Tokyo Ghoul:re Episode 4 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? Tokyo Ghoul:re, Episode 4.

And what’s happening? As I recall, last episode was just a whole lot of set-up for an action filled episode. Did this one deliver the goods? I’d say so, it was very sinister, and moody and then exploded into a lot of action scenes between different characters in a lot of different locations in and around the human-auction site.

One of the better action moments in the episode.

So it succeeded in its promise? Well…

Well what? Well I didn’t say the action was great…

Oh no. Okay so it’s not all bad, I mean there were a couple of moments that were pretty great and stylish, but there was also a lot of parts that didn’t seem very clear or the action didn’t seem very impactful or visceral. Like things weren’t connecting in the right ways, it’s kind of hard to explain… it’s like… it’s like if you’re watching a live action horror movie and there’s practical effects and then suddenly there’s some CGI blood. And it just doesn’t look right.

That expression seems familiar…

Since when do you watch live action horror movies? I went through a phase.

Right, I guess I see what you’re getting at. It’s just it seemed weightless and lacking detail and ‘oompf’. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

Any other problems? Yes, unfortunately. They introduced, or reintroduced so many damn characters in this episode it was insane! And because my memory of season 1 is hazy at best, I don’t know if these are characters who were introduced then, or during the not animated period between the first season and this one. It was mildly confusing at first, but this is the first time I feel like I’m actively missing out on important information from not having read the manga which bridged the story.

I don’t know who this is, but he’s creepy as heck!

That bad, huh? Like we suddenly have characters who have important relationships to existing characters and I’m just sitting there like ‘I get this is supposed to be an important scene with these characters meeting again, but I have no idea why?’

So what does that mean for watching this show going forward? Not a lot really, I mean maybe I’ll look into some backstories like what’s the deal between Juuzou Suzuya and Big Madam? Maybe I should have watched the much maligned Root A series before watching this one…

Juuzou’s so cool…

So you’re going to continue then? Of course, confusion aside I’m still enjoying the show a lot. I enjoy the universe and the characters and for those who thought the show was too light it does feel like it’s getting darker. Obviously if you’ve not read the manga and gave Root A a wide berth like me you’ll probably be pretty confused too, but I can usually overlook those things if it’s not an adaptation problem and rather a problem with me not being clued up to the events preceding the season.

…And damn cute too.