Tokyo Ghoul:re 2nd Season

MINOR SPOILERS IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE MANGA

Yikes. I don't know who told studio pierrot that it was a good idea to ATTEMPT to cram 120+ chapters into 12 freaking episodes but they need to be jailed. Like asap. When a manga gets adapted into an anime I'm used to It cutting a scene here and a chapter there due to time constraints, but what I'm NOT used to is it being cut and shredded to pieces like this. So much, and I cannot express that enough, SO F*CKING MUCH was omitted it's actually pitiful. So many important scenes and details were discarded in a ... failed attempt to compress the chapters that damn near half the story is lost in the transition. The only reason I gave it such a high score is because I enjoyed Kaneki and Touka consummating their love; I thought that was extremely romantic. If you're going to do such a half ass job making an anime, just don't bother. Leave the manga alone for God's sake

This will be my first review. I will try my best to my point across and avoid any spoilers the I can. As a fan of the Tokyo Ghoul franchise I feel the need to write a review for this anime.

I grew up in the Toonami generation, watching shows like Dragon Ball Z, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Sailor Moon, Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam, and other shounen action anime. However, it was only until about 4 years ago, when the rebooted Toonami aired and they started showing Crunchyroll ads during commercial breaks, that I was introduced to a whole bunch of other anime ... that I wasn't unaware of at the time.

It was around this time that I stumbled upon an anime call "Tokyo Ghoul" and I fell in love with it, so much so that I also bought the first 7 volumes of the manga. While I love Tokyo Ghoul I will admit it has it's flaws, (mostly the fact that the anime cut out some scenes from the manga). However I still liked the first season.

Fast forward 4 years after the first season and we now have "Tokyo Ghoul:re 2nd Season" and while I wouldn't say it's unbearable to watch, its hard to stay engaged with this anime seeing how poorly Studio Pierrot is handling it.

Story: 3
This is the main problem with the show. I haven't read the manga for :Re yet so I don't really know what is happening at this point. However, you do not have to have read the manga or have watched a lot of anime in general to tell you that this show was rushed. Everything in this show is going by too fast, jumping from one scene to another. Because of this it is hard to get a grasp of what is going on. There is not enough time to get to know the characters or to get a grasps of the situation at the moment.

Art/Animation: 6
Compared to the original TG the art seems prettier. However when it comes to animation its a bit lacking compared to the original. It has it's moments though.

Sound: 6
The best thing I can say about the second season of :Re is that they brought back TK from Ling Toshite Shigure to do the op. "THE OP Katharsis IS FIRE", it rivals "Unravel". Other than that sound is alright, however they use various sound bits that came from online somewhere that you might have heard before.

Characters: 6
I don't really have much to say about the characters. Kaneki does seems a bit cooler than he was in the first season of :Re.

Enjoyment: 5.5
The story is not being handled well. However its still "Tokyo Ghoul" and concept is there, which is fine by me. So there is still some enjoyment to be had with this show.

Overall: 5
Tokyo Ghoul :re 2nd season could have been great, however that is not case. Maybe its because Studio Pierrot is also working on Black Clover and Boruto, so the team working on TG :re might not have had much in terms of resources and had to make do with what they had. If that's the case I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm not say don't watch this anime, but if you decide to watch it, don't expect too much or you will be disappointed.

As a non manga reader, this was a total disaster.
I graded it 6 out of nostalgia and because the last 3 episodes somewhat followed some continuity and had more of the original characters.

I've spent weeks persevering and watching, not wanting to believe this is what the series really amounted to... just randomness with stories and characters without truly allowing the audience to form a bond with these characters... yet, week after week these characters were given lots of screen time but then at some point, they die with a long monologue that's supposed to be touching, but we feel nothing because, "who the ... hell were these people anyway?"

As I watched, it seemed to me that the person in charge was more concerned about aesthetics and cool fighting scenes and sound effects and background music... but even all that is lost, because that linear... or rather, that cohesiveness to the story is missing.

