This review contains Spoilers for the previous Series (Tokyo Ghoul). Also Includes Spoilers for upto volume 5. I have to spoil one of the major Reveal to kinda talk about the series.
TG ended with Kaneki losing to Arima losing his memories and becoming a Ghoul Investigator. He now goes by Haise. Becomes the very thing that were trying to destroy him in the past. Now he's gotta work for CCG and Fight what he originally considered Family. So you have Kaneki playing the role what Amon played in the original series. More or less. There is something new here which is the Quinxes. An artificially created half ghouls by the CCG to be utilized against Ghouls. However as the story unfolds more and more we see a lot of subplots, character interactions where the series becomes far more than just a simple extermination program.
Tokyo Ghoul: RE starts out strong. The beginning is very reminiscent of the quiet nature that TG had at times paced well with Jaw dropping moments with carnage that drown out the dialogue on screen. TG:RE at the start is what it does best. But sadly this is just gone far too quick. As I read more and more of the series it drops off in pacing, character, subplots and overall quality. It's very depressing to see a series you love be somewhat of a shell of its former self.
I don't hate this series. I very much like it. But the quality difference between TG and TG:RE is very noticeable not just in regards to the story but art as well. There is a lot of drag style art. Where it looks like a sketchy mess especially for one of the support characters Urie. I get that Urie is one of the more self centered characters and talks to himself a lot. The author tries to show this kind of unhinged behavior through a sketchy art but it just becomes a jumbled mess. Especially since Ishida's art is spectacular. It just looks like a mess next to it.
Reading TG:RE I get why people say the fight scenes are hard to follow. I mentioned its because of the Drag that the author decides to add during the fights scenes. This was not a problem in the original series. The art quality overall has improved but the way certain things are drawn has been more of a downscale.
I don't mean to constantly compare the series to the original. I say the series is worse in most regards... in comparison to the original series. I still very much enjoy the series. The story and characters and action are great. Just not as good as the original.
Besides the art I don't think I can name something I liked about this series more than the original. The characters aren't more memorable, the story is much of a jumbled mess. There are several twists and character revivals that I simply did not care about. In fact there were times I had completely forgotten that this character had died. While on the opposite end too many characters survive. You lose that monstrosity in the original that named characters died. Like a lot of them. It was ballsy and constantly kept you on your toes. There was some of that in the beginning but sadly it wanes later on.
There is a comparison with Descending Stories to be made here. You could argue there are many things that are done subtly in both of these series yet in Descending stories, It's "missing the point" but in Tokyo Ghoul its poor writing. What I'm trying to say is that Descending Stories fanbase can go fuck themselves.
There are also plenty of subplots that were just not resolved. The Garden isn't properly explained or shown. We never get the full scope of V. There were some characters that the author forgot and there were some characters that I forgot. Shachi was a very strong character and I was thinking his character never gets resolved but it does... I just forgot...
1 fight scene we don't get to see and I am very disappointed in that. After everything we didn't get to see THIS fight. WHYYYYY. I feel like some characters were wildly wasted as well. They were introduced but had no real value either.
I did lie a little bit in this review. I said there isn't anything more memorable in this series in comparison to the original besides the art. This is incorrect. There is a godlike chapter that completely Justifies this entire manga. A chapter that makes me thing God is real. It defies all logic. Betrays all expectations and breathes life in the most beautiful way possible. You know what I'm talking about.
Overall. I Liked this manga. Its copy pasting the original, It is moving forward the story but It is still a weaker version of the original. It loses the Dichotomy between Ghouls and Humans except till the end. The action scenes are messier. Too many Characters Introduced. But I still the enjoyed the hell out of this series. And I think you would to. 7/10
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