Tokyo Ghoul: Re, Anime Review. Declining Right Into The Dumpster.

Coming into the Tokyo Ghoul anime adaptation, I was pretty sure I was going to be in for a rough time, given its infamous portrayal of Sui Ishida’s original manga.
Thankfully, I found season one and √A to be good adaptations.
Granted, they both had a lot of problems but, overall, I think they are both pretty decent.
This was not the case for the Tokyo Ghoul: Re adaptation, this time directed by Odahiro Watanabe.
Studio Pierrot really dropped the ball here.
There is so much wrong with this anime that I do not even know where to begin.
How about I start with how they packed 179 chapters into just 24 episodes?
This was a phenomenally bad idea because of how much they had to cut or outright skip just to get to the end.

eto ghoul — Some of my favourite moments from the manga, like Kaneki’s up close reaction to Eto revealing she is a ghoul, are completely gone.

Events from the manga that had such an impact came and went so fast that they left no impact at all.
Not only this, but the anime adapts Re as if √A never happened, so the people who only watched √A would have been thoroughly confused watching.
Along with this, it’s clear that the people adapting the manga had only a surface level understanding of it.
Key traits of characters that deliver hidden messages, like Kaneki rubbing his chin when he lies are missing entirely.
The animation is also terrible, with the fights lacking all substance.
To make matters worse, it’s not just the fight animation that sucks but the regular animation as well.
Just compare how the characters look when comparing Re to the first two seasons.
The characters in Re just look so bland and lifeless.
Something is also wrong with the color, which just looks dreary, and not in a good way.
Coming back to the characters though, they are terrible adaptations as well, with much of their development cut or changed for some reason.
When Kaneki realizes he killed hundreds, possibly thousands of innocent people when he became the dragon he barely reacts to it, unlike the manga where he breaks down.
How are we supposed to get attached to a character who shows no emotion after they learn they have accidentally become a mass murderer?

awful adaptation — Look at this comparison between the anime and manga of Kaneki’s encounter with a hallucination of Rize. Manga Kaneki clearly has more emotion compared to anime Kaneki.

And then there’s Tooru.
Even though I didn’t like Ishida turning him from a likeable character into a psychopath in the manga, I can at least admit that it was done well.
In the anime, it’s awful.
Tooru is normal one moment and completely sadistic the next.
His transformation was obviously cut for censorship reasons, as was much of the violence to the point that characters who look barely injured die, when in the manga they died from extensive injuries.
Probably the worst part about this anime, though, is not the stupid changes, awful pacing, or terrible animation, but just how boring it all is.
I really had to struggle to get through the second half of the adaptation, which just shows how bad it is.
Whenever I read the manga, I often feel exhilarated but, when watching the same scenes in the anime, I feel nothing but boredom because of how poorly adapted it is.
Almost every single aspect from the manga is downgraded into dumpster quality.

furata — I was genuinely glad when the last episode finally ended because I no longer had to watch this terrible adaptation.

However, there are a few saving graces that stop the adaptation from being a complete disaster.
The music and the voice acting are still good, and there are some funny moments (although this should be credited to Ishida and not the anime).
Also, the two openings, “Asphyxia” and “Katharsis”, are actually very good, showing way more effort than √A’s opening “Munou”, which was just bad.
And that’s it.
The music, voice acting, a couple of funny moments, and the opening.
Those are the only good things about this anime that stop is from being the worst.
Everything else about it is a spectacular failure.
People say Tokyo Ghoul should get the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood treatment and they’re right because Tokyo Ghoul deserves so much better than what Studio Pierrot gave it.
Sadly, if we ever do get another adaptation, I doubt it will be anytime soon.
And until we do (if we ever do), we will be stuck with this awful adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul: Re as its anime sendoff.
Well, on the plus side, Ishida recently revealed he is working on a new manga so we have that to look forward to, at least.

Richard Jewell Review: Shockingly True.

On July 27, 1996, a pipe bomb resulted in two deaths and injured over a hundred people in the Centennial Olympic Park.
An investigation was quickly launched but the man who discovered the bomb, Richard Jewell was hailed as a hero for his actions… until he wasn’t.
When news that Jewell was the FBI’s number one suspect leaked to the media, they jumped on it and, soon enough, Richard Jewell was number one on everyone’s suspect list.
Just one problem: Jewell really was a hero.
He had nothing to do with the bombing and his actions probably saved the lives of hundreds of people.
Yet, his life was destroyed by flawed, one-track mind FBI investigating and media reporting that both threw integrity out the window.
This is the true story that Clint Eastwood’s 2019 film Richard Jewell tells, and it is incredibly compelling.
I had heard of Jewell’s story before but I only knew the basics.
After watching the film, I looked up how much of the story was true and most of it is.
The finer details are shocking, with the efforts the FBI and media took to prove Jewell’s guilt being, quite frankly, disgusting.
This disgust that I felt was helped by the extreme sympathy I felt for Jewell, who is played brilliantly by Paul Walter Hauser.

