After the end of season 1, many people were wondering about its sequel and how it would be executed especially because Ishida Sui, the mangaka, was involved on it since he decided to write the draft of the second season, and that looked like a sign of hope and possibly an improvement in the middle of a controversial first season with so many mixed opinions.
I must say, even when there were announcements of an "anime original route" for Tokyo Ghoul, I was looking forward to it and I wanted to see what Ishida would bring to us, especially when it was revealed the name
...
of it: Tokyo Ghoul √A, also known as Tokyo Ghoul Root A, or you could interpret it as Route Aogiri (don't confuse it as Route Alternate or something similar).
When it started and episode 1 showed Kaneki moving to Aogiri, I was actually fine with it and especially okay without the 103 bones/half-killing scenes that so many manga readers were disappointed.
The first episode looked nice even though it felt a bit anticlimatic in certain moments like the end of Aogiri's arc, it had a promising start again though. There were some interesting ideas and Root A had a slower pacing to actually explain the story and important elements as the Owl along with the introduction of new characters, and it was expected to be shown more about Aogiri Tree, their members, Kaneki interacting with them, maybe even the story and the origin of the organization along with that anime original route (I mean, who would not expect that after Kaneki joining the organization?), however...
Unfortunately, Tokyo Ghoul Root A does not deliver when it comes to the hype and potential, just like season 1 didn't do it too, but now it just got worse and sometimes even confusing, since there wasn't enough screen time to know what was going on through Kaneki's head, why he decided to move to Aogiri (it was eventually revealed later, but... moving to the bad side so Kaneki can "get stronger and protect the people that he loves", that's kinda understandable, although it does feel strange to see him deciding to go to Aogiri and then the story isn't even resolving around him, but the worst thing is that Kaneki moving to Aogiri DID NOT have any relevance neither impact in the end of the anime), and it reached to a point where it felt awkward or ridiculous to watch him almost not talking a single word or barely showing up on the anime's first half.
Not to mention that, despite the Root A title, we did not find out more information about Aogiri and their characters, which is a big letdown. Another problem regarding the show is the whole deal about that "anime original": Studio Pierrot did not learn from their mistakes and they basically rushed through the story AGAIN, but guess what else they did? They were still adapting important scenes/events of the manga, however there wasn't development neither a nice and detailed setup like Ishida does in the manga, except for probably the last arc, which is actually an upgrade over the first half but it wasn't enough to cover up their mistakes and flaws from the whole anime, some moments (for an example, Kaneki fighting Shachi on episode 4, especially when he SAVED this guy from CCG's prison and yet no proper explanation on why they were fighting) made the story go all over the place and it started to be so confusing with the unexplained events and many plot holes after the last episode.
Now that I mentioned the fights, I must also mention that the animation/art is so inconsistent, it can have some nice visually appealing scenery along with the important scenes too, but the characters were distorted during some moments, the movements were not really fluid and the animation had its sloppy moments too. Also, some fights were poorly animated and you could clearly notice which scenes had more investment and budget... well, if there was ever a lot of budget for Studio Pierrot though. And let's not forget Arima looking like a yaoi character along with his weird chin, it was impossible to take seriously every scene with him... once he showed up on episode 11.
I must mention another positive aspect when it came to the art: the ED sequences (each episode got a different one) with Ishida's drawings are amazing to look at.
The sound was one of the few positive points about the anime. The opening (Munou by österreich) isn't as bad like many people say, also it does fit well into the series and what's going on or what is going to happen, but it does not compare to Unravel at all when it comes to quality and meaning. The ending (Kisetsu wa Tsugitsugi Shindeiku by Amazarashi) is pretty good though, and the ost got nice songs too (a great example is Glass Sky).
Probably the biggest disappoiment on season 2 were the characters and their development throughout the story mainly Kaneki, who got butchered again in his development and his characterization even more since he got less screen time than last season neither had monologues or an idea/insight of what he was thinking or what was going on inside his own mind. The same should be said for some supporting characters, and how they portrayed Tsukiyama only as a maniac/psycho who is obsessed to eat Kaneki. I must admit that he was still funny and enjoyable to watch on his moments, but he is still another character heavily butchered by Pierrot. I mean, how are we supposed to care or feel something for him like on episode 9 in the rooftop scene when he had a conversation with Kaneki while asking him to not go into a big fight happening during that moment? In the manga, it felt impactful and sad due to his development, but in the anime it felt awkward or even funny...
