Tokyo Ghoul:re

The original Tokyo Ghoul is, by quite a few metrics, your standard action manga. What made it particularly unique however is that it did a fantastic job humanizing the conflict it presented. Writers that tackle this theme have this tendency of making one side of the conflict comically evil while the hero’s side unbearably good. Ishida did his best to avoid this cliché entirely by making the two groups, humans and ghouls, quite literally natural enemies of each other, while also implementing a main character that was forced to represent both. Not only was this dynamic interesting, Ishida also applied the finishing touches to this theme by humanizing these characters outside of the fights themselves in a natural way. While Tokyo Ghoul didn’t always clear this hurdle every time, I would still say that it did a great job *providing* context to the fights instead of just letting them happen, utilizing its unique setting to provide conflicts instead of pulling from typical ones.

The unfortunate thing about Tokyo Ghoul: re is that it’s literally just non-stop fighting from start to finish. This is a bit of a hyperbole, but it is very telling when re manages to have almost twice the amount of fight scenes in almost the same number of chapters.
The important thing to note about the original Tokyo Ghoul is that what made it particularly emotional is that many conflicts centered around the idea that ghouls just wanted to live like normal people, and the inherent tragedy is that they often couldn’t. Anteiku was a place to call home for much of the main cast, which is why it’s destruction was contextually meaningful. The problem with Tokyo Ghoul: re is that very few of the conflicts themselves really deal with more humanizing dimension of the story. Not only does the main conflict of the story shift between fighting major groups like the Cochlea rather than tackling smaller and more personal events like the original did, re also introduces characters at an extremely haphazard rate while giving them very brief backgrounds, if any at all. Even main characters like Urie and Shirazu are given extremely brief expositions while characters like Saiko are basically given none at all, and by the first 40 or so chapters you’re introduced to dozens of doves that you can’t possibly be expected to keep track of, and frankly even less so to care about.
It seems apparent that re seemed to prioritize far more on the fights themselves then really who comprised of them, possibly to capture a sense of scale and pace, but really this can be summarized by quantity over quality. The latter half of the manga unfortunately devolves into a more basic concept of this “evil mastermind pulling the strings” which magically dissolved much of the basic contrasts between humans and ghouls. Once again, this failed to take advantage of a conflict that would be unique to Tokyo Ghoul and instead takes one that could quite literally be in any other narrative.

If the fights themselves were good then this would at least be somewhat acceptable, but the fight scenes in Tokyo Ghoul have never really been that amazing by themselves; in my opinion have only seemed so because the manga did a great job establishing the context to each one. Not only is this dimension extremely neutered in re, but the rough art that initially defined the aesthetic style of the original Tokyo Ghoul was, combined with the consistently abhorrent paneling and the frequently busy fights, far too messy, and it was often unnecessarily difficult to tell what was going on (though to give credit where credit is due, I still like Ishida’s art style and there are some scenes where it ended up working phenomenally in his favor).

The original Tokyo Ghoul isn’t some untouchable masterpiece; like I said, by many standards, it can be considered a fairly average action manga. Perhaps re can’t be completely blamed for what it came to be since the original did start some of the gears that saw its conclusion in the sloppy final arc of re. But it at least did an honest, (and I would say) successful job on trying something different, even if it had to borrow from a few ideas along the way. It tried to be a piece much more than just the fights that it had and gave personality to characters that we will now remember for years. Re is incredibly soulless in comparison, trying far too hard in making the narrative all about the fights while misunderstanding the power characters can have on them.

EDIT 7/19/18: Imagine giving another chance to a series that already self destructed just because so much time was invested. The result? A tremendous loss. Yeah, I'll take this L because I was hoping that Tokyo Ghoul REEEEE would be anything but droll, but it consistently let me down and it got to the point where a chapter of porn was the highlight of the entire sequel. The characters continue to display unlikable traits, poor interactions, and just god awful dialogue. Accompany it with unclear art direction and you got Tokyo Ghoul REEEEE. The rushed ending was a secretly a blessing because readers just couldn't stand the last chapters looking like rough sketches. And the final arc was actually the most poorly constructed idea I've seen in literature. It tried to be Persona 5 so badly, but it ended up a regurgitated idea with poor execution. I really gave Tokyo Ghoul REEEEE a shot, and the 120 additional chapters I read since the initial review did not improve my opinion of this godforsaken manga. Thought Urie was bad? Toru Mutsuki takes the cake as the biggest POS in manga.


