I was scrolling through anichart.net earlier this year, checking out what good animes would be coming out for summer and holy! I came across Tokyo Ghoul and I knew from that moment that it's gonna be a hella awesome anime, AND IT WAS.
Doesn't it look terribly exciting??!
It's one of the very few animes that I'll wait patiently every week for the episodes to come out. I clearly remembered I waited every Friday morning at 1.
To start off, the opening song was spectacular (I have it in my phone bahaha). Unravel is sung by Ling Tosite Sigure, a band of three whose vocalist specialises in falsetto. I found an EVEN BETTER dubstep remix by Dj Jo.:
You're welcome
The 12 episode series features Kaneki, a human turned ghoul after a bizarre accident at a construction site. Apparently, he was at the site with the girl whom he had a crush on and took her out for the day, not knowing she was actually a powerful ghoul who was just waiting for the right moment to devour him.
She's Rize.
Rize apparently died from the massive weights that fell on her, but Kaneki survived, and desperately needed an organ transplant to save his life. And so, Rize's organs were transplanted. At that moment, an unknown person (who will be revealed in the later episodes) consented the decision of transplantation and mentioned that he'll bear the responsibility.
Kaneki woke up as a half-ghoul:
AND THE AMAZING PLOT BEGINS. Just look at the eye oh my goodness I was extremely excited and my heart was literally pounding crazily fast.
It took awhile for him to adapt to this life, at first he rejected the body and was really traumatised.
Since human food to Ghouls are distasteful and irksome, they rely on the flesh of humans. There was one food they could consume without having to puke, and that's coffee.
Since human food to Ghouls are distasteful and irksome, they rely on the flesh of humans. There was one food they could consume without having to puke, and that's coffee.
Which brings me to talk about Anteiku in the 20th ward. It's a cafe selling only coffee and run by Ghouls who come in peace. Yoshimura, an old man who apparently rarely opens his eyes hahaha, is the manager of the cafe.
There are other waiters and waitresses, but the more significant one is Touka.
Who is also my FAVOURITE CHARACTER. I absolutely love her personality. She's a really cold and bad-ass character.
I had goosebumps watching her fight with Tsukiyama, and I couldn't help but replay it countless times:
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*GOOSEBUMPS REACHED MAXIMUM PEAK*
That guy, by the way, is Tsukiyama. A sadistic Ghoul who has a weird way of eating his preys, although he obsessively labels it as a glorious exquisite dining.
Appears to be a normal individual but...
Goes crazy after smelling Kaneki's blood
He is really obsessed with Kaneki, indicating that he's an extremely tasty ghoul. Oh and the stuff you see appearing on their backs? That's their kagune, and every ghoul has a different one.
Another important character who's a waiter in Anteiku named Nishio, his story lies from episodes 2-6.
With the brief introduction of Anteiku done, the main plot is that the ghouls are constantly being hunted by humans in an organisation named CCG.
The idea of ghouls blending among humans and them capable of going into their true forms makes it a shaky and skeptical peace for all humankind, given that humans are already much on the losing end in terms of power. So this gives rise for the need of an organisation to protect humanity.
The idea of ghouls blending among humans and them capable of going into their true forms makes it a shaky and skeptical peace for all humankind, given that humans are already much on the losing end in terms of power. So this gives rise for the need of an organisation to protect humanity.
The main investigators are Amon and Mado.
Mado on the left, Amon on the right
They kill off ghouls using Kagune obtained from deceased ghouls and packed into a suitcase.
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Poor Hinami :(
We also have this weird kid named Suzuya in CCG who seems to have been badly abused (also looks like he'll go berserk when tempered with).
It then gets very complicated at the back episodes, because all of a sudden, many different ghouls were popping up, and everyone of them was looking for Rize.
They were all from the Aogiri tree, mainly targeting to kill the ghoul investigators. The two significant members:
Ayato, executive of Aogiri tree. Purple hair... Looks familiar? For you to find out!
Yamori, aka 13th ward's Jason. Well known for his extreme sadistic behavior, only because he was being tortured by an inspector in the past.
As the story progresses, Kaneki also gets his mask (which all ghouls have) from mask-maker Uta:
So now Kaneki can look like the cool kid down the block
GOOSEBUMPS
He engaged in a fight with Amon (the moment Kaneki got serious was thrilling). However, he gets kidnapped by Jason and what happens there... You really got to watch it.
What I liked about this anime:
1. The story line to begin with
This is the type of story that's exactly what I LOVE. The plot was simply one of a kind and it blew me away with its brutality. Although the gore scenes are censored, there was still a lot of fighting and noise effect from the stabbing etc. to compensate for (note that they recently released the uncensored versions up till episode 9 so far, click here). It may be a very simple species vs. species for survival concept, but it is not just two distinct groups spewing hatred for each other. There are internal conflicts among the ghouls as well so that it isn't all dog vs. cat only throughout the 12 episodes.
