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「裂目」 (Retsu)
“Fissures”
Wai! More effing named characters to keep track of!
I saw a comment about this episode (from an ASF poster named Blakstealth, FTR) that sums it up as well, I think, as any can: “I hope the next episode takes some time to explain what the fuck is happening.” Frankly I really should stop right there because anything else I add to that can only complicate matters, but of course I can’t do that – so far starters, my response would be “Don’t hold your breath”…
I think there are really two main questions at play for with me Root A – the first being the obvious “what the fuck is going on here?”, and the second being “should I care?” To the first I can offer no answers, but to the second it still seems to be “yes” – though I can’t quite say why. This series is a mess, in my humble opinion – right now what I’m seeing plays like a bunch of loosely (and poorly) interconnected vignettes of censored gore and inexplicable dialogue, interspersed with unexplained flashbacks. Yet somehow, I still feel as if I should care. Go figure.
As to this episode, it should be said for starters that it looked a whole lot better than the last one. It was action-driven once again, but the choreography and animation were a whole lot smoother and more imaginative. But while I won’t go so far as to say it was a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing, just what it did signify is pretty much a mystery. There were several threads that ran into each other, starting with a flashback to Amon lecturing at the academy to the particular interest of three young students, one of whom was Juuzo (then known as Rei) and the others were Kurona and Nashiro. There was a third girl, too, but she died sometime between then and now – and it’s already too damn hard just to track the names of the characters that are still alive.
What can we take from this sequence? Well first, the absolutely excruciating line of dialogue “Can even females become great CCG agents?”. Certainly, that Rei was pretty much a freak even then. And from the present, that the two girls have somehow become ghouls – a growing trend of note – and that Juuzo may be the biggest badass on the CCG side of things. But before we have time to consider all this much the action zips along to more fights – Shinohara taking down Ayato but being unable to finish him, flashing back to his father (who he’s named his Quinque after, after all). And then Shinohara being taken down by Kaneki, who flashes his new centipede form – which Shinohara refers to as a “Kakuja” as if we’re supposed to know what that means.
Afterwards, Kaneki appears to be dining on Shinohara when Amon walks in on them and the entire building is flooded with CRC gas (which is a kind of asspull plot device that seems to render ghouls weak and impotent – which is the only way I could see Amon beating this Kaneki). Amon still wants answers from “Eyepatch”, and so do I – but we’re not getting them yet. It is notable that when the gas kicks in, Kaneki loses his bloodlust and starts crying (maybe it’s Amon’s face). There’s other stuff happening too – facedowns between characters we’ve barely met with big-name seiyuu. But the big moment comes when the One-eyed Owl finally makes his appearance, and he doesn’t disappoint – he’s an order of magnitude larger than any ghoul we’ve seen so far, and he grasps Kaneki and Ayato in his talons like Frodo and Sam and takes off (though, I suspect, not for Rivendell).
All of this is, in short, a mess. It’s an interesting mess, but unless this story stops expanding and starts coalescing around what it really cares to be about, it’s hard to see the rest of this season amounting to anything of real consequence. There are just too many characters, too many plot twists, too much that’s left unexplained – I need Tokyo Ghoul to show me what it cares about before it’s worth my while to do the same. As well, both the Ghoul and CCG sides have become so thoroughly unlikable that it’s hard to feel anything for either – a sad turnaround from where we were halfway through the first season. Right now there’s way too much “what” (and who) and not nearly enough “why” – and until that changes, I just don’t see how this show can right the ship.
Not to be negative, but watching Kaneki get wrecked every week is getting old. At the end of last season he had found his resolve, yet now he is back to the whiny crying Kaneki again.
