Overview:
Kaneki Ken is probably the single unluckiest character to be scripted in recent history (and there are a lot of unlucky anime characters). He’s a nice, shy guy who likes reading books and the girl he likes who also likes the same author has finally spoken to him. They go on a date, she tries to kill him, but he’s ‘saved’ when they are both crushed in an ‘accident’. Only, a pesky doctor decides he can save Kaneki by doing an organ transplant, from the killer date who it turns out was a ghoul. Thus begins Kaneki’s new and wondrous life as a half-ghoul thing who has no clue about how the world really works.
Review:
Straight out I am going to tell you that this review is limited to the first series. I’ll get to the mess that is season 2 at some other stage.
With that said, I finished season 1 in a single marathon sitting unintentionally because I just couldn’t stop. I really loved this. Not that it isn’t without its flaws (even season 1 has a number of glaring issues even if you don’t stop and think about them) but because this show was kind of built to appeal to the b-grade horror/action junkie hiding inside me that just wants to have a good time while watching something that’s just a bit dark but a lot of fun. Tokyo Ghoul is not the kind of trainwreck that Highschool of the Dead managed to be, but it certainly is going to appeal to a similar audience unless you were watching Highschool of the Dead for the physics defying breasts in which case you’ll probably be out of luck here.
So, we’ll just go with a straight plus/minus format because for everything I loved in this series, there’s definitely a few little bumps that need to be addressed.
Plus +
Kaneki Ken is a great protagonist in season 1. Initially clueless and relatively powerless, thrust into a complicated world, gradually becoming aware and finding his limitations, and yet seeking to help before having any hopes that he might be helpful dashed utterly horribly. You really feel for Kaneki. He got dealt an incredibly unfair hand and yet after his initial absolute despair he starts to climb his way out of it. The road isn’t smooth and he doesn’t always make the right choices but he consistently learns from his mistakes and continues to push forward. What I really admire about Kaneki as a character is that even though he talks with others and tries to change their way of thinking when they are clearly prejudiced against certain ideas is that he never takes the ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’ approach that so many protagonists might. Part of this is to do with his much gentler personality than so many shonen protagonists and part of this is he’s a more logical thinker and one who has to process everything before he can act (though that is also a weakness of his). Plus, Kaneki is a bookworm and to be honest I’d like him as a character just for that trait.
Minus –
While Tokyo Ghoul does have an excellent character journey laid out for Kaneki this season, the plot is a little… Okay, they had a good concept. Cool premise now where’s the story? We leap between threats and conflicts as Kaneki’s world view expands but there’s really no overall antagonist or conflict driving this forward. And even Kaneki doesn’t really have a goal other than learning to live with himself. Which could have been an admirable focus around which to build a character driven plot but Tokyo Ghoul is more of an action/horror and Kaneki’s personal journey is clearly a side-note. In the space of 12 episodes we have a fight between two ghouls that is upsetting the power balance in the city, Kaneki’s conflict with his friend Hide and the ghoul at his university, the gourmet crazy guy, the doves, and a group of ghouls who have decided to declare war who seem to come out of nowhere toward the end even though technically they are foreshadowed earlier in the story they don’t really have significance until suddenly they are there. All of this makes it kind of messy. Fast paced and with limited down time, but messy.
Plus +
The fight sequences in this anime are great. Mostly this is because of the unique take on ghouls that this anime has other then just being flesh eaters. Ghouls have Kagune which take on different forms but essentially come out of their backs and work as an offensive or defensive weapon depending on the type and they allow for some pretty cool effects during the fights. Not to mention the ghouls’ skin can’t be cut by your standard knife so the government agents (doves) use weapons fashioned from these Kagune to hunt the ghouls. It’s a creepy plot point and makes the doves even more loathesome at times.
