Animated series "Tokyo Ghoul": actors, brief description of the plot

Appearance

The guy has a thin build and black hair. Before his conversion, Kaneki wore plain clothes so as not to stand out from the crowd. When Ken became a ghoul, one of his eyes turned into a kakugan with black sclera and a red glowing pupil. The guy did not immediately learn how to operate it and hid it under a white medical bandage.

In his ghoul form, the lower half of Kaneki's face is hidden by a mask with false teeth. The clasp has a zipper that unzips for the guy to eat. After being tortured by Yamori, Ken's black hair turned white (grey) and his fingernails darkened. Six months after Aogiri's captivity, Kaneki became more durable, strong and agile.

Film crew[edit]

Kaneki before turning into a ghoul

Ken is a shy and introverted guy. In my free time I read short stories, so I entered the literature department. Kaneki's character was gentle, he was always in high spirits, and looked at the world through the prism of positivity and optimism.

Due to the influence of others, Ken was suspicious and timid; he took responsibility for the misdeeds of others. He could not harm someone, and if another person was to be hurt, he was ready to expose himself. People took advantage of the guy's insecurities, mocked him and intimidated him.

pros

1). Music

The number of quality tracks is literally off scale. You don't often see a twelve-episode anime create a soundtrack like this. This is by far the best component of Tokyo Ghoul, and the music alone makes the anime worth watching. Great opening, great ending. The background music enhances the sad and dynamic moments, and is perfect for the overall concept of “Tokyo Ghoul”, in a dark world in which everyone is in danger of being killed and eaten.

2). Panache

It is in no way inferior to music. All sorts of attacks on image quality and censoring of cruel moments cannot cause anything but ironic laughter. There is one simple solution to all problems: you download the BluRay edition and enjoy the highest quality picture without censorship.

The character designs are wonderful, each character is easily distinguishable from the other. The action scenes are also excellent. The backgrounds, animation, and chosen colors are all at the highest level, and perfectly convey the atmosphere of what is happening on the screen. I don't understand how anyone could not like something like this. And I especially want to note the design of the ghoul weapons (kagune) - some of them look really original.

3). Issues raised

I really respect anime that make you think about various large-scale issues. Tokyo Ghoul fully satisfied my needs in this regard. The central theme is the confrontation between two species: humans and ghouls, one of which feeds on the other. At first glance, humans act as victims, and ghouls are presented to us as an implacable evil that must be eradicated. But the further the plot develops, the more obvious the controversial nature of the previous judgment becomes. “Tokyo Ghoul” clearly shows that you cannot judge a species as a whole by its worst representatives . Both among humans and among ghouls there are disgusting specimens that cast a shadow on the rest and put them in danger.

Another idea that seems to be taken straight from Naruto: some victims beget others, hatred only begets more hatred. As Kaneki correctly noted: “The world itself is not at all wrong. I have no doubt that many ghouls chose the wrong path. But they are not all the same. We need to learn more about people, about ghouls. It's not just ghouls who make the world wrong. People too... We shouldn't fight. Humans and ghouls must break the chain of suffering."

4). Variety of characters

The writers clearly didn’t skimp on the characters: new significant characters appear in literally every second episode, and most of them are not similar to each other. And in general, the types used are far from formulaic. Where else will you see a ghoul with the appearance of a pedophile, reveling in the exquisite smell of blood, or a darned crazy guy flying into a bunch of enemies on a motorcycle?

Kaneki after turning into a ghoul

For a long time, Ken could not get used to the treatment and his new essence; he did not want to part with his humanity. To live with people, Kaneki got a job in a coffee shop and made new acquaintances. Due to the lack of fighting skills he needed in the guise of a ghoul, the guy began to read books about martial arts and practice fighting techniques.

What bothered him was that he was a half-breed: half human, half ghoul. Because of this, Ken could not figure out which of the two races he wanted to be. When the lives of his loved ones are threatened, Kaneki is ready to do anything to ensure that the blow falls only on him. After much self-searching, Ken realizes that his personality was artificially created by himself in order to stop suffering from Stockholm syndrome in relation to his mother.

Brief information

Tokyo Ghoul is an anime released in 2014 by Studio Pierrot, which is famous for releasing Naruto and Bleach. But, unlike these long-term projects, the first season of “Tokyo Ghoul” consists of only twelve episodes. The original is the extremely (I emphasize again, extremely) popular manga authored by Sui Ishida . In 12 episodes of the anime, the scriptwriters were able to fit the events of sixty chapters of the manga, which, in general, is not bad (5 chapters per episode). There’s just one “but” here: since the manga is so popular, the fans’ demands for the anime were prohibitively high from the very beginning. Judging by the mass of negative reviews, Studio Pierrot failed to live up to expectations. As someone who hasn't read the manga, the fans' outrage is hard to understand. But the assessment in this case will be unbiased, because I have no desire to compare anime and manga in everything.

What are your associations with the word “ghoul” (besides pigeon, of course)? According to the Witcher Bestiary, “Ghouls are monsters that devour corpses. You can meet them in cemeteries, near burial mounds, wherever the dead are buried. At the sites of battles, at massacres... The ghoul also attacks the living. When hungry or angry . But in the world where the ordinary Japanese student Kaneki Ken lives, it is almost impossible to distinguish a ghoul from an ordinary person, because they look exactly the same. So Kaneki made a mistake - he went on a date with a pretty girl, Ridze Kamishiro, and she turned out to be a ghoul, and an extremely bloodthirsty one at that. And Kaneki would have been eaten, if at the last moment a couple of beams from a high-rise building had not fallen on Ridze. The ambulance that arrived at the scene found Kaneki barely alive and Ridze dead, and doctors had to transplant part of the ghoul's organs into Kaneki to save his life.