Well what can you expect from 12 episodes a season to cram about 80 chps. This is like a mix of anime original with taking scenes from the manga, but it’s being so rushed (last season doesn’t help much either) that it’s starting to take its toll with lots of plot holes and rushed character introductions. If anything this anime should b an enjoyment on the side that complements the manga I feel. There are some anime original scenes that highlight relationships that the manga does not cover, like ayato and shinohara’s arata or tatara’s history with that CCG dude (name escapes me), but overall not good enough as a stand alone anime series Imo. If people say that they are only anime watchers, why not read and watch and have the best of both worlds? W.e floats people’s boats, but they really do not know what they are missing out on if they enjoy this series but r disappointed where it’s heading.
Why don’t those pictures move?
Kaneki is finally in Centipede mode.
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……….*
that face though
LMAO. That Lenny Face. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Some really strange censoring this week. I wonder why they felt the need to go full OTT censoring. I’m used to the black shadows but adding magical white beams and full on JAV blurring? Strange..
Akira is still hot. Kanekipede was awesome and the Owl is fucking badass. I’m happy with this weeks episode!
I’m also really happy with this weeks episode.
– Amon gives Kaneki a beating
– Shinohara shows epic MonHun skills
– The twins stop acting all “mysterious” and show some kind of personality for once
– Juuzo shows everyone how fragile human beings are supposed to solo monsters (evade, counter, evade, counter, etc. x infinity)
– One Eyed Owl appears like a BOSS and reminds us why CCG fears him so much.
– Takizawa shoots and misses an unmoving target. Draws aggro. “I’ve got you covered!”
The only thing that bothers me is the CRC gas. Wasn’t that supposed to trigger before everyone died?
As someone who is not really the fan of the anime (I really love the manga tho) I just felt like rootA is just a fast-paced version of the manga? I mean some scenes are new (Kaneki joining Aogiri, Ayato fighting Shinohara, etc.) but I didn’t see something REALLY original that makes rootA really different from the manga. At this point I just can picture that rootA ending will follow the manga with a bit of twist. But still, a ‘bit’ of twist wasn’t enough for me. I just hope that rootA will follow its original arc, completely detached from the manga route. But overall, seeing Kaneki as Centipede was enough for me XD
Sorry for my bad english btw.
Among all the explanations that Tokyo Ghoul need’s to give us of which we’ll probably only get a few, I’d REALLY want to know just wtf makes Juuzo so freaking strong. He might be highly trained and this might still be a shounen but he moves like a ghoul. No one in CCG comes close to that, at least not without those suits but probably not even then.
The animation has improved a bit from last episode. And why did we go four episodes with little to no censoring only for it to be censored now?
“and that Juuzo may be the biggest badass on the CCG side of things”
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong >.>
Nonetheless….at this rate I just suggest reading the manga if you want to have an idea of wtf is going on because they’ve had plenty of episodes to explain this shit and it’s going nowhere. Hell, as a manga reader I’m still painfully confused.
Anyways, I’m only watching for the music. That Glassy Sky song is powerful.
for some exposition that the anime has clearly skipped out on, here’s some explanation from the manga
first of all to answer the questions, one needs to know what RC cells are. they are basically what makes a ghoul, a ghoul. ghouls possess rc cells of different levels. the higher they are, the more prominent their ghoul instincts, conversely the lower the levels, the more human-like they become.
what is a kakuja? as we remember, kaneki dined on jason’s kagune (and in the manga, a few more kagune’s as well). within the ghoul world. such cannibalism is frowned upon. cannibalism increases rc levels, resulting in more potent combat abilities, but it also makes one more primal. as such ghouls that cannibalize run the risk of going berserk. a kakuja is what a ghoul becomes when he goes fully berserk.
why does kaneki cannibalize, specifically eating kagunes? basically as a hybrid kaneki always feels guilty about eating humans, but he acknowledges that he can’t gain strength without eating (rc levels falls due to starvation) hence he’ll be unable to protect those he cares about. also after the jason incident, kaneki develops an obsession with increasing his combat potential, this coupled with the fact he doesn’t want to kill due to eating, causes him to turn to feeds on kagunes. (im not too sure but i think he doesnt know about the risk of becoming a kakuja)
finally why can amon defeat kakuja kaneki? basically crc gases are made to temporarily reduce a ghoul’s rc levels and counteract against rc cells. the short of it is, its basically a already difficult to be able to maintain a kagune in the gas. as for why the didn’t use it earlier, i have no idea. anime loopholes?
man that was long! i spoiler tagged it since the anime might still cover this in future, but unfortunately i doubt they will.