However, CCG and their members had some focus on the plot, and they did get a bit of development like Akira, Amon and Suzuya... actually, they were the characters who did receive more devopment on season 2, but thats not enough when the main character and the group that he joined don't even get enough time to be developed, and let's not forget that there were only 12 episodes, so even their development wasn't that great or amazing to watch. It's kind of ironic watching how CCG got some sweet screen time on Root A, it makes me wonder why the title is even this one.
Did it have differences? Well, it did have like obviously Kaneki going to Aogiri, but the whole original concept felt like a poor excuse to make season 2 and STILL adapting some manga scenes while cutting out development and rushing through the source. What a "brilliant" decision to take the story made on 143 chapters and do a half-assed version of that with a few differences into 24 episodes.
In the end, Tokyo Ghoul Root A was disappointing and it did not really fix the issues previously shown on the first season, and it makes many anime watchers who were reading the manga wonder why Pierrot decided to animate many manga scenes despite that promise of an anime original story. After all, read the manga and pray that there will be a remake someday.
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Mar 26, 2015
Tokyo Ghoul √A
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
After the end of season 1, many people were wondering about its sequel and how it would be executed especially because Ishida Sui, the mangaka, was involved on it since he decided to write the draft of the second season, and that looked like a sign of hope and possibly an improvement in the middle of a controversial first season with so many mixed opinions.
I must say, even when there were announcements of an "anime original route" for Tokyo Ghoul, I was looking forward to it and I wanted to see what Ishida would bring to us, especially when it was revealed the name ...
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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Jan 23, 2015
Akame ga Kill!
(Anime)
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Mixed Feelings
Death is something that does not happen constantly on some shounens and there is a lot of praise around that when it is well executed.
Akame ga Kill is a situation where the show... abuses a bit too much of it and reached a point where the show lost itself on the overuse of deaths and violent scenes along with the fast pace on the storyline and, in the end, its potential was gone. Akame ga Kill is an shounen, action, adventure anime (and it does have comedy too even if it was out of place sometimes) made by the studio White Fox, an adaptation of ... the manga created by Takahiro. and it aired last year, containing 24 episodes. Akame ga Kill involves the story around Tatsumi, the main character, who left his village in order to travel to the Empire and go to the capital to make sure he can get money and save people from the place he lives. What he doesn't expect is that the capital is a terrible and corrupted place, especially with this old bastard known as the Prime Minister, manipulating the Emperor, who is still a child. Tatsumi eventually became another victim of that corruption but then, he got saved by the assassin group called Night Raid, who decided to recruit him to the group, and then the journey starts with them. Soooo, basically, what to expect of this anime? Well, expect a lot of fights, action and deaths, and when I say that, I do guarantee that NOT EVEN the good characters are safe on these series, almost everyone there could pretty much die (and be sure that you won't be spoiled, or then it will just ruin everything if you decide to search anything related to Akame). It's probably one of the charms behind Akame ga Kill. It felt like something refreshing to watch (I sounded like some creepy guy or a sadist by saying that), since some of the popular well known shounens don't really kill their characters and they don't have such a hard time. And the series even gave a hint behind those possible deaths, since the assassins on the series use weapons called Teigus (Imperial Arms). You can expect not only equipments, armor, weapons but also living creatures or organic teigus and some of these weapons were made by remains of Danger Beasts (who are creatures in Akame's world), and a form of magic was used to create them, not to mention that it was created by instructions of the First Emperor, scared by the fall of the Empire. What is that hint and the thing behind the teigus? "If two users of Teigu were to fight each other, one of them is guaranteed to die." That "rule" basically made it clear why many deaths could potentially happen. You know, when those things started to happen after the first fights, there was that shock factor involving how the creator of that story had the guts and wasn't afraid to kill and remove almost anyone. And when I started, it was really nice to see how Akame ga Kill made me get worried about some characters (not everybody though), even on the bad side. It's what I love.. and hate on the series too. I mean, if you enjoyed the series and you were following it weekly (or monthly if you read the manga), you won't be feeling so secure regarding the characters that you like so much, and that feeling given by the story was something interesting since it involved both sides. BUT at the same time, you are going to miss characters who got