DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA ActionTokyo Ghoul
ANIME ActionTokyo Ghoul:re
ANIME ActionTokyo Ghoul:re 2
NOVEL ActionTokyo Ghoul:re: quest
ONE SHOT ActionTokyo Ghoul: Joker

REVIEWS

• 

  Vampy

  55/100
  A brilliant story and world jumbled with trash characters and relationships.

  My Basic Thoughts:
  We all know this much, it's the sequel of Tokyo Ghoul, taking place a couple years after the first series. Starting from Chapter 1, it had a very strong start with the introduction of the Qs and Haise as main characters. This strong and intellectual writing continued throughout until it got about halfway, where a very noticeable drop in quality was taken.

  My Complaints:
  Haise's character became confusing, whilst not having very much sense in the backstory, should've acted extremely different because of what he had experienced. The decisions he made and what he was saying did not align with who he was as a character, which made me really dislike him as a character around chapter 70. Sure, Tokyo Ghoul re is hype, because Tokyo Ghoul is always hype (lol), but the hypness doesn't always excuse for when the characters don't improve or make no sense from what they were presented as. The main problem I had with the series was the seemingly devolution of Haise and Touka as characters, with every other character maturing and growing around them. Another thing I had disliked was the joking nature of some characters toxic behaviors (hitting between lovers) and blatant reduce to comedy relief (Tsukiyama). Another problem was the disregard of once big plotpoints and mysteries nearly completely ignored or put off to the side(Nearly everything involving Hide). A final flaw that wasn't very huge in the span of things, but got on my nerves a bit, was the awful LGBT characters.. They were represented very very poorly and were made out to just be stereotypical representations of what a person thought they are in the most basic sense. It made me extremely disappointed to see all of these take place, and with the ending chapter solidifying these thoughts. It felt like Ishida wanted the series to end, and gave what the majority wanted, which is never the right idea for a great series that Tokyo Ghoul once was.

  ---

  Art: 7/10 - Very good, a definite improvement from the first series (although some fight scenes are confusing)
  Characters: 3/10 - All of my complaints are above
  Story: 5/10 - Enjoyable, but still had many problems (stemming from the character inconsistencies)

  Overall: 5.5/10 - will probably buy volumes 1-6, but not anything after :/
  Would not recommend

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• 

  biogundam

  73/100
  great series, but the ending chapters are very painful to read and sit though.

  Warning: this review contains minor spoilers.

  First impressions, so one of my favorite manga continues, which I am happy for because the ending was such a cliffhanger and I want to see where the story goes from there because I was very hooked.