Talk about a complete farce of a sequel, RE does not live up to it's expectations that the predecessor set for it. While Tokyo Ghoul wasn't amazing, characters had distinct personalities and the action was abundant. It is what I expected Tokyo Ghoul to be. RE takes on a different tone, shifting to a new cast of characters and taking the route of delving into the other side of the faction, the CCG.

Tokyo Ghoul didn't focus heavy on one faction, equally balancing both factions of Ghoul and CCG. Some psychological elements were present which made the story feel like there was tension and had some emotional impact. RE fails to set up in what was suppose to be a coherent action/fantasy story. With the focus on a squad within the CCG, expect a lot of exposition-heavy panels which is pretty insignificant to the story as it reaches the late 40 and into the 50 chapters. Much of the story felt stagnant with the exception of the late 50 chapters where it is looking like it's following its predecessor's footsteps. Everything leading up to that point feels like a waste of time as well with the few plot twists that pop up. It's almost as if the reader was supposed to be incredibly bored to lead up to a few chapters of action and adversity. Above all, the story just isn't fun. The stagnant nature of it with lots more dialogue then the author knows what to do with makes for an incredibly boring read.

The new cast of characters feature a squad within the CCG. All of them are poorly characterized with the exception of the main protagonist who is only interesting because of his alter ego. One guy for the WHOLE story just thinks about getting promoted within the organization. That's about it for that guy, I mean talk about one of the worst motives coupled with forced reactions in other situations makes him easily the worst character in RE. The other characters are very bland as well, making it seem like RE would've been better off having high school kids save the damn world vs what RE offered. The mindboggling thing is the previous cast of characters that made Tokyo Ghoul interesting get little panel time. Reading the first 20 chapters, the reader has to wonder if this is the sequel to Tokyo Ghoul.

A bland story coupled with terrible characters made RE easily one of the worst reads in all of literature. The more I think about it, the more I would have rathered read an economics book. It's complete shift in tone is what did it in and the open ending to the first season doesn't help. Actually, it makes RE look even worse because of that. Lack of personality within characters made for a tough cast to follow and ultimately connect with. The opposing faction was more interesting and all the reader gets in RE are little snippets of the things going on behind the scenes with minimum dialogue. I can't see RE getting any worse from here on out though, but I wouldn't hold my breath. It absolutely baffles me that I can browse the internet and find that this POS can lead in manga sales. The Tokyo Ghoul franchise is on a 90 degree downhill rollercoaster and avoid this if you can.

Money is good. Money is great! Tokyo Ghoul :re is the proof of it. The proof that popularity makes the manga most of the time. Ishida Sui (the author) sold his soul to the money devil, and along with it went Tokyo Ghoul, RIP. Not that I blame him, I mean, he must definitely be wiping his tears in money right now.

Disappointing, disappointing, disappointing. That describes Tokyo Ghoul:re.
I am someone that began reading the original back in the beginning. So we have definitely come a long way. And I can say proudly that Tokyo Ghoul, the original is a masterpiece. Amazing. Fantastic. *Insert similar adjective*. I loved everything about it.

But this, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls. This, is shit. If we compare it to the plethora of garbage out there, sure, it is ok i guess. But if we compare it to the original, than :re is bad.

Story meh, characters meh, art bad in some aspects (though not all). And now that this is popular, terrible community.

