I know what I have picked up to tackle is not an easy task.
Everybody in the anime community is salty over day 1 when Tokyo Ghoul’s awful
season 2 started airing (although it was an enjoyable ride for me). People were
saying left and right to read the manga and don’t bother the anime. At that
point in my life, I had watched roughly ten series of anime (including anime
movies). I had watched Attack on Titan and had followed it up with Kanon ’06. I
watched Clannad and it left my heart aching, so I followed it up with Angel
Beats (Some pleb I was). But the pumping action of Titan still lingered in my
mind. So, like a normie that I was, I searched for any show relating to Titan,
where I came across this gem: Tokyo
I had heard a lot about this series, and that was all
positive. So, I gave it a go and I enjoyed it. And then, the fateful episode
came along, which threw the common sense out the bloody window. Episode 12 of
first season left me confused. I hoped my answers would be provided in the
sequel. Spoiler: it wasn’t the case. I was mad about it and started researching
while carefully dodging the spoilers. There I came to know that this series was
a train wreck, and Peirrot had taken very liberal steps with the series. Now, I
had to make up my mind regarding the third season which I knew was airing in
2018.
So, I decided I would watch it. But I won’t keep up with it
weekly. I’ll wait for it to conclude and marathon it when it is all over. And
so, after waiting for three months and filling my schedule with some My Hero
Academia, I sat down on with my laptop to marathon TG:re. Full disclosure,
midway through the season, I ordered first five volumes of manga because I knew
I was not getting the purest form of entertainment. This stuff was so
incomplete, I thought it was a compilation of best scenes in a movie. I watched
the last episode and sighed that I got through it.
Result: Nothing was special. The visuals were nothing much
to write about. The story was choppy. The music was a step down. But then, I
heard that there will be TG:re 2 for Fall 2018. I didn’t have my hopes up for
it. I waited for five episodes to come out so that I could marathon that. And
oh boy, that was a phenomenal wreck. It was like a toddler was producing this
series, because the whole thing crumbled like an undercooked cookie. It fell
flat, and I started looking for more volumes to order.
Now that was an (un)interesting preface, right. Let’s get to
the meat of the essay.
While I was watching TG:re season 1, there was one episode,
which caught my eye. Episode 2: “Fragments: member” was a clear standout
episode from all of the Tokyo Ghoul anime. It had nice action, good dialogue
which seemed like it was going somewhere, and another bloody Scene which was
unique to the anime, courtesy of Studio Clown (Pierrot=Clown, just in case).
But don’t get me wrong, the additional scene is the only reason this whole
series is worth to watch (or not).
ACTION: Sasaki vs Orochi was a standout action piece. It was
faithful to the manga, Sasaki’s internal conflict with Ken was interesting, and
Sasaki’s brief spar with Arima also reflected what kind of relation they
shared.
DIALOGUE: Again,
emotion in Voice Actors bled into the characters. The conflict between Urie the
asshat and Sasaki the Ken was nice, which was followed by Ginshi the Comic
Relief to become the new squad leader or captain or boy scout he became.
However, the monologuing aspect of Urie the Unbearable started to be annoying
from this point on. He was not as intellectual as Hachiman from Oregairu or
Araragi from Monogatari franchise, but I am still reading the manga and maybe
it would be explained there. BTW, the way Arima refers to Sasaki’s squad as
grandkids is creepy.
ANIME EXCLUSIVE SCENE: Now this is my favourite part. Ginshi,
the eyepatch ghoul and the real eyepatch ghoul (GET IT!) are talking about best
girl ‘Nutcracker’. The soft instrumental starts playing in the background when
Sasaki picks up the aroma of tea/ coffee. They reach the coffee shop ‘:re’,
where Post-Kaneki encounters second best girl Touka. [Here is where the volume
1 of manga ends]. And here is where the magic happens. A soft English song
fills the background, singing about a loving relationship shared by a couple.
But in reality, the song is about letting go and moving on. The soft vocals
provided by 14 years old [at the time] Tate McRae are magical to listen to when
they accompany a scene like this. Kaneki is meeting this girl after roughly two
years. He has a vague familiarity with the coffee he sips, and strong visuals
like tears rolling down his cheeks reflect that. Touka smiles at Kaneki, when
he concludes that the girl is a little at loss or maybe sad. “ITS TIME TO WAKE
UP FROM THIS DREAM”- you hear this line in between the dialogue and I bet you
will be filled with emotions when you hear it. The camera changes its focus
from Touka to crying Kaneki and then focuses on both of them at the same time.
Kaneki goes on to praise Touka’s beauty in his own mind, but the last thing we
see is the cup of coffee he was drinking.
The production may be shot to hell. The story may be on its
crutches and full of jump cuts. The characters may be bland. But I’d be wrong
to say that this scene was anything less than perfect. All of the characters
are ghouls in this scene, yet the scene is so human, it almost makes me break
apart when I watch it. And I only visit this series for this scene.
I watched the whole series chasing one scene like this one.
Maybe there is. Maybe there will be another scene creeping on us right now. But, right now, this is one of the best
scenes in an anime that I cherish the most.
Let me know how you feel aout
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