As a fan of the first two seasons I can't see this season as anything other than a massive failure and disappointment.
Story-5
Very tiny spoiler: Haise is Kaneki. Wow this show is boring. I'm not sure that a single interesting thing has happened in 12 episodes. Basically it's just 12 episodes of Haise and his new buddies fighting ghouls. Not a single fight is cool, interesting, or well animated, and not a single character is as good as a character from season one.
One thing I found so great about the original is that the man-eating ghouls who couldn't possibly seen as good people were constantly and effectively humanized through the folks at Anteiku. It presented an incredibly difficult and interesting conflict where ghouls and humans desperately want peace but simply cannot coexist. Kaneki and friends constantly tried to balance peace and protecting their friends and that's part of what made the show great.
Well no more Anteiku. No more of Kaneki's old friends. And no more ghouls that are worth caring about. They're all gone and replaced with Haise's boring crew of half ghoul investigators and a bunch of ghouls who's most interesting and human trait is that they don't want to die.
Art-6
Significantly uglier than the original. The drop in animation quality is actually both astounding and depressing. A show that could be praised for it's stellar animation and dark edgy art has fallen so so low. It's production budget is likely close to half of the original and it shows. Not one fight sequence is cool or impressive and the art can also be incredibly inconsistent at times.
Sound-6
Also a big step down. The opening is good but not nearly as good as the original. The ending is also fine but kind of weird and not worth adding to any kind of playlist. All the background music is mediocre and totally forgettable. The sound does almost nothing to improve this adaptation.
Character-4
This is actually the worst part of the show. Haise has to be the most boring main character I've seen all season, maybe all year. His only character trait is that he cares about his friends and his current lifestyle. It's essentially impossible to get anything more than that out of his character. Every time he speaks it's something about how much he loves his life or how he doesn't want to be Kaneki again because he loves his life so much right now. I was constantly wanting him to return to being Kaneki against his will because I was so damn tired of Haise's babbling.
No side character is worth me mentioning with the exception of Urie (half ghoul investigator who works under Haise) who has untapped potential as of now. All the new ghouls are boring. All of Haise's new friends are a bore. They add nothing to the show whatsoever. The biggest internal conflict seen in a side character is "Damn killing ghouls is kind of sad." Really groundbreaking stuff. Massive failure in character writing.
Enjoyment-5
Obviously I did not enjoy this show and my expectations were shattered. This show has almost no redeeming qualities, and I never once looked forward to the next episode.
Overall-5
I don't understand how anyone can watch the all three seasons of Tokyo Ghoul and say that this one stands up to the first two. It's clearly a massively overambitious failure of a project.
I haven't read the manga and I don't plan to. This is a review of the anime only.