The thing is, Ishida seems to have reached a consensus with his team. Crazy characters = awesome. The story is pathetically predicable now. Just random arcs with crazy people appearing left and right. Not to mention ass pulls. You know Ishida, the whole go crazy after torture and gain power up worked once. You can stop now ok?
Yes that's right Ishida found his magic formula and is rolling along with it. Damn you money!!! Anyway, here it is:

Step 1: Get one of your characters
Step 2: Make them seem relatively happy
Step 3: plot twist
Step 4: Character actually has a dark and sad past
Step 5: Torture them or something similar
Step 6: Is the character already crazy? If yes, then make them more crazy. If no, just make them crazy
Step 7: make their hair go white
Step 8: make them super crazy strong
Step 9: make 15 year old teens across the globe squeal, because they think they are super mature and cool by reading this dark edgy stuff.
Step 10: ???
Step 11: Profit. (literally in this case)
Step 12: Repeat from step 1.

That is how predicable :re has become. Ishida now seems to just be doing stuff to please fanboys. Pick any character. There is a pretty good chance they are fucked up in the head. woooooo so fun, so dark, so smart.

But I gotta admit, if this was Ishida's plan all along he has earned my respect. He has so thoroughly brain washed his audience, that anything he does is seen as "OMFG KANEKI KYAAAAA!! ISHIDA SO SMART!! TOKYO GHOUL BEST MANGAZ!!". And if you say anything it is always "OMG YOU STUPID GO READ SHONEN! DERP THIS IS TRAGEDY MANGA DERP!".

And this is all sad, remember that I was someone that loved this manga... Oh how the mighty have fallen...

I can't even go ahead and say which category made :re worse. It is now a convoluted mess, each category bringing the other down. A plethora of new characters that sprout out of nowhere just to make more fodder. Instead of reusing good developed characters, it is apparently a good idea to disregard most of them, introduce a bazillion of new ones and develop 6 of them. Some of the old side characters haven't even re-appeared yet. Pretty sure Ishida forgot about them.

This flood of new characters just helps bring the story down since there are so many new characters you can barely get their names. And no, I'm not going to re-read the chapters 5 times just to try to get who is who. A good manga like original Tokyo Ghoul only had me reading the chapter once to understand everything. This is not thick plot. This is bad writing.

One example of the characters bringing the story down are the random grunts from each side that serve just as fodder. Some of them have less than 3 pages dedicated to them, yet have whole fucking chapters showing their super sad past, right before they die. Why even? What is the point? Do you think anybody cares?

Speaking of bad, art got a lot worse in fighting scenes. Now it is just a drawing mess with blurs appearing in each fighting panel. I'm going to be completely honest. I barely understand what is going on most of the time. And no again fans, no, I'm not going to read the same chapters 15 times.

But it is not all terrible. Art outside of battles did improve. It is amazing now I really like it. And although the story doesn't touch the original's feet, it still is better than most stuff out there. Also when :re does shows glimpses of the originals glory, damn, tears flows through my eyes remembering the good old times. But that is quickly fucked up by another character going batshit crazy.

Yeah sure, years and years of reading manga and watching anime made me grumpy and weary, But then again, it also made me achieve a state of nirvana in which I can distinguish masterpieces from disguised shit.

So, should you read this manga and are you going to like it? Well, honestly, if this wasn't a continuation but a stand alone, it would be ok. But it isn't is it? Still everyone should read it if they have nothing better to do.

But the real question is, are you going to like it? Well if you are a teen you will probably love it. If you like stories that characters get power ups because they go super batshit crazy but don't make sense, then you will also love it. If not, then no, you will find it "meh", so go read Golden Kamuy or something better.

I honestly do hope I end up editing this in the future, because I do want to enjoy this. I really do. But as of now. Nope. This is as of chapter 81.

This is an absolute slog of a manga to read. Toyko Ghoul:re tosses out every major character that we grew to know over the previous story and complicates things with another dash of vague narrative and some very off-model characters.

We're introduced to a new cast of characters, including Ken, who is now working with the ghoul hunters in a specially created squad. What then follows is 32 (up to where I got) chapters of boring filler, with Ken playing Scooby-Doo with various ghoul characters. The new cast members are not fleshed out enough to carry this story any further than the initial premise. If anything these chapters feel like they should be one arc, not half the entire manga.

