Tokyo Ghoul:re - Reviews

I said this after season 1 & 2, please don't watch this show before reading the manga, the manga is so good and you'll notice that the series is just poorly made. Shows that the directors and producer knew that this was long anticipated and they just released it without giving it any real quality. It's not that it a 6/10 but, when you read the manga you can easily notice how much they fit in just one episode. Quite sickening.

I've never really understood Tokyo Ghoul's treasured place in the anime canon. That's not to say that there's nothing to like; I mean, the first season was okay, right? Pretty decent character visuals, cool action segments, interesting colour schemes? The problem lies in that we're now on our third instalment in the TG saga and it's just plain getting worse.

:re begins with a fairly simple idea; the CCG, the organisation responsible for hunting ghouls in the world that TG posits, has developed a 'Quinx' squad made up of individuals with similar (artificially planted) abilities to the ghouls that they fight. The squad is led by Sasaki Haise, an individual who, as it turns out, is a one-eyed-ghoul just like previous series MC Ken Kaneki was. Coincidence? Unlikely.

Here's what's unfortunate; the season quickly decides that, despite having the perfect opportunity to reinvent itself and make amends for the over-stuffed, terribly-paced, batshit melodrama that was Root A, it wants to basically do that all over again starting from a few episodes in. Even having watched previous Tokyo Ghoul content, I still found it incredibly hard to recall details and characters that the season seemed to think that I should have, and that's without getting into ANY of the new arcs, sub-plots or character relationships that are heaped on top like the anime equivalent of fly-tipping. One of the criticisms of the show that you've probably already heard is that there are too many characters. Now some people have tried to fight back against this accusation, and I'd like to offer a qualifying statement; the sheer number of characters, while destined to be a problem, is a secondary issue to how they're handled. It's very hard to keep a handle on what's going on or who you're supposed to be focusing on as an important (as opposed to side or satellite) character when everyone gets rotated and, often, dropped unceremoniously to the extent that the opening segment of each episode gradually becomes a Who's Who of redundant faces. Like if every couch gag on the Simpsons featured Bleeding Gums Murphy.

Honestly, after a promising start, the whole thing becomes tiresome very quickly, and the flashy, high-production fight sequences and fan-servicey touches aren't really enough to alleviate the pain of basically having another Root A on our hands. Characters from the first two seasons appear but don't have anything to do and just vanish into thin air again, so it's difficult to get a handle on what they've been doing or where their allegiances are with now (though you could say that for a whole lot of new folks too). The showrunners, rather cynically, insert fan-favourite song 'Unravel' into the proceedings a little way through and again it seems to be designed as a way to reward brand loyalty, but honestly, it's not even TK from Ling Tosite Sigure's best solo song and it certainly isn't rousing enough to bring a tear to THIS reviewer's eye. Nor are the multitudinous flashback segments that the show appears to use as a cheap last-minute emotion-booster before killing off certain underdeveloped characters, in a way that even the guys over at Attack on Titan Season 2 would probably consider embarrassing. My favourite and least favourite piece of evidence for how bad the writing can get is a certain character inexplicably screaming "I want to eat cheese" as he dies, but it's far from the only stinker.

I'm going to leave the review here because, while I certainly have more to say about :re and how bad it is, I just feel like this is one of those series where I'm either going to be preaching to a choir or falling on deaf ears. Basically, it's no better than Root A and in fact I suspect that it's even worse. There's another season arriving in the not-too-distant future and gee-whizz I sure hope we get another 12 episodes of wonkily-paced action/drama and endless unnecessary character introductions because it's worked sooooooooooooooo well in the past.

Tokyo Ghoule:re is a poorly directed, poorly animated mess of a show with incredible music which Studio Pierrot didn't even have the skill to match to the action accompanying it. 

Music: There is a scene at the end of the 6th episode, after which I decided to drop the show, which plays the OP in the background.  Tokyo Ghoul OPs are known and memed for their slow entrances and dramatic, epic beat drops followed by a period of higher intensity.  The scene is supposed to be emotional- Kaneki and Sasaki are finding common ground and realizing that they're both afraid.  This scene should be like its counterpart in season 1- the song climaxing as the two rationalize their relationship and bond, breaking free in the 'real world' and using newfound power to end the fight.  Instead, the song climaxes in the middle of some half-hearted dialog partway through the scene, and the actual harmonization of the two souls occurs without any connection to the background music.