I recently watched interviews with Jewell and it is a spot on portrayal that is right up there with 2019’s best performances.
He is not the only one because Kathy Bates, as Jewell’s mother, Bobi, and Sam Rockwell, as Jewell’s lawyer, Watson Bryant, are both fantastic.
The structure of the film is also great, with it admittedly starting out a bit slow, but picking up in momentum once the bombing occurs.
All of this combines to create a shocking and great film, but one with a very big problem that holds it back from being one of 2019’s best.
This is the portrayal of certain characters, specifically Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) who plays the journalist who breaks the story about Jewell being a suspect.
She is portrayed in the most negative light possible, with her appearing to not care about the bombing deaths, only wanting a good story out of it, and trading sex for information.
While it is true that Scruggs was part of the media that slandered and demonized Jewell, her initial portrayal as irredeemably cruel feels a lot like the media’s initial portrayal of Jewell and thus hypocritical.
Thankfully, the film does go about showing she later regrets her actions, but the film’s message of not painting someone out to be a monster is slightly tainted by it doing this very thing.

repoter — Scruggs is portrayed as villainous for most of the film, making it seem like the film is demonizing her the same way that Richard Jewell was demonized.

Despite this, Richard Jewell is still Clint Eastwood’s best film in a long while.
With fantastic performances and a gripping true story, it raises good questions about the morality of certain parts of the media and authorities.

Attack on Titan Chapter 129 (and maybe 130) Predictions.

With the worldwide threat of Covid-19, it was understandable that many products would be delayed for the safety of those working on them.
One of these was Attack on Titan, which had its first ever delay, with Chapter 129 being held back a month.
Had the chapter not been delayed, it would probably be out by now.
It is unfortunate but necessary to keep people safe.
And, despite the delay, we might get a treat next month because there is speculation that not only will Chapter 129 be released next month but Chapter 130 as well.
However, I must put a huge emphasis on the “might” because this is just speculation and there is no official confirmation that we will get a double chapter release.
Still, even if we only get Chapter 129 next month, it will be exciting to see how it picks up on what appears to be the final battle with the Yeagerists.
All that said, let’s get into the predictions segment.

Will Armin go Colossal?

In “Traitor” Armin was not having a good day, being shot by his own former comrade, Samuel.
If Armin wasn’t a Titan Shifter then he’d be dead for sure.
But he is, and not just any Titan Shifter but the Colossal Titan.
With Armin’s extensive injuries, he might just have to go Colossal in Chapter 129 to fully heal.
This could deal huge damage to the Yeagerists, giving the alliance the chance they need to win,
However, there are some things that suggest this will not happen.
For one, Armin is right next to the plane they need to reach Eren.
If he transforms now then he will destroy the plane, ruining all chances of the alliance reaching Eren and pretty much ending the manga on a massive anticlimactic note.
Not to mention Connie is right beside him and I highly doubt Armin would risk killing his friend by transforming so close.
That’s not to say Armin couldn’t find a way to transform without harming Connie or destroying the boat, he is one of the smartest characters, after all.
Personally, I hope we do see Armin transform at least one more time before the manga ends.
He hasn’t transformed since Chapter 106 and, while I understand why he hasn’t transformed in subsequent battles, because he would have killed his friends if he had, I really want to see him use it effectively.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if his Colossal Titan will show up next chapter.

Will Keith show up to save the day, no longer a bystander?

Along with the Colossal Titan, Keith Shadis is another contender for appearing in the next chapter.
He looks practically identical to the mysterious person watching the alliance escape in Chapter 126, and in Chapter 125 he did tells the recruits that were now loyal to him to wait for the right moment to overthrow the Yeagerists.
Maybe he saw the potential for that right moment in the alliance and intends to help them during this battle.
The recruits following him had been recruited into the Yeagerists, so it would make sense if they were brought to the harbor to fight with them, only to secretly smuggle in Keith who appears during the alliance’s darkest moment to save the day.
Given his prior interaction with Floch, next to Jean I think he is the most likely candidate to kill him.
Maybe he will shoot Floch and sprout some cool line like, “I don’t miss”, reflecting on how Floch missed shooting him.
Or maybe he could find another way to help that doesn’t involve him attacking the Yeagerists here, who knows?
Perhaps the mysterious silhouette watching the alliance was someone else, although, given how much it looks like Keith, I find that hard to believe.

How can Titans still transform?