The only saving grace... the only thing I really appreciated from this story is Hide... again, because I'm a non manga reader.

Anyway, as someone who hates dropping anime, I'm glad this is all over so I can move on.

If you have read the manga, then this season will probably be enjoyable for you.
I have never watced such a forced anime before. The producers know that most of us love Tokyo Ghoul and they would squeeze the manga out in any way they could make profit.
Since there are so many new characters, it was difficult to follow, because things were happening almost out of nowhere and with no good enough reasons - because they were not explained well.
You don't lose anythig if you don't watch it.
If you ... want to know what happens at the end of Tokyo Ghoul and to your beloved characters, please read the manga.
It will leave you with a beautiful memory, and not ruin it.

Brazilian portuguese:
Anime sensacional aos meus olhos, a primeira temporada só teve o erro de deixar que o protagonista demorasse 12 episodios para aceitar o que tinha se tornado, na segunda temporada veio ainda mais com ação e até um certo romance que poderia ter se desenvolvido, a animação eu acho que eles poderiam caprichar nos combate mas tirando isso é exelente se pensarmos que o anime n é lá muito recente, a historia até que foi bem explicada sendo um exemplo para outros animes, mas essa temporada me deu vontade de desistir de tentar entender esse anime, história desconexa e com muitos buracos, tirando isso ... esse anime nota 6/10 recomendo que assistam mesmo assim !!

English:
Sensational anime in my eyes, the first season only had the mistake of letting the protagonist take 12 episodes to accept what he had become, the second season came even more with action and even a certain romance that could have developed, the animation I think they could take care of the combat but apart from that it is excellent if we think that the anime is not very recent, the story was even well explained being an example for other anime, but this season made me want to give up trying to understand this anime, disconnected story and with a lot of holes, apart from that anime note 6/10 I recommend you watch anyway !!

Probably the most disappointing modern adaptation to date, both Anime only watchers and Manga hardcore fans that claim the source material to be a masterpiece, all have turned their back on the abomination that one body could take for granted, “Tokyo Ghoul:re”, with the prequel being just as controversially bad, this sequel of the same name told us to hold its beer, and that wasn't even half of the story.
I'm an Anime-only watcher, I never read a single chapter of the Manga, and never was exposed to any of the “spoilers” you see being spammed on the internet.
Nevertheless, and given both recent adaptations, they remain ... one of the worse comebacks ever, at least in my experience.

Story (3/10):
Just like the prequel, and even more, the pacing was ridiculously fast, even my Manga reader sibling commented on how fast and confusing it was, let alone for Anime-only watcher normie me that had no idea on the chronological order of anything that happened in the season, literally, they go from one period of time worth of content to another with no alert, and it isn't a bad thing to do per se (Baccano! is a great example on how to accomplish that the right way), they themselves made it not work somehow.
The progression as well as poor and bad-received from my part, I was basically starting at the screen trying to figure out what was the meaning of what's happening, it felt more like a chore than actual entertainment.
Aside from the bad direction, the story, in general, fell by a great margin in terms of quality, and I can see the potential there, a lot of turn around moments and twists didn't have such impact, and most were forced and out of nowhere, like you'sd have episodes houses up to five or six big reveals, and none of them gives the other a moment of breather to tone down the intensity, no, it was more like a global traffic accident. Like, what is a Kagune anymore?

Art (7/10):
Probably the only decent aspect that “Tokyo Ghoul:re 2” has going on other than the vocals.
And even that wasn't for the most part, there are the big moments of shine that have a noticeable rise in quality, but almost the majority of animation was just a lazy bad move from their part, most talking about the distorted anatomy and the slow movements on scenes that were supposed to feel faster.
I do give them one thing though, and that is the backgrounds, so realistic and do standout on their own and yet make a great job blending in the other not-too-realistic characters, and it works flawlessly.

