Tokyo Ghoul is one of the most hyped anime of all time. Despite its hype, most of the anime fans have mixed feedback on the series. Some loved it, others hated it, and a few of them were disappointed.
So, Is Tokyo Ghoul worth watching? Is it underrated or overrated? These questions might have arisen in your mind. Well, I can’t say it is underrated, but it isn’t overrated. And to think about whether it is worth our time or not is one of your doubts. And I would gladly say It is worth the watch.
To get a more detailed view of Tokyo Ghoul, let’s get to the review.
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Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Dark Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
IMDb: 7.9/10
Tokyo Ghoul is a Japanese dark fantasy manga series that came into the industry with the script and illustrations of Sui Ishida. It contains a total of three seasons in which season 3 parts as Tokyo Ghoul: re season 1 and Tokyo Ghoul: re season 2. Tokyo Ghoul contains a whole of 14 volumes, which began serializing in Shueisha‘s seinen manga magazine from 2011 to 2014 and Tokyo Ghoul: Re comprises 16 volumes, which were serialized in the same manga between October 2014 and July 2018.
Synopsis
In a world of reality, Tokyo divides into wards, where there exist two species, both humans who live a healthy life and Ghouls, predatory beings who look exactly like human beings, can only live by eating human flesh. They survive by hiding their identities from authorities who hunt them for the welfare of human beings. Ghouls do have a particular sort of weapon which they use for self-protection and predation known as “Kagune.” And they have superior abilities like sense and can heal faster than humans.
In such a world, how can they both survive? Even though it’s a never-ending fight, they both try to survive using whatever means possible.
Plot
The story starts with Kaneki, the main character of the anime, sitting in a cafe and waiting to go on a date with a beautiful girl. And unfortunately, that girl is a binge-eating ghoul. And when she tries to devour him, an accident occurs, and her organs get transplanted in Kaneki‘s body to make him survive, and as a result, he becomes half-ghoul and half-human.
As Kaneki struggles to be a ghoul and controls his hunger to not to eat humans, an organization named “Anteiku” helps him to maintain his will and tells him that he is the only one who has the place both in human and Ghoul’s world. And as the story moves forward, unusual incidents lead Kaneki to a decision. And he decides to change the world, where Ghouls and Humans can live a peaceful life.
Characters
The one word, ‘ Kaneki,’ is enough to explain the aspect of character development. In every season his role keeps developing with the story, and he keeps getting even stronger both with strength and will power. The series also gives importance to other characters such as Touka Kirishima, Kishou Arima, Shuu Tsukiyama, Yoshimura, Hide, etc. And which each season, the new characters make the way into the anime. Most of the introduced characters have a great back story that defines them.
You might find some characters given less importance, but in the end, every aspect is balanced, and more importantly, the one character you can’t stop loving is Hide(Kaneki’s best friend).
Music
When it comes to music or Ost, no being can stop loving the series. The openings alone can make you understand the depth of the series. The opening song ‘Unravel‘ by Toru Kitajima is perfect and makes you unable to skip the intro in every episode of the anime.
Tokyo Ghoul conveys half of its emotion with Ost, and that’s the beauty of the series. Mainly in season 2, the only thing you’ll lack is tears to lose. Every opening in Tokyo Ghoul refers to the utmost effort composers. As I mentioned earlier, even though Unravel is exceptionally good, the remaining openings Munuo, Asphyxia, and Katharsis are not less than it. Not to mention Licht und Schatten is a blessing for Tokyo Ghoul.
There are countless soundtracks I’ve heard, but Tokyo Ghoul easily holds the position in the list of favorite soundtracks. There might be a few negative reviews about Tokyo Ghoul, but I bet not even a few of those reviews can criticize the music. In simple words, the music of Tokyo Ghoul made everyone to love it even more.
Animation
Most of the people think that the dark genre anime lack animation or art. Guess they’re wrong. Tokyo Ghoul is a beautifully drawn and well-animated series. And the production spent most of their money to develop the skill of the episodes, which contain epic fights(Like episode 12 of first and second seasons). I don’t find any fault about the animation of Tokyo Ghoul except at unimportant scenes which don’t even last a minute.
And the characters are designed with the utmost care, every art of nature containing kagune is a symbol of effort. If not for the quality of animation, Tokyo Ghoul wouldn’t have felt good at each scene.
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The Review
Summary
Tokyo Ghoul has some significant aspects, but they fade away because of negativity. It does have some flaws, despite those, there are a few aspects which we can consider. It has one of the best plots, and it leaves you in a dilemma. The character development is excellent, and more importantly, Kaneki is the best character of the anime. Tokyo Ghoul also has fantastic music and soundtracks; indeed, it is one of my favorite playlists. The animation is pretty good considering it as a dark anime. Probably I didn't mention it above, but it gets you emotionally connected. Overall, it is a worthy watch for the first two seasons. However, if Tokyo Ghoul gets a good reboot in the future, it will turn out to be one of the best anime of all time.
PROS
- Great plot
- Fine Character development
- Wonderful Music and Soundtracks
- Good Animation considering it a Dark anime
CONS
- Bad adaption
- Didn't follow it's manga