Surprisingly enough, some people also found it hard to believe in the build up to Chapter 129 that the other Titan Shifters could still transform.
Their reasoning for this is that, since Ymir is now free, she should have no reason to build the Titans for the Shifters when they wish to transform.
Also, Eren seems to have complete control over the Founding Titan so speculation was that he should be able to stop the other Shifters from transforming.
However, Pieck constantly being in her Titan form disproved this theory way before Chapter 129 saw Annie and Reiner transform.
Nevertheless, how they can still transform despite Eren’s powers and Ymir’s supposed freedom is a good question.
Maybe Eren does not have complete control, which appeared to be the case when Zeke’s Titans were still rampaging in Chapter 124.
There could be some kind of twist about the limits to his powers later.
However, there is another theory that I think is much more interesting.
This is the theory that it is actually Zeke building these Titans because, even though he is probably trapped within Eren’s massive Titan form, his consciousness is still in the Paths dimension.
Grisha did ask his son to stop Eren and with his plans to sterilize the Eldian race now caput, it would make sense for Zeke to find new purpose in stopping his brother from destroying the world.
I don’t know why Ymir or Eren wouldn’t try to stop him from building these Titans but maybe they have some kind of ulterior motive.
Or maybe Hajime Isayama doesn’t have an explanation for how they can transform and is just hoping we accept it, but I hope not.
I hope that it is Zeke who is helping the alliance by giving their Shifters the means to transform because it would be an interesting way to bring him back into the story.
However, he is not the only important character missing from the story right now.

Will Historia appear?

Unlikely.
I want Historia to come back as much as the next guy but, with each chapter, I have less and less faith that Isayama will bring her back before the end.
Honestly, I think the only time that Historia could show up before the reveal of Eren’s P.O.V is after the fight with the Yeagerists, so probably Chapter 130.
If she does not appear after the battle is over though, make no mistake, she will almost certainly not show up until the very end of the story, when Eren’s plan is finally shown and her role in that plan is revealed.
This would be disappointing, since she is easily in the top ten best characters of the entire story but she is being so underutilized.
I just hope that when Isayama brings her back he gives her an important role, like he is currently doing with Annie, and does not just push her to the side and kill her off, like he did with freckled Ymir.
I really don’t want Historia to just die from childbirth when she returns to the story after such a long absence.

Death Predictions.

Speaking of character deaths though, “Traitor” shook up a couple of the death predictions I made in my Chapter 128 predictions post.
In that, I speculated that either Jean and Hange would die in the next few chapters because both had massive death flags.
However, Chapter 128 changed my opinion on this because, although Hange still got a lot to do and say, it does not feel like it is building to her death just yet.
As for Jean, he only got two lines of dialogue in that chapter, and one of those was in his head.
With him being given so little to do there, I now highly doubt it is building toward his death either.
Again, like Hange, he could still die but I doubt it will be in this fight.
No, the character who I found most likely to die after Chapter 128 was none other than Connie.
He was probably the most prominent character in “Traitor”, with that title most likely referring to him having to kill his former comrades, Samuel and Daz, at the end of the chapter.
This blood on Connie’s hands will obviously leave a heavy weight on his shoulders and this makes it seem like his story is building up to something.
Ever since Chapter 126, I have wondered why Isayama included the subplot of Connie trying to feed Falco to his mother and then him deciding not to do so because he wants to make his mother proud.
This subplot felt like a giant waste of time when it was over but maybe it was Isayama building up to Connie’s death.
Maybe Floch will end up killing him in the next few chapters, only for him to be killed by either Jean or Keith.
Or, like with Jean and Hange, maybe I’m reading too much into this and Connie will be safe.
We’ll just have to wait for the next few chapters to find out.

Will there be a reveal after the Yeagerists are defeated?

In Chapter 128, Onyankopon seemed to suggest that it would take a while for the mechanics to get the plane ready so they can reach Eren.
And something tells me that this is not just Isayama being accurate to a plane’s design.
I think it is much more likely that he is planning to reveal something in the space between the Yeagerists’ defeat and the mechanics getting the plane ready.
But what could this reveal be?
Well, I did say that after the Yeagerists defeat would be the last opportunity for Historia to appear before Eren’s P.O.V is revealed.
Maybe she will show up and reveal the truth behind her pregnancy.
That said, I can’t really think of a reason why Historia would go to the harbor just to tell the alliance this.
Not to mention that she probably doesn’t know that the alliance and Yeagerists were even fighting, unless Eren told her this because he saw it in future memories that is.
Rather, I think that whatever this reveal is, if there is one, it will come from Kyomi.
Before Chapter 128, I honestly did not care for Kyomi.
I found her to be a boring character who just wanted money and to protect Mikasa for some reason.
“Traitor” changed my opinion of her because she took Floch by surprise when he tried to kill the mechanics and absolutely demolished him.
Along with her skills, I think there has to be something more to her character, which she will most likely reveal in Chapter 130.
Maybe it will be something about the Ackermans.
It could be something about the Tybers, since she had that odd interaction with Willy before his death.
Or it could even be a reveal about Eren Kruger since there is a fan theory out there that she knew him.
Whatever this reveal is, if it comes from Kyomi, I hope it continues to make her character more interesting.
Either way, I cannot wait to read Attack on Titan again.
Fingers crossed that we get a double chapter release in June but, even if we don’t, I’ll just be happy to have my favourite story back.

Tokyo Ghoul √A Review: The Decline Begins.

