similar to Shinji in Evangelion. But this changes rapidly when he is nearly killed by a ghoul named Rize. Right before she kills him, she is killed in some sort of construction accident (or was it?). The doctor took organs from Rize to replace the ones that had been damaged when Rize attacked Kaneki. Because of this, Kaneki becomes a Ghoul-Human hybrid.
Characters: Ken Kaneki is by far the best written character in the series, mostly due to the fact that he is really the only character that changes. He goes from timid college student to, at the very end of the show, a fully realized character. Shows that do this, and do this well, are not common.
The rest of the characters in this show don’t get a lot of character development. You have Kaneki’s best friend Hide, out-going, friendly, confident, and sharp. That’s not a combination you see a lot in anime, and I was disappointed that he was not in the show more. Another character of note is Touka, a ghoul and worker at the same coffee shop that Kaneki works at. She was really well written, but the show chooses not to focus on her a lot. She has the potential to be a really good character, but never really gets used that way. Also, the characters in the CCG, an organization that goal is to kill Ghouls, never are anything more than static characters, but they seemed like they could be much more.
Plot: The plot is the main issue with this show and the manga it is based off of. It seems to be going one direction, changes direction, and never comes back to it. The first arc appears to be comparing Ghoul society and Human society and how Kaneki fits into them. But all of a sudden it completely drops that topic and moves on without even coming to the crux of the matter. Then it moves on to talking about the higher echelons of the Ghouls society, barely skims the surface, and changes again. Then you think the show is about Kaneki bringing peace to both Ghouls and humans, but before any changes can be made it charges to be about Rize. Then once again it changes to be about Kaneki’s mental state.
None of these topics get fully developed or resolved. The show raises more questions than answers it offers. The anime falls into the trap of rushing through fights and skipping character development because of time restraints. The manga has the opposite problem. It has page after page of irreverent dialogue that by the time you get to the good stuff you are sick of the story.
Ending: The last episode of this show is what I consider the best episode of the show, not just animation wise, but also plot and layout wise. It was one for the few episodes that I felt was fully developed and very much true to the original material. However the actual ending of the show is a cliffhanger, but fear not, there is a second season called Tokyo Ghoul (root) A (that I will review later). Unknown to many people, the second season does not follow the manga, but is it’s own plot line. Tokyo Ghoul (root) A takes many elements from the manga plot line such as the investigators backstories and puts them into a new arc against the Ghouls.
Sound: One thing this series did right was the opening song. If you look at the lyrics and watch the animation and hear the tone it embodies the show fully. “Unravel” by TK might as well just be called Tokyo Ghoul. Also Unknown Songbird on Youtube has a very good English cover, possibly better than TK’s original version. Other than the opening, none of the songs stood out, good or bad.
Both the sub and dub of this show are solid. Watch whatever floats your boat.
Animation: The animation is one of the best things about this show, provided you don’t watch the TV censored version (that cuts out most, if not all of the fight scenes). It has the rare ability to look both beautiful and terrifying at the same time. The colors can go from bright and cheerful to dark and depressing--and the show does both well. The Ghouls especially look super epic.
Things to watch out for: Tokyo Ghoul is rated TV-MA for a reason. The TV censored version is only TV-14, but make the fight scenes hard to impossible to follow. There is blood EVERYWHERE in the fight scenes. Bones break. People get tortured. This is not a show for people with a weak stomach.
Other Media: Tokyo Ghoul is based off the manga by Sui Ishida of the same name. You generally get the same plot you do in the anime, but much more expanded upon. Some of the arcs are in a different order, but you still get the same effect. A sequel of Tokyo Ghoul manga is currently ongoing call Tokyo Ghoul:re.
Where to watch it: Tokyo Ghoul is on Hulu for free in both subbed and dubbed and is also on FUNimation.
No comments:
Post a Comment