Anime: Tokyo Ghoul:Re

Remember how Kureo Mado said something along the lines of “when outmatched in sheer strength, you must use dirty tactics to beat a ghoul” in the first season of Tokyo Ghoul? This sentiment is long lost in Tokyo Ghoul:re. Rather than having nitty-gritty battles that emphasize the struggle that humans experience against the ghouls’ immense strength, fights in Tokyo Ghoul:re are often overcome by overpowered side characters (talking to you, pink-haired girl whose name I can’t be bothered to remember), luck (like where shark-toothed guy just happens to have the ability to overcome an enemy’s tactics that have killed many others), or my personal favorite: friendship.

There’s this one scene where a certain character can significantly increase his power when he feels his friends are in danger, despite the fact that the anime goes at lengths to explain that there are “frames”, i.e. power levels to quinx, which require surgery and a period of R&R to modify. Friendship completely overcomes this supposed physical limitation; this is only one of many scenes where friendship seems to be the factor that wins a fight, giving the anime an air of cliche and detracting from the overall experience.

I am quite underwhelmed by the character development in Tokyo Ghoul:re, despite the fact that one of the central focuses of the anime is Kaneki/Haise’s conflict between their old/new self. It seems predictable: friend/self in peril, cue checkerboard floor and Kaneki talking with Haise, one of them emerges with increased power, etc. Eventually, the two personalities make amends, which is a nice way of tying up loose ends, but the struggle between the two was not very fleshed out in the first place. There was a discussion on salvation in one of the first episodes, but that was glossed over, as Haise didn’t do much in the way of connecting with his past.

There was not much focus on the other characters either; many of Haise’s sidekicks seem to stick with their initial motivations until the end. In fact, in an anime focused on life and death don’t see much in the way of meaningful/impactful deaths. The side characters that do die have a death scene but then are easily forgotten. Eto Yoshimura had a considerable build-up to her grand appearance, but she only fully appeared for half an episode, despite her being the supposed antagonist. Most of the other side characters (e.g. the people of the other squads of the CCG) are flat and impersonal, and overall unremarkable and unlikeable.

The animation seems lazy as well; there are some scenes that the studio bothered to animate but others where it’s just the stereotypical “moving lines” effect which intend to convey motion but just end up appearing off-putting. Otherwise, the drawing/animation did not add to the experience, nor did it detract; Perhaps the best word to describe it would be “unexceptional”.

The music, like the rest of the anime, is also unexceptional; not much of the score is memorable, albeit the OP has a catchy melody (in my opinion). You’ve got the dramatic OP, lax ED, tunes in between that are meant to add tone to a scene to complement or even compensate for the plot/visuals; it all seems so formulaic.

Decorum is a major issue in Tokyo Ghoul:re, especially in its first half; say at one point there is a scene depicting cruelty, gore, violence, etc. but the next scene completely breaks the tension with a scene of the Quinx squad relaxing, comedic relief, which is quite off-putting. The juxtaposition of the two is not used in any meaningful way; it seems as if it is intended to fill episodes while appearing as internal conflict/resolution between members of the Quinx squad, and plays into the cliche of the power of friendship.

Overall, I did not enjoy Tokyo Ghoul:re much; it had a lot of potential to be something more, but to me, it ended up as a stereotypical seinen action type of anime. Perhaps it is too closely following in the steps of the manga while omitting much of the detail. I would only recommend you watch it as a cheap thriller, and if the manga is fresh in your mind, the plot of the anime will seem quite deceiving; it appears to try to adhere to the manga but deviates in some ways to make it not seem like a carbon copy, and to cram a large amount of content into 12 episodes.