The first season of Studio Pierrot’s Tokyo Ghoul adaptation was a solid season, but one that had a few issues.
Despite this, the final episode of the season was incredible and a great ending for the next season, √A, once again directed by Shuhei Morita, to pick up from.
Yet, coming into √A, I had a lot of concerns because this is the point that many fans say that the Tokyo Ghoul anime began to decline in quality.
And right from the first episode, “New Surge”, I knew this was going to be the case.
To put it bluntly, “New Surge” is easily the worst Tokyo Ghoul episode of the first two seasons because of how badly it both adapts the manga and tries to add new scenes.
For example, the emotional goodbye Kaneki (Natsuki Hanae) has with Touka (Sora Amamiya) in the manga is replaced in this first episode with Kaneki just being a silent edge lord, which he unfortunately remains for most of the season.

edge lord kaneki — Kaneki barely says anything to Touka when he leaves Anteiku, compared to the manga where he talks a lot, showing Pierrot couldn’t be bothered to write a different conversation.

Then there is Kaneki joining Aogiri Tree this episode, which is also atrociously done.
The anime decided to change the story in √A from Kaneki forming a resistance group to stop Aogiri to him joining them.
Sui Ishida, the creator of the series, envisioned that Kaneki would do this to secretly find and kill the One Eyed King but Studio Pierrot threw this, and his other ideas, out in favor of Kaneki joining Aogiri Tree to get stronger, which makes no sense at all.
This confusing plot line is on full display in the first episode with the scene that I think is supposed to show Eto (Maaya Sakamoto) convincing Kaneki to join Aogiri, which instead just has her giggling at him and then disappearing, without either of them saying anything.
Why would Aogiri Tree decide to let Kaneki join them anyway, when he is responsible for the death of one of their executives?
Not only this, but many important scenes like Kaneki breaking half the bones in Ayato’s (Yuki Kaiji) body are completely removed in this episode.
Unfortunately, the dip in quality of √A continues, with Pierrot trying to work in characters from the manga that just do not translate well to this new story.
The biggest example of this is Kurona (Aoi Yuuki) and Nashiro (Haruka Tomatsu).
In the manga, these two show up because both Kaneki and the CCG are actively chasing them down, forcing them to fight.
In the anime, however, they deliberately pursue Kaneki for absolutely no reason, making it feel like they were written in just because they were in the manga and not because they had a story based reason for being there.

twins ghouls — Kurona and Nashiro should not have been in *√A.* Without Kaneki pursuing them it made no sense for them to be in the season.

These problems with the anime original content continue throughout √A, with even censorship being a problem.
Tokyo Ghoul is a dark manga so it should have been a dark anime.
Characters that lost their limbs just break bones here.
Studio Pierrot should have listened to Ishida’s ideas for the season or just followed his original story.
Sadly, the anime only events are not the only issues with √A because the animation and soundtrack are issues too.
While the animation isn’t awful, various fights in the first half of √A feel slow and more static than the first season.
As for the soundtracks, songs are repeated constantly to the point that I actually tired of hearing even the great ones.
I lost count of how many times “Glassy Skies” played.
Not only this, but the opening, “Munou”, is flat out terrible, with barely any effort put into the animation, with it just focusing on Kaneki’s face the entire time.
However, despite the many problems I have mentioned, I still do not consider √A to be a bad season.
It almost is but there are a few redeeming qualities the season has that cause it to miss the title of bad by the skin of its teeth.
For starters, even though I didn’t like many of the changes that were made to the original story, there are actually some good ones.
For example, there is an interaction between Kaneki and Naki (Hiro Shimono) in the first few episodes that I really enjoyed, and I liked some of the little quirks Eto was given, along with her interaction with Juuzou (Rie Kugiyama) and Shinohara (Yutaka Nakano), which explained some of her later actions.

eto bang — Despite all interactions between Kaneki and Eto being a complete waste of time, instead of interesting changes as they should have been, I still liked the little changes and quirks her character was given in the anime.

Along with this, when the anime actually adapted parts of the original story correctly, it did them quite well.
The raid on Anteiku was excellent, for the most part, with the fights being very enjoyable, especially Yoshimura’s (Takayuki Sugo).
Speaking of which, I really enjoyed the change of having Yoshimura hallucinate Ukina during this scene.
The animation of these fights was also a lot better than they were earlier in the season.
Not fantastic, but good.
The voice acting also remains solid and, even though I had problems with how repeated the soundtrack was, I liked the final, slower version of Unravel that was played at the end.
I may have not liked the four minute walk that accompanied it but it’s still a fantastic version of a fantastic song.
So, despite its plenty of faults, Tokyo Ghoul √A is saved by its redeeming qualities, barely making it a good season.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for Tokyo Ghoul: Re, which I am currently struggling to get through.
You can expect a review for that train wreck soon.

Howl’s Moving Castle Review: Strong Beginning, Confusing Ending.