  Story: 7/10
  2 years after the raid of the 20th ward the CCG decides it's time to deploy a new type of anti-ghoul weapon in order to combat the ever present threat of the ghoul terrorist organization known as Aogiri Tree, who continue to terrorize ghouls and more importantly the human population of Tokyo. This new type of anti-ghoul weapon is known as the QS children, a group of individuals who have been implanted with quinque throughout their body, giving them amazing abilities. Unfortunately though, these individuals are fresh out of the academy and don't have the combat skills or experience necessary to even stand a chance against a single regular ghoul. The solution the CCG has comes up with to deal with this problem is to deploy a mentor figure, named Haise Sasaki(Kaneki with memory loss) to guide and train them to become the ultimate killing machines. while in the background, Haise seeks answers about his past, while in the shadows the ghoul world and life he once had start creeping ever closer into his new life.
  The first half of Tokyo Ghoul Re is mostly Haise and his merry band of idiots doing missions for the CCG, while occasionally encountering figures from his past, with a fairly large amount of focus being given to the people who work in the CCG and what their lives entail. It’s only around 50-ish chapters in, after Haise goes on some missions and some events take place that during a raid he’s able to get his memory back and become Kaneki+. To follow up, a jailbreak, a rescue mission and fight with Arima, Haise’s mentor and father figure insue. This is honestly the only thing that kept me interested in Kaneki’s neo-edgelord phase, the ever so hyped Kaneki vs Arima rematch. Well, that and the anticipation of what Eto will do next. Fortunately, this is the part of the series where it really gets going. The second half of Re is probably the part where my intrigue was at an all time high, as it heavily involved the long standing series’ mysteries. Even better, these mysteries heavily pertained to the identity of the one eyed King, V and the Washu clan, most of these mysteries get explained in a satisfactory manner. He takes on the title of the one eyed King in order to build a world where both humans and ghouls and live in peace And honestly it really interesting to see Kaneki put in the leadership role. And the trials and errors he goes through while taking the path of leading what is essentially a terrorist organization comprised of ghouls and former CCG members. Which is interesting and funny to watch when you consider the fact that most of the people that are in this terrorist organization are people who originally at one point would try kill each other.
  Tokyo Ghoul Re like its predecessor is still heavy focused on this social political conflict between humans and ghouls, the difference being that Re is much more focused(at least in the beginning) on depicting the human characters’ point of view. while the original did show both the ghoul and the human side viewpoints. Re goes for a more personal take and focuses more of the individual characters from both the ghoul and human side and how they react and feel about this conflict. Which I feel makes the conflict it's feel more morality gray. Because we have both ghoul and human characters who deep down don't want to fight in this war and actually regret the actions and lives they have taken but have to continue doing it because the world is still stuck in this fucked up cycle of death, hate and despair.
  Something thing which I think is interesting is that it parallels a lot of the key events in the original manga but puts a spin on it so it isn't predictable. But at the same time you kinda guess what's going to happen. Now one problem I had with the original manga is that even though it was building up these multiple mysteries and this epic level government conspiracy in it narrative to make the story more interesting. But because of the very sudden ending of series. It opened up a lot of plots holes and honestly it made me and probably most people for that matter scratching their heads wondering what the fuck is going on. Because there quite a few scenes and dialogue in that series that make no sense because you don't know where to put it In terms of context, like for example why exactly is rize so important to so many people if all she ever did was being used to turn Kaneki and a few others into half ghouls. Thankfully Tokyo Ghoul Re actually explores and explains a lot of what originally didn't make sense. Like what I mentioned before like why is Rize so important or what exactly are the Washu clan hiding from people. Which is great because it removes a lot of plots holes and a few problems I had with the original series before. But even if we get these answers and etc it's still opens up more plots holes for re and If anything, leave me with more questions than answers. Like it cool that's there these mysteries going on and a lot more world building is taking place to flesh out the setting more, and it's shows that we as the reader have only scratch the surface of this world and that there is more to explore. But does it really need to drag it out for this long for the sake for building up hype and selling more manga volumes
  There’s also a bigger focus on the series’ romance and slice of life aspects, which adds more flavor to the character interactions and improves on one my problems with the original. That being that there weren’t enough cool-down moments to allow me to care about most of characters. I feel like some of romance parts are a little rushed, mainly between Kaneki and Touka, as even though they’ve known each other for quite a while, their relationship progresses at an unreasonably rapid pace. Now while I like this kinda relationship, I wish they padded it out more. But it was also pointed out to me that the characters do live in a world where everything and anything that gives them happiness could be taken in a heartbeat so it makes sense why they would speed up their relationship. But sadly like the original manga is still uses over the top edge and over dramatization of certain situations to try to get its point across. Which lucky it dose it less but there still monuments where I still thinking was that really necessary to add that in. Like there is this one scene where this person gets chopped in half by a chainsaw or another scene where you got Mutsuki is riding this ghoul corpse that she has fucked up beyond repair because we find out she is an yandere for Kaneki and this corpse basically looks like him. Don't get me wrong I enjoy it I just feel it doesn't have to go as far as it does sometimes. It's just for a series in my book to be counted as mature it has to handle its content in a mature way even if it has mature themes and concepts.
  My major problem is that some of story arcs and character arcs were mishandled and where written a little sloppy and wasn't as tightly packed as some of the other story arcs where. like during the rue island arc, one of the most hyped things was the battle between Hoji and Tatata. basically what happens is before the critical blow was done Takizawa basically comes out of nowhere and kills almost everyone and even if that was used for Takizawa character arc. I still feel that situation was mishandled. What should of happened is that one of them lands the critical blow and before they finish it Takizawa comes out and does his thing. That's a better concussion because Hoji and Tatata get this finish there thing and Takizawa still gets his character arc Like how hard is that to do exactly. And speaking of story arcs. The jailbreak and rue island raid were done around the same time and how it jumped from different characters , groups and timelines was quite the cluster fuck. Because the events of the jail break arc have already happened as the rue island shit was kicking off. Like it would have been better to have one of arcs focused on only and then you switch to the other arc. The fact those entire arcs where cliffhanger central didn't help because there so many things to focus on and those arcs kinds became a Cluster fuck. Because those arcs were trying to do to many things at once in so little time that it became unfocused and really hard to sit through.
  I want to address some of new ability they give ghouls. Which is the last negative thing I want to say. Like The idea that your kagune is shaped by your imagination and creativity and how strong it can be depends on many rc cells you have. I think it fine it makes sense given the information we know about kagune and how ghoul abilities work. But the thing that has me scratching my head is that there are ghoul characters that have these very odd abilities even by ghoul standards. Like there’s a character who kagune can make fire that can burn about as hot as the sun or another character who can make these clones of himself with his own kagune (Those are just a few examples out of a dozen I could mention) And I don't have a problem with these abilities being in the series because it's makes the fights more interesting and slightly more tactical than I should give it credit for. it just I wish they explained how that works exactly. Because it kinda feels like an asspull when they don't explain how to works.Like do you have to be part of some special ghoul bloodline to get these abilities or are these abilities things you can pick up the stronger and more experience you have with your ghoul abilities.

