echo Written by: Shuvern Yeoh and Amal Hamizah binti Jailani
If you have no idea what this anime is about, we have 2 questions for you: 1. Are you serious? and 2. No, really, are you SERIOUS?! This anime has been a tremendous success ever since its debut release in 2014 and even before that, the manga in which the anime takes its main storyline from has sold over 34 million copies worldwide, easily making it one of the most popular anime ever since Attack on Titan.
Truth be told though; this anime is not everyone’s cup of tea. It touches on some heavy topics like identity crisis, and is pretty violent; because you know, ghouls eat humans? So, if you can’t stand blood, gore, psychological horror I advise you don’t watch this. However, to those who love any form of horror and are not squeamish, you’re in for a treat!
This review will be a non-spoiler review as we wouldn’t want you to miss out on all the shocking and OMG moments that adds to the story’s intrigue.
Tokyo Ghoul is set in a world where ghouls live among us. Ghouls look like humans but with supernatural abilities and require feeding on human flesh to survive. The story revolves around the struggle between ghouls and humans, with each side trying to justify their acts of killing one another.
At first, the story let us think that the ghouls are the evil one and the threat for humanity as they do eat people, after all. That’s when our main character, Ken Kaneki, the guy who had to suffer a lot of misfortunes throughout the series, came in and tell the story of how their world really works.
The main character somehow got involved in the conflict of ghouls vs human. He became a half-ghoul (which we will not explain here, since we want you to see by yourself!) and was able to experience what the ghouls have gone through; including how they survive by only being able to consume human’s flesh and coffee and how they are considered threats even when some of them just want to be able to survive. The series revolved around him trying to adjust to his new life as a ghoul, and just a warning, things do not go better.
Plot 6/10
The main plot of Tokyo Ghoul is the conflict between human and ghouls, and ghouls and ghouls. There is a lot of action and violence going on in this series, which keeps you at the edge of your seat as you watch it! However, since the anime is adapted from over 60 chapters from the manga, the anime is rushed and it feels like they squeezed the plot too much into 12 episodes. Who knows, maybe it’s better in season 2.
Characters 7/10
Our main character has gone through a lot of things in the series, which allows the audience to sympathize with him. However, like mentioned earlier, 12 episodes are not enough to delve in depth for character developments. It would be better if more characters have screen time, so we could empathise with them more. But it’s not like the characters are too boring either! The characters have their own struggle on being ghouls, which keep us entertained. There may be some characters that you despise at first, but they may also be the one you feel sorry for later on by the end of the episodes!
Music 8/10
The opening and ending song are extremely catchy! It’s going to get stuck on your head after you finish watching the series (talking from own experience).
Enjoyment / Overall 7/10
Overall, despite some of its weakness, this anime is still enjoyable, especially if you want to start watching anime! It has a lot of action and drama, just a perfect anime to binge on. Also, if you want more of the story, just watching season 1 is not enough as there is season 2 and the manga has a lot of volumes already so don’t worry!
