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Series Name: Tokyo Ghoul, Tokyo Kushu, TG, Tokyo Ghoul √A, TG √A, Tokyo Ghoul: re, TG:re, Tokyo Kushu: re
Year of Serialization: TG: 2011, TG:re: 2014
Author(s): Sui Ishida
Artist(s): Sui Ishida (Manga) (Original Artist), Studio Pierrot (Anime)
Genre(s): Action, Mystery, Drama, Horror, Supernatural, Psychological, Seinen (Demographic)
Current Status: TG: Completed, TG √A: Completed, TG:re: On-going
Format(s): Manga, Anime, Novel
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Series Summary:
Tokyo Ghoul:re
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Critical Review:
(May contain some spoilers)
Tokyo Ghoul is a bit complicated, both in terms of adaptions and the story itself. Taking in consideration Tokyo Ghoul's expansiveness, making a simple anime or manga review would be almost impossible. Both adaptions balance greatly, in terms of characterization, art and how well certain scenes and scenarios are executed. However, Tokyo Ghoul is probably one of the best seinens out there. I'm going to break down my review a bit, starting with the anime.
The anime is a bit of a different animal from the manga. As an avid manga reader I can say that it was adapted pretty well from the the original source, but it wasn't adapted entirely well. It leaves a lot of things out, but the animation was really well done. Pierrot captured Kaneki and others really well from the manga, despite Sui's abstract drawing style. The lighting and backgrounds were pretty well done, and the fight scenes were really well choreographed, especially the Kaneki vs Yamori scene in episode 12. The soundtracks were pretty amazing as well. Unravel is a lyrical masterpiece, and Yutaka Yamada is growing as a composer. Licht und Schatten was a notable soundtrack made by him. Now, let me clarify the misconceptions that people are making about Root A. √A isn't "filler", but nor is it completely canon. It partially picks up where the manga left off, but it's an alternate route that Sui made himself for the anime, to give the rest of the Tokyo Ghoul anime an entirely different look. What would happen if Kaneki joined Aogiri? This is what √A was trying to answer. Personally, I think it was a great idea on Sui's part. Sui has a really abstract way of telling stories, and this alternate route would be an example of that. It was written generally well, but the original route was better of course. It had much more depth in both characterization, story, etc. Kaneki's character isn't showcased as much in the anime than the manga, for example. Other than that, there really isn't much to say about the anime...than there is to say about the manga.
Now when reviewing the manga, it's the equivalent to reviewing the whole series. The manga is probably the greatest adaption of this series, considering it's made by Sui himself, and all the content that's being put into twenty or so pages of a chapter is simply phenomenal. Like I said above, Sui has a really abstract way of story telling. And it really works with a series like Tokyo Ghoul. The art in TG objectifies that, because it's not a simple art style, and it's not something you would generally see in any manga. It's realism is something to look out for, it accents a huge majority of the scenes in the manga really well. Talking about the characters, they simply aren't generic. Our protagonist Ken Kaneki is someone to definitely to look out for, he's a rapidly evolving character, and quite the peculiar one. In Tokyo Ghoul, his personality evolves in quite a cruel way. Not many MC's in a seinen I personally know evolved through the way Kaneki did. Try changing into an entirely different character through sadistic torture and being forced out of a personality that you were used to for eighteen years. That was Kaneki. His characterization is so great, it's actually quite hard to describe. His perspective on how he wanted to define protection alters as his own personality changes. Considering he is an artificial ghoul, he thought he can be the bridge between humans and ghouls. The one who would be able to make both humans and ghouls understand eachother. But to no avail, and the amount of emphasis on reality TG makes, this never happens. In re, Kaneki sides with the humans and is separated with two personas. I won't say more than this, but he definitely is a complex character. And the complexity of his character intensifies even more as the story progresses. He definitely is one of the better seinen protagonists.
Regarding the basic concept of Tokyo Ghoul, it's not one of those stories where one party that is considered "good" fights an opposing party that is considered "evil". Tokyo Ghoul completely ridicules that. In TG, the plot is setup so humans and ghouls are both seen as opponents to eachother. There is no good side. There is no evil side. Both parties did something that would hurt the other, be it kill someone they love the most, take something away from their life, etc. Both races have emotions and both parties have a reason to live. Humans are ghouls are the same, but not entirely either. Like any species compared to the other, humans and ghouls should have different DNA structures. They are just similar personality-wise. And honestly, we shouldn't say be able to say right off the bat which one is more of a threat to the other. Sure, we may be under the assumption in Tokyo Ghoul that humans may have been one of the first species on the planet, but what do we know about ghouls? We literally know nothing about them. All we're shown at face value is that they eat humans as a resource for food and despite that they don't eat much. They also have the power to use their predatory organs to fight an opposing party. In TG, the emphasis is heavily on what society thinks about one specie to the other. Tokyo is a man-made capital that was once a village, and humans loathe ghouls for living there, so in return, ghouls would do the same. In reality, we have no proof to know if ghouls lived on the land humans stand on before Tokyo was built. So who actually came first on the earth, Humans or ghouls? All of this is what I personally think Tokyo Ghoul is trying to emphasize with it's concept.
Regarding the story, as I've said many times, it's very abstract and well-written. The story has a sense of suspense that really blends in with the art and other characteristics of the adaption. Sui's writing style is very unique and pleasant to read, both in anime and manga form. It's definitely one of the most well-written seinens to date, and the characters are really well-seasoned. The story emphasizes how twisted the world is for both parties to add in.
Despite all the pros I said about Tokyo Ghoul, like any other series, it has it's flaws. For example, the amount of suspense in
√A can get really irritating, as well as the lack of dialogue and the rapid changing of scenes as well. To add in, the anime is heavily censored. This is probably in defense to the amount of gore that the manga has, but it's still quite insulting to watch. Another flaw I found was how poorly executed Kaneki's joining of Aogiri was in √A. The concept itself had potential, but it didn't compare to what the manga had in store at that scene. The anime was poorly adapted compared to the manga, but is definitely better than a lot of anime and manga adaptions of other series. If you think there are anymore flaws with TG, feel free to point them out.
In conclusion, I definitely recommend you check out Tokyo Ghoul. For people who are scared of stuff like gore, it actually only has a valued amount of gore (like blood being spilled, etc), but not a lot of decapitations and such. In fact, the anime heavily censors a lot of it, so if you're not a huge gore person you might as well check out the anime before the manga if you still want a somewhat pleasant experience without a heavy amount of the "fear factor". To be honest, whether you like Tokyo Ghoul or not actually depends on you. TG doesn't fit everyone's tastes, but it definitely has one of the most well-written stories to date regarding any seinen anime or manga.
Overall Rating:
9.5/10
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