killed, not that I'm bashing Akame ga Kill on something like that, it's the feeling for your favorite characters which you won't see anymore, that's understandable. What I will criticize IS that, after a certain point, some deaths weren't really well made, they were not executed properly, character development is important, screen time too, it makes you care and get those feels for a character, get attached to them and see their relevance on the series. Akame ga Kill has a serious problem on these two elements that I mentioned regarding some characters, and it looked like some deaths, right after the first character who got killed in the series, were right there just for the shock factor almost every time, and throwing emotional or sad music randomly for someone who didn't have much screen time or development doesn't help much; there were a few deaths who were actually sad. Also, that rule of one person with Teigus certainly going to die is soooo unforgiving. It's... a good and bad thing at the same time on AgK. The way that the story was literally following that pattern of Teigu users fighting caused those deaths that I mentioned, so yeah, some of the strong and weak points on the series involves that rule too. Animation is.. okay, it got some good moments and it does get better on fights. I think the budget wasn't there that much though and it looked like that they invested A LOT MORE on the last episodes.. a decision that wasn't the smartest one out there since the last episodes had bigger flaws. I did like some of the character designs though, they were cool actually. And guess what, THE EPISODES ARE UNCENSORED, so you can get some solid action scenes and understand what's happening on each fight happening on the series. Watching the series without the glorious censorship during an era of animes getting destroyed by censorship when they aired felt really good. It looked like the middle finger was being exposed to the censorship without giving a fuck (what did i just say). But hey that's just what was available for us... After you get more informations about the series, the truth regarding censorship is exposed. In Japan, Akame ga Kill was censored (there were even some censorship comparisons, and there were some weird things like it happened on Tokyo Ghoul and Terra Formars). You can imagine it was one of the main reasons that the anime didn't have success on Japan, and there were poor sales on the BDs too. Okay, now I must talk about the world portrayed there. You probably heard of the series when the anime was airing and probably heard of the controversial stuff behind it. "What do you mean by controversy" Let's say that... Akame ga Kill has a lot of violent stuff and sometimes it tries a bit too hard to be dark. Come on, we already know the world here is evil, corrupt and it's terrible for everyone who lives there, we get it. Some people would even go "OH HEY THAT CRAP IS TOO EDGY FOR ME". I can agree that Akame ga Kill tried a bit too hard on the violence and you would be like "that's going a bit too far " or "why is that here, that's just free and worthless violence". I can understand and see why people say the series tries too hard to be edgy and dark (it's even one of the reasons why you will find out haters of the series out there, especially on MAL too), although I think that the series doesn't try THAT much unlike other animes with a lot of gore scenes out there, but I must agree that there are some scenes who felt like they were random or just thrown there. And no, the series isn't deep or mature for trying to setup a dark theme and many gore scenes, it's not unique, it's just a shounen like many others despite making use of some factors that were not so explored on some shounens like making sure almost nobody is safe there. Talking about the characters, first of all, an advice: do not research anything about them, you may potentially get huge spoilers. Soooo, we got that group, Night Raid, a bunch of assassins trying to make justice against the Empire by getting rid from their members and also kill the typical cliche and generic bad guys, assassins or psychopaths. There are some interesting characters but there are also the generic ones, or even the characters who did not have enough time to be on that story so we couldn't get to know more about them. On night raid we got members like, Tatsumi, Akame, Leone, Lubbock, Bulat (Aniki), Mine, Sheele, Najenda and after some time on the anime, there are two new Night Raid members, Chelsea and Susanoo. Night Raid wants to cleanse the capital as the good guys on the story, BUT the thing is that some of the members are wanted dead on the Empire, because of the murders and the fact that some people from Night Raid actually worked for the Empire before realizing that it was corrupted. Even though they want to get rid of the corruption and the evil stuff from the empire, and they are shown as the bad guy, stuff like murders and killing people come to play. I even remember a dialogue of the series where Tatsumi says that they are heroes doing justice and Sheele just says that they aren't doing nice stuff and they are just assassins doing their job. It was an interesting dialogue since it brought Tatsumi to the reality of that world, it exposed to him what would be coming after he left his village, it showed to him that not everything would be the paradise and the nice thing that he imagined by working to them, it wasn't that hero complex thing that he thought Night Raid was and it showed the honesty from some assassins of NR. Well, now