Taking another Bite: Tokyo Ghoul Re-review

Greetings, ladies and gentlemen!  I’m back for a brand new year and all new reviews.  Well okay, this one may not necessarily be new, but it’s new to you.  You may all remember back in July, I did a review on the brand new show Tokyo Ghoul.  At the time, I had only seen four or five episodes.  So as you can see, I didn’t get the whole picture.  But after that review, I kept watching the show and managed to watch all twelve episodes of the first season.  I also have some more to say about it now. So now, without further delay, let’s get started on this re-review of Tokyo Ghoul
Much of what I said before about the series plot wise really didn’t change.  After a near death encounter with a ghoul named Rize, Kaneki under goes an organ transfer where Rize’s organs are put into his body.  This turns Kaneki into a half-ghoul.  After this incident, he joins a group of ghouls called Anteiku who teach Kaneki how to adjust to his new life.  However, when I finished the first season, I learned that there was another part to this story.  This involves the Commission of Counter Ghouls (or CCG).  In this portion of the plot, the CCG is in pursuit of a group of ghouls called Aogiri Tree that have been going on killing sprees throughout the city.  Both conflicts come to a head by the end of the season when Anteiku goes to save Kaneki, who has been captured by a ruthless ghoul known as Jason and is taken to Aogiri Tree’s lair, and when the CCG plan to attack Aogiri Tree directly.  The season ends on a bit of a cliff-hanger, but on a satisfying note when Kaneki decides to embrace is ghoul side and fights Jason within the last few moments of the final episode.  In my last review, this series was intriguing and had a lot going for it, and now I can say that this show is a blood-drenched roller coaster ride that will put you on the edge of your seat.



Now the last time I reviewed Tokyo Ghoul, I gave it four out of five stars.  Now that I’ve seen what the first season of this show had, I was blown away and impressed beyond words.  So for that, Tokyo Ghoul gets a new rating of four and a half out of five stars.  Overall, the story dominates this show.  The complexity of Kaneki’s predicament as a half-human, half-ghoul  being leaves viewers wondering when will Kaneki get the hang of it- and more importantly, when will we see white-haired Kaneki?  Viewers finally see Kaneki resolve this issue within himself and take on a transformation that changes him- and turns his hair white.  The ending also leaves fans wanting more.  Story aside, animation is also good and has remained unchanged throughout.  Enough said.
Now, despite what positive things I’ve said thus far about the series, there is one issue that did concern me.  I said before that this show’s biggest downfall was content.  Though the content is pretty graphic, the animators censor as much as they can throughout the show.  Unfortunately, this censoring is so obvious and so distracting that it’s a problem.  Much of this censoring involves the use of black or white shadows that cover the gruesome content.  Most viewers have an idea of what happens, so why try so hard to cover it up?  It’s extremely unattractive visually and again, very distracting.  That aside, content is still an issue.  This show is not G-rated, especially in the final episode.  Still, content and poor censoring aside, this show is not to be missed!
I don’t know what more I can say except that this show was incredible!  I have to admit, this show has certainly become one of my new favorites.  It certainly was an excellent idea to continue with the show, and I would recommend it to anyone interested!  For those of you who are interested, funimation.com has been airing all twelve episodes of the first season on its site.  Also, the second season is due to be released this month- in fact I believe the first episode was released just recently.  Well, I think that’s all I have for this week.  Stay tuned for next week’s post because I will be doing another re-review of the super hit Attack on Titan!

-Hanime on Anime
 If you want to read my original review on Tokyo Ghoul, click here: The New Show in Town: Tokyo Ghoul

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