Sound (8/10):
See that eight? That's talking mostly about the opening theme song alone, Katharsis gave me a new aura to associate Tokyo Ghoul with. As much of an iconic Unravel was, I just can't help but give Katharsis the crown that Unravel held for so long, it just works perfectly, especially for a story with the same atmosphere as Tokyo Ghoul.
The voice acting, on the other hand, wasn't my proudest experience here, a lot of screaming was involved, and you know how bad that can get.
Too bad they did not bring back some of the old soundtracks along, like the fantastic “Glassy Sky”. Just why did they think changing to something new would work better?

Characters (2/10):
A true shame, I do believe that Tokyo Ghoul had some of the greatest characters, that is until the “:re” adaptation joined the chat. There is particularly no sense in dealing with something called “character development” in this shitfest of colliding misfits.
If anything, that was an intentional downgrade, the interesting Kaneki for instance, goes from his raging emo depression to a normie nerdy looking guy, to then out of the blue breaking the emo records once again, and all of that in the same episode, bruh, catch a breather, will ya?
Again, they went with the biggest weakness of the prequel and introduced a ton of other characters that we never got any background about, more specifically, think about it like crowd characters with names that they keep shaving up in your face the entire episode.
There were a lot of interesting backstories with huge potential, but they just didn't live up to my expectations, with the return of some characters we long thought were dead, and the death of many others, sense loses its meaning and you end up not giving any L's.

Enjoyment (5/10):
Basically, when you're too into some Anime that you don't enjoy anymore, but still dedicate some time to watching it for the sake of completing it, and I'm a completionist as I like to call myself, if it sucks, I'll rant in the review.
I did, however, experience one of my new favorite songs, Katharsis, that's probably the only good thing I'll remember about this adaptation, it really does feel bad, how such a big renowned series like this, gets such a low-level conclusion, even after a long time of wait from us fans.

Overall (5/10):
So glad I went through this, and so sad at the same time for how bad it was. If you're already planning to watch this, chances are you made it through the first three seasons, and only this abomination is still standing between you and saying “I watched Tokyo Ghoul”.
It's adaptations like this that make you appreciate how great shows like “Attack on Titan” and “My Hero Academia” have it, I'm not trying to steer any controversy here, if you like your Tokyo Ghoul, then nobody is stopping you from seeing this season, again, I'm just stating my opinion, and it's far from being a fact.

This anime was basically just a game of "guess which character has come back to life as a ghoul since you last saw them". Now, I actually don't have much of a problem with anime removing scenes from the source material as long as the story still makes sense and keeps you hooked. With this show, as a non-manga reader, I just found myself confused and puzzled at many of the plot points. I constantly asked myself "hey, wasn't this guy supposed to be dead?" It was kinda explained later on but the characters weren't surprised at these people just showing up again out of ... nowhere, it felt like everyone was in on a secret apart from you.

I do believe that if everything was actually explained, this anime could've been much better. I wish they had given the show more time to explain plot points instead of just thrusting them at you. At least the ending was satisfying I guess. I doubt there's any new perspective I could give on this. I would recommend the manga but I haven't read it so I couldn't really do that in good faith.

To be completely honest, the show does not do justice to the manga which is a lot better than the anime. In terms of the anime, the first season is what I would consider as the peak of the anime. Everything went down hill from there. RE is still better than the root a as that was utter garbage. In terms of the story, it was decent however does not live up to the hype and do justice to the manga. The art work is decent but no where near exceptional. The sound track was quite good in my opinion but that might be my ... bias for TK from Ling Tosite Sigure and Yutaka Yamada. The character development was a bit interested however it does not compare to that in the first season of RE or the first season overall. One can enjoy the show if one just shuts of their mind.

To conclude, it is a good binge if you have nothing to watch however if you are interested in knowing the story, the manga is definitely better than the anime. If you are interested in watching a mainstream anime that does not suck, Parasyte is a lot better.