Tokyo Re-re-re-re-review: Tokyo Ghoul re:
Ugh…I’m not gonna lie, ladies and
gentlemen, I didn’t like this show. Well,
really, it wasn’t so much that I didn’t like it; it’s more that it just made me
angry, so much so that I now have a love-hate relationship with the
franchise. And right now, I’m on the
hateful side of that relationship. And
before I go into this review, I’m going to admit that I have not read or seen
any reactions to this spin-off. I have
seen a video explaining what’s going on, but I already knew what was going on
anyways so I felt it was redundant. Even
so, the lack of reviews I’ve heard so far may be a good sign that I won’t be
stepping on any toes. But anyways, let’s
start this week’s review on Tokyo Ghoul
re:.
Two years after the massive
three-way fight between the CCG, Anteiku, and later Aogiri Tree, the CCG has
gained control on taking out ghouls once again as the only organization
responsible for taking out ghouls. Among
one of the latest members is Haise Sasaki, squad captain of the Quinxes, a
group of half-human half-ghoul hybrids that use their ghoulish abilities well
as quinque. And yes, Haise is also a
half-ghoul half-human young man who in no way shape or form looks or sounds
like Kaneki at all…yeah I know y’all saw right through that, it is Kaneki. Yes, Haise is actually an amnesiac Kaneki who
was trained by top CCG agent Kisho Arima to work for the ghoul killing
organization. However, throughout this
third season installment, Haise has flashbacks and borderline hallucinations of
his former self that make him remember his past in bits and pieces. But it doesn’t take long for everything to
come crashing down for Haise as his former self begins to take hold.
Like I said at the beginning of
this review, I didn’t like re: for
the fact that it was infuriating. In
fact, because of that frustration, I’m doing to pull off a first in Hanime on Anime
history and actually talk about the downsides first. But before we get to that, I give Tokyo Ghoul re: a 6.5 out of 10. When talking about what was so frustrating to
me about this third season, there are three big reasons. Among them, if there was
one word that I could use to describe Tokyo
Ghoul re:, it would be inconsistent.
And
what I mean by this is that re:
seemed to try so hard to better than its predecessors, particularly Tokyo Ghoul √A, that
it forgot a lot of important details from both seasons. For the most part, a lot of the
inconsistencies I found with the show involved the Quinxes. For example, does anyone remember the little
tidbit about how ghouls can’t eat human food and how this affects Kaneki in
that now he’s part ghoul, he can’t eat human food anymore? Well, guess what? Re: throws
that notion completely out the window for the Quinxes! There’s even an episode where they have this
nice dinner with other CCG staff! And
even Haise (Kaneki) himself is in on it!
REALLY?! The Quinxes should be
making bee-lines for the nearest trashcan or toilet to vomit their stomach
contents! And oh yeah, while we’re still
on the Quinxes, you can tell pretty quickly that the group is your
stereotypical anime group; you have the muscle, the emo, the shota, and the
comic relief- by the way, I thought Saiko (aka, the comic relief) was the worst
character in the entire season and almost did nothing of importance until the
end. The first two seasons didn’t follow
the usual anime character troupes; everyone was dynamic in that they could
provide a dramatic moment and a comedic moment when needed. Sure, the Quinxes eventually mature a little
bit by the finale, but it’s blatantly obvious that the creators forgot the dark
and bleak origins of the first two seasons.
Oh, and while we’re on the topic of dark and bleak, the last episode was awful!
The final episode of this season
was just terrible! It was rushed,
lack-luster, and the actual ending itself was jarring. Oh, and here’s another inconsistency: at what
point did Kaneki’s mother beat him?
Yeah, much like season one, Haise makes the switch back to Kaneki, but
not before having a quick flashback of when he was a child. And among those was an image of Kaneki’s mom
beating him. The first season showed us
that she was neglectful of him, but it was never indicated that she was
physically abusive. If this happened in
the manga, then season one screwed up by not mentioning it. Oh, and speaking of previous seasons, Eto
didn’t look all that great wither. Her
One-Eyed Owl form was creepy in √A, but here it was kind of dull. Plus we actually we see her mostly outside of
her monster form, which I felt like really ruined the mood of the fight. But then again, Kaneki in his new black haired
form wasn’t much of a help either. Once
again, re: tried to pull a season one
and have Kaneki make a mental as well as physical change, but what we got
instead was a jerk with black hair. And
for those people who hate √A, at least when Kaneki donned white
hair the creators made the right decision to keep him quiet for much of the
season, cause re: showed us what
happened if brooding Kaneki had dialogue in √A.
Point being, the final fight between Eto and Kaneki in the last episode
was really lame; it just seemed more like hopping around and dodging from
either side and no real fighting. And
then there’s the actual ending itself.
For the ending credits, the creators decided to go with a montage of the
Quinxes sitting around as the seasons change set to a pop rock tune. There’s nothing wrong with the ending
sequence itself; it’s cute and fun and in fact I love the song. But compared to what the show entails, it’s
out of place. What’s worse, the ending
credit song is played at the very end of the last episode, and let’s just say
it was a really bad way to end the season.
The CCG just finished a massive raid and are burying their dead. Nobody wants to dance or tap their feet to an
upbeat song during a funeral! But of all
the problems, the biggest one I had involved a certain detail that season two
didn’t even touch on.
One of the biggest expectations I
had for this season was that it would finally tell us what happened in the
fight between Kaneki and Arima which was left out in √A. Yeah, spoiler alert, that was nowhere to be
found. This was what made me the angriest.
Not only did this leave a big question unresolved, but it made it very clear
that it had no intention of resolving any damage left behind by √A. And given that Arima
becomes a frequent character in re:,
this should have been covered. Granted,
there may be some purist manga readers who would argue that the show is trying
to follow more closely to the manga since √A neglected to do so. But the result of that leaves people who saw
the previous season and hadn’t read the manga left hanging. It’s a very poor way to pick up from a bad
season that needed so many issues to be resolved. When I think about the show now, it’s
actually strange to me that people say that √A was one of the worst anime sequels
ever because 1.) I actually enjoyed it strictly for the entertainment, and 2.) re: did many more things wrong than √A in terms of picking up where things were left off. √A may have been bad, but re: did nothing to help resolve the
issues it left behind. In fact, I’d
argue it made things worse. Now for all
the long-winded griping I’ve done about what I didn’t like about re:, there was one thing that I loved
about this season, and was about the only saving grace it had. And that was Haise.
No matter what season you watch of
the Tokyo Ghoul franchise, Kaneki is
always the best part. He’s this strong
central and moral force that brings up some serious discussions. Whether he’s grappling with his own humanity
in season one, or learning the cost of being a ghoul in √A,
Kaneki is always center stage. Here in re:, it’s no different except for the
name change. Haise trying to learn more
about his forgotten past is one of the show’s biggest lures and probably the
one reason why I stuck it out with this show as long as I did. And while the end result of him regaining his
memories is dull and rushed, the build up to it was well done and definitely
added another twisted layer to this awesome character! And it’s probably the only reason why I would
recommend this show anyway: just watch it for the Haise. Well, and to say you’re caught up with the
franchise.
So yeah, sorry for the negative
review, but I really don’t have anything nice to say about this show. It was a mess that definitely left a sour
taste in my mouth. Still, if you want to
watch it just to say that you’re caught up on Tokyo Ghoul, it’s available on Funimation. And that ends this week’s review, but it
won’t be the last you’ll hear from me. I’ll actually be talking a little more about Tokyo Ghoul on Thursday, so stay tuned
for that! Otherwise, be sure to stay
tuned for my unveiling of Character of the Month next Sunday!
-Hanime
on Anime
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