Tokyo Ghoul √A Episode 1 [First Impression]

Let the hate flow through you, Ayato-kun…

Impression

Holy shit, this season is uncensored! I can’t believe this!

It’s time to rejoice, because Tokyo Ghoul √A… is getting Sasarious.

If you didn’t get that, don’t Google it. You’re better off not knowing. But anyway, as a manga reader I’m very excited for this season of Tokyo Ghoul, contrary to what you might expect – yes, there are many good scenes that will perhaps never be animated now, but many new possibilities have opened up and this new storyline can take full advantage of it, even more so because the original mangaka Ishida is involved. It’s also good because often, I tend to lean towards comparison if I’m familiar with the original work, which is why I wasn’t very fond of the original season and the way it accelerated through the plot like a rabbit on crack. Now that it’s accepted it’ll diverge from the manga fully, they can stop being pansies and charge ahead with a new story that will keep every fan excited, regardless of how familiar they are with the series. For manga readers like myself in particular, we will be discovering more about characters that were never given much exposition at all, like Eto or the Pierrot. Seriously, if there’s more Eto and the stuff about her is counted as canon given Ishida’s involvement, I could not be happier. New OP is the shit, though.

The main divergence happened during the middle of the fight between Kaneki and Ayato, after Ayato had just finished beating the living crap out of poor, precious Touka for her pacifistic ideals ;_; Tragic hero Kaneki is here supposed to declare that, while he will not kill Ayato as he is Touka’s brother, he will instead half-kill him. Kaneki then proceeds to destroy Ayato, breaking all 103 of the bones on one side of his body while naming them one by one, as Ayato screams and curses underneath him. Probably freshly burnt into his head by Yamori, come of think of it. Well, that never happens – instead, an earthquake cuts the entire Aogiri raid short, forcing the CCG to retreat. This is where we start to go fully anime-original, as we’re not done with the Aogiri stuff in the manga at all by this point – this is where it all changes. We still got a fight between the mysterious One-Eyed Owl and the CCG, but it seemed a bit more lackluster than what I remember. Watching Shinohara and Kuroiwa using their Arata Protos was pretty cool though, especially after the burden of using a kakuja as a quinque started kicking in. And at the same time, it was a very sad quinque to watch in action. This has not been a good episode for Touka.

It’s not all that surprising to learn that Kaneki isn’t going back to Anteiku – after god knows how many days of extended torture, you’d think that his motives would change alongside his outlook on life. And of course, he’s come to terms with his hallucination of Rize. Instead, the true surprise is what he’s going to do instead of rejoining Anteiku – because joining Aogiri was the exact opposite of the plans he had in the manga. These guys captured him, beat him and tortured him. If I’ve got any concern, it’d be this – exactly what is Kaneki planning to do? No way is he joining them for real, right? Originally he made an anti-Aogiri group with Tsukiyama, Hinami and Banjou, and worked specifically to oppose Aogiri and their plans – yet now he’s joining them? The only upside I can see so far is that he’ll be far more involved with Eto than he’s ever supposed to be, and we can get answers to a lot of things that way. Also, Pierrot! Definitely can’t overlook the appearance of these motherfuckers this early in the story. If there were no scenes with Eto and the Pierrot, I would have been far more worried about the direction this is season is taking.

At any rate, I’m fairly willing to trust Ishida for now. With short appearances by Kuro and Shiro, as well as the man behind them, you know he’ll be getting some interesting characters involved in whatever plot he’s cooking up. No idea how good it’ll be, or if there’s any canon basis to it (in terms of characters like the Pierrot, not the setting or Kaneki) but it looks like fun. And it’ll tide me over until the next chapter of re:. Ishida really is a bastard though, putting Touka through all that. Being best girl is suffering ;_;

Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Very High 

Tokyo Ghoul re: Chapter 11/12 [12 Raws]

This is a short section I’m planning to include with each post in which I talk about the latest chapters of re:. Having individual posts for manga chapters isn’t something I’d like to do, given that they’d all be very short – not to mention there’s no precedent for that on this blog. Still, I’d like to mention re: for fellow manga readers, especially as there’s some exciting stuff happening. All paragraphs will be spoiler marked as relevant, and made invisible just in case – so if you don’t want to read it, just don’t highlight over it.

[SPOILER START]

Haise: You guys… we will all become girls.
Quinx: …

Haise you joker. I’ve always thought that Nutcracker would just be Rize with a new fetish, but if she’s an A-rank with a bikaku then I guess not. It’d be cool if Rize appeared though, as she’s another one with a link to Haise that might trigger him in the way Nishiki did. Of course, that’s not happening with everyone – certainly not with Touka and Yomo, although I think both Haise and myself get many mixed feelings looking at the current Touka. At least he’s visiting her. I’m curious as to whether Tsukiyama will break out of his depression though, as well as to the identity of the ghoul Donato mentioned – the scan is too fuzzy for me to make out who it is. Could it be… a transformed Amon?! 

[SPOILER END]