Ah, the summer of 2014. The spawn of several great, mediocre and well, underachieving anime. And Tokyo Ghoul is no exception.
Story: 7
Tokyo Ghoul overall, has a pretty good story. It's quite original, although the sight of eating devouring people is quite old. The story does eventually get its points, etc. The story in ITSELF isn't cringe-worthy, and I enjoyed the concept of living in a society with creatures disguised as humans devouring the very species we are. The only exception I have is that do the ghouls only live in Japan? I mean, why does every single thing happen in Japan? What about the rest of the world? Don't they not react to this type of situation when they KNOW there are intelligent creatures out there, eating people. Shouldn't they research them instead of killing them with suitcases disguised as weapons? Besides that, good story.
Art: 9
The art in itself is very nice. Studio Pierrot is an experienced animation studio, having created the works of Naruto and Bleach. And overall, I had high expectations for the animation and it didn't fail to deliver.
Sound: 7
The soundtrack for Tokyo Ghoul wasn't anything special. There was no OST that really stood out for me, and the opening and ending songs wasn't something I entirely enjoyed. I had high expectations for the OP song when I heard the band that sang the Psycho-Pass OP song was going to this one, but unfortunately, it didn't really catch my attention.
Character: 4
Ooooh boy, where do I begin? This is, simply point out, the WORST aspect of this entire scrap-pile of an anime. Ken Kaneki, your average pussy-boy for the 12 episodes. I have read the manga and I know he starts out as a wimp, but I had REALLY hoped that they would get Kaneki to shapen up by like.. The 8th episode. That didn't happen. What even DISAPPOINTED ME FURTHER was that the anime was only 12 fucking episodes long. I mean, the manga ended a few days ago, so you could do us all a favor and make another 12 episodes. But no, on the last episode you have Kaneki turn from a big wimp to some apparent badass who could beat the shit out of Jason because of some extensive torture (math). I mean speaking realistically, I think I'd just cry even more. But I don't know, shit happens. Touka Kirishima is just one of those stereotypical female leads that just loves to use her fists instead of her head. And whatever happened to that guy who loves to sniff Kaneki's fucking bloody hanky? Oh, he tries to kill Kaneki once but now he's apparently working with him in order to secretly devour him one day. In a nutshell, the characters suck.
Enjoyment: 6
I personally didn't enjoy this anime too much. I had high expectations for this anime, I really did. I was really excited when it came out, but it more or less a roller-coaster ride that only slowly went downhill from the first to last episode. Maybe you'll have a better time watching it than me, but I personally didn't find it TOO great
Overall: 7
Even with all the flack and criticism I've been giving this anime, it's one of the ones that in itself stood out and was one of the better ones of the Summer 2014 anime roster list. I can name a bunch of anime much, much better than this, but in itself, it wasn't too bad. I might have rated it higher if it was 24-25 episodes, but season 2 hasn't been confirmed yet, so I can't for sure right now. If you like colors (specifically red and black), watch this anime.