Hayao Miyazaki obviously has a strong liking for steampunk films, as shown by Castle in The Sky, and fantasy stories, as can be seen with his films My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
Well, with his 2004 anime Howl’s Moving Castle, he merges these two genres to create an interesting tale about a young woman named Sophie (Chieko Baisho) who, while living in a steampunk world, is cursed to look like an old woman by the Witch of the Waste (Akihiro Miwa) after encountering the mysterious wizard, Howl (Takuya Kimura).
Searching for a cure, she is reunited with Howl, his apprentice Markl (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a demon named Calcifer (Tatsuya Gashuin), and a living scarecrow, and goes on numerous adventures with them in Howl’s titular moving castle.

sophie and howl — On her journey, Sophie encounters many weird and magical things, with Howl at the center.

The beginning of Howl’s Moving Castle is strong, with the characters and world being introduced well, and the inciting incident of Sophie being turned into an old woman set up as being essential to the plot.
Not only this but the combination of fantasy and steampunk in this world is fascinating because of how it shows the magical and the technological interacting.
The animation that shows off these various technologies and magic spells is incredibly well done, as I was in awe at the first shot of Howl’s Castle.
Along with this, the characters are also likeable, although I will say that the romance between Sophie and Howl does not exactly feel right.
The setup for it is there with their first meeting but their following interactions never really gave me the feeling that they were falling in love.
Despite not really getting a romantic vibe though, I still did like Sophie and Howl’s interactions, along with a lot of the other character interactions, especially Sophie’s conversations with the silent, living scarecrow.

However, I will say that the way the scarecrows story ended felt extremely abrupt.
And this is really my big problem with Howl’s Moving Castle, the third act.
Many of the plot points in this act left me thoroughly confused.
For example, as I said, the inciting incident of the film is Sophie being turned into an old woman.
But, she seems to change between old and young across the film and this is strangely never addressed by the other characters or the plot.
By the end, I assumed it had something to do with love, or night, or a combination of the two but I don’t really know.
Not only this but the direction the story goes gets really confusing as well with, of all things, time travel being introduced and it is never explained how that happens.

I don’t know how time travel became a plot point in this story but it was very abrupt.

Howl’s Moving Castle also has a villain problem, what with the main threat being setup as the Witch of the Waste, before this is undermined and a seemingly new villain takes the stage, only for this new villain to be absent for the rest of the film.
From the midpoint to the end, the film slowly devolves to the point that I was dissatisfied with the ending.
This is not to say I disliked Howl’s Moving Castle, on the contrary I still think it is a very well done film what with the way it begins, the brilliant way it mixes steampunk with fantasy, and the animation.
But, the plot slowly begins to unravel as the film goes on, until it gets genuinely confusing to the point that I thought the story could have been handled better.
I would still recommend Howl’s Moving Castle though because of its numerous good qualities.

Tokyo Ghoul Season One Review: A Rush to a Killer Finale.

Before watching Tokyo Ghoul, many people suggested I should read the manga first because the anime was a bad adaptation.
In reading Sui ishida’s manga, I found a fantastic story and a solid yet flawed experience in its sequel Re.
Well, after watching the first season of the anime adaptation, produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Shuhei Morita, I can see what people were talking about.
This is not to say that season one is a bad adaptation but it falls quite far from the successes of the manga.
The reason for this mostly comes down to how rushed the story is and the switching around of arcs.
Take the first episode, for example.
I was pretty surprised by how much was adapted in so little time.
Honestly, I expected the first episode to encompass the first chapter, with it ending when Kaneki wakes up, revealing his ghoul eye and noting that his life is a tragedy.
But the episode went ahead of this moment and adapted much more for the first episode, resulting in scenes going by much too fast to be as impactful as they were in the manga.

tragedy 1 — I feel like the first chapter should have been extended to make a single episode that builds to the final reveal of Kaneki being turned into a ghoul.

This rushed quality persisted right up until the end, and was not helped by the removal of entire scenes.
Season one should have been around twenty episodes instead of twelve.
The second big issue is the switching around of arcs with the Gourmet Arc happening before the Doves Arc, which came first in the manga.
The Doves Arc being moved behind the Gourmet Arc made certain things not make a lot of sense in the anime.
However, despite these problems, I still found the first season of Tokyo Ghoul to be a good adaptation.
Even though much of the story is rushed and some story arcs happen sooner than they are supposed to, certain scenes are adapted fairly well and the characters are all wonderfully brought to screen.
Kaneki (Natsuki Hanae), Touka (Sora Amamiya), Rize (Kana Hanazawa), Amon (Katsuyuki Konishi), Tsukiyama (Mamoru Miyano) Jason (Rintaro Nishi), and many characters are all done justice with their portrayals and voice acting.
The best example of this is Juuzou because both his Japanese voice actor Rie Kugimiya and his English voice actor Maxey Whitehead all do an incredible job as the character.
I remember hearing Juuzou speak for the first time in both sub and dub and thinking both were perfect.

crazy little s we know and love — Juuzou is perfectly adapted into the anime, with both Japanese and English voice actors doing an amazing job.