Animation: The animation in this season is lackluster.  Looping seasons are incredibly common, characters move in jilted motions to save frames, and the sixth episode demonstrates the show's low animation quality all too well, as Mama- a ghoul who emulates a lizard and can climb walls like one, fights by scaling walls and walking around on them... except that the walls have support bars which she is not grabbing onto but glossing over- favoring the bare concrete.  This would be excusable if there were any signs that she was gripping said concrete with sufficient force to hold herself up- instead, the concrete has not marks on it where her hands were or fissures running to where she is supposedly digging into it.  She's just pasted on the walls without any care whatsoever for how they should be reacting to her enormous weight.

Characters: The show sloppily attemps to humanize enemies FOR NO ****ING REASON.  Not every flesh-devouring murderer needs to be a nice person!  Seasono 1, for all its flaws, at least had shitty people in it... Tokyo Ghoul:re hands out participation trophies by attempting to humanize literally everyone as they're dying.  This includes Mama, who apparently kidnapped a young girl and raised her so that she could remove organs and eat them, whose actions are played off as a bleeping tsundere.

Tokyo Ghoul:re takes everything good from season 1 (which wasn't that much to begin with) and tosses it aside, while maintaining pretty much all the former's flaws.

i really really hate the story . If you’re binge watching from season 1 and fell in love with Kaneki, Touka, and the general vibe of season 1&2 , this will greatly disappoint you . 

*spoilers*

the main character is essentially gone and watching episode after episode , waiting for him to come back is beyond frustrating . 

I can’t bash the story too much since the anime is based off the manga but surely they could’ve made it more bearable ... 

better animation would’ve been a good start, and creating bonds between the audience and new characters. 

Instead the whole thing sort of feels... empty ? Annoying ? 

An introduction to ignore.

Let me preface this by saying: Tokyo Ghoul :re is my favorite manga series. If ever there was a bias in favor of TG:re, I have it, in its purest, fan girliest form. There are flaws, but I can over look them for the sake of the story that is being told, and the adventure I experience.

This anime has none of that. It was interesting reading the buzz about this anime. In general, people adhere to the 3 episode rule. Watch by episode 3, and you kinda get the gist of where the anime is headed. In certain circles, it was "wait for episode 5." Then it became "the next episode will surely be better." Finally "They hopefully saved their animating budget for the last episode!" No. This was quite literally embarrasing to watch at some points.


It's extremely difficult to judge this anime solely based on its presence as an anime, not linking it to the manga. Especially since this was the anime that was supposed to be adapted straight from the manga. No more alternative plots like Root A.

With that said, :re is not a continuation of Root A. The second half of the  original manga was never animated, at all.


Animation - 3/10

Still frames. Power point presentation. Lack of impact. These are just some of the few phrases that will cycle through your brain as you watch TG:re.

Something is wrong when the sexual fanservice character gets more framerates than any action scene in a seinen, arguably shonen, dark fantasy anime.

There is a fight scene in almost every episode of this series, and yet it seems the entirety of the animation budget was blown away by Nutcracker's tits, which flapped in the wind like two flags which read "this right here is the best we can do."

It feels as though kagunes aren't an extension of ghouls' bodies, like the animators didn't know how to deal with them. Dodges and landings feel weak and fake. Impact, the build of momentum, the weight of each action...all dead, or hanging on just barely waiting to be resuscitated.

For example, in the last few episodes when Haise runs up the side of the building...he's literally running up the side of the building. Not only does he not have enough momentum for this feat--due to his speed being only 3 frames a second--but he's supposed to be using other means to do scale the building...like his kagune, which hoists him up to different elevations and such. But let's be real, physics, continuity, and logic had long since turned its back on this sad, sad anime.

Characters, trained professioanls at that, are so shocked at all the gruesome deaths that they can't bust out of their zero frames a second to shake in terror.

It's not all bad! There are a few moments that genuinely surprised me at how okay they were, but these few lonely scenes were toward the end and still mediocre at best.

Sound - 3/10

The real focus of this category is the OSTs and the sound effects. You'd think that if the animation can't pack a punch, then maybe the sound could help out a bit there, right?

For me, the OSTs were either completely unnoticeable, or played too low to hear. Because I can't even recall any of them playing...

A scene in the last episode reveals Matsuri sliding across the ground after having jumped out of an exploding, flaming helicopter. He grapples the side of a skyscraper and crash lands through the window. Everything leading up to him landing was okay. But then, he rolls so softly on the ground it's like... like a sack of flour just gently summersaulting on the ground.

There's a lot of scenes that also have mismatched sound based on what's happening. It's actually rather jarring and made me appreciate all the anime I've watched up to now without having ever, ever taken note of the presence of seamless sound effects.

Moments of impact--physically and emotionally--are dampened by the absence of accuracy or volume of sound effects to back up their presence. In that regard, at least the animation matches the quality of the sound.

