Alright, let’s begin this in a way that will head off both the angry commenters who will undoubtedly make remarks without first watching the video, or those who really don’t even care at all. Tokyo Ghoul has a manga. Shocking, I know. It’s true. It’s probably really good and you should go read it! But like every manga to anime adaptation out there, the manga readers will tell you that theirs is the superior version. They might be right, they might be wrong, I wouldn’t know. I didn’t read it, because I prefer to judge an anime on its own merits (or lack thereof) without the manga being there in my mind as some kind of constant comparison. But if you really like Tokyo Ghoul, then you should go and read the manga. Viz has it, so you can go and check that out over there. But with that out of the way, let’s get to the start of this new season to see if it can recover from the dumpster fire that season two left us. SPOILERS! It doesn’t.
Tokyo Ghoul:re is a currently airing anime for Spring 2018 by studio Pierrot. The Tokyo Ghoul franchise is one of their more well-known shows in the past number of years, but historically they are known as the animators for Boruto, Bleach, and Boruto’s Dad. I also know them for being the studio that helped popularize the use of idols in magical girl anime back in the 1980’s. But Kanaki is not a magical girl, so that’s neither here nor there, it’s just something I wanted to slide in there.
If you are curious as to my general thoughts on this franchise so far, I do have reviews of the first two seasons and you can go watch those at your leisure, but – long story short – they have many redeeming qualities that make them worth the watch for a great number of people. Just not me. Its first season’s opening will be replayed and covered to death, though that’s fine, because it’s really good. Unfortunately though, the ending of season two – and some people would say season two as a whole – suckssss. I have been told that this is because the anime for √A decided to go off and do its own thing away from what the manga did, but ultimately √A took what was good about the first season, then threw it into a grinder and hoped for the best.
So let’s ignore all that and start over, mmmmk?
Because when I say that √A went anime-only, I do mean it. Virtually none of that was from the manga, so now that we are back to the manga again, it’s somewhat confusing for anime-only watchers. We now have to decide what was and was not retconned as this third season is continuing with the impression that we knew what happened. Not a good sign.
So with the actual plot thus far, how does this stack up? Kanaki is back and is still the main character, but now he has amnesia and – for the third time in the anime’s history – has swapped sides…again. Man, this boy’s loyalties are completely wacked. So now he’s in charge of this new unit of ghoul/human hybrids, the creation of which…is not yet explained. These new characters seem to be trying their hardest to be unlikeable, what with the one guy being so full of himself he thinks that he can do everything on his own, the other dunce who’s happy to just be there, and the one who really should be in a more powerful and responsible position, but they can’t use their powers. Oh, and then there’s the blue-haired girl who didn’t have any screen time in the first two episodes…and that’s like a sixth of the whole show. So we don’t know what her deal is really…I guess, unless you read the manga. Not a good sign.
I’m not really sure who this series was meant for, to be honest. Because it’s not for the manga fans, unless someone seriously misjudged what that group would want from a re-adaptation. Although, perhaps the Japanese fans might be a little more lenient on the series than fans are here in the West. That could be. It’s certainly not for anime-only watchers because there are unexplained continuity errors all over the gosh-darn place. Not. A. Good. Sign.
So should you watch this series? That’s the ultimate question. I probably should not be the person to ask. But do you know who would be the person to ask? Yourself. Did you enjoy Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul √A? Then you’ll probably find some enjoyment here. Did you not enjoy either of those? Then perhaps this show will not be redeeming itself, in your eyes, anytime soon. True, it could pull itself out of the muck by the end of this run, but using the previous two shows as points of reference, it seems quite unlikely.
But hey, if you’re one of those individuals who really want to see more of this series, then it’s available from Funimation. They are even Simuldubbing it, which means the dub comes out at the same time as the sub, so that’s good. Shame it wasn’t for a series that I could recommend more, but hey, they’re also doing it for Hero Aca. Because that’s surprising (sarcasm).
That is it from me for today. Thank you for reading, and until next time, stay frosty.
It's a shame to hear that Tokyo Ghoul went so downhill after the first season. I thought the first season had some great ideas and some excellent episodes (namely the first few episodes and the final episode) but even that season had a middle portion that's just kind of a hazy memory to me at this point.
From what I understand (I might be wrong on this) the manga itself had some confused priorities regarding its tone, pacing, genre and plot structure, and it seems that confusion has been carried over tenfold into the adaptions. And switching back and forth between anime only and closely following the manga just sounds like a headache, like if they wrote FMA Brotherhood like it supposed to be a part of the same continuity as the original FMA adaption.
You have my respect for attempting to cover this madness. I feel the most sorry for the fans though, I'm sure there's a lot of great material to uncover if one has the patience.
If one has the patience, and if one has the funds. Manga is a pretty expensive hobby, when you compare it to the cost of watching an anime. Which makes it even more unfortunate when the creators of an anime cut out information assuming that you have first invested a considerable amount of time and money into other areas of the franchise.
Ideally, you should be able to watch a series or movie without feeling like the only way to "enjoy" it would be to skip it entirely and view it in another medium instead. That kind of just defeats the purpose. At that point, why make an anime at all? You could just make another advertisement for the manga. Unless that's actually all they ever intended the anime to be...a really, really expensive advertisement for the manga.
I feel like the process of adaption has become so commonplace in the anime industry that I'm fairly sure these anime are just made on reflex, 'because that's how it's done'. Like creating an anime adaption is what lends legitimacy to the manga, Light Novel, or game property. As if the property doesn't have merit or isn't 'popular' unless it has an anime, which doesn't make all that much sense if you really think about it. Maybe the producers see anime as just a high-budget advertisement, but I have to wonder if the animators/directors and writers and such could really tell you what the purpose of one of these animes is. As far as I know, the original Mangaka or author isn't really directly involved with these projects, so they're always working with somebody else's work rather than producing something that came fully formed from their own imaginations (though I'm sure plenty of them are fans of the properties they work on.) I'm probably wrong about this since I have no insider knowledge, all we can do is speculate really.
It feels like adaption in anime is about trying to blow through plot points as efficiently as possible rather than trying to take advantage of the strengths of the medium, which is somewhat of a shame, really, even if that's not their intention. Adaptions do work sometimes, though, if only because of law of averages... one has to work eventually.