  Characters: 7/10
  Main character Kaneki Ken, initially living with memory loss under that name Sasaki Kaise(which I’m going to be calling CCG Kaneki) is kind of a rehash of what Kaneki used to be before he became Kan-edgy. This is something i find quite annoying, especially since his whole “I can't control my ghoul side” was somewhat pointless to me, because he’d already gotten over that conflict of “what am I?”. On the flip side, I found his overarching “I wanna get my memories back” character arc interesting, even though I feel it dragged out for far too long and although I found the payoff to be decent, getting there was very taxing and slow burn. In retrospect, I actually appreciate his character for who he is, as personality wise he’s basically like a more mature and confident version of black haired Kaneki, as I found him was originally kinda boring. It's also interesting and cool to see CCG Kaneki in the mentor/ teacher role, because the QS children he is looking after are like a family to him and I find the time they spent together very cute and endearing, which also speaks volumes about how Kaneki has matured over the course of the story as a whole. Because originally he was lost and didn't know what the fuck he was doing but now he is confident and has a family. But sadly all good things have to come to an end and though certain events he gets his memory back and oh boy we find out a lot more about his true character. I won’t go into detail about what we find out about him from this event for the sake of brevity, but If you thought Kan-edgy was an edgelord, then just wait till you see his next persona, black Kan-edgy. Luckily, he doesn't stay around for long. So before I continue with Kaneki last personality change for now. I would like to say even though I found black Kan-edgy really cool and kinds badass and it also drives home the point of how Kaneki is a very damaged human being deep inside and kinda explains why he is the way he is in certain situations. But anyway his last persona which I am very much on the fence about, as takes on the best and worst qualities of his character. Because he has the confidence because now he knows what he wants in life and knows what he needs to do and he has the capability to get that shit done and will be a badass about it. Which is always a plus in my eyes But at the same time he is a bit too passive and he still has trouble with making a critical decision and I feel at times he loses some of the intelligence and foresight he had before. Because Kaneki is not a dumb person he's actually quite a smart person yet sometimes he has these random Lapps of intelligence. Like for one example he finds out about a spy that’s gained information on him in his base of operations and instead of killing him, he locks him up, even though and he might have a tracker and a listening device on him(which he totally does btw). But even though he has those flaws I feel it makes him more realistic as a leader and helps drive home the point that he still has lots to learn as a leader and an individual before he has finished his journey. Even though at that point of the story he’s been kinda deified to ghouls and humans alike, to the point where in fact in one scene, an entire groups of ghouls refer to him as their king repeatedly.
  The side characters as a whole is kinda a mixed bag for me, because on one hand we get quite a few characters that go through great character arcs and decent fleshing out, but at the same time we still have those dime-a-dozen cannon fodder characters, who you can tell immediately are going to die, despite their backstories and fleshed out personalities. To add insult to injury, there are still way too many characters that don’t get the panel time they need to be properly developed or fleshed out and for the most part either only show up every now and then to speak a few lines or even worse, get killed off before they even become characters in their own right, like Fuuka or Hairu. These are characters that had potential and were around for quite some time, yet not only were their personalities barely fleshed out, but they’re built up, only to get axed off before they can amount to anything.
  Now, on to character development. I feel that Re is quite abundant in characters that are excellently developed, both by the standard set by the original series, but also by the medium of manga in general, albeit often following certain patterns. One of the most common of these patterns being that of inhuman characters discovering or rediscovering their humanity and growing more responsible, tieing them more to the series’ themes. Characters following this general type of character arc include Urie and Ayato, who both initially are introduced as apathetic and inhuman, but later on, through the hardships they endure, learn to be more empathetic and in tune with the world around them. Of course, these aforementioned characters pale in comparison to one of my favourite Tokyo ghoul characters of this type, that being the character of Juuzou. Now in all honesty, Juuzou used to be one of my most disliked Tokyo Ghoul character, as I have a personal bias against characters that are of the one dimensional psychopath variety. The reason for this is because in my experience, those types of characters are more often than not used for the shock factor or as pre-packaged antagonists, rather than as a base to develop interesting characters or as grander thematic pieces, to challenge the reader’s perspective. Fortunately, Juuzou is one of the few rare cases where that's not the case, as over the course of the series, he receives excellent character development. Not only does he grow into a much more mature character, but he also builds relationships with the characters around him, becoming an important figure in their lives, instead of just maintaining his singular status as the CCG’s murder tool.
  The character interactions are a lot more interesting and have a lot more weight to them that those of the original series, given what’s been built up till this point. Some of my favourite interactions in the series include those between the people in the CCG and CCG Kaneki and the QS children he looks after. By concept alone this is something that draws my interest, given the preexisting disposition the members of the CCG hold towards anything even resembling a ghoul. An added benefit from these types of interaction is also that they allow for the individual characteristics of the CCG members to be drawn out, cementing each of them further as individuals, rather than some hivemind. By far though, one of the best things that Re does is show the gradual shift the the CCG members’ perspectives towards the ghouls, as over time they seem to realise that the ghouls are something more than or just evil, blood thirsty animals that want to ravage, corrupt and kill everything in sight. Finally, i want to bring attention to the way some characters either reconcile their differences or past misdeeds and become comrades, like in the case of Akira forgiving Hinami and Touka for their involvement into her father's death. Though this event it’s shown both how much these characters have matured, to be able to get to this point in the first place, but also instils in them the realization that being consumed by hate only serves to further fuel the conflict between the humans and the ghouls, without actually solving anything, but instead just causing more bloodshed.

