Disappointing, disappointing, disappointing. That describes Tokyo Ghoul:re.
I am someone that began reading the original back in the beginning. So we have definitely come a long way. And I can say proudly that Tokyo Ghoul, the original is a masterpiece. Amazing. Fantastic. *Insert similar adjective*. I loved everything about it.
But this, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls. This, is shit. If we compare it to the plethora of garbage out there, sure, it is ok i guess. But if we compare it to the original, than :re is bad.
Story meh, characters meh, art bad in some aspects (though not all). And now that this is popular, terrible community.
The thing is, Ishida seems to have reached a consensus with his team. Crazy characters = awesome. The story is pathetically predicable now. Just random arcs with crazy people appearing left and right. Not to mention ass pulls. You know Ishida, the whole go crazy after torture and gain power up worked once. You can stop now ok?
Yes that's right Ishida found his magic formula and is rolling along with it. Damn you money!!! Anyway, here it is:
Step 1: Get one of your characters
Step 2: Make them seem relatively happy
Step 3: plot twist
Step 4: Character actually has a dark and sad past
Step 5: Torture them or something similar
Step 6: Is the character already crazy? If yes, then make them more crazy. If no, just make them crazy
Step 7: make their hair go white
Step 8: make them super crazy strong
Step 9: make 15 year old teens across the globe squeal, because they think they are super mature and cool by reading this dark edgy stuff.
Step 10: ???
Step 11: Profit. (literally in this case)
Step 12: Repeat from step 1.
That is how predicable :re has become. Ishida now seems to just be doing stuff to please fanboys. Pick any character. There is a pretty good chance they are fucked up in the head. woooooo so fun, so dark, so smart.
But I gotta admit, if this was Ishida's plan all along he has earned my respect. He has so thoroughly brain washed his audience, that anything he does is seen as "OMFG KANEKI KYAAAAA!! ISHIDA SO SMART!! TOKYO GHOUL BEST MANGAZ!!". And if you say anything it is always "OMG YOU STUPID GO READ SHONEN! DERP THIS IS TRAGEDY MANGA DERP!".
And this is all sad, remember that I was someone that loved this manga... Oh how the mighty have fallen...
I can't even go ahead and say which category made :re worse. It is now a convoluted mess, each category bringing the other down. A plethora of new characters that sprout out of nowhere just to make more fodder. Instead of reusing good developed characters, it is apparently a good idea to disregard most of them, introduce a bazillion of new ones and develop 6 of them. Some of the old side characters haven't even re-appeared yet. Pretty sure Ishida forgot about them.
This flood of new characters just helps bring the story down since there are so many new characters you can barely get their names. And no, I'm not going to re-read the chapters 5 times just to try to get who is who. A good manga like original Tokyo Ghoul only had me reading the chapter once to understand everything. This is not thick plot. This is bad writing.
One example of the characters bringing the story down are the random grunts from each side that serve just as fodder. Some of them have less than 3 pages dedicated to them, yet have whole fucking chapters showing their super sad past, right before they die. Why even? What is the point? Do you think anybody cares?
Speaking of bad, art got a lot worse in fighting scenes. Now it is just a drawing mess with blurs appearing in each fighting panel. I'm going to be completely honest. I barely understand what is going on most of the time. And no again fans, no, I'm not going to read the same chapters 15 times.
But it is not all terrible. Art outside of battles did improve. It is amazing now I really like it. And although the story doesn't touch the original's feet, it still is better than most stuff out there. Also when :re does shows glimpses of the originals glory, damn, tears flows through my eyes remembering the good old times. But that is quickly fucked up by another character going batshit crazy.
Yeah sure, years and years of reading manga and watching anime made me grumpy and weary, But then again, it also made me achieve a state of nirvana in which I can distinguish masterpieces from disguised shit.
So, should you read this manga and are you going to like it? Well, honestly, if this wasn't a continuation but a stand alone, it would be ok. But it isn't is it? Still everyone should read it if they have nothing better to do.
But the real question is, are you going to like it? Well if you are a teen you will probably love it. If you like stories that characters get power ups because they go super batshit crazy but don't make sense, then you will also love it. If not, then no, you will find it "meh", so go read Golden Kamuy or something better.
I honestly do hope I end up editing this in the future, because I do want to enjoy this. I really do. But as of now. Nope. This is as of chapter 81.