Bit characters from the first are introduced but seemingly do nothing, some having their designs changed completely to ensure that you forget who they are. Once again furthering the confusion by adding additional characters who you may remember to an already over-crowded cast.

The author seems to have taken the vague exposition of the final chapter of the first story and applied it to everything here. You will become very, very lost as characters talk over each other about subjects that you are not savvy to. Some characters become off-model to further infuriate you.

But that vague narrative style is being applied to a very simple story, Tokyo Ghoul:re simultaneously manages to be too dense and too thin, it's not worth the effort to figure out what some of these characters are doing and you'll find yourself becoming very, very frustrated over how little of significance is occurring. After smashing through the first in a few days, I rapidly ran out of steam trying to get through re.

(a quick outpouring of my myriad feelings after thinking about the most recent chapters of RE. aka don't expect quality)

Ishida Sui is a genius. His story is sprawling, with twists and turns and foreshadowing in every corner.
Small, maybe insignificant details you may have written off on a first read through carries new meaning afterwards. For example, a reveal in a relatively recent chapter (~mid 50s) will ensure that I will never be able to read any part of the original, beginning to end, the same way ever again. This reveal was foreshadowed everywhere, from Kaneki Ken's psychological mindset, to indications in the art, in his actions, in his words. This reveal is (hopefully, for the sake of my poor shredded heart) one of a kind, but such like it happen on a smaller scale everywhere in the story, echoing the "Black Goat's Egg" - Rize foreshadowing.

In terms of actual story, the central message seems to be that there is no bad, and there is no good. There are only people. And people can be anything at all.

The original story had what essentially amounts to cannibals, the ghouls, portrayed as the sympathetic figures, while those who were saving humans, the CCG, were not the heroes. In almost any other story, the protagonist would be saving lives, and the cannibals would be the villain. But, what seems to be the impassable dividing line between humans and ghouls is not the dividing line between good and evil. Everything is in shades of grey. If anything, Aogiri Tree would be the villain, and yet characters from Aogiri are also fleshed out and portrayed as sympathetic, such as Ayato. There is no apologizing for their "evil", their grey, either. They are acknowledged as morally reprehensible, and that is amazing.
[slight spoilers?] Even Eto, the "big bad", is portrayed in shades of grey. Abandoned by her father, belonging to neither of the two worlds, author of multiple novels that Kaneki is enamored with, slightly insane a la half-kakuja Kaneki. If anything, she needs to be sent to a therapist. (They all need to be sent to therapists, lbr) [end spoilers]
RE is showing all the good sides of CCG that we could not necessarily see just through Amon and Suzuya in the original, after ghouls were already established as sympathetic figures in Tokyo Ghoul.

The beginning seems a bit slow, especially if you're coming in straight off the Anteiku Raid, but in all honesty, looking back at the beginning of Tokyo Ghoul, RE escalates much faster. Once the tragedies start, they just never stop.

All of Ishida Sui's characters are amazing, nuanced, and flawed, all in one. The sheer diversity of characters is amazing - ghouls and humans both good and bad, both with morals and without. Male, female, nonbinary. The only romances I can think of that play a role in the story are Akira & Amon, which is peripheral, and that of Kanae, which debateably goes either way, so I won't count diversity of sexuality as something Ishida explicitly includes, though there are certainly hints. But the best part is that none of these characters are pure good or pure evil, they simply are. Not even the protagonist is some sort of fount of goodness in the world, as happens with many protags. He makes mistakes, he makes bad decisions, he has issues with morality and he hates. The best compliment you can give characters is that they're people. And Ishida Sui's characters are people.