Since then, Kaneki’s life has changed dramatically - even though he is not a real ghoul, and only one eye turns black, but now he cannot eat ordinary food. It seems that he is neither a human nor a ghoul - in general, the guy was unlucky. He doesn’t go to university and doesn’t communicate with his best friend Hideyoshi Nagatika . It’s good that he met a ghoul girl named Toka Kirishima, she’ll explain to him what’s what. Or he will eat it. There's not much choice here.

This time I decided to build a review on listing the positive and negative aspects of the anime, since most of the reviews that I read were written exclusively in a negative way, which, in my opinion, is completely biased. So, let's go.

Kaneki after Aogiri's captivity

After ten days of torture in captivity of the sadistic Yamori, Kaneki began to change. His character began to contain traits of a strong personality: ruthlessness, cruelty and composure. At the same time, Ken does not lose his composure, but in order to achieve his goals he can not give a damn about the law.

After Aogiri, the guy understands that he should not tolerate the bullying and cruelty of people. He surrenders to his ghoul nature and ceases to be human. He agrees to feed on people, but does not touch ordinary mortals, but kills and eats only those who pose a threat to society.

Yamori's torture made Ken more resilient. After escaping from captivity, the young man becomes stronger and more dexterous in battle, eventually he gets used to his new essence and begins to improve his skills. Despite his newfound harshness, Kaneki remains gentle and kind towards those close to him.

Voiced roles[edit]

Rinkaku kagune

Riza's hunting organ was completely transferred to Kaneki. With the acquired kagune, the guy began to possess enormous physical strength, allowing him to hit opponents with powerful blows. When attacking, the chitinous kagune cuts off the enemy's flesh like a saw. Over time, Ken's kagune is modified.

The form originally had three tentacles, but this was enough to knock down large ghouls. After escaping from captivity, the kagune took on the appearance of four tentacles with more pointed outlines. Other modifications of the kagune include:

1. six tentacles that cause serious destruction to the entire environment;
2. a three-fingered hand with sharp claws for tearing the flesh of opponents;
3. spring for acrobatic maneuvers and enhanced jumps;
4. butterfly wings that grow from the back and give the ability to fly.
5. Due to cannibalism, the guy acquires new abilities that are passed on to him from the individuals he eats.

Ratings

Characters – 7.0. There are many of them, they are cool, but the narrow time frame did not allow them to truly open up. It's like wasting valuable resources down the drain. Another minus is the main character complaining about his unhappy life.

Plot – 7.0. The storyline looks like a set of episodes taken out of a broader context, and therefore these episodes refuse to add up to an overall, beautiful story. But it's still interesting to watch.

Drawing – 9.0. Very worthy, every component is at a high level. Don't believe those who criticize Tokyo Ghoul's art, it's really stylish and beautiful.

Music – 10.0. Above all praise. One of the most powerful soundtracks to appear in recent times.

Issues – 8.0. The issues addressed are relevant and complex. It’s a pity that they never give us solutions to them. Everyone just kills each other without further ado.

TV series adaptation

Video games:

1. Tokyo Ghoul: The Fool is an action RPG for PSP.
2. Tokyo Ghoul: Carnaval is a video game from Bandai Namko Games. Designed for smartphones running iOS and Android.
3. Tokyo Ghoul: Jail is a game developed for the PS Vita portable console.
4. Tokyo Ghoul: Dark War is an RPG for iOS and Android platforms.
5. Tokyo Ghoul [:re Invoke] is an RPG for iOS and Android platforms.

The full-length film Tokyo guru from director Kentaro Hagiwara was released on July 29, 2021. The role of Ken Kaneki went to Masatake Kubota, who previously played Light Yagami in Death Note.

The cruel and dark anime found its fans, but among fans of this genre there was no consensus about the animated series “Tokyo Ghoul”. Actors, world, plot, characters - all this is actively discussed on numerous forums on the Internet. Should I watch or not? You decide!

8.0/10

Rudean, special for AwesomeReviews.ru

PS You can find a review of the second season at the link.

Here are a couple of bonus images, I overdid it when I took screenshots for the review:

Tokyo Ghoul anime review was last modified: September 9, 2021 by Rudean

Music

My opinions on the art also apply to the musical design. It is in no way inferior to the level of the first season. The only flaw I found was the terrible opening . I've never seen an opening that I wanted to rewind after my first viewing. Incomprehensible song, mediocre picture - the complete opposite of the first season. Perhaps I just didn't understand the trick. If we ignore the opening, the rest of the music is very cool. A killer guitar and piano combination was used that always sounds amazing.

Panache

It remained at the same high level . On the one hand, this fact is pleasing, because there is an extra reason to watch Tokyo Ghoul √A. On the other hand, it becomes a shame that all the efforts and talent of the artists are smashed against a wall of mediocre story and unclear characters. It's like shooting sparrows from a cannon. Not even guns, but with the help of a nuclear warhead, because the art in Tokyo Ghoul √A is really good. If the writers had come up with a decent plot, if they had used the characters wisely, we could have ended up with a potential masterpiece. But, as they say, it’s not fate.