Characters: 30%
Art: 10%
Soundtrack: 10%
Plot: 2,5/5
First of all the MAL description is lying. Tokyo in this story isn't cruel and merciless. At least not more than the real Tokyo is. Even despite the presence of ghouls, the people are carrying on their daily life going to cafes, talking about books and going on dates. Ghouls just happen to attack and eat someone every now and then. What are ghouls, you may wonder? In Tokyo Ghoul, ghouls are basically the "battle shounenification" of what ghouls were originally defined as. They're flesh-hungry outcasts, who have the ability of shaping weapon-like extensions out of their body, which can appear like a blade, tentacles, flames... basically stuff you might have seen similairly in battle shounens like bleach or naruto before. The overall plot didn't impress me too much. For the most part the plot consisted of elements and progression I have seen been made before and done better. There were some things however that did keep me interested in seeing the conclusion of this series and things I may want to see expanded upon in future seasons, like the underground ghoul culture.
Characters: 2,5/5
The characters also failed to impress me. The biggest focus laid on the main character; Kaneki. There wasn't much to him, that made me relate to him or feel sympathy. All I know about him is that he is a shy guy, who likes books and that he has a good friend named Hide. The last episode gave some snippets on Kaneki, which could have been well utilized previously in the series, but by then it was kinda too late. Another important character is Hirishima Touka, who just like Kaneki wasn't all that interesting and had almost the same conflicts to handle. The series also failed to utilize introduced side characters in efficient ways, other than just being a plot convenience. The most interesting character was Juuzou Suzaya, who was some kind of a radical Edward rip off (Cowboy Bebop), who didn't get nearly enough screen time to lift himself above that title. I also liked Jason as a villain, simply for being a sadistic a**hole.
Art: 3,5/5
The art was the strongest field of the series. The animation was quite fluent and the battles were quite a blast. Unfortunately like most anime the art fellt kinda standardized. I'm referring to how in most anime's the original artist's style gets somewhat lost and it feels like just another anime with no peculiar stylistic vision.
Soundtrack: 3,5/5
Most of the soundtrack wasn't all that memorable, but it also wasn't irritating and bad. Most notable was the opening theme, which allthough whiny, fellt like a fresh breeze, compared to other series. Also the voice acting was really good.
Critical score: 5,4/10
Enjoyment:
I don't really have an enjoyment scale, but depending on how much I enjoyed a series I may increase or lower it's final rating in order to get a rounded number as is visible in the final score.
Final score: 6/10