Along with the great voice work, another quality of the anime that I enjoyed were some of its original scenes.
The anime hyped up Jason a lot sooner and that made the build up to his torture of Kaneki in the finale a lot better.
Speaking of that finale, I was considering this season an overall average adaptation, what with the rushed nature and switched around arcs of the anime but then, “Ghoul” happened.
“Ghoul” is a good season finale that perfectly adapted Jason and Kaneki’s epic fight.
The only problem I had with the episode was its censoring of numerous violent scenes and a couple of changes in Kaneki being immediate, rather than gradual.
Watching Kaneki take on Jason to the spectacular theme of Unravel made the entire season feel worth it and was the best way to end it.

kaneki unravels — The Kaneki vs Jason fight is the highlight of the season.

As for Unravel, it is already one of my favourite anime openings of all time.
Everything from the music, visuals and symbolism is just incredible.
Unfortunately, the few incredible aspects of this anime, like Unravel and the final episode, would not be continued in the follow up season of √A, which has a lot more problems, but we’ll get to that later.
All in all, the first season of Tokyo Ghoul is a solid adaptation.
Sure, it has its problems, like the rushed story, switched arcs, and missing scenes, but the adaptation of certain scenes, voice acting, final episode, and Unravel make up for it.

Cats Review: Cat People Aren’t Sexy!

Today is my sister’s birthday and she decided that, to celebrate it during my country’s lockdown, we would all watch the Cats movie.
It’s safe to say that by the end of it we were all regretting her choice.
You want to know how bad the Cats movie is?
It’s so bad that all the terrible bad cat puns that could describe this eye cancer of a film have already been used and there are none left.
I can remember the first time I saw the trailer for the film and wondering what the people making this were smoking for them to think this cringe fest was going to be a hit.
Although, I suppose what with the stage production being one of the most successful musicals ever, there was no doubt in their mind that it would be.
Still, this unfortunate misreading of the situation could have been mitigated if the movie used practical effects and makeup for the cat people.
But nope, they had to go full CGI with it and make the cast of Francesca Hayward, Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Laurie Davidson, Robbie Fairchild, Ian McKellen, Jason Derulo, and many more look like mutated cat monsters that want to eat our faces, great.
And, to top it all off, the original stage production has barely any plot, with the only story element being that all of the jellicle cats (whatever jellicle means) are meeting to decide who will get a new life.

nnoo plot — *Cats* is just one creepy, boring musical number after another with barely any plot.

Director Tom Hooper tried to add a plot with Macavity serving as the overarching villain but this was incredibly forced and lacked any investment.
So, the majority of Cats consists of these creepy, one note cats introducing themselves in musical numbers that definitely do not match in tone.
There’s comedic numbers (none of which are funny), dramatic numbers (none of which are dramatic), and even horror numbers (I’m pretty sure they aren’t meant to be interpreted that way though).
I will give the movie some credit though, because some of the songs, like “Macavity” and “Beautiful Ghosts”, are actually pretty well sung, with Jennifer Hudson doing a fantastic job with “Memory.”
You just have to close your eyes so you can actually enjoying these songs by not having to see the fur demons.

Jennifer Hudson cat — Hudson admittedly does an amazing job with her musical numbers but the visuals ruin what feels like was supposed to be a powerful performance.

Sadly, for every decent musical number there is a bad or horrifying one, like Rebel Wilson and James Corden’s songs.
However, it is not the creepy nature of the cats that I found to be the films worst attribute.
If anything, parts of the film can be watchable if you are expecting to be creeped out by these CGI abominations.
No, I found the worst part of the film to easily be how boring it is.
As I said, Cats is basically scene after repetitive scene of characters introducing themselves and then never being important again.
By the time the third cat had sung about themselves, I was already bored and just got less and less interested at each new cat’s introduction.
Occasionally the cats would do something that would make me cringe, which would temporarily get my interest back, but then it would just go back to more introduction musical numbers and I would lose interest again.

The railway cat number was the moment I realised just how much I was zoning out because of how bored I was.

The best way that I can explain Cats is that it feels like it is walking on a tightrope.
If it falls to one side then it lands on creepy visuals that make you cringe, however, if it falls on the other side then it lands on boring scenes that have no investment.
Oh, and the film has absolutely no coordination so it is constantly falling to one side of the tightrope every minute, only for it to fall again when it tries to get back on.
Cats is easily one of the worst films of 2019.
It has almost no plot, the cat people are unnerving, and it’s boring.
Definitely not “the most joyous event of the holiday season” as the trailers advertised, although did any of us honestly expect it to be?

Tokyo Ghoul: Re Manga Review. Not a Tragedy After All.

Coming into Tokyo Ghoul: Re, Sui Ishida’s sequel manga to the brilliant Tokyo Ghoul, you have to understand that is quite different from the original manga.
Not in terms of tone, no, the story is still as horrifying and brutal as ever (except for the ending but we’ll get to that).
Tokyo Ghoul: Re picks up two years after the first manga, with an amnesiac Ken Kaneki, now under the name Sasaki Haise, who is working at the CCG as a ghoul investigator, while leading his own squad.
Named the Quinx Squad, the group consists of characters that have gained ghoul powers through experimentation, like Kaneki, however, unlike Kaneki they are still mostly human.
These are the characters that take up most of the screen time in Re, while most of the original main cast are relegated to smaller roles in the beginning and this can take some time getting used to.
Not to say that this new cast is bad or anything as, with one exception, I came to like all of them.

saiko — There are plenty of new and interesting characters introduced in Re like Saiko and Urie.

