If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

As someone who has read the Tokyo Ghoul manga, i was very excited to see it adapted into an anime and I was not disappointed. The series adapts the manga very well, right down to some of the iconic panels being shown as stills for the anime, such as the first shot of Kaneki's one ghoul eye in the hospital. The characters are extremely well cast and are designed beautifully. All of them, even characters like Mado and Yamori, have developed and fleshed-out backgrounds that helps the viewer understand who they are and why they do what they do, however evil it may seem. Another huge plus for this series is the very premise of it. The plot is simple enough: in a world where ghouls and humans are at war with one another, a half-ghoul boy has to find his place in it, perhaps even fight. The advantage of a simple story line is that it gives the writers lots of scope to be creative. They focus mainly on Kaneki's confusion and indecision as to what to do with his new species, as well as his development from timid college nerd to ghoul freedom fighter. The relationships between the characters are another huge factor of this series. This factor is easy to get wrong in a show, but Tokyo Ghoul gets it exactly right. In my opinion, the most enjoyable and fleshed-out relationships of the anime are Tsukiyama and Kaneki: the ravenous "gourmet" who needs a half-ghoul to experience the unique taste of the breed, Amon and Kaneki: the mutual respect for the ghoul exterminator and the face of the ghoul revolution, and Touka and Hinami: the troubled ghoul who takes in a young ghoul orphan after her parents are killed by ghoul "investigators". As i said before, the characters' actions are all partly justified and it's hard to hate any of them. Amon is driven to become an investigator after seeing his childhood friends killed and eaten by a ghoul. Mado wants revenge on all ghouls after they killed his wife, and Yamori's mind is so twisted by his torture at the hands of the investigators that the only freedom for him is to inflict pain and suffering on his fellow ghouls. On the ghoul side of the coin, my point still stands. Touka hates the investigators after they killed her parents, Hinami is terrified of them after Mado killed her mother right in front of her, and Kaneki cannot bear to see all the suffering the ghouls are enduring under them.There are some things missing from this series, however. Expanding on my last point, some of the characters motivations are obscure or non-existent. Why must Tsukiyama feast on rare breeds of ghoul, when any human meat will do? Why is Ayato so bent on killing Touka, his own sister? I understand that this is an adaptation of a manga where these problems are indeed present, but the studio could add a little originality to it and come up with a solution on their own. Also, I did not like the presentation of Kaneki's torture in the last few episodes. While Yamori does indeed do all the things he does here in the manga, the book goes so much more in depth. In the manga, Kaneki's torture is much more psychological, with Yamori threatening to burn the Anteiku coffee shop, a safe haven for ghouls, to the ground and kill Hide, Kaneki's human friend. The psychological element is touched upon in the anime, however, when Yamori tells Kaneki to choose between killing a wife or husband, the two people who were supposed to be rescuing him. Kaneki cannot choose, so Yamori brutally murders them both. This is better in the manga though, so Yamori brings in a mother and daughter, asking him to choose. This gives the torture a personal edge as Kaneki is reminded of Hinami, who he is like a brother to, and her mother, who's murder he was present at, but unable to prevent. Instead, the anime opts for the gore factor, showing only the physical side of the torture.On the whole, Tokyo Ghoul is a well rounded, mostly accurate adaptation of an amazing horror manga which sees our struggling hero beset by conflict on all sides, both from human investigators and evil ghouls, in a world that neither accepts nor wants him any more. Definitely worth a watch, but read the maga first

Tokyo Ghoul is normally mentioned among the most interesting anime series of the past few years. However, it didn't live up to my expectations as I found it weak in many aspects.To start with I think the main problem is the characters, there are many series where the plot may not be good but the characters make it totally worthy but this wasn't the case. All the characters fit an anime stereotype which wouldn't be bad per se but there isn't enough background information nor character development. Most of them are passive characters who are just there doing nothing so I insist, it is very difficult to feel any sympathy towards them. The protagonist happens to be the worst of all in that sense so having him as the protagonist and no strong secondary characters makes it quite tedious to follow the series.The plot was definitely a good start, quite appealing to fans of the genre. We have world with cannibals that need to eat people to survive but that does not mean they are evil. If you are looking for blood, drama or philosophy, this is not your show. It could have been but there are barely fights, there is no place for drama when characters are that dull and there are a few times when you can actually reflect upon a deeper meaning. Moreover, it's not that the show in general doesn't fulfil any of the expected purposes but the episodes do not stand alone either way. What was good for sure was the music and the design and this is something that can be observed more clearly at the end of the series which is the best part. And yet again, the ending seemed rushed and the characters hadn't grown enough on me to watch the second season.

Tokyo Ghoul is a very unique series. Tokyo Ghoul is set in a world where ghouls, creatures that feed on human flesh. A shy college student named Kaneki is going on a date with a girl named Rize, but after her revealing that she is a ghoul, there was no going back. After leaving Kaneki to the brink of death, she was hit by some metal bars dropped from a building. After that Rize's organs have been transplanted into Rize, making him a One-Eyed Ghoul. Now, Kaneki must survive as a ghoul by using his powers, and to further polish them. It has a lot of character development, ad a unique story. It had a pretty good art direction, but I think that the series went a bit downhill with the premiere of season 2. Studio Pierrot did a fairly good good job on adapting Tokyo Ghoul, but I have to point out a few things. In season 1, they switched the Gourmet Arc and the Dove's Emergence Arc (I guess Pierrot wanted Ryouko to live for a little while). They left out important plot details (like how Kaneki learned the technique to easily break an arm=, and don't get me started with season 2! Season 2 left aside Touka (this also includes Kaneki on the first episodes. Please take in mind that he is the protagonist) leaving her with little screen time, and it focused a bit too much on CCG. It also focused on a story arc that differed from the other half of the manga.Leaving all of that aside I would say that this anime is worth watching, but make sure you read the manga first. Maybe if Studio Pierrot, stayed faithful a bit more to the manga, it could have gotten higher ratings (and would have stopped the request for Madhouse to reboot Tokyo Ghoul). Nevertheless, Tokyo Ghoul is one of the most successful horror series. With Tokyo Ghoul :re (the manga sequel of Tokyo Ghoul), they both have reached 22 million copies in circulation, and some people say it levels up to Death Note.

Yet another coming of age type show with a dark hero. I really hate these weakling heroes turned superman on a whim type shows but it is what it is. Overall its not too bad. The romance innuendo is garbage and the characters are completely unbelievable acting one way one episode then doing a 180 the very next (the ghoul girl went from super strong to whiny princess... hero went from whiny princess to superman, etc). Still it is not bad outside of characterization and the action is done well enough to hold my attention but this is no Kenshin or Berserk (not even close). Character development is very bad and too generic and the overuse of "mysterious" forces and plots getting people to act the way they do actually make me less interested (think Wolverine in the comics) because of how unrealistic the characters behave. There are no redeeming characters in this show, they might as well all be 2nd graders given their intellectual acumen. I wish anime were written a little smarter. Even when I was a kid I hated poorly written stories and characters. Overall I give this a 6/10 given fun fights.