  Art: 7/10
  The art for Tokyo ghoul re is great improvement over that of the original manga. The backgrounds have more detail and make the city that the story takes place in feel so much more alive. The fight scenes are a lot cleaner and it's much easier to tell what's going on, except for some scenes where characters are moving really fast or there are multiple things happening at once. The character designs are much more creative and varied this time around, even though there are some characters that look very bizarre (even by Tokyo ghoul standards) and kinda cartoony, like for example this one guy who looks like a corpse, that’s been put together using old body parts. I also think some the some of the characters’ outfits look really cool and add more personality to them, like Ayato’s battle suit, which he wears in the auction raid arc or Kaneki’s white suit, that makes him look like some kind of badass yakuza gang leader. The last thing I want to address is that improvement in the quality of the designs for the kagune and kakujas, as now they’re varied and creatively drawn than a lot of the older ones, especially when they’re drawn to look really metallic or insect like. Also, now instead of “this ghoul has wings” or “this ghoul has a tail”, it’s more like “this ghoul has a fucking armor” or “this ghoul has a fucking scorpion tail”. Besides that though, they’re just all around a lot more detailed and stylish, which I really enjoy.

  Enjoyment: 7/10
  To be honest, even though I am quite negative about this series, I’m quite the Tokyo ghoul fag, so I enjoyed the living fuck out of it. It always gives me something to look forward to and reading the new chapter every week and finding out what happens next never failed to bring me joy. I think the thing that I enjoy about Tokyo ghoul re the most though is the fact that the writer of Tokyo ghoul(Sui Ishida) is so unapologetic about what he puts In his story. For example, there’s an entire chapter long sex scene between Kaneki and Touka or a scene where Mutsuki is half naked, riding a corpse that looks like Kaneki. The dude just doesn't give any fucks and that adds a lot of personality to Tokyo ghoul, which really gives you an idea of what type of person the writer is, through these types of scenes.

  Overall: 7/10
  Conclusion:
  Tokyo Ghoul Re story wise has some really good ideas on paper, that in practice simply fail to read their full potential. Nevertheless, lacking as it may be, it’s still is a step in the right direction, as it improves upon many of the problems the original had, even though it feels like it's still being held back by them. It's not the masterpiece of great writing that some people claim it to be, but it's getting there, so I would totally recommend Tokyo ghoul re to anyone who likes the idea of humans vs misunderstood outgroup stories. I’d recommend you check out parasite and ajin first though.
  Btw, i didn’t where to include this, so imma just say it here. Eto is best girl! Fuck you! Fight me!
  Special thanks to my unpaid and slightly pissed editor, Lonecrit.