[spoilers - you probably already know this one, tbh]
When Haise is revealed to be Kaneki without his memories, Haise is revealed to be yet another step in the tragedy of Kaneki Ken. He provides meaning to the quote from the original: "my only salvation is to sleep and have a happy dream."
Haise is the happy dream Kaneki dreamt up when he was cut down in Arima's garden of corpses. Haise is the Kaneki who has never known tragedy, who woke up one day in his twenties with a place to belong to and people to belong with.
RE is, at its heart, still a continuation of the tragedy of Kaneki Ken, and he can't dream forever.
[end spoilers]

tl;dr: RE is amazing and ingenious. It is mainly character driven, just like the original, and yet its plot is phenomenal on its own merit. Read it; you won't be disappointed.

Alright, so I read the whole manga after watching the anime and I LOVED IT. I start reading the first couple of chapters and to be honest, I had to adjust to it. I read the first chapters a couple of times to realize what's going on. After I had finally got what was going on, I now loved the story. Its great that this is around 2 years after the Anteiku Raid. So many questions still unanswered since that latest chapter was 25. This follows Haise Sasaki (who looks almost exactly like Kaneki), a CCG investigator and the supervisor of the newly formed Quinx Squad, which are humans that have built-in quinques. Old characters emerge, but the new characters so far are very interesting. The art is the same from the original manga, which is great. I enjoyed EVERY chapter. I will conclude this review by saying this, it will ONLY GET BETTER. So far, its another masterpiece in the making.

Tokyo Ghoul:re is, in its entirety, the epitome of amazing sequels, following its previous story with the same stroke of genius and brilliance that was shown in Tokyo Ghoul.

• Story •

Something a lot of people complain about is the story and its organization. Now, I confess, compared to the anime series, or even Tokyo Ghoul (the first), it can be kinda incoherent and confusing as the chapters go on. That's why I had to dock a point from my original story rating (but why is it only lowered to an eight, you ask? I just couldn't bring myself to rate it any lower.)

I, too, came across the same problem. Like most people, I was hooked from the original series, and even went as far to watch the anime (I usually don't) and its counterpart (Root A, which is.. well, something to be discussed somewhere else). So when Tokyo Ghoul:re came out, I was overjoyed and began reading. Now, the problem here was that unlike TG - which I binge-read - this sequel came out a chapter a week. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of reading/watching something that comes out on a periodic basis. I don't have the best memory, so I often forget the details of the previous chapter/episode, which dulls my enjoyment. This happened with TG:re, and since this was especially incoherent, by the time I hit around seventy chapters, I was completely lost. I didn't know why I was reading any more. I gradually stopped, and put it on-hold.

Now, a few months later, I decided that it was time to pick this series up once again. So I reread Tokyo Ghoul from the beginning, and then binged on the :re chapters up to the latest one. Everything was much more clear. The experience was extremely enlightening and just greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the series. For anyone who feels like the series gets confusing, try doing as I did, because you really won't regret it.

So, to sum up to this point—while the story is incoherent and has a bit of problem with pacing and the like, I still think it's worth it to read (and if you don't understand some parts, read the discussion posts on sites like MAL). The reason it's slow in the first place is because it introduces a myriad of new characters, from CCG workers to ghouls to ordinary citizens, and each one of them is vital to the storyline.

What I'm getting at is that it's not just about Kaneki anymore. I know that this is a common complaint, and I get it. Kaneki, the badass, damaged, tortured soul; you want to read HIS story, HIS perspective. And I have to say that if that's what you want, you'd be better off waiting for the third season of the anime. TG:re isn't just about Kaneki - at the whole of it is, indeed, our cute one-eyed ghoul, but this is a story of how his actions influence other people's lives, and how they act, and their story, as well as his. If you can't stand this, then as I said, maybe you should think twice about starting this series.

Now, away with the counterarguments! So, what makes this storyline so great? First of all, I find myself marveling at Ishida-sensei's genius, chapter after chapter after chapter. Be it character backstories, a plot point revelation, or just a humorous little quirk, it'a all so brilliant. Just recently a chapter got me so emotional from a single little page, and then made me laugh from the following page. No spoilers, just lots of surprises along the way.