Although, I will say I was not fond of the main antagonist.
Also, it is a shame that many of the original great dynamics of characters, like the one Kaneki had with Amon, are absent for most of the manga.
In comparison, the dynamics of the new cast are good but nowhere near as good as the original.
Credit where it is due though, some characters have been greatly improved and expanded upon from the first manga.
The best examples of this are Takizawa, who became a very tragic character, and, of course, my favourite character Eto, who was given plenty of flashbacks and amazing moments.
A certain scene with her at a press conference was my favourite moment in the entirety of Re.
I just wish that she had been given more screen time because she certainly deserved it.

Eto is definitely my favourite character, appearing to be both insane and completely logical at the same time.

Another aspect of the original Tokyo Ghoul that is expanded upon is the horror and gore. Seriously, the violence of this manga makes the violence of the last one look like an adorable puppy.
I can recall many moments where I audibly yelped or gagged at how disgusting some of the visuals were, which I’m sure was Ishida’s intent.
Not only this, but when the old cast does finally return, we get the interactions and dynamics that had been missing in the first half.
This also comes with the growth of the newly introduced characters, with my feelings about them progressing over time.
For example, I originally extremely disliked Urie but, by the end of the story, he was one my favourite characters.
On the opposite side of the spectrum there was Tooru, who went from one of my favourites of the new cast to one of my personally most despised characters in the entire manga.
I know Tooru has the most traumatic past out of any character, and what happened to him is something that no one deserves, but that does not justify his evil actions.
Speaking of evil actions, this is one of my many problems with the ending to the manga, because horrific crimes committed by characters are seemingly forgotten about and these characters then get happy endings.

evil tooru — It’s hard to feel good about a character getting a happy ending when you remember all of the terrible things they’ve done to innocent people, which has barely been addressed.

The ending of Tokyo Ghoul: Re was rushed.
Things happen too quickly and in the epilogue there are even important characters who were completely forgotten about.
This can probably be chalked up to Ishida being burnt out after writing the manga weekly for so long, which is understandable.
However, I still have more problems with the ending.
For one, it was a bit annoying how so many dead characters came back to life at the end, or Ishida made you think they were dead before bringing them back.
There were quite a few times where I just wished he had kept the characters he brought back dead.
And then there is my big problem with the ending, it does not suit the tone of the story up until this point.
At the beginning of Tokyo Ghoul, Ishida set out that the story would be tragic, through actually telling us this with narration and by showing us this with the extreme violence.
So, with many characters essentially getting a fairy tale story book ending, it feels at odds with everything the story had set up.
Just to be clear, I don’t hate this ending.
It is definitely not the worst ending the story could have got.
I just wish it had played out slower and felt in tone with the rest of the manga.

Overall, Tokyo Ghoul: Re is still a good follow up to Ishida’s original story.
Despite its many faults, the manga constantly delivers on good characterization, horrifying moments, and themes.
Now that I have reviewed the manga, it’s on to the anime and, boy, do I have things to say.

Tokyo Ghoul Manga Review. He Just Wanted a Date!

What’s your idea of the worst kind of date?
Maybe your date talks on their phone to the entire time, talks constantly and never lets you get a word in, or maybe they even try to eat you.
If you picked the last one then you are Ken Kaneki.
The main character of Sui Ishida’s manga, Tokyo Ghoul, Kaneki thinks he has found the perfect girl in Rize; only for her to turn out to be a man eating ghoul that hungers for his flesh.
However, after a freak accident saves Kaneki’s life mere seconds before Rize can end it, he suddenly finds himself on the operating table with her organs being planted inside him.
What seems to be a life saving surgery at first quickly proves to be a curse, as Kaneki quickly begins to transform into the very monster that tried to kill him, a ghoul.

tragedy — Kaneki’s life definitely takes a tragic turn after his encounter with Rize.

Rescued from his torment by a group of peaceful ghouls working at the coffee shop, Anteiku, Kaneki struggles in his placement between two different world and discovers that ghouls are not all that different from us humans.
But with Ghoul investigators, hostile ghouls, and even cannibalistic ones out on the hunt, Kaneki will have to endure many horrors to have a hope of protecting his friends.
And when I say horror, I mean exactly that.
Tokyo Ghoul is not a manga for the faint of heart, with its constant gruesome and gory imagery, amplified by the great art from Ishida.
Amplifying the horror is how great the characters are because we fear for their safety.
In other mangas characters just die but in Tokyo Ghoul they die gruesomely.

Rize — Imagine this eating your face and you have a basic idea of how violent the deaths are in this manga.