My first impression of the opening was that it feels off beat somehow, but I eventually got used to it. Haven't looked at the lyrics yet for relevance, but it's not bad overall; I can see it becoming popular. Ending theme wasn't really my style, but again, it' wasn't bad. Nothing overly amazing.


Story 3/10

For how much backlash Root A got in (some) of the manga community, it seems someone at the top decided to stick to the story of the manga much more closely this season. And they did. If you were to summarize the manga's chapters in 4 sentences or less, :re's anime is probably what you'd end up with. Run on sentences that try to squeeze out as much as possible, remaining structurally integral, but lacking in rhythm, connectivity, and relevance.

For specific, plot revealing moments, concerning more...controversial topics, the studio chose to omit or completely alter these scenes, making them only heavily implied. Not going to explicitly state which scenes, but they will become quite relevant to this character's back story in the future. Basically, if they continue to animate :re, which they've planned to do, there is no way to avoid this development, controversial or not.

There was also some exposition information about RC cells that would've cleared up much confusion for anime-only viewers, but again, this anime assumes you've already read the manga. But at this point, I'm just glad they bothered to explain kagune frames.

Even though it is more faithful to the manga, it's like they didn't bother to capture the essence of the story. And to me, most of that stems from the characters, of which there are many in TG: re.


Characters 4/10

I'm at least glad they chose to slow down and give some relevance to the Rose group, to show how ghouls can have similar problems to humans. Even if Kanae's scenes were handled awkwardly. The divide between the two species, and the nature of how Haise accepts or rejects them is an important point overall.

There are also so many characters in the manga that readers seem to have to struggle to know who's who. This anime also has that problem but not because the amount of reoccuring characters, but because they're never given any significance other than their initial introduction, if they even get one. A lot character designs change between TG and TG:re, the manga and the anime alike, which adds another layer of confusion, which isn't entirely the anime's fault.

I feel a lot of this could be solved with the pacing issues shown in the first half of the series, though. Build relationships between characters. Make the viewer care that they exist. What's the importance of rando if they're always in the background? It can be cool to see reoccuring characters who don't have active parts in the main focus of the story, but that should be a bonus, not a focal point. When everyone feels like some random shmuck, it makes for a lifeless, boring story. Heck, it feels that way even with the main characters at times.

Speaking of main characters, there's Haise. With no previous knowledge of this guy, most vocal viewers wouldn't like him much, in favor of wanting Kaneki as MC back. All the scenes were he struggles internally are cringeworthy. Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure how to make these scenes better, I'm no anime directer by any means, but something feels wrong. It's not jarring. There's no suspense to find out who he is or his relation to Kaneki.

And such a huge part of *his* story is dependent on the Quinx, his squad. Does anyone even know their individual names after having watched this anime? Haise's relationship with them, and many others of the CCG were his reason to continue working there. They gave him purpose, as supporting characters, and he depended on them emotionally.

One of the things I did like was they gave Arima more of a human side. He does smile in the manga, but he also has more appearances there too, and most of the time he doesn't show affection. But then they removed the Christmas theme of their sort of family gathering, which would've been great for solidifying the Quinx's relationships with their superiors: Haise, Akira, and Arima.

These anime openings need to chill when it comes to spoilers, even minor ones. That "subtle" sinister glance from that one character is enough to deflate foreshadowing before it even has a chance to appear.

The ending theme terrible though, I can accept the still frames in this case. But it was still sad to realize they were replacing little character developing moments between the Quinx with the entire ending theme.



Overall Enjoyability Score - 5/10

It's embarrasing to watch this anime and know how the manga goes. There's always the constant comparisons of course, and the disconnect of what is shown versus what you saw in your mind how things would go as you read. But it can be enjoyable in its own way.

The story, animation, sound, and characters don't have to all be at all relevant.

Kind of like the show would have charisma, or soul or something. TG:re anime does have a level of enjoyability. If you enjoy moments of cringing, confusion, emptiness, and the occassional thin laugh, this anime will likely have a score of 8 or so in this section. And I must say, I do enjoy this cringe at times. If you ever laugh and think to yourself "How did this even get aired?" during any time watching this anime, it's safe to just throw all your expectations out the window at that point. Because it will only get worse. This anime had me look at it with a completely different set of standards, so there's that. I feel like I could watch almost anything now and not look at it so badly anymore.

That being said, I was glad to see my boys Shirazu and Urie finally getting animated.

My rating will also likely go up as I (attempt?) to rewatch it sometime in the future. As far as first impressions go, this one wasn't too hot.