I'm a huge fan of this type of series. Twisted, psychological - no gratuitous gore, unlike some other 'horror' manga I've read. And every little piece of the series just gradually adds up, and when you're not expecting it, Ishida attacks you with a full-blown plot revelation that makes you go, "OHHHHH. Wow. That's so genius." And even when these things ARE expected, he still makes it brilliant and just so, so captivating. This focus on both the CCG as well as the ghouls gives a fresh new perspective upon the world of TG and its twisted tendencies. It doesn't have lengthy, drawn-out arcs, and it knows how exactly to toe the very thin line between twisted brilliance and needless plot points.

And that's not to say that this manga is a jumble of depressing, heart-rending themes with an equally twisted MC. Nope. Considering the nature of this story, it's not unlikely for a lesser artist to ruin the plot with excessively "emo", horrifying motifs, but so far, Ishida has been excellent in the department of keeping the aura lighthearted when it needs be.

• Art •

I'm not particularly a fan of the art, but I think it's well-drawn and captures the spirit of the story rather well. It's very suited for this kinda genre, and Ishida's use of black makes for a contrasting effect that enhances the story.

• Character •

Probably my favorite thing about this series. If not for my policy of never giving a 10-rating unless it's just absolute perfection without any equals whatsoever having any likelihood of ever surpassing it, I would've given this a ten. (And, by the way, I was still tempted to give it a ten.) I love the characterization in this series so much, because it's so different from a lot of other mainstream works. So, the obvious, first - moral ambiguity. Because the protagonist is a ghoul, we're tempted to root for them. But then this series hits you with broad perspectives from the other side of the coin - the CCG. And even inside of the CCG, there are various factions with differing objectives that clash again and again until you're not sure whether something is good or evil. Even so, there ARE undeniably evil characters in this series.. or are there? Ishida does a brilliant job of giving insightful backstories to the 'villains', making you feel pity and lessening your hatred. In fact, there hasn't been a single character in this series that I fully hate.

Some people may think that the innumerable collection of characters deters from the plot and makes this series inferior to its predecessor - I think that that's exactly why this manga is so captivating. The diverse range of personas makes for diverse storylines that gradually intertwine together as the story progresses. So much characterization, so much character development. I'm a sucker for tragic backstories, and many of the characters have such. (And it's not excessive, either, in my opinion - it's to be expected in a world of ghouls). I've become so invested in each one of the characters, finding myself surprised and intrigued at the twisted nature of their story, sometimes gasping, sometimes laughing aloud, sometimes sobbing because of them. Their relations are just so complex and so put-together in a way that feels perfect, and it's not hard to imagine that they're real-life people who are neither superheroes nor villains. Just regular people, fighting for what they believe is right. And that is a large part of the brilliance to which this series is predisposed.

• Enjoyment •

So, I'm assuming this is vague enough not to be a spoiler - characters die. Obviously. What do you expect, lol? This series portrays a realistic depiction of life in the setting of an impossible phenomenon. So, as my favorites were gunned down (metaphorically - I do believe that TG uses no guns), I cried hysterically, and fell into a depressed slump, and cursed Ishida Sui...

and loved every part of it. I feel like the one way you can really tell someone is a good writer is when you hate them so much for killing off a character. This series is immensely entertaining, as is discussing what certain little parts of a page might mean, and speculating upon the various theories of what are currently canonical mysteries. I love it. If you're not a big fan of anything gore-y, or just psychological horror in general, maybe you shouldn't read this. I'm selfish, and want to recommend this to, in the literal sense, everyone in the world, but I realize that people have different tastes.

• Overall •

A fantastic piece of work, once again, by Ishida Sui. Does not fall flat to its predecessor, depending on what you're looking for. Strokes of brilliance along every part of the way. Read this if you want to be amazed.

When you have and end like Tokyo Ghoul, it's obvious to be anxious and excited about what will happen? Actually what just happened? Did he die? Did he become a quinque? Is this the end?

NO fellow reader it is not the end, here we have Tokyo Ghoul:re, same author, same amazingness and the most important 'the same twisted world'. (Yes there's kaneki too).