Minus –
Early on, Tokyo Ghoul, would have you believe it is going to look seriously at the idea of discrimination by having Kaneki straddling the gap between human and ghouls. This plot point gets thrown out the window very early and other than the doves, there are almost no human characters of consequence. The one character who desperately needed more development and screen time, Hide – Kaneki’s apparently only human friend from before he became a ghoul, kind of vanishes for large chunks at a time and so any serious dialogue about similarities and differences kind of gets shuffled away as does Kaneki’s overall conflict at being a ghoul. By the end of the first half Kaneki is entirely caught up in various conflicts that the ghouls are facing and his own nature and the conflict that this had brought is almost entirely shelved. That doesn’t mean his character growth stops, it just goes in a very different direction compared to where it seemed to be going.
Plus +
The character designs are really interesting. Each character is quite distinct to look at (the ghouls have unique Kagune but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to visually differentiating the cast). Their mannerism, clothing, speech, and everything about the characters makes them feel like distinct entities even if some of these are a little one dimensional. The colours and fashion choices are great and really enhance the viewing experience as well as they contrast sharply with the fairly dark tone most of this anime seems to be draped in.
Minus –
Alright, I really loved this season, but it ends on an absolute cliff hanger and while it is an awesomely cool scene leaving the show hanging there was really cruel. I’m not going into the what happened but if you are squeamish about torture let’s just say Tokyo Ghoul is not the anime for you and leave it at that.
Plus +
And to end on a positive note, the theme song is amazing. While it doesn’t have the uplifting warmth of History Maker from Yuri On Ice, given the nature of the show that would be absurd, what it does have is an absolute tone of despair and loss of identity. It perfectly plunges you into Kaneki’s mindset and prepares you for the sad tale you are watching. There is just enough hope in the opening to make you think things will get better and to not crush your soul but just the song itself is a moving experience.
While there are certainly elements of this show that could be improved, pretty much if you like dark anime, a bit of action or a bit of horror, you will love this viewing experience. It moves quickly, has great characters, some excellent fight sequences, and just enough moments of gore and pain to really hit home for the horror fans. It may not be for everyone but if you know you like that kind of thing and you haven’t checked it out, it is well worth your time, even with the non-ending that season 1 delivers.
If you’ve seen Tokyo Ghoul I’d love to know your thoughts.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
I really wish they would’ve gone in the direction of delving into the psyche of Kaneki. That would have made the series infinitely more engaging and rewatchable. As it is now though, I think you lay out some pretty strong cons. Throwing the engaging part of the plot to the wayside until the very end where they touch upon it a little bit is what drags this series down to a more average stand point. In the end it focuses more on superfluous elements without really tying the story together in the slightest.
Where Tokyo Ghoul lost me is in losing its focus of being sort of like a ravenous version of “The Fly”. Originally making me ecstatic with its first episode promising this dark dissection of discrimination and tackling the psyche of Kaneki in the process. Yet it never even grasps the human perspective well enough in the first season instead giving us mere basic generalities without any clarity to them. I think good horror needs to speak to us as human beings like the novel “I am Legend”. Better stories that tackle roughly the same trajectory to more engaging results. If it wasn’t for the great design work, and interesting characters within the world of ghouls this series would have fallen to the wayside for me.
Visually it is quite impressive, but there is a lot of wasted potential in the story. Which is a shame, because as you said they set up something really interesting in that first episode and then just kind of ignore it.
Tokyo Ghoul is one of my favorite anime series in recent memory. I really hope there’s more episodes go come, and a live action movie would be nice too.
Kaneki Ken did nothing wrong!
That’s one of the few memes I know.
I enjoyed this too, action packed gorefest that it is. It’s got a really colorful – in more than one sense of the word – cast who make it quite an experience. My favorite part is probably the torture scene and the way Kaneki’s psyche is explored during it.
The OP is really something else, yes.
Poor Kaneki. He’s a victim of circumstance in every sense but at least he doesn’t play the victim the entire series.
Really…this week I have added more series to my to watch encyclopedia than ever before. To be fair though, this one was already on my list. Ofcourse the storyline for this one, is truly the thing that had me add it in the first place, but after reading this, I think I will enjoy watching it for the characters as well. After Your Lie in April is finished, first up (and it has been a long time coming) is Yuri on Ice. But after that, this series sounds very tempting to see next. Great post, as always 😀
Yuri on Ice followed by Tokyo Ghoul? That sounds like an amusing tonal transition if nothing else.
