It’s violent, gory
and cringe-inducing with a kickass story and animation to boot
(Suitable for Mature Audiences Only : Contains blood, gore, high-level
violence, horror, adult themes, torture scenes)
I had a lot of trouble writing this, mostly because I love
the anime so much that I don’t want to admit its weaknesses. I even had to
watch it twice just to examine it a bit more closely, this time not caught up
in the thrill of watching it. Unfortunately, Tokyo Ghoul blew up so big this
year that it’s hard to not find pieces of it scattered across the social media
cloud, but for good reason. This post only looks at season one and the first
twelve episodes. Pretty big spoilers ahead, but as usual, I’ll try not to
reveal big points.
Kaneki is the protagonist; an 18 year old university
freshman who has a crush on a girl who frequents a local coffee shop that he
goes to. After a date, Keneki walks Rize home and down an alley, it’s here that
she reveals her true identity. She is a ghoul. More accurately, she is a
binge-eater, a ghoul with a sadistic urge to kill and eat unnecessarily. Kaneki
is no match for Rize and is close to death before falling construction
materials crush Rize. Taken to hospital, Kaneki receives transplanted organs
from Rize and, upon release from hospital, realises he has become a half-ghoul
with only one affected eye.
Season one focuses on Kaneki and his struggle with being
half human and half ghoul. He fights his ghoul side and tries to remain as
human as possible. No longer able to eat human food, he must adapt to eating
human flesh or be consumed by the insatiable urge to kill and eat people. He is
‘adopted’ by the local ghoul population in his district and he goes to work in
a coffee shop which also serves as their headquarters. They teach him how to
live peacefully and not kill to eat. Ultimately, the series concludes when he
accepts the ghoul within him and embraces it to become strong enough to fight
back.
Even I have to admit, most of the first season features a
very whiny and miserable Kaneki. Every episode throws him in new and horrible
situations; fighting with his urges to eat, learning the grisly nature of ghoul
life or finding himself in the hands of the most bizarre and unpleasant
characters imaginable. The story was very well written and despite the
censoring (was censored for TV, DVD release will probably not be) the animation
was excellent and enthralling yet would still easily make most people cringe
with its gory scenes. The best thing I can praise it for is the character
development, which most of the episodes focus on. Characters are deep and
interesting, even making you sympathetic for initially hated characters. All
the main characters are strong yet flawed and have more than just good voice
acting, they have actual character. I find that this is a trait that is sorely
missed in much of today’s media.
Aside from also having one of my favourite opening themes of
all time, Tokyo Ghoul is a fantastic anime starting from episode three.
Personally, the first two are slow compared to the rest and feature too much of
the wingy side of Kaneki; you just wish he’d get over it. Fortunately, even the
other characters agree and berate him for acting so. I am eagerly awaiting the
season two release, due early next year, and hoping it remains consistently as
good as has been so far.
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