In part 1 we saw how twisted both humans and ghouls are and a protagonist that lies between both, not just because he has been both, (there are quite a few who were turned into ghouls), BUT because he has seen that both sides are good and bad, he has understood this world. Even at first when he's missing his memories he still understand that, he shows kindness for ghouls even tho he's an investigator, after losing his memories. And it's just a bonus when he regains them.

So let's start the review:

Story: (9/10)
The story starts with our Kaneki with what he would be if he lost his memories and was used for his strength and turned into an investigator and given a new name Sasaki Haise. This certainly makes CCG looks like really evil. But let's not generalize it, everything has it's bad sides just like ghouls and humans both have. The story starts off with a small arc which has characters connected to his past. Every arc goes and turns into something amazing and unexpected, the hype is just way too much each arc. You thought you knew about kaneki's past? NO you do not, this manga gives some insane revelations that you certainly never saw coming, such INSANE revelations and unexpected scenes that you'll stop reading just to say "HOLY SH*T" and 'WHAT THE F**K", it has more mysterious plot and more interesting storyline as to say. As the manga progresses we see more and more about what happened in a 3 year time skip and how thing have changed and this moves us to how the characters are, so let's talk about that...

Character: (9/10)
Sasaki Haise is just what kaneki would be if he forgot his past ..oh wait I just said the obvious thing right? What I mean is that he's your kaneki so unnecessary hate is not needed, he's just as kind as him but a bit more sane than him. It is interesting to see his character development throughout, from being scared of his past and rejecting it to being slowly starting to accept it and wanting to know more about it, well you can guess what that leads to. As for the other characters Ishida deserves a clap really, even the minor characters who are only supposed to appear for individual arcs ends up giving you feels and you'' be surprised to see how lot of these characters seemed at first and how normal and damaged from inside they are. The element of unpredictability remains and you have no idea whether that certain character will live or die. We also see how the old characters have changed and developed in the past and even those you did not expect to develop, just as the new characters, they all change in the story.

Art: (8/10)
The thing that has most improved is the art, the characters and the scenes are drawn so uniquely it's amazing. Ishida Sui is an amazing artist, the expression of characters are drawn accurately, you understand what the character is feeling and thinking, their insanity and emotions taking over are perfectly expressed on their face, their expression ARE what they are supposed to be, 'scary'. The art has improved a lot.

Enjoyment: (9/10)
How much enjoying is it to read? SO SO MUCH ENJOYING that I really hate waiting for a week for each chapter. The hype is so much, especially in between the arcs, when certain revelations are made and certain characters come and certain fights are about to happen, you are just left wondering and thinking about the possibilities, this manga stays on your mind if you're an attention paying reader and not a speedreader. This is one hell of a ride.

Overall: (8/10)
Been a year since it started serializing, 5 volumes until now and yet it has been so good, so if you are looking for something that will keep you waiting all week, then here is no reason to skip it and old reader who are not reading it yet, you are making one hell of a mistake.

Through around chapter 60, TG:re is a solid 10 in every single aspect. It's beautiful with great characters and expands the world of Tokyo Ghoul while still keeping us tied to the themes and characters introduced in the first part. It's a masterpiece.

However, post chapter 60, little cracks start to show, and the issues in storytelling explode in the final arc, causing the story to cave in on itself. The main theme is truncated. The story relies on build up towards a thematic ending; however, all the build up goes nowhere in a clumsy rush towards an unsatisfying finish. Essentially, TG:re could be used in a creative writing class as a perfect example of what not to do in writing, and how to ruin a story's themes in a rush to end it.

Story: 8 (highest highs were way higher than lowest lows imo)
Art: 8 (fighting scenes can be hard to understand sometimes but it's still so beautiful)
Character: 9 (-1 because of the way some character arcs ended)
Enjoyment: 9 (-1 'cause final arc..)

Overall: 8.5 (bumped to 9 because of extreme character attachment)

I’m not really good at writing reviews but I thought I’d write one for Tokyo Ghoul:re, a manga that has always been one of my top favourites since I started reading manga.