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• 

  imnap

  79/100
  I stand here today, together with my past self

  Contains spoilers for "Tokyo Ghoul" and "Tokyo Ghoul:re"

  ---

  Schadenfreude

  The world of Tokyo Ghoul is presented to us through a bird’s eye view. Not one that is lavishly gliding above the glassy skies, but one trapped in a warped cage. Thus, are presented the main themes of the series – the surrounding environment is not as black and white as it may seem, understanding and accepting the self and lastly, justice. This last theme might be the one that Tokyo Ghoul touches upon the least, mostly focusing on it in the original manga’s first half, so I’ll start with that and primarily schadenfreude. Schadenfreude is a complex emotion most of us have admittedly felt at some point, consisting of feeling joy at another’s misfortune. Now you might be wondering what does this have to do with justice? Well, there are three psychological causes for this: aggression, rivalry and finally, justice. Among the numerous examples of this that I could give are Urie’s initial hatred for Kuroiwa, Roma’s obsession with seeing Kaneki suffer and, in an extreme case, Yamori’s hunger for torture, although that falls more under sadism. The list could go on with other characters like Takizawa or Kurona, but that becomes unnecessary when you realize that the entirety of the conflict in Tokyo Ghoul is based around just that. Humans want to get rid of ghouls because their safety is threatened by their existence, and ghouls retaliate because their place in society is non-existent. Both teams thus falling under a false sense of justice, while in reality just being consumed by self-righteousness.

  

  Via schadenfreude the author makes us familiar with the ugliness, unfairness and coldness of the ghoul world right from the very start, something with which we can compare to the real world. This leads me to the next point – the sheer complexity of the world we live in.

  ---

  Warped Cage

  It's made abundantly clear from the very first arc in the story that things aren’t as simple as they may seem, as it will have you wondering who the real monsters are. The more you read, the more you start pondering this question and the line between villains and heroes gets blurrier and blurrier by the volume. This, ladies and gentlemen, I presume to be social commentary on modern day society, and especially the Japanese one. A rising problem in the world nowadays has become those that don’t abide by the societal norms. In Japan there is virtually only one path you can choose to walk on from the day you were born, and that is the path everyone else has already traversed. Go to school, graduate high school at the top of the class, go to college and so on until you get an office job at a company and work overtime. But what about those that aren’t interested in such a linear path? The people that don’t follow the norm are harshly criticized, ignored and ostracized by even their closest family members. This is true in more countries, but it is especially true in the “Land of the Rising Sun,” mostly because of the “Lost Decade” that has plagued Japan in the 1990’s. Even though the effects of that drastic economic regression can still be felt to this day, it has been over 20 years since then, but the Japanese society refuses to change and adapt to the new, engulfed by their old ways. This has created a divide between the people of old, that see those that don’t follow the norm as threats to society and the newer generations that want to adopt changes, much like the humans in Tokyo Ghoul that ostracize the ghouls, and the ghouls that resent the human world for not being accepted. As such, we can draw the parallel between the fictional modern Tokyo and the real one, including the aforementioned schadenfreude emotion, which gets cultivated in Japanese people from a young age as a byproduct of the sheer amount of rivalry and unhealthy expectations from their parents. Tokyo Ghoul goes to great lengths to show the readers just how putrid its world is, wrapped in a twisted cage from which nobody can escape, and how eerily similar it is to ours from that perspective.

  

  Something of this magnitude and displayed so well couldn’t have come from just an outsider of this problem, but from someone that has lived through this struggle first-hand. This leads me to the final, and most important theme the manga addresses – change, understanding and coming to terms with oneself.

  ---

  Me, pt. 1

  I was never good at school, or even interested in it. I was always causing trouble. After all, why would a kid care about that stuff when I had all of my buddies to have fun with. I loved making others laugh, part of it was for attention and the other was to feel accepted so I never had difficulty making friendships initially. But before I realized it, I lost all of those friendships. Miserable. I didn’t have all that many to begin with, or I just had too many, too shallow. Once I didn’t abide to their wants and needs, once I wasn’t needed anymore, once I had become flawed in their eyes, the tide changed. I was the one ostracized. Or maybe I'm just playing the victim. Back then I had taken for granted just how easy it was for me to have friends, and how fortunate I was to have an active social life. So it hit me. I had become desperate to regain those friendships, to feel wanted, to feel accepted, to feel loved, blind to the fact that all I was doing was distancing everybody around me. As hatred grew inside me, I cursed them all for turning on me, for not accepting me, for laughing at me. A clown with no costume. Miserable. I couldn’t believe how fake and pretentious everyone around me could be. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to ostracize somebody you’ve spent years with. I hated them all. But what I hadn’t realized at that time was that I was empty and lonely. The one I truly hated was myself. I was a failure at school, a failure at home, a failure to my friends and a failure to myself. So I became secluded from the world, and drowned myself in my own frustrations and loneliness, desperately grasping at a way to change. All suffering in the world is born from an individual’s incompetence.