In honesty though, Tokyo Ghoul sounds like something you would enjoy. It isn’t as good as it could be and the second season is a bit of a train wreck, but it definitely has some good fun horror and action going on.
The anime was meh so so. The manga is freaking long and I don’t even rememberd where I stopped.
I actually actually really liked the show. It really scratches my inner horror fan. Or would that be outer? Whatever it scratches it.
I also thought the first theme song and opening was amazing. I don’t think it’s a shonen series actually. I’m pretty sure this was a seinen and toned down on the gore and violence for the anime. It’s interesting that they just reversed the color palate on the blood splatter. Maybe it’s a censor thing in Japan?
I also heard it strays pretty far from the manga. Which is on my read list. I’ll get around to it sometime.
Season two completely departs from the manga and is an original. You might want to just pick up the manga where season 1 of the anime left off. The first season was fairly faithful in its adaptation at least.
I’ll probably read the whole thing. I can tell just by the censorship and color palette there is probably a lot more in the manga than the anime. Plus it’s usually just fun to compare and see the difference. I’m a big fan of reading every issue of a manga and not just some of it.
I must admit, I’ve been slightly tempted to check the manga for this one (which normally I’m not). I really want to see if it develops some of the ideas that the anime could have looked at but didn’t.
I think it would be a good read. There’s a sequel to the series as well. But maybe it might have to take a backseat to Sangatsu if you were to rank them by priority. Hm.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Eh i’m a horror fan. It’s easy to please me when we are currently experiencing a horror/mystery anime drought.
That’s true. A decent horror anime would be lovely right now. Or at least a b grade one that manages to be amusing. I’ll take what I can get really.
I think Parasite was the last good one I saw. That was a while ago.
Love the theme song myself.
It’s by the lead singer of Ling Tosite Sigure the band that does most of the Psycho Pass openings so there is no surprise there.
Season 1 did a lot of good things but seemed to limit itself through mistakes and just not taking enough risks. I enjoyed it though and was really hoping season 2 would learn from it and grow into something great. I’ll reciprocate your sighs.
Also the coffee plotpoint brings up so many questions. Can they eat coffee cake? Could they grind up coffee beans and use it to season regular food? I know it’s a plot device so they can have a cafe but I want to know these things goddamnit!
It is kind of random and a bit of an explanation would have been nice. It never made sense that Kaneki didn’t ask why he could drink that. I know if everything else made me sick and then someone said, this won’t, my first question would be why.
I wish there was a Season 3
I’m watching on Toonami. 2 episodes in. So far the only thing I can say about the show is that it makes me physically ill. I hope there’s more than just gore.
Gore and action – that’s pretty much its focus. There are some good ideas underlying it at times, but these do not get developed into anything significant. If you aren’t in it for the gore, probably time to give it a miss (the end of the season is definitely not going to be for you).
I had a decent time with this series, but I was fairly disappointed that they didn’t explore the inner struggle between Kaneki’s human and ghoul sides and instead opted to turn the thing into a battle Shounen with man eating monsters. That first episode was amazing and Kaneki’s initial freak out was handled masterfully, so it was a bit of a letdown for me.
That being said, the direction it went in was still enjoyable, and Kaneki’s character arc, while lot perfect, was still pretty enjoyable.
And those character designs are great!
Good review! Looking forward to seeing your second season review which will no doubt be entertaining 😛
I still haven’t drafted the second season review. I really enjoyed this first season, even with its issues (so should have done more with the internal struggle). Season 2 on the other hand… Sigh.
That second season was…
Something…
Sigh indeed!
It’s really the only appropriate response.
I felt like they explored Kaneki’s inner struggle with being a ghoul and a human during the torture scenes, though. Maybe my memory fails me. It was already pretty drawn out in the beginning, too, I felt, since he’s freaking out about how everything has changed for him for several episodes.
If the studio hadn’t chosen to go anime-original on us, then we would have seen Kaneki continue to struggle with his own self-identity and goals. Some of the battles would have gained more significance, as well. Ah, well.
There was definitely a bit of soul searching during the torture scenes but it still felt like this idea could have been more foregrounded during most of the anime and it just kept getting shoved to the background.