Tokyo Ghoul

**Tokyo Ghoul** (東京喰種) is a Japanese anime series by Studio Pierrot based on the manga of the same name

by Sui

   Ishida. The first season premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX from July 4, 2014 to September 19, 2014. The second season, titled *Tokyo Ghoul √A*, aired from January 8, 2015 to March 27, 2015. An English dub of both seasons produced and published by Funimation aired consecutively on Adult Swim's Toonami block from March 25, 2017 to September 30, 2017.

## Plot

*Tokyo Ghoul* follows Ken Kaneki, a college student who barely survives a deadly encounter with Rize Kamishiro, his date who reveals herself as a ghoul. He is taken to the hospital in critical condition. After recovering, Kaneki discovers that he underwent a surgery that transformed him into a half-ghoul. This was accomplished because some of Rize's organs were transferred into his body, and now, like normal ghouls, he must consume human flesh to survive. The ghouls who manage the coffee shop "Anteiku" (named after a mispronunciation of "antique") take him in and teach him to deal with his new life as a half-ghoul. Some of his daily struggles include fitting into the ghoul society, as well as keeping his identity hidden from his human companions.

## Why it rocks

1. Studio Pierrot seemed to learn from their poor animation mistakes from *Naruto* and *Bleach* and this anime shows a lot of improvement, given its appealing art style reminiscent of other horror anime like *Death Note*, *Parasyte*, and Attack on Titan.
2. The music is wonderful and each music cue reflects the mood of the scene very well. If you wanna listen to it for yourself, feel free to buy the soundtrack on CD or iTunes. In fact, three of the Japanese DVD/Blu-ray volumes come with mini soundtrack CDs as limited edition bonuses.
3. On the topic of the music, the openings and endings are breathtaking, with the first, *unravel*, being a popular meme among fans.
4. The voice acting is an auditory treat in all languages (Japanese, English, French, German, Italian).
5. On the DVD and Blu-ray releases, the animation is improved, the special effects are more visually appealing and most censorship is removed, making this edition more sought out after among *Tokyo Ghoul* fans.
6. There are many memorable characters that are written very well. For example, Nishiki Nishio acts like a jerk to Kaneki and Hide, but after learning his backstory, revealed to be similar to Kaneki's, viewers begin to sympathize with him.
7. The tragedy element of Kaneki's life being turned upside down and losing everything he ever cared about, from his appetite to his humanity, is still present in the anime.
8. The two spin-off specials, *Tokyo Ghoul: JACK* and *Tokyo Ghoul: PINTO*, as well as the live-action film are also very good, *especially* if you loved the manga.
9. The immense popularity of the anime led to a boost in manga sales, and as expected, brought a wider mass appeal. This is one show non-anime fans will most definitely remember, alongside *Attack on Titan*.

## Bad Qualities

1. While the anime is good, it's infamous for not being a very good adaptation of the manga, and rushing the story quite a bit towards the end.
2. Season 2 is complete garbage.

## Reception

*Tokyo Ghoul* was the 27th best-selling manga series in Japan in 2013, with 1.6 million estimated sales. As of January 2014, the manga had sold around 2.6 million copies.[28] It was the fourth best-selling manga series in Japan in 2014, with 6.9 million copies sold.[29] The whole original series sold over 12 million copies.[30]

The sequel series, *Tokyo Ghoul:re* sold over 3.7 million copies in Japan during its debut year in 2015,[31] and 4.3 million copies in 2016.[32] It was the fifth best-selling manga series in 2017 with sales of over 5.3 million copies.[33] Both series combined for over 24 million copies in circulation by June 2017,[34] and they had 34 million copies in print worldwide as of January 2018.[35]