  ---

  Unravelling Sui Ishida

  Sui Ishida is the man behind Tokyo Ghoul and all of the problems it addresses with the world. Once you take a deeper look, it’s clear to see that he put his own experiences and frustrations with society on paper. It’s almost as if he inserts himself into Kaneki, and through that gives us a glimpse into his own psyche and emotions. I had the realization that Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:re weren’t just mere works of fiction, but something much more personal once I read Sui Ishida’s afterword in the final volume, which reveals multiple details about his life and what he went through.

  

  He opens this up by being frank with the readers about his liberating feelings towards finally finishing the manga and all of the struggle he went through while drawing it. Ishida then goes to paint a picture of his childhood and come up – one that was filled of goodbyes and uncertainty. He goes into detail about his lack of friends due to frequent moving, how he fell in love with manga and the event that impeded said love for more than a decade, his initial success in school, in which he eventually completely lost interest in as his grades were slipping to the bottom, which led to his falling out with his parents, rediscovering his love for drawing and moving to Tokyo to become a mangaka and the fun moments he had while being a manga artist that he appreciates to this day. Sui Ishida closes this afterword off with a diary entry from back in 2009, as a way to mark the maturity he’s gained and confront his past self. It’s easy to draw the parallel between the author and Kaneki once all of this has come to light. Ken grew up as a lonely kid with very few friends and completely immersed in books. Once a normal human that was following the predestined path in Japanese life, suddenly thrown into an unknown world. From the sphere of socially accepted humans to the world of shunned ghouls. Not following the societal norms anymore, Kaneki was forced to adapt and change, but for that to happen he first needed to understand himself. This lies at the core of Tokyo Ghoul, and the author knows it’s an arduous and long process, as shown by Kaneki’s constant development throughout the story, represented in his physical appearance as well. This process involves discovering and rediscovering yourself, as well as the world around you, and Sui Ishida is so well aware of this, because he himself was at odds with the world at some point and may still be. He became one of the ostracized ones that refused to walk the path everyone else did. As mentioned before, he completely lost interest in school which led to him being shunned by his parents and fighting with his father. He also had difficulty finding a job, and ultimately became a mangaka as that was the path that came to mind. Ken Kaneki’s struggle with himself and the ghoul world’s twisted cage are a reflection of Ishida’s own scuffle with himself and of the world that traps and surrounds him, from which he couldn’t escape from even while writing the manga. Maybe Tokyo Ghoul was also part of that very cage that tied him down. In the end he stated that during the last half year of drawing he truly enjoyed himself and later on stated that in hindsight he had fun. Sui Ishida may have been finally liberated from the enclosure and from himself, but as he said in the last part of the diary entry: “I can’t acknowledge myself 100%. But I kinda like who I am. Then I can’t be that bad, right?”

  ---

  Seasons Die One After Another

  As I’ve mentioned in the previous part, Ken Kaneki almost acts as an extension of the author, but I think it’s time I should go more in-depth with the man of the hour’s character, as he is undoubtedly one of the best examples of character development I’ve seen in media and the driving force responsible for Tokyo Ghoul’s main message of change. As already stated, Kaneki starts off as your average bookworm Japanese university student, and throughout the duration of the manga we get to know him better and see him develop from one of the humans that feared and misunderstood ghouls and his ghoul side to somebody that slowly started to learn about themselves and accept both humanity and ghoulkind.

  

  The first striking characteristic of his is his utter kindness, that later on the readers as well as Kaneki realize was just naivety and selfishness. During this first segment of his character, the first event that truly starts tipping off the balance for him is Ryoko’s death. As he and the woman’s daughter, Hinami, witness this horrific sight something inside of him starts changing, although this may not be apparent in the beginning. Kaneki is filled with regret and curses his own powerlessness, which is the first step towards his desperate chase for power so that he can protect that he spends the majority of the series dwelling in. It is later revealed that this aspect of his character has always been there when suppressed memories resurface, hidden deep inside as a result of his parents, one of which abused him and both died when he was relatively young. This birthed in him the need to feel wanted and loved as well as the will to protect those close to him for that same reason. During this time and throughout his whole childhood Hide was his only saving grace, acting like a support beam and stabilizer for our troubled Kaneki. This first segment of Ken’s character is spent focusing on him being introduced to the harsh reality that he is thrown into against his will as well as him slowly coming to terms with his ghoul body. This is all put into effect when Yamori kidnaps Kaneki and tortures him. In this key event, one of the reoccurring motifs in Tokyo Ghoul and the protagonists’ character gets introduced – the centipede. The symbolic meaning of the centipede is derived from its independence. In many cultures, this peculiar insect symbolizes courage, power and leadership – all extremely relevant themes to Kaneki’s character. Faced with repeated physical torture and mental anguish at the hands of the sadistic Jason, accompanied by Rize’s lecturing on how his mother’s philosophy is weak and the reason she, Kaneki and everyone around him will die and Ken’s own realization and frustration towards his powerlessness lead to his first transformation. This unfortunate chain of events that occurs to our protagonist is the one that fully pushes him to the limit and flips the switch making Kaneki fully accept his ghoul side, symbolized by his now white hair. Then he goes on to consume Yamori, who represented strength in his eyes, symbolizing his thirst for power. This second stage of his character is spent on his blind chase to become stronger, which he masks with the front that it’s all for his friends, while in actuality just being his desperate attempt at being needed and not lonely anymore. This is reinforced by his half-kakuja state resembling a centipede, meaning despite all of his struggle and strives, he’s just a half-assed that doesn’t know true strength.