that I talked about the NR, and the bad people (the Minister and the Emperor), we have another group, which was an interesting one but unfortunately didn't get much development and some characters did not get more time on the animation. Jaegers, the police squad working for the Empire and it's goal is to get rid of Night Raid, and yeah, they are also Teigu users... their members are Wave, Ran, Kurome, Dr. Stylish, Seryuu, Bols and Esdeath. The interesting detail about the Jaegers is that, even though they work for the dark side of the series, not every member is actually that crazy, evil or fucked up (unless Seryuu is mentioned, she is a crazy psycho and there is a reason why she is probably the most hated character of the series with her twisted concepts involving what is justice in her point of view, pretty much a victim of the Empire's system on Akame ga Kill) and even some characters know what they are doing is clearly wrong, like on Bols's situation. Wave and Ran are examples of characters who are not exactly the bad guys that you would typically see, but unfortunately they weren't explored on the series, and Wave is a great example of another character who got butchered and ruined on an anime adaptation again. Now I will talk about Esdeath, the leader of the Jaegers under the orders of the Prime Minister. Esdeath is actually the main villain on the series, one of the reasons why I had to mention her here,, she is a high-ranking general of the Empire and through the anime, it shows how much she is broken beyond belief on her strength/ power and, besides that, Esdeath is sadist, evil, she enjoys stuff like murder and torture, she doesn't have empathy for people who are considered weak by her, since she lived on that philosophy of "only the strongest ones survive". But she is not a completely heartless monster, I mean, she does cares about her comrades, she adores them, she even comfort her comrades if they go through some pain or hard time. Also, Esdeath has another thing that I didn't mention before... although she does a lot of twisted things, she is actually looking for love. As you can see, Esdeath is probably one of the interesting characters on the series and the anime shows why she is so popular on the series and loved by many fans and followers of Akame ga Kill. She is not particularly one of the best villains ever though. Soundtrack is solid and enjoyable, the openings and the endings are really good, especially the first ones, the original soundtrack does fit well on the series, and there are some emotional and epic songs on important scenes. It's not something amazing, incredible or 10 out of 10, but hey it does the job. Voice actors did also do a good job on their characters. Don't expect the series to be incredible, I kinda fell for the hype when it came out. I must admit, at the start of the animation I was enjoying this show a lot, then later I saw its flaws and main problems, but I must say that I did still have a really fun time with the anime until the end of episode 19. Now, for the last episodes... the anime original content showed up and it gave a lot of disappointment in the ending since the story was already fast paced and a lot of events would be happening on many episodes, but then the last ones with that alternative route (not following the manga) felt like a roller coaster. Because of that fast pace, problems regarding character development and screen time for them showed up even MORE than before and it ruined the story. So many things would be happening so fast (even to a point where some of the craziest asspulls ever seen in a long time happened and the logic behind some events just wasn't there, especially on Akame's trump card) that even Sonic would be jealous, you know, GOTTA GO FAST. There were a few good things, although almost none on the last episode... anyway, the ending of the anime was disappointing. Is it worth watching or checking out? I would say that Akame ga Kill isn't really made for everyone. You can maybe check it out and see if you like it, but after some experiences, it's not really an anime that I would recommend to many people out there, because of the content and the settings I mentioned about it and especially the last episodes.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Jan 22, 2015
Tokyo Ghoul
(Anime)
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Recommended
First review on MAL:
Tokyo Ghoul is a dark fantasy and seinen anime adaptation of the manga made by Ishida Sui, and the TV anime was produced by Studio Pierrot containing 12 episodes. There are also some horror elements, but they aren't that present on the animation. The main character of the story is Kaneki Ken, an ordinary college student, and his life changes when he meets Rize at the café he frequents with his college friend Hide. Little did he know that she is actually a Ghoul, a carnivorous species only able to feed on humans and even other ghouls too, and during the night, he ... is attacked and almost got killed and eaten by her. He got saved by an emergency operation, when he got ghouls organs transplanted into his body. Basically he became a half-ghoul half-human, or, like many people say, one eyed Ghoul.. then the struggle and the tragedies start for him since he is now inserted into the ghoul world. Anyway, how is it? Well, the anime has a promising start in the first episode (usually I would be complaining about the censorship, which is indeed weird, but there are the uncensored episodes available already since a long time already) and