If you can't be bothered to read through this review, my conclusion is that despite its flaws, TG:re more than deserves a try if you're up for some well-written moral ambiguity and character development.

It’s quite clear to me that writing-wise, TG:re has been going downhill for quite a while now (imo since about Chapter 150 it became quite obvious and went up and down for the rest of the series), so I can’t say that I was at all surprised to see that the final arc was quite rushed and lacked some of the things that made Tokyo Ghoul Tokyo Ghoul. To keep it short, I didn’t mind that Ishida took the story to a bigger, national, almost global scale, but the fact that he didn’t manage to follow up on the big premise makes it disappointing. The ‘final’ villains all went out in underwhelming ways. I wasn’t expecting shounen-esque fights but it doesn’t work logically when a super hyped up character gets taken out in a single slash. This is honestly the least of my complaints though. Poorly executed redemptions and revivals add to the flaws. One of the best things about TG has always been, for me, the attachment I feel for the cast, and the emotions that swell up in me as I read each chapter. Redemptions when done right can move the reader to the deepest but the way some of the character arcs wrapped up left a bad taste in my mouth despite me loving the characters in the first place. And no comment on what he did with Eto.

The fact that I acknowledge that :re was far from being perfect or the best doesn’t mean that I love it any less, nor does it mean that it carries less meaning for me than it did in the first place. In fact, I’ve never thought that TG, both the original and :re was bad or terrible, even during chapters that invited quite an amount of criticism from the community, or during the final arc of :re (which was my personal worst arc of :re). But I do think that the story could’ve had so much better build up and portrayal by the end. Mostly I think it could’ve done the story a lot better with just more build-up, more details and more chapters. If Ishida could do that all this time, why not do the same when the story is at its final, most important stage? Then again I have no knowledge of the stress and exhaustion a mangaka and his editing and publishing team goes through when working on a series, so I guess I can’t really complain.

Nevertheless…

I hope this doesn’t deter anyone from reading Tokyo Ghoul:re. For me it was definitely one of the best manga at least 80% into the series. The well-developed cast, intriguing moral ambiguity, intense story build-up, beautiful art and well-rounded world-building are all reasons that you should give :re a try. Being a character-driven manga, I think that Ishida was more than successful in leaving a wonderful cast of characters behind. I might have had love-hate relationships with some of them, but it’s undeniable that they were very unique, distinct and well-written.

It’s still so sad when I realize that TG:re is now coming to an end. Though the manga itself was far from perfect, I feel so attached to the characters that it’s probably impossible to let them go. I love the TG cast so much :re is going to stay on my favourites list for a long time to come, maybe forever. Honestly up until chapter 150 I was still loving :re to bits and crying over every chapter and feeling blessed whenever one comes out. In the end, I still think that I was so very blessed to have read this series, to have gotten to know Ken and Haise all his personas, and the rest of the cast. It was an emotional and inspiring ride until the very end.

Absolutely one of the best manga I ever read. It has everything you need: great plot, a lot of character differentiation, even more deeper analysis of the main characters than the first manga and a lot of plot twists.

Plot (it can contain SPOILERS from the first manga): after the end of Tokyo Ghoul, the manga starts focusing on CCG, in particular Haise Sasaki, supervisor of the Quinx, the newest addition to the CCG's arsenal. These are teens with Ghoul implants, quite the same as Kaneki but "perfected", and used to counter ghouls. Starting from here, the mangaka managed to answer alot questions but open new holes in the "big picture", holes full of suspance and hype.

At the moment, chapter 92 is the last that came out, but also with this small number of chapters I can easily say that this manga satisfied me so much, that I decided to give it 9/10.
If you liked the first manga, you will like this more, its a whole new level of hype and psychological drama, of amazing fights and new great characters.
Also, you will likely reconsider one of two characters descripted previously.

P.S. I'm italian, so sorry if you read any language error. I tried to make this short and enthusiastic review as understandable as I could.