Actually you are a bit off about the Kakuja thing, only a few ghouls will ever become Kakuja when they cannibalize, it is a rare thing. In the manga Kaneki cannibalized for six months, but Kaneki is only a half Kakuja, he is incomplete. Of the 5 Kakuja ghouls we know only Kaneki and Yamori both of which who are half kakuja go berserk and raw when they use it, the other 3 kakuja ghouls that are full kakuja and not half like Kaneki and Yamori keep their cool, they don’t go insane or berserk, not too sure about Arata but recall that after Yamori went Kakuja he couldn’t even say Kaneki’s name properly. I mean cannibalizing does make ghouls stronger but only a few of them will ever become Kakuja check chapter 104. Another ghoul that cannibalizes a lot is Tsukiyama, he was even chomping on some Aogiri ghouls when they went to rescue Kaneki, also recall he was the one providing Kaneki with the ghouls he was eating, he could even describe the taste and texture of ghoul flesh during the restaurant arc, but he shows no signs of a Kakuja.
They just keep on skipping on good points, no wonder people get lost on what’s really happening. And why are they giving good spotlight on Ayato today? I just hope there’s NO seiyuu issues here.
And welcome home, Centipede.
It’s a good thing those security guards had the forethought to hit the 30 minute timer on the super gas that could have ended Aogiri’s assault 5 seconds after it started.
Well played.
Blood is this mature.
this ep does it, reading the manga today
Praise the Lord! Be sure to start on Chapter 1 because Season 1 skipped a lot.
Doesn’t anyone think it’s embarrasing that people have to cross reference the manga to reveal some exposition of what should be clearly explained in the anime?
I’d really like someone who likes this show to explain why they do. I really see no redeeming qualities. There is just so much exposition but they never finish off any plot threads. It’s confusing, frustrating, and boring since all they do is spew information without actually resolving any of it.
I was so close to dropping this, but how could I after that scene with the one-eyed owl? That blew me away.
This is just bad now. They kept some scenes from the manga, but presented them in a way that made them lose their original meaning. It’s all lacking any emotional impact and a chore to watch.
The censoring this ep was just sick. They show people getting hit with kunai all throughout Naruto, but here they have to blur out this girl getting hit with a bunch of daggers? Come the fuck on, it was so jarring to look at. I know they have to try and make money from the DVD/BR sales but man… That was just horrendous.
And yeah, this is a pretty poor adaptation of a decent manga. Could’ve been good with about twice the amount of episodes per season. Based on the season so far I can already imagine how much of an asspull it’s gonna feel like when the godmode white-haired CCG detective (Think his name is Arima?) who was introduced for about 30 seconds a few episodes ago, just turns up and destroys all the top Ghouls with little-to-no explanation as to who he even is.
At this point I’m just watching to find out why the mangaka ditched this story for the Manga but decided it was cool to use for the anime and what the key differences are.
Never read the manga, but Tokyo Ghoul first season has caught my attention and I find myself really enjoy this wick story, the first season was good, really good, until this second season, like all of you people said, too many who and what not covered up by why, it felt so rush and although the animation itself still good, I cant hardly find it interesting anymore, hopefully they change the pace and try to at least explain something, bits and pieces will do=)
I love this comment.
Season 1 while many said it’s rushed. Caught me with the suspense and emotion…
This season 2 is a total mess. Maybe they try to create more suspense, but I have became too clueless to care…