Watching these characters fight against their cruel and violent world is a highlight and I will remember them all for a while.
Kaneki, Touka, Amon, Juuzo, Nishki, Hinami, these are all characters that I will remember fondly.
My favourite character though is definitely Eto, but to say why would get into spoilers for both Tokyo Ghoul and the sequel manga Tokyo Ghoul: Re.
Not only are the characters great but their dynamic as well, with my favourite interactions of the cast definitely being between Kaneki and Amon.
Speaking of Kaneki, he goes through some fantastic character development, especially after encountering the psychopathic ghoul Jason, making him easily my second favourite character.
Watching him grow every arc is a horrific joy, and each arc just gets better and better.

brutal kaneki — Kaneki goes from an ordinary guy who wouldn’t hurt a fly, to a guy you wouldn’t want to piss off because you’d be afraid that he’d eat you.

This all builds up to the fantastic final arc of the manga, which sets up the beginning of the sequel nicely, even if I think the sequel is not as good as the first part of the story.
Tokyo Ghoul is a fantastic manga, with its 143 chapters delivering emotion, horror and thrills.
I have already read Tokyo Ghoul: Re and am in the middle of watching the anime, which I have… let’s just say mixed feelings about, so you can expect reviews on those soon.

Tales of Vesperia Review: A Good Way to Get Through Quarantine.

I live in New Zealand, which is currently in lock down because of the Carona Virus pandemic.
In the days leading up to the lock down, I was bored and looking for a game that I could get lost in for hours.
So, I looked up some and came across Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, a JRPG that had been praised for its story, characters and gameplay.
I bought the game not two days before the lock down was announced, so I ended up with a great way to pass the time indoors in the experience that is Tales of Vesperia.
Directed by Yoshito Higuchi, the game is set in Terca Lumires, a world infested with monsters.
The people use an energy source known as Blastia to generate shields to protect the cities from monsters, and also to help in their everyday lives.
When a Blastia from the Lower Quarter in Zaphias is stolen, former knight Yuri Lowell (Troy Baker) and his faithful dog Repede go on a journey to catch the thief.
From there, they encounter an assortment of wacky characters who join them on their quest, including an innocent noblewoman named Estelle (Eden Riegel), a young guild enthusiast, Karol (Julie Ann Taylor), a hot headed mage, Rita (Michelle Ruff), eye candy Krytian, Judith (Alison Lees Taylor), young pirate, Patty (Sandy Fox), and the mysterious Raven (Joe J. Thomas).
They also meet up with Yuri’s longtime friend and knight Flynn (Sam Riegel), who occasionally joins you on your journey and has a great dynamic with Yuri, especially when Yuri starts to go on a dark path that is both unexpected and great.
All of these characters are fantastic and, as you spend the game watching them interact, they begin to feel like a family.

The various skits across the game helped to solidify the characters’ relationships and endear them to the viewer.

Watching Yuri and Karol’s bond grow throughout the game to the point that they felt like brothers was heartwarming, and Raven’s antics and Rita’s obvious crush on Estelle brought numerous laughs.
The only downside to the party is Patty who, although a great character, doesn’t really feel like she belongs in the story for the first half of the game.
It is pretty clear that she was added for the Definitive Edition.
Not only this but, sadly, many of the villains are incredibly one dimensional to the point that I was constantly bored whenever they were on screen.
They are all cliched mustache twirlers, with the exception of the main antagonist, Duke (Jamieson Price), who is thankfully just as compelling as the main cast.

Dukey boy — Duke was the one antagonist with a solid motivation and the only one I did not roll my eyes at when they appeared on screen.

Despite my problems with the villains though, I can clearly say that, thanks to the main cast, the characters are definitely the best part of the game.
The story is also solid because, while it is nothing special, it has a nice sense of pacing, starting out with the simple goal of catching a thief, before slowly growing into a world ending situation that our characters must deal with.
And then there’s the gameplay, which, I’ll admit, I was pretty terrible at.
You want to know how terrible?
Well, you know those two comic relief characters who constantly exclaim, “I say!” whenever they talk?
Yeah, those two bozos kicked my butt on multiple occasions.

joke characters — I say that these two two idiots made me groan with anguish every time I had to fight them alone as Yuri!

Given how poorly I played, you should take what I say about the gameplay with a grain of salt.
However, despite how bad I was, I still enjoyed the gameplay, leveling up the characters, and gifting them with new Artes
If anything, my poor play style added a level of challenge to the gameplay.
There are some things that the game doesn’t tell you about how to play though, so that can be frustrating.
But, all in all, the characters, story and gameplay are all a lot of fun.
Granted, the game is pretty dated, since it first came out in 2008, and there are some inconsistencies.
For example, the speech bubbles that are displayed sometimes do not match up with what the characters are saying or are in the wrong place, and some voice actors have been replaced for new scenes.
Some have said that these new actors are very distracting but, honestly, I couldn’t tell too much.
Yet, despite the dated nature of the game, I still found that, in quite a few instances, its animation is quite beautiful.
Overall, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition was a great way to pass the time in my isolation.
The story and gameplay are solid and the characters are fantastic, even if the game is a little dated in certain aspects