Tokyo Ghoul

[Buffalobiian]

Alternative title:
東京喰種トーキョーグール (Japanese)
Genres: horror

Plot: The suspense horror/dark fantasy story is set in Tokyo, which is haunted by mysterious "ghouls" who are devouring humans. People are gripped by the fear of these ghouls whose identities are masked in mystery. An ordinary college student named Kaneki encounters Rize, a girl who is an avid reader like him, at the café he frequents. Little does he realize that his fate will change overnight.
-MAL

Links: ANN, AniDB, MAL


Download:

HS - Episode 01

HS - Episode 02

--------------------------------------------












The last two episodes have been pretty engaging. The premise reminds me of a couple of episodes, but the most prominent one would be Shiki. Kaneki suffering from flesh withdrawal with (command hallucinations?) telling him to kill were by far my favourite parts. Touka being badass and cute at the same time is icing.

Kaneki's friend really is something though. He's sharp, but I'm not sure if he knew that the Senpai was a ghoul.

[KrayZ33]

It's a good show so far
I'd like more than 12 eps though, seems like it could be worth it, story wise etc.

[MFauli]

I don´t know. Enjoying it so far, but I can see this show to become tedious and "trope-y" quickly.

Major gripes with episode 2:

- the typical hero-awakens-with-super-powers, alongside beating an experienced veteran ghoul. Shit´s tired and played out.

- Rize possessing the hero´s mind. Yes, ghouls have no relation to reality and logic to begin with, but come on, they transplanted some peripherial organs into his body, no brain switch or something like that. It´s just annoying.

I wonder what those "good" ghouls eat, since the old guy seems to make it a point that they´re just living their life, not intending to harm anybody. Eating the flesh of deceased people?

Also, is that Eren´s voice actor? Not sure.

[NeoCybercoin]

I agree with the 'hero awakening' that has been done so many damn times. And most likely will continue.
As for Rize, I think that's more of a symbolical thing since he is half Ghoul he fights his new Ghoul urges.

Pretty sure the 'good' ghouls' also eat human meat. Maybe they eat criminals, scum nobody would miss and or homeless people. Not wanting to harm people could also mean they eat as little as they need to to preserve their....stock. Hell they might freeze the leftovers.

[Buffalobiian]

If they could clone humans and raise them without a frontal cortex or anything beyond basic brain stem functions I think you could argue you've found a way to harvest meat workout taking souls since they'd have none.

[David75]

Like growing limbs, ears or other body parts?

[NeoCybercoin]

But I think that would require some major financial backing. So unless they own some major corporations I don't see that cloning happening.

[David75]

It's true that with today's IRL science/technologu/knowledge, growing an imperfect ear on the back of a test mouse is bleeding edge science/technology.
But it could be easy in that alternate world.
It's just that it would not fit we've what we've seen till now.
The MC needs to have very difficult choices to make, even if he has to live with such a fundamental contradiction he wants to remain normal and a good guy... but still needs to feed on human flesh.

[NeoCybercoin]

Well, I'm not sure how it works but he could go after other ghouls and eat them instead. Perhaps that does the trick as well. It would certainly ease his mind a bit. Kill/eat the 'bad guys' and protect/don't eat the humans.

[MFauli]

Well, I'm not sure how it works but he could go after other ghouls and eat them instead. Perhaps that does the trick as well. It would certainly ease his mind a bit. Kill/eat the 'bad guys' and protect/don't eat the humans.

If what the enemy ghoul said holds any truth, then ghoul-flesh wouldn´t taste at all. It´d be like us eating human flesh. For a ghoul, humans are but livestock, like ants.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 03


----------------------------------









I don't think I can ever get used to seeing little girls eat flesh like that. Hinami was easily the most shocking ghoul-meal so far.

Would ghouls be hurt by pure metals the same way vampires are? Those briefcases seem to pack a punch on their own as well as throwing out some form of shuriken. Quite a covert weapon, really.

[MFauli]

I dont get it. We were shown that ghouls have supernatural powers, yet these two special officers hack and slay them like they´re flies.

Also, the ending scene fell completely flat. The guy entered the cafe as if to provoke some reaction, but nobody showed any sign of such. I was expecting Toka and the other veteran staff to react in a shocked/horrified way, since I assumed this guy in the red dress would be some super powerful enemy ghoul, but nothing happened. Weird.

Regarding using suicide victims as their food: It seems like a peaceful solution for their food problem at first, but when you think about it ... they base their living off other people´s misery. In other words, what would they do if people were happy enough not to commit suicide?

Although it´s rather bullshit anyway. Only being able to eat human meat, but no other meat? I´m sure most of us wouldn´t realize they were eating human meat if it came prepared like your typical steak or whatever. So ghouls should be able to eat animal meat, too.

[shinta|hikari]

What is this weird trend where people demand realism from anime? This isn't even trying to be realistic. It is diligently creating its own world with its own rules, and explaining it quite well, I think. We really should not complain about it being unrealistic as long as it follows its own rules, not the rules of our reality. It is a show about ghouls (very cute ones, like Touka, Hinami, and hot ones, like Rize) for crying out loud.

About the special powers, I think there is something special about the briefcase. They gave special attention to it in this episode.

[MFauli]

When a show puts a lot of focus on explaining various details about ghouls, how they work, how they function, how they interact with human beings, then, yes, I start to apply the expectation of a certain level of realism to it. Right now, this anime is in weird spot between pseudo-realism and fantasy. Other than the lack of explanation for some things (see: meat), the only element that is super-fantastical is the energy arms/wings/tentacles that those ghouls can manifest.

Don´t get me wrong, this is one of the highlights of the summer season. I´m just curious about some things.

[shinta|hikari]

But asking ghouls why they can only eat human meat but not other meat is like asking an elf why he has long ears, or why dragons breathe fire. Isn't it because that is just the way it is? Sure, they might have an explanation for it, but rather than getting a half assed one, I would rather just accept it as part of their world.

[MFauli]

That´s where I criticized the "weird spot between realism and fantasy". Only being able to eat HUMAN meat puts it into the magical realm. But most of the other elements have an inner believability to them, "suspense of disbelief" iirc. It is a compliment of mine to this anime that I even started to think about that stuff - wouldn´t do it for a show I don´t like. So this being the way it is, it annoys me that there´s no proper explanation ... yet. I guess it depends on what the anime plans to lay focus upon: Action-heavy battles, or rich world building. Heck, there´s enough room for both to be done.

[Buffalobiian]

As above, I suspected that the briefcases were made of some pure metal capable of harming the ghouls. They also shoot projectiles.

These guys are pretty much the less classy versions of vampires.

[Buffalobiian]

HS - Episode 04

-------------------------------------






This wasn't as exciting as past episodes. We did learn that cannibalism doesn't degrade you like it does in some vampire shows though.. it just tastes like shit bad meat.

I suppose human food would taste worse though. Touka's a weird one. For all her Ghoul World / Human World talk, she forced her friend's food down with water rather than trying to bring it up so she could legitimately say she ate it.

[shinta|hikari]

She loves her friend.

It is absolutely illogical, and thus logical.

[NeoCybercoin]

I guess she just wants to be human that badly