Vernix

I've heard of Tokyo Ghoul through streaming sites, and interested in the synopsis I decided to peek at a few episodes. It turned out to be an enjoyable thriller that left me interested for more. It starts off with a calm interaction between two characters that later leads to a spark of danger and realization. After, an organ transplantation takes place in protagonist Kaneki; causing psychogenic opposition that nauseates him.

As he struggles between moral intuition and compulsion he’s introduced to an exclusive culture surrounded with elements of danger; which he innocently gets tangled within.

The negative reviews on this anime sound extremely literalistic without a sense of fictional placement. I believe one that can’t appreciate units of fictitious material shouldn’t be able to make such heavy statements in the first place, but that’s just my opinion. Most of the complaining was by dogmatic users obsessed with realism when they’re supposed to be covering a fictive anime, but let’s discard that key component and try to correspond the standards of their society with ours. Completely sensible. I’m also positive if clearly informed that the director’s plan was never to integrate realistic elements within this anime. So I’m having a bit of a hard time connecting the dots, but like I said it's simply my opinion.

The majority of the first season revolved around him as a lost puppy ineffective to the ghouls around him; being nothing more than a hindrance that causes or becomes victim to dangerous situations. He follows other ghouls throughout their personal conflicts all while learning about their culture and his strength.

This all happens within a human society that calmly goes about their days as if the deaths of humans by ghouls were just another unfortunate happening. It’s presented to be a normal occurring that humans have simply had to get used to; the same way we handle rapists and robbers in our reality.

Ghouls vary in radically different personalities; some are sadistic while others are calm. Others appear to have unhealthy compulsions while the other portion can effortlessly enjoy human interaction. I will add slight criticism since the flow of character development lacked significantly. Many of the characters had one mood throughout the entire anime. While bursts of emotion where sprinkled now and then, it felt like most if not all characters had singular mindsets that they’d always sphere around; desensitizing the power the anime could’ve had. It also made a handful of scenes unpleasantly predictable and left you stressing for a breakthrough in development that only happened towards the last few episodes. If you’re not too bothered by that, you’ll be able to make it through all the cringe worthy scenes that’ll annoy the heck out of you without much complaint. Ghouls are scattered in mannerisms similar to humans, so their identity jumbles as a species; making them extremely symmetrical to us. (Which doesn’t bother me personally.)

The action scenes were okay, but the heavy censorship made me wanting more. While all of the anime is speedy, the epic thoughts and adrenaline that run through your veins once you get hooked into that one scene is lessened due to the censorship. They’re not utterly horrendous, but they’ll definitely piss off you manga fans that are expecting similarity. If you’re looking for an anime with action scenes all throughout that contain detail or similarity to the manga, you’ll be pretty disappointed.

I enjoyed the protagonist; along with the other wimpy characters that contained a well amount of strength. While negative reviewers continue to point out how horrid and cowardly it is, they fail to see any reason behind the directors concepts. They’re going on about how the ones with power and determination should of had the upperhand in battles, yet fail to comprehend the bursts of strength that bloom from pure emotion. The director played a game of the weak at their weakest and the strong inches from their goal, and in this case the weak won a majority of the battles. Which is also another element I enjoyed. It ranged from a little girl critically injuring an expert in his field to Kaneki avoiding death several times in the story. It displayed that emotion overthrows even the strongest of individuals, and while of course not always true I enjoyed the concept he was portraying. In doubtful moments, there is at times strength among the weak.

The deaths in the anime were unnecessarily quick, and it completely ruined the potential for some heart wrenching scenes. They were not meaningless, but they weren’t near as memorable as some of the deaths in Attack On Titan. You ended up depressed or shocked for a mere moment, and moved on.

Kaneki later becomes a stronger character of his own form of maturity. As we all aren’t in agreement on what is and isn’t mature, I for one personally thinks he develops not only more maturely through time but develops a high form of individuality. Being infused with organs previously not related to him; it’s inevitable that traits of personality from the ghoul fused in him show through, but they are the makings of him. They dissolved within his body, his brain, his bones. It’s deductive reasoning that he’d develop a personality similar to the ghoul transplanted in him. It can’t be replaced or eliminated. He has became one with the ghoul organs transplanted in him. It is apart of him, and while influence to actions and mentality are definitely noticeable he still becomes his own individual.

Overall I’m quite pleased with the anime. I didn’t shed tears or have a moment of strong emotion, but I was highly entertained. If you dislike slowish censored animes with wimpy characters you’re likely to dislike it, you’re also likely to dislike it if you expect a large amount of action scenes to be similar to the ones in the manga. This anime is a well done anime that requires an open mind and a bit of thought. The worst thing you can do is apply this anime (like most fictive animes) to the standards of realism or physical existence, but if you’re good at underlining fictional concepts and comprehending different forms of work you might enjoy it.