And it's actually a really sad cycle of revenge. Many humans in CCG were hunting ghouls down because they had loved ones taken away from them, due to the fact that there is a minority of ghouls hunting humans down unnecessarily or for food. The CCG then decided to kill every single ghoul, whether or not innocent, and thus there was a constant brutal massacre of both species.
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What excites me is to find out how would this all end????! (which I THINK I already know how it goes... BECAUSE I ACCIDENTALLY READ A SPOILER SOMEWHERE and I just felt like
2. Expressions
Very detailed drawings for different expressions to sway us into the mood. In times of anger or sorrow or whatnot, characters would have very real expressions to deliver the emotions. I could feel the heat coming off from the screen.
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But I would say it's more of... ugly faces (hahahahahaha) because of the exaggerated features. But that's what tugs at our heart to feel disturbed yet intrigued, allowing us to feel the desperation ourselves.
3. Good character development
You don't have an all biggy character from the start who's already formidable and all impossible. I really liked how Kaneki was initially a coward (it could be quite annoying though), and gradually became someone with competence. As the story progresses and up till episode 8, he manages to man-up because he felt really useless (yea he sure was), and didn't want to lose anyone he cared for anymore.
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What I liked about this anime:
1. The story line to begin with
This is the type of story that's exactly what I LOVE. The plot was simply one of a kind and it blew me away with its brutality. Although the gore scenes are censored, there was still a lot of fighting and noise effect from the stabbing etc. to compensate for (note that they recently released the uncensored versions up till episode 9 so far, click here). It may be a very simple species vs. species for survival concept, but it is not just two distinct groups spewing hatred for each other. There are internal conflicts among the ghouls as well so that it isn't all dog vs. cat only throughout the 12 episodes.
And it's actually a really sad cycle of revenge. Many humans in CCG were hunting ghouls down because they had loved ones taken away from them, due to the fact that there is a minority of ghouls hunting humans down unnecessarily or for food. The CCG then decided to kill every single ghoul, whether or not innocent, and thus there was a constant brutal massacre of both species.
And while Amon questions Kaneki, Touka was questioning Mado:
What excites me is to find out how would this all end????! (which I THINK I already know how it goes... BECAUSE I ACCIDENTALLY READ A SPOILER SOMEWHERE and I just felt like
2. Expressions
Very detailed drawings for different expressions to sway us into the mood. In times of anger or sorrow or whatnot, characters would have very real expressions to deliver the emotions. I could feel the heat coming off from the screen.
A very desperate Kaneki trying not to eat his friend while his inner Rize tempts him
But I would say it's more of... ugly faces (hahahahahaha) because of the exaggerated features. But that's what tugs at our heart to feel disturbed yet intrigued, allowing us to feel the desperation ourselves.
3. Good character development
You don't have an all biggy character from the start who's already formidable and all impossible. I really liked how Kaneki was initially a coward (it could be quite annoying though), and gradually became someone with competence. As the story progresses and up till episode 8, he manages to man-up because he felt really useless (yea he sure was), and didn't want to lose anyone he cared for anymore.
Witnessing a certain someone's death. Here I was anticipating a change from Kaneki, but he was still cowering in fear.
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But as much as he is powerful, he still had that soft part of him. After 'defeating' Amon in a fight, Kaneki wasn't able to suppress his ghoul hunger:
But he quickly snapped out of it when he realised he hurt his friend, Yomo, who is part of Anteiku as well.
It was only when Kaneki finally decided to embrace his ghoul side after all these while of rejecting it, that he gained an insurmountable strength, AND WHITE HAIR AS PROMISED ヾ(@^▽^@)ノ
Who was he strangling??? YOU HAVE TO WATCH TO FIND OUT.
The last fight in episode 12 was AWWWWWWEEESOMEEE. His voice was manlier and he was entirely in his own league. The fight was accompanied by the opening theme song (at first I was wondering why they didn't play the op for episode 12) and it gave me goosebumps everywhere, my heart was BURSTING.
SUPER BAD ASS
I'd say the character development was an undoubtedly 9/10! Just look at how much he has grown.
This anime is in my top 5 (honestly I can't decide the rankings for my top 5 anime because they're are too good in their own ways) and I AM SO RELIEVED because season 2 is coming out in winter and the date set is January 8! When I first found this out on anichart, I literally:
(This by the way, is from Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou, which is a freaking hilarious anime)
It's called Tokyo Ghoul Root A and the poster...
THE SUSPENSE IS TOO DAMN HIGH.
So in conclusion, I rate Tokyo Ghoul a 9/10! Ｏ(≧▽≦)Ｏ And to end it off, my favourite fanart for this anime: