Posted by OP2 Sequence
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OP2: 「katharsis」by TK from Ling Toshite Shigure
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“Place: And So, Once Again”
Ignore the critics – we’re off to a good start! Because I’m about to give this second cour an absolute bollocking of the likes that RandomC has never seen before, and I promise that it will be better than any other criticism you’ve read out there on the internet. At least I think that’ll be the case.
Glaring Issues
A formerly rich now homeless bloke who lost his fortune to drug addiction forcefully drags his asscrack along the gravelly pavement, leaving behind a disgusting trail of blood and poop smears. That’s pretty much Tokyo Ghoul:re in a nutshell – bloody shit. Okay okay, the haters were right. Fuck it, after defending Tokyo Ghoul’s adaptation for such a long time, I’ve finally thrown in the towel. I’ve had it. Tokyo Ghoul:re’s second cour is total garbage, dumpster fire that utterly desecrates any goodness that existed in the source material. Animation? Lifeless. Choreography? Other than Shachi v Arima, non-existent. Sound? Even TK was subpar this time around. Story? Butchered to death then stitched back together into some kind of Eldritch abomination. Blergh, that was the most despicable crime of them all. There was nothing substantive to dissect about this episode BECAUSE it was a lobotomised mish-mash of nine fucking chapters full of gaping holes left, right and centre. What’s more, they truly plan on continuing with this nonsensical pace – 120 chapters into 12 episode averages to 10 chapters per episode!!! A normal manga adaptation typically does a ratio of 2-3 chapters to 1 episode. I really didn’t think Ishida could be beaten for being confusingly abstract beyond comprehension. Boy I was wrong – this anime adaptation managed to make less sense than some stupid idiot consuming animal turd. Oh wait, I just consumed this pile of steaming horse shit on Crunchyroll. *facepalm*
But I’m not here to talk about what happened in the episode. Oh no no no. There are much more pressing matters that are in need of addressing.
Blame Game
People can hate on Studio Pierrot all they want, but at the end of the day, these poor animators were simply given the short end of the stick by their higher ups. I want to turn your attentions to the true villains of this set piece. What fuckwit production committee thought that it was a great idea to cram 120 chapters worth of content into 12 episodes? I want these motherfuckers to be sacked and blacklisted from being involved in any further executive decisions when it comes to the cultural entertainment industries. Unfortunately, it’s been well-documented that both Ishida and Morita both tried to fight the committee on creative decisions with regards to how they wanted to do the anime adaptation, but were ultimately crushed. As a result, Shuhei Morata even winded up leaving the anime industry forever. The good guys lost, the bad guys categorically won. Clearly, these abhorrent motherfuckers have all the power and backing that it’s impossible to hold them accountable – a truly unfortunate state of affairs. And what if… these sequence of events served as the real catalyst for Ishida Sui to lose his passion for writing Tokyo Ghoul? If that’s the case, it’s a good thing I don’t have my hands on a Death Note, because reasons.
Why Beat A Dead Horse?
Why intentionally make a bad anime? You’d think that a good anime would lead to better sales. But more often than not, an anime will ultimately serve as a glorified advertisement for its source material. In fact, anime production tends costs tend to offset the revenue generated, typically leading to net losses. That’s why you never really see follow-up seasons to many shows – it’s essentially a roundabout way of saying ‘Hey, no more grub for you here, we need to make some money too. Go and buy the manga!’. That said, I have no idea why the production committee persist in continuing on with this trite rubbish. Holding the aforementioned in consideration, there are two possibilities that currently come to my mind:
1. The committee think that fans are stupid enough to loyally watch any Tokyo Ghoul adaptation and provide revenue for the franchise through buying merchandise.
2. The committee want to forcefully kill off the anime’s quality so that fans will transition to the manga, in the hopes of generating revenue from manga sales.
Both scenarios are extremely fucked up and contain nefarious implications. It’s akin to something out of fiction itself, like the evil Committee of 300 from the Science Adventure franchise that seek out global domination while flagrantly disregarding morals. What a fucking achievement, brimming with the sense of pride and accomplishment that EA Games had with their stubbornly anti-consumer lootbox policy. Yet regrettably, this has been an endemic issue of the anime industry for a long time, forcing source material into a limited amount of episodes to squeeze out maximum cash from minimum investment. Having said that, this money-grubbing committee can fuck right off because they’ve taken it a million steps too far. Screw them and screw the corporate fatcats who helped endorse their short-sighted decisions. They are sorely testing the limits of what is passable as an adaptation, and if they continue like this, it’s conceivable that this could become the norm. After all, this has been the trajectory that we’ve been on for the past two decades, and the trend only looks to be accelerating. They’ve managed to sucked all semblance of life and expression from this beloved franchise, and worst of all, they’ll probably get away with it and help encourage this kind of unsavoury practice.
Final Words
I’m not someone who particularly supports the idea of euthanasia. But if I was given the choice to switch off the life machine of Tokyo Ghoul:re’s anime adaptation, I would do so without a trace of hesitation. It would be a merciful and dignified end to this shameful farce, which is already more than this adaptation deserves. Yes, even if its old pops the source material did little wrong. Those of you who have exclusively watched the anime, abandon this burning ship and do yourself a favour by reading the manga. You will thank me later. So there you have it, my comprehensive outlook on the second cour of Tokyo Ghoul:re. I sure as heck won’t be blogging this disastrous trainwreck in the making, and it’s my own damn fault for desperately holding onto faith, even though there were so many red flags screaming otherwise. Sorry for ranting hard, I apologise to the fans who still love this adaptation, but thanks for bearing with me till the end. Until next time readers, peace out.
END OF LINE
ED2 Sequence
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ED2: 「楽園の君」 ( Rakuen no Kimi ) by osterreich
Preview
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End Card
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Broken after only 1 episode? Truly impressive for season 2 of re.
Pierrot/Shueisha aside, some of Ghoul’s decline stems from Ishida Sui himself.
Longtime manga followers noticed a gradual decline in the manga quality towards the end – messier incomprehensible art, rushed storytelling, open-ended plot points etc.
It became clear after Ishida’s final manga afterwords came out – he was fed up and tired of working on Tokyo Ghoul non-stop. He appears to have been largely driven by his personal demons to complete Ghoul despite losing interest in the working process.
I’ll elaborate further in my next post.
shida Sui admitted he was burnt out and tired from his nonstop work on Tokyo Ghoul.
http://kenkamishiro.tumblr.com/post/176025577667/ishidas-afterword-part-1
I’m finally living a life where I haven’t had a deadline looming over me for the first time in 7 years…should I say it feels…liberating?
Tokyo Ghoul has been something that was intimately intertwined with my life,… dominated my time and emotions,…changed my relationships with other people…oftentimes there was more bad than good.
Because of this, I felt like I was finally being released from a cage after being trapped in it for so long.
From the original volume 7 onwards,…I took on impossible amounts of work to try to push myself.
I cast away all sorts of things from my life, and poured all of my time into work…I (even)lost my sense of taste.
Ishida appears to have pushed himself under the influence of depression and personal demons, some which go back to his youth:
http://kenkamishiro.tumblr.com/post/176029985922/ishidas-afterword-part-3
…to me manga has always been by my side as a huge obstacle…(S)ome readers (may be) disappointed by this, but I haven’t thought of drawing Tokyo Ghoul itself as fun. I hate working…(but) it was necessary (for me to have a job).
Ishida was never studious growing up; mostly doing it to please his strict family. He spent his technical school days playing games in his dorm; and so lacked the academic qualifications that would allow him to get official employment. His parents gave him a lot of flak over his joblessness, so he became a mangaka since “it allow(s) me to choose a path other than finding employment.”
I think his psychological issues (not withstanding editorial ones) over his role in his family/society was a big driver in him going hard on himself; that he’d be a Failure if he failed to finish what he started.
I felt that if I took a break I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to draw again, so I refused to give myself a break.
I personally find the afterwords compelling, especially Ishida’s willingness to lay himself bare for his readers and fans.
By Japanese standards more reservation would be applied when talking about yourself; but Ishida admitted he’s always seen himself as an outsider.
http://kenkamishiro.tumblr.com/post/177230432547/ishida-suis-interview-with-yomiuri-shimbun-full
Maybe there’s a part of me that sympathizes with the minority. My parents moved around a lot and were Christians, so when I was a child I felt alienated being in a family that was slightly different from everyone else’s. (Christians are a minority in Japan – majority are Shinto/Buddhist).
A lot of people complain about the rushed ending of TG but at least he stuck around to actually give us an ending, rushed or not, despite the toll continuously writing TG had taken of him. It would of been easy for him to just drop TG instead of sticking to it.
Wow… Ladies and gentlemen, here I present a snapped RC writer. Their existence are only told in legends from ages eons ago. But tonight, in all of its form and glory, bear witness to this cataclysmic occurrence.
I have given up on Tokyo Ghoul:Re animation since episode 2 of season 1. There is just that emptiness inside knowing that we might never get the animation adaptation this manga deserved.
You gave it more chance than me, I gave up on it back in season 1 of the original. After episode 1 aired I started the manga and found it consistently better than the anime which I found lacklustre, it got worse from there.
Before this second cour started, I did a rough calculation and saw that if they did another 2 cours, they’d be able to keep up the pace of the first cour.
But with the powers that be only allowing 1 more cour to wrap up Tokyo Ghoul re, IMO the best possible option was to skip/flash through the less instrumental arcs, like the island raid arc, and focus their time on properly delivering the best arcs, namely this just-started prison break and the final 1 or 2 arcs. Hopefully they’d do something like that, it’s a good sign they skipped the island raid. Although people are bound to look at it and says, “This is a travesty!” Because it is. Fitting the remaining material in just 1 cour is a travesty no matter what. But I don’t think the way the studio’s choices are necessarily the worst possible ones.
I do wish they had animated a certain conversation between Arima and Ken just before he went to see Hinami at the end there, though.
I will stay watching; I can’t bring myself to not love Tokyo Ghoul re, even if the anime has poor pacing. I highly recommend fans transition to the manga, though.
https://randomc.net/image/Tokyo%20Ghoul/Tokyo%20Ghoul%20re%20-%2013%20-%20Large%2009.jpg
Eto looks HOT with short hair. For some reason she looks taller compared to how she looked in season 1. Has anyone shipped Eto with anyone?
Must look for more short hair Onee-san looking characters.
As a bonus, the opening is trash too.
“Those of you who have exclusively watched the anime, abandon this burning ship and do yourself a favour by reading the manga. You will thank me later.”
As an anime-only watcher, all I could think throughout everything since…well…the second season was, “What the fuck is going on? When did X happens? Why is Y happening? SOMEONE EXPLAIN THIS TO ME!”
Save yourself. Pick up the manga. There’s some things that remain trippy and unexplained there but it’s a million times better than this mess.
Root A keeps looking better and better by the day.
lol, right. no?
as a manga reader i even was confused when the anime started
are going way to fast ;(
Considering the manga has already ended, how many seasons do you think before they conclude the series?
Also, what are your thoughts on seasonal anime adaptations of long-running manga such as Attack on Titan or HeroAca? Do you think fans will get burnout at some point?
In regards to TG, this season, it is ending this season.
As anime original shows keep being made it must be possible to make money without a supporting publication.
The Japanese have a TV rating service they just put out way less information to the public than in US and others. Still, if you wonder why a higher rated show in US is canceled than a lower rated show it is often because of the ratings that are actually important to advertisers are not released to the public.
I wonder if there are too many MBA’s on the production committees for already existing works. This reminds me of US corporations which go out of business because the MBA bean counters are always dumbing things down and going cheap and end up killing the business they run.