at first, as an anime-only watcher or not, you will be looking forward to the storyline, although... Pierrot simply rushed the anime A LOT, skipped so many things and they even changed the order of some events (manga readers know what I mean), which is... really disappointing. Also, the studio tried TOO HARD when they made Kaneki expressing his emotions and his struggle while he became a half-ghoul, even though he did some work there, the anime made him look like someone who mostly cries and keeps whining a lot until a certain point, so yeah, he looked like a wimp unfortunately, and there wasn't much development along with the evolution and progress on Kaneki unlike on the manga where these were strong points of his character... his characterization had many problems too. Yes, he suffered a lot with the anime changes on his character. Not to mention other scenes that they did some weird changes especially on some fights and some censored scenes during the time that the anime was airing, some scenes were so hard to understand to guess what was happening. Thankfully the Blu-ray came out on Japan and you can check out the uncensored episodes already since they are available on the internet. Now, talking about the animation, you will probably enjoy the quality on it during some fights, even if there are some awkward and sloppy moments on the animation quality like it happens on other animes from studio Pierrot. The kagunes and the quinques were well made though, especially the first one... to be honest, some kagunes (including mainly the Ukaku from Touka) were even beautiful to watch. The animation during the episodes isn't particularly that amazing and the exception happens mostly on the fights or important scenes, so they actually did well on the animation there. The story itself is actually pretty interesting and there is a lot of potential on it, and it's nice to see how it shows the perspective from both sides, Ghouls and the humans too, especially on the investigators from the CCG (Commission of Counter Ghoul), it explores characters from both of these sides, which is really interesting, it makes you wonder which side was like the right one and who are the monsters, it makes you wonder a lot about those details, since you will eventually see that not every single Ghoul is evil, and also that the human side also got some bad people, and it gives many possibilities on the storyline but there aren't enough episodes to explore it pretty well, and the studio didn't focus so much on these concepts and ideals involving humans and ghouls, they just jumped into the violent scenes and the action. And unfortunately, 12 episodes means that you won't really see a developed plot and character development wasn't the best thing since the story was sooo fast paced and rushed by the studio, and you couldn't really know much about the characters or get attached to them, except for a few ones who got more screen time. Also, after the first episode, the events there felt like all over the place sometimes. However, the 2nd half of the first season was more entertaining, especially the last episode. The original soundtrack and the voices of the characters on the anime are great though (especially on Kaneki, his voice actor did an amazing job, and other characters like Touka, and Tsukiyama too, which made his scene even more hilarious... and weird too). I must admit, they did a pretty good job at the soundtrack aspect of the anime. And yes, the opening song of Tokyo Ghoul, Unravel is so addictive and it fitted perfectly on every aspect with the anime... just like the ending, Seijatachi. Anyway, the music was a good thing on the anime, it did fit pretty well, and OP and ED are pretty catchy. As you can see, I made some complaints regarding the anime and its studio ruining some aspects of the adaptation while I tried to not compare too much with the manga (it was inevitable though), but... I must say, it was kind of enjoyable for me when I was new to the series, it had potential like I said, but the feeling that you will get after finishing the first season is that it could have been sooo much better, and there could have been more explanations with many elements of the series like the Kagunes and the RC Cells who were skipped, along with the development of the storyline and the characters... it's like throwing the whole potential away. You can clearly notice in the anime that Pierrot didn't pull out so much effort and their budget wasn't really the best (there is a reason why many people had bigger enjoyment with the first and episode 12, since it looked like they invested a lot more on these two episodes) while they made that first season. Sometimes even I imagine that Pierrot just wanted to do that shounen treatment at Tokyo Ghoul's anime since they didn't have the best idea in how to make an adaptation. It even felt like an insult or a disrespect towards most of the manga fans/manga readers, since that first season felt like a prototype version of the manga storyline. I do hope that the anime will be remade in the future and do justice to be as great as the manga. Is the anime enjoyable after all? Well, if you are new to the series, give it a try... you can either love, or see its potential and wonder how it could have been then watch season 2, and check out the manga to see that potential being developed to something amazing, or then hate it due to what the studio did on that adaptation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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