6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In modern day Tokyo, society lives in fear of Ghouls: mysterious creatures that look exactly like humans, yet hunger insatiably for their flesh. None of this matters to Ken Kaneki, a bookish and ordinary young man, until a dark and violent encounter turns him into the first ever Ghoul-human half-breed. Trapped between two worlds, Ken must survive the violent conflicts of warring Ghoul factions while attempting to learn more about Ghoul society, his newfound powers, and the fine line between man and monster.
Starring: Natsuki Hanae, Sora Amamiya, Kana Hanazawa, Mamoru Miyano, Takayuki SugoAnime | 100% |
Foreign | 94% |
Comic book | 39% |
Fantasy | 35% |
Action | 27% |
Horror | 5% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 2.0
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (2 BDs, 2 DVDs)
DVD copy
Region A, B (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Films like Warm Bodies and Life After Beth have posited something akin to “inter species” romances, offering humans at least attempting to have a so-called "love connection" with a zombie. Tokyo Ghoul, a fun if derivative anime from 2014 based on a manga by Sui Ishida, hints that it may be moving in somewhat the same direction, offering a young college student named Ken Kaneki who goes on a date with a beautiful if rather mysterious young woman named Rize Kamishiro, a girl who reveals herself to be, if not a zombie per se, something at least relatively close, called a “ghoul” in this story’s mythology. The “version” of Tokyo depicted in Tokyo Ghoul presents an environment which is perhaps not quite devolved to The Walking Dead status, but which still features the threat of ghouls feasting on human flesh if the humans aren’t careful about their comings and goings. Kaneki is oblivious to Rize’s alter ego, and in fact it’s not until she begins attacking him after their first date that he suddenly realizes that there is a manifest difference between their respective desires to “swap bodily fluids”. Just when it seems Rize has the upper hand (and/or teeth), fate intervenes, seeming to remove the incipient threat. However, that’s just the start of this story, for in a seemingly inexplicable twist of karma, Kaneki, who’s been badly injured in the fracas, becomes the recipient of some of Rize’s organs, leading to the central premise of the series, where Kaneki has to deal with being a kind of human-ghoul hybrid. Tokyo Ghoul traffics in some of the same content as any number of other anime which see heroes dealing with transitions in their states of being, but it’s unusually philosophical at times, addressing sometimes odd if admittedly provocative ideas about the nature of survival and even the role that food plays in that very quest to make it to the next day.
Tokyo Ghoul is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. There are some cool quasi-graphical elements at play throughout this anime, some from virtually the get go, that give Tokyo Ghoul a very distinctive aesthetic edge. More or less "traditional" depictions of what's going on will suddenly transform into near abstract visions, with various pulsating patterns and a wash of color that makes events look almost like living designs at times. The palette throughout the series is quite vivid, and is reproduced here excellently, with little to no banding problems. What's kind of interesting about the overall design aesthetic of the show is that the actual characters are drawn in an almost "old school" style, one that harkens back to other anime "half breeds" like Yu Yu Hakusho. Line detail is strong and precise, posing no resolution issues throughout the series.
Tokyo Ghoul offers the original Japanese language track via Dolby TrueHD 2.0 and an English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The 5.1 track is significantly more forceful from the midrange down, though that said, this series doesn't really traffic in a "balls to the wall" sound design a lot of the time, despite the typical fight and/or ghoul feasting scene that will erupt in any given episode. Instead, immersion is obtained more naturally courtesy of more nuanced ambient environmental effects, like the clank of glasses in the coffee house. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
Disc One:
- "The Saints / Seijatachi" Version 1 (1080p; 1:32)
- "The Saints / Seijatachi" Version 2 (1080p; 1:32)
- "The Saints / Seijatachi" Version 3 (1080p; 1:32)
- "The Saints / Seijatachi" Version 4 (1080p; 1:32)
Tokyo Ghoul seems a bit rushed at times, as if it needs to feast on the next story point kind of like a hungry ghoul needs to quickly find some human flesh to munch on. That proclivity aside, the anime offers really strong and interesting characters and sets up some really intriguing moral paradoxes that it explores in an unusually philosophical way. Technical merits are generally very strong, and Tokyo Ghoul comes Recommended.
2014
Collector's Edition
2014
Collector's Edition | 東京喰種 -トーキョーグール- / Tōkyō Gūru
2014
Classics
2014
(Still not reliable for this title)
Classics
2015
2018
2014-2015
進撃の巨人 / Shingeki no Kyojin
2023
Limited Edition | Stray God | ノラガミ
2014
僕のヒーローアカデミア / Boku no Hero Academia
2022-2023
Phantom Bullet
2014
アカメが斬る! / Akame ga Kiru!
2014
はたらく魔王さま! / Hataraku Maou-sama!
2023
2003-2004
境界の彼方 / Kyoukai no Kanata
2013
コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュR2
2008
Classics
2011-2012
2019
2022
劇場版 ソードアート・オンライン -オーディナル・スケール-
2017
ノーゲーム・ノーライフ / Nōgēmu Nōraifu
2014
2010-2011
2017
Extra Edition | Standard Edition
2013