First, analyse the problems the manga and the anime first season has:
-Lacks originality. Tokyo Ghoul didn't do nothing new. The idea of a male protagonist half-monster that fight those creatures already appeared in Devilman, a manga made by Go Nagai, of Mazinger Z's fame. The theme was took again in Parasyte, a manga from the 90s. In the 2000s, they were released Elfen Lied and Kemonozume, the two most evident examples, in both we have organizations of humans that fight monstrs that kills humans, but these monsters are the protagonist. Actually, in Kemonozume, the monsters eats people too. And just few years after TG's we got Shiki, a show about vampires with the exact same dilemma, monsters that can't live with humns peacefully because they need to kill and eat humns to survive. So, if Tokyo Ghoul didn't have any original content, why it became so popular, even more than all the titles i've said before? Well, that's my next point.
-Emo pandering. I was pretty emo when i was a teenager, and maybe thanks to that, i recognise when something is pandering to the poster child of teenage boys that cries nobody can't understand them. Tokyo Ghoul is basically this. I could compare the show in other elements with the other shows i mentioned, but i want to center in the show own merits, and in the worst reason for his appeal. This show play straight the card "i hurt people because i born like this, but nothing is my fault, but nobody can't get it, and i feel lonely for that". We see the poor, oppressed ghouls, that everyone hates because they need to kill humans to feed themselves, and are persecuted by the evil Inspectors. Sure, this show attemps to avoid the black and white morality showing there's evil ghouls that enjoy killing humans, and the human Inspectors are people too., but the message is still the same.
-Extrem passive hero. Kaneki is one of the most passive heroes i've ever seen. Many people commented how, after the torture, he became such a badass, and i wonder where, where they see it. Kaneki is still beaten the shit out of him by every antagonist it crossed his path, and he didn't make any relevant decision or take any significant action. The only difference now is his makeover. Many people complain about passive shoujo heroines, and sometimes i think kaneki is one of them, that went to the wrong title and genre.
Now, let's take a look on the only anime 2 season's flaws:
-Given screentime to characters that, in the story's climax, play a minor role, or any role at all. Kaneki is the supposed main character, but most of the episodes he's just mentioned, or appears in few scenes. Hide, his human best friend, that gives Kaneki a motivation in the last epiosde to do something (the last scene is too ambiguous to know what's going on) has even less screentime. The characters that more screentime has a re Touka and Amon Koutarou, and i wouldn't mind it if it wasn't because Koutarou only has a brief fight with Kaneki, and we even know if he survived, and Touka whn she finally arrives is too late, and everyone's already dead.
-Incoherent screenplay. In the first episode, Touka fights his brother, and he even bites her. With his teeth. Then Kaneki cames to the rescue, and we saw that Nishi is sitting nearby. I can't help but wonder, if he was always there, why he didn't help her? In the last episodes Touka is running away to the final battle, and despite she lives nearby and she runs since she heard, very soon, the battle has started, she arrived when it's already over, despite she could perfectly had arribe when it just get started. The way the screenplay screw with psychics and time is beyond my understament.
Now, take a look at the characters. I've already said Kaneki is a doormant protagonist, but what about the secondary characters? I won't lie, some of them are interesting, charismatic, or sympathetic, and relevant to the story. But the show centers around Touka, whose subplot about how hard she study motivated by Kaneki could have been removed and we could have been more space to more important subplots. Amon koutarou, from the humans side, is probably the worst choice. He's a massive hypocrite, that killed innocent people just because they are ghouls, and according to this logic are monsters, despite they tried to help kill humans to surviv, and let live actually dangerous ghouls because his organization says so. I don't sympathyze ith him, is nor valid the "he looks like one of the guys from swimming anime".
And the Gourmet... he's annoying, people ship him with Kaneki despite he attemped to murder him multiple times, he's creepy, other characters trust him despite he has proven he's absolutely not trust-worthy...Dear God, he's a walking idiot plot. Fortunetly, he appears less, but damn, it's still too much.
Despite all my complaints, there's some virtues in this show. Like i said there's characters that are really lekeable, and has relevance to the plot, and are the most redeeming quality of this show, specially the coffe's owner and other employees that get little screen time the second season, and actually, it's a good thing they has more screen time.
The animation is probably the best Studio Pierrot made until this date. The problem is the censorship, less than in the forst season, still bothersome, but less, maybe because the audience has already get used to it.
