Tokyo Ghoul Season Two
After carefully watching and evaluating Studio Pierrot’s Tokyo Ghoul adaptation, I determined that it was honestly a very lackluster adaptation compared to the source material. However, the second season of Tokyo Ghoul was something that I definitely had on my checklist, and after watching the first season, my interest grew even more.
The need to know more about the characters and their stories, what motivates them, and what keeps them from going rogue had me gripping onto my seat when I started the second season. Much to my dismay, though, I quickly realized that it was a rollercoaster of messy story-telling, stepping away from the source material and even worse handling of characters.
I honestly can’t say what went wrong with the second season of Tokyo Ghoul. I can’t put my finger on one thing either; it is a mix of everything that has gone wrong here. Let’s just say that it deviated from the manga heavily and ruined some crucial plot points for season 3.
The action and visuals, in my opinion, were of the same level of quality, and Pierrot did a mind-blowing job there, but the plot is a complete mess. It does the same thing that season one did but makes it even worse. It introduces many different characters everywhere without any context or explanation, whereas all the original cast’s arcs turn into random encounters. Kaneki bands with the Aogiri-Tree for an unrealistic reason, and the plotlines they have created here do not make a single bit of sense.
The main characters went from being somewhat interesting, albeit underdeveloped, to turning into completely one-dimensional cartoons that I genuinely disliked. Kaneki never grew out of his timidness of being confused between which side of the spectrum he lands upon, Ghoul or Human.
This was despite the plethora of characters that teach him how to walk a thin line between both worlds and the small yet well-structured world of Tokyo Ghoul. Sadly, the lack of character development for all of the side heroes here meant Kaneki remains the same. No character helped him change his identity throughout the entirety of Season 2, and it was just dull. Somehow Kaneki always kept finding himself in terrible situations that he couldn’t get out of, but he randomly got a burst of Ghoul powers and got out of them anyway.
The only TINY drop of character development that Kaneki receives in the series is during the Hinami arc. He literally just goes like, “huh, maybe not all Ghouls are evil,” when he sees that there are also Ghouls in Tokyo that don’t live solely to kill humans.
While I did feel like the first season started to deviate from its potential, man, the second season is genuinely just a bunch of random characters that the Studio throws at you and says, “Here, care for them!” Obviously, it ends with everybody fighting for no apparent reason because if you don’t have a good plot, you need some excellent animations. But the existing characters are so bad that you can’t help but dislike them.
Like the previous Tokyo Ghoul season, I don’t have any issues whatsoever with the animation here. The only problem I do have is that they went style over substance. However, the animation is outstanding despite everything else that is terrible about Tokyo Ghoul’s second season. I would say that the animation is even better than the previous season.
With Tokyo, Ghoul’s second season came more action and more fluidity in animation from Studio Pierrot. And they handled their part pretty well in that regard, creating one of the most visually impressive anime to date.
The art is still as good as it was. The artists here are commendable of some massive respect. Creating such beautiful designs, flourishes, visuals, and characters while also creating a world that is so complex and richly detailed is an arduous task.
Yet, Pierrot’s artists were definitely up to the task. I liked their usages of color during visual effects this time around. Different shades of Red, Blue, Green, and Purple can be seen covering the screen throughout the season. At the same time, the sound is just as impressive as it always was.
The soundtrack in Tokyo Ghoul Season 2 is definitely one of the best aspects of it. It has some of the most hard-hitting emotional songs so far in the series, whereas it also has that incredibly well-animated opening sequence to make it better. Munou was such a great opening song, somewhat wasted on this terrible television season, which you have to turn your brain off completely to enjoy.
I guess, in the end, all that I can say is that if you ever decide to watch Tokyo Ghoul, then don’t forget to have a pillow behind you because it might bore you to death. This season, in particular, does nothing to take things forward. The characters are more predictable than ever, and so is the story. If you are searching for something that is high quality, this show isn’t it. I kept grasping at straws, thinking to myself, ‘this time Kaneki might do something different,’ and the entire time, the series left me hanging.
I did wait for the series to present a unique or even meaningful sequence with some sort of depth. Yet I was constantly disappointed with predictable plotlines and broody characters. The final episode of the series did have an element of the series exploring morality and choice. It was honestly done satisfyingly, yet the constant bogged-down pacing and issues that plagued the series made it not the case whatsoever.