  

  In the end, his selfish attempt at being the tragic hero that saves everyone only serves to go against his loved one’s wishes and distance himself, which he eventually realizes and decides to go back, but his epiphany proves to be too late and his attempt at saving those dear to him fails once again as his efforts are proven futile. Thus, we enter the third stage of our protagonists’ development and an alternative personality entirely – Haise Sasaki. Now with all of his memories lost and on the human side despite being a ghoul births doubt and uncertainty within his mind. This is fortified by the change in his hair color yet again, being a mix of white and black, showing just how unsure Kaneki is of his true self, feeling torn between humanity and ghoulkind without even remembering his life up until that point. You can even see parts of both of his past two stages reflected in his personality traits: kind, caring and docile like black haired Kaneki, but cunning and aware like his previous white haired self. The loss at the hands of Arima and the mental turmoil he went through while in Cochlea as a result of that were the reasons his mind chose to erase his past, and gave him a new life. One that seemed perfect. He had a loving fatherly and motherly figure in Arima and Mado, which he always longed for, a house inhabited by people that were like family in the Quinxes and looked up to him, as well as a stable job seen as doing the right thing in society, as risky as it may have been. It’s easy to see why Haise Sasaki’s mind would refuse to accept Kaneki for such a long time. But despite this fairly perfect life he had now, much like his idolized version of his abusive mother, it was just a fantasy. One that must come to an end. Slowly throughout the duration of this segment in Sasaki’s character his hair would turn blacker and blacker, affirming the idea that his original self is slowly creeping up on him, until he finally accepts and remembers his past self – Ken Kaneki. In this stage of his development and his next one, it feels like the human black haired Kaneki and the white haired Kaneki switched roles. As a result of the resurgence of all of his suppressed memories Ken becomes more unstable than ever, distancing himself deliberately from others in fear of being unable to protect them, instead drowning himself in work and seemingly fully committing to the human side. This is the shortest of the many stages he goes through, and for good reason as he soon enough realizes that he still has those he loves and wants to protect. This leads to Kaneki’s battle with Arima, my favorite fight in the series, in which he assumes his final transformation. This last part of Ken’s character is defined by his comprehension and acceptance of the self. After failing yet again to protect those he cares about, he becomes consumed by his will to get stronger and in a last ditch effort he says “I won’t pull back. I will press forward. Like a centipede.”

  

  This being the apex of his desperate attempt of achieving strength in the series, which only leads to harm those he wanted to protect with said power. During and after this is when our protagonist starts to face himself head on, accepting and bearing all of his sins up until this point, realizing that he can’t protect those close to him all by himself. He comes to terms with his selfish and fucked up self as well as with his past and the memories he wishes he would’ve forgotten. As his character comes to a close I really can’t help but compare Kaneki to Sui Ishida, as he learns to acknowledge, change and love himself as much as he could.

  ---

  Tragedy Struck

  As those that have skipped to the end of the review to see the score might have noticed, despite only giving it high praise so far, the score is far from perfect. That’s because Tokyo Ghoul:re heavily derails in its last leg of the story, and this part of the analysis and review will be focused primarily on me venting about those mishaps, but I’d also like to briefly address some of the stuff I thought Ishida’s done really well besides the things I’ve already talked about. I’d like to start off with probably the most aggravating issue in the last arc, and that is the villain groups. The Clowns were a ghoul group that the author has been building up since the original series and have always been lurking in the background, and this build up was fantastic. The problem arises when we talk about the resolution of their characters and the group overall. It honestly feels like Sui Ishida just gave up on them by the end of it, judging by just how cheap their motivations are and how lackluster they are individually, save for Donato Porpora which had a great character overall, although his send-off was a bit unnatural, considering he suddenly has emotional attachment to Amon.

