So, as an anime only watcher ot Tokyo Ghou, what did I think of it? I tought it was intriguing, creative, full of emotions but also sometimes confusiong. Here are some more details.
Story 5/10:
Root A picks up from where the first season started, but I think it's important to mention that this new season is not an adaptation of the manga, but more like an alternative setting. A nice idea at first perhaps, but I think it was done way too fast. The script had a lot of plot holes and I could tell important parts were skipped even witthout reading the manga. I feel like a lot of things were not explained well. For exemple, at some point CCG investigators go to some kind of prison to fight ghouls, but I never really understood why or how these fights helped them advance their work. This is a good exemple of how the whole story is handled. I feel like the story was too complex for a 12 episodes anime and would have benifited a lot more of a 24 episodes run.
On the other hand, the way some parts of the story were handled was quite nice. Studio Pierrot makes brilliant usage of silences. Silences are often overlooked or just non-existent in action anime but they can add so much more to a scene. I feel lile the silences in Root A added good intensity to more simple scenes, making them feel more special and emotionnal. However, in more action packed scenes it didn't work out that well. For example, there is this intense scene where a character gets injured and the watched doesn't know if he's going to make it, and boom, we change to another scene with different characters. I feel like the changes from scene to scene were often too fast, which made some important events seem easily forgettable.
Overall, the story is not clear enough and looses the watcher easily. It feels like Studio Pierrot wanted to make this a slow paced show, which would have worked great to build tings up, but it just can't work for a 12 episodes anime. So what you get are really good just talking and building things up scenes but extremely rushed and all over the place action scenes.
Art 8/10
The animation is just there with anime normal budget anime of 2010's. It's nothing outstanding, especially for the fight scenes. Most of them are covered with smoke (probably to cut on budget costs), which make them less interesting. Some cuts were also re-used a lot, like someone making coffee or past scenes from season 1. The artstyle is very nice. I like the character designs a lot and how they don't all have the same face shape.
My favourite part of the art were the opening and endings. I thing the opening is just brilliant. Some say it's lazy, but to me it's super creative. It expresses the overal melancholic tone of the show perfectly. The ending was great too. I liked how it had different images for each episode. The drawings were really beautiful, in a watercolour style.
Sound 10/10
The music is definetly the best part of Tokyo Ghoul Root A. The amazing soundtrack caught my attention right away. The music is very fitting to the show and helps to showcase the emotions of it. I liked the overall style of the music, that I would describe as a mix of soft rock and ballads. As you would say in French, it sounds like a ''cri du coeur''. It's particularly emotive. I think the usage of a lot of different instruments and the soft rock vibes were simply brilliant. I also liked the fact that most songs are accompagned by singing, not just music, which is quite rare in anime. Finally, I liked how different it felt to most soundtracks. For example, while you would expect intense rock music with lots of energy in action scenes, here more down to heart songs were used and it worked perfectly.
As for the voice acting, it was great. Each voice actor does an amazing job at sharing the character's emotions to the viewers, in a never over the top way. Nothing bad to say there.
Character 7/10:
I feel like characters are really hits and misses. First, I think it's important to mention that the majority of the main and supporting characters get some attention. For most of them it's by telling their backstories and for some it's with development. Also, a lot of characters are really unique with different personnality traits, which make them so much more interesting. Oh, and if you lik fucked up characters, you'll love them all. Let's just say that I like when characters are not just there to be there, and this show satisfies this very well.
However, there is a down side to it. First is the way some events are brought. For example, you will have this buildup of a character's personnality. You will learn more about their pasts and why they act the way they do. Then all of a sudden, something bad happens to them. As a viewer, you'd feel attached to the character and thus touched by the sad event. But, there is one thing that made me feel pretty much nothing for some characters. It was the fact that everything happens so fast that you don't really get to feel and process the events properly, so you just easily get over sad events, even going as far as not caring for character deaths. I think it could have been great, but the fact that a lot of things were rushed just made me care for a character at first and then forget about them on the next scene.
As for our main character, Kaneki, I think he gets decent developement in this season. He doesn't get all that much screen time, but we still really see and feel that he his completely lost inside. On the other hand, some of his actions are left unexplained and it's hard for the viewer to connect with him when we can't understand why he acts certain ways. Overall, Kaneki seems like an amazing character, but he probably didn't get the treatment he deserved in this adaptation.
In the end, characters that got developement were great, but it felt like all this built up was butchered in the last few episodes. Some character were left not developped enough, which is a sad thing, because most of them were interesting. Once again, this anime would have benefited in having more episodes.
Enjoyement 9/10:
Besides the fact that I were lost by the story a lot of times, I really enjoyed the show. I cared for a majority of the characters. I felt Kaneki's sorrow, which made me want him to finally find his way. Sometimes I smiled, sometimes I cied. The soundtrack made the experience just so much better, it really made me enjoy the show a lot more.
Overall rating and final toughts 8/10:
Tokyo Ghoul Root A is not a bad show. To me, it's even better than season 1, but only for some points. The way some scenes were handled with the silences for example was just brilliant. In the end, there was just this one problem that messed everything: the 12 episodes run. I feel like Tokyo Goul could easily be the kind of show to go the Hunter x Hunter way. In HxH, some important events would happen in maybe just a few hours in real life, but are stretched out for 10-15 episodes, which makes it so much more interesting for the viewer because you can get a better grip of what's going on for each character in their actions but also inside their heads. Without stretching things this much, Tokyo Ghoul could have easily have been a 38 episodes show. It's just a shame it didn't happen.
I would recommand it anyways, but for anime only watchers. If you want to read the manga, I'd suggest you do it after watching the anime so you don't ruin your experience.