  

  Roma was initially one of the characters that got my interest the most in the group, but she just ended up getting a very barebones backstory and a fight with Urie in which she was just there as a device to further Urie’s character development. Irimi and Nico are two fun characters that unfortunately never get polished even a bit, especially Irimi since she seemed to have more to her character on first glance. And finally, the man himself Uta. He was probably the character I was most excited to see what the mangaka’s going to do with, but he just had the most forced reasons for the things he has been doing behind Yomo’s back, and was generally just a mediocre conclusion to his character that has been building up since volume one. And speaking of bad motivations, that could apply to the Clowns as a whole. Their whole motivation for all of the horrible things they’ve done was extremely lazy writing on Ishida’s part, as they played the victim card, like any other ghoul could have, and it just feels so boring, insincere and hypocritical. Now moving onto the other final group – V. I don’t really have anything to say, because they were the most generic and empty villain group you could possibly imagine. I’d also like to mention how the Washuu were completely thrown to the side despite playing such a big role in the Tokyo Ghoul world. Other gripes with the series I have towards the finale are how characters always seemed to come back to life for no reason when the author should’ve let them die or even worse is what Ishida did to Matsuri. I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a character be so heavily slandered and destroyed as Matsuri, although it was a bit funny and definitely unexpected.

  

  But reintroducing dead characters without a good reason can, and will, severely take from the importance of a certain event. My last noteworthy problem with the series is its final chapter, which was just blocks of text telling the readers what and how every major and minor character is doing, but somehow still didn’t include some text on Akira Mado and Amon, and just felt like a chore to read so much about so many minor characters, but it still had a few amazing moments like Suzuya having his reunion with Shinohara and the last few pages with Kaneki, Touka and their daughter. Both of which hit hard and honestly made me tear up a bit. Saying all this may look like I think the last part of Tokyo Ghoul:re is complete trash, but I couldn’t disagree more. It’s very far from greatness, but it definitely isn’t as bad as it can be. It was just disappointing. These are undeniable issues I have with the series, but of course it’s not all bad as the majority of what Tokyo Ghoul has to offer I think was done effectively, even in its last arc. Some of those things are Urie and Mutsuki’s characters that completely stole the show for me by the end, the other Quinx Squad members were also good, especially Yonebayashi and Shirazu, who despite his short time, had a lasting impact. Eto and Arima are easily some of the best in the series and Furuta, although shaky at times, was an amazing villain through and through with some of the most fun dialogue in the series.

  

  I shouldn't fail to mention Akira and Amon which acted almost like secondary protagonist and heroine in the original series, and another one of the best and most fun characters, Juzo Suzuya. Finally, I’ll mention the spectacular art. Sui Ishida’s art style is easily one of my favorite in the whole medium. This segment of the analysis and review ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, but I thought it was necessary and only fair that I talk about the series’ flaws, because it does have quite a bit of them. Because of this rather weak last leg of the story, I think Tokyo Ghoul fails to give a proper or more intricate answer to the questions and themes it poses, but that might have just been because Ishida himself doesn’t know yet, but what it does manage to deliver exceptionally well is those themes themselves and how they relate to our normal lives. But no matter how crude and unpolished Tokyo Ghoul may be, I still keep it close to my heart because of how much it helped and supported me during rough times.

  ---

  Me, pt. 2

  So I started changing. I first acknowledged my shortcomings and tried overcoming them. In hindsight though, I may have gone from an extreme to another. I couldn’t help it though – I was desperate. Desperate to change and all the more a liar. Throughout these changes I lost sight of who I am, and distanced myself from everyone around as they distanced themselves from me in an attempt to lie to myself that I didn't need anybody. I thought I learned to be independent. I thought I learned to change. Inside I was still hollow, and on the outside I was but a shell of my dissembling self, but I started making new connections, and rebuilding old ones that have been long turned to dust. For you have to destroy first, to then create. This made me realize something – I still longed for others. And those others slowly filled my hollowest inside, and out of that dissembling shell, a truthsaying butterfly shall rise. I realized I wanted to be around others and support them like I wished they supported me. A couple of years dettached from the events that turned my life so, and under the light of recent ones that I'm still going through, I say to life that I'll destroy again, and create anew something even more beautiful. Thus does my will speak. What the future will bring is uncertain, but I stand here today, together with my past self.

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