Summer ’14 anime reviews part 1: Tokyo Ghoul and Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun

The summer 2014 anime season is coming to an end and once again I’ll be reviewing the series that I watched all the way through. Only two ended this week, so I’ll be reviewing the remaining four next time. So for now, what did I think of one of the most horrifying and one of the funniest anime I’ve seen in a while?…

Tokyo Ghoul

Looking back at Tokyo Ghoul now, it’s definitely not the type of anime I would normally pick to watch. I think the reason I picked it was because I saw it was highly rated when the first couple of episodes aired, and I read a bit about the story and it sounded interesting. I went into it expecting a gory horror drama, and I guess that’s what I got…

Just so you know, I don’t have a problem with extreme violence or gore in anime as long as it’s not of the torturous variety. What I mean by this is that I have no qualms about seeing limbs getting sliced off and geysers of blood spurting everywhere like in anime such as Claymore and Attack on Titan. In most anime like this, someone gets killed or injured, whether it’s getting shot, sliced up by a monster, or whatever, there’s a lot of blood, and then it’s over. What I do tend to have a problem with is when the violence is dragged on so much that it becomes torturous to watch, which was unfortunately the case most of the time in Tokyo Ghoul; it wasn’t the gore and creepy villains that bothered me but the number of dragged on scenes of characters getting repeatedly beaten to a pulp and put through agony over and over. Whether it was the battle with Tsukiyama and seeing the characters, especially Nishiki, getting repeatedly beaten up, or watching poor Kaneki getting utterly tortured in the last three episodes, I came to realize that I didn’t have a problem with the amount of violence the series had, but the kind of violence – I felt like I was watching torture porn and I thought to myself, “God, this is horrible, why am I watching this?” I’m fine with blood flying everywhere, but having to sit though drawn on scenes of characters screaming in pain just isn’t enjoyable. Like, was it really necessary to show Jason slam an already bloodied Kaneki all over Anteiku that many times? Seeing him get beaten up once or twice would have gotten the same dramatic tone across without becoming agonizing to sit through. Likewise, did we really have cut back to Kaneki screaming in pain as he’s tortured by Jason that many times in the last couple of episode? Again, we know he’s chained up in there getting tortured, so just seeing it once or twice would have been enough to get the point across. Maybe there’s some audience out there that isn’t content with just gore but likes to see torture along with it, and maybe that’s the audience Tokyo Ghoul is going for.

Another thing I found myself thinking during the many violent scenes was, “Shouldn’t this person be dead by now?” I know it was revealed that Kaneki has some kind of regenerating powers, but do all ghouls have that? If not then how the hell was Nishiki able to survive all those beatings from Tsukiyama, and how was Tsukiyama able to survive his injuries? And what about all the times Touka was impaled? Even if they lived they should be laid up in the hospital for months! And if all ghouls do have amazing healing powers, then how do you kill them? Why do some die so easily (like Ryoko and that ghoul Kaneki meets in the first episode) and others don’t?

So you probably think I didn’t like Tokyo Ghoul. But actually, besides the violence being too agonizing or not making much sense, I liked everything else about it. I thought the concept of the ghouls was really cool – these creatures struggling to be human even though they can only live by eating humans, and the rift between ghouls who choose to do evil and those trying to do good – it was all interesting. That’s probably why I liked the early episodes of the series more than the latter ones; there was more focus on Kaneki learning about the world of the ghouls as opposed to just horrible things happening to the characters. Speaking of the characters, I did actually like them as a whole. Kaneki is a good protagonist, and despite being wishy-washy early on, I really liked the self-realization he came to in episode 12 about how he shouldn’t always let himself get hurt in place of others and that it’s okay to hurt others if necessary. His relationship with Hide was very well executed too and I could really get a feeling for how much he means to Kaneki. Touka was kind of a predictable tsundere, hating Kaneki at first and then warming up to him later, but she was still likable enough. The other characters like Yomo, Yoshimura, Uta, and Hinami were good too. Speaking of Hinami, I found her story to be one of the most tragic precisely because I wasn’t distracted by any dragged on scenes of violence – her mother’s death is quick yet it got that tragic feeling across very well. One thing I also took issue with in the series, besides the painful violence, is when it tried to make us like characters we already saw were pretty sadistic villains, like turning Nishiki into a “good guy” and randomly making Tsukiyama join up with Anteiku even though it seemed really unnecessary to the story. They even try to make us sympathize with Mado by showing how much Amon likes him. But yeah, despite how much I enjoyed Nishiki’s backstory with his girlfriend, I found it hard to forgive these guys after what they did.

It was pretty obvious in the last episode that this is only the first season of Tokyo Ghoul and I read that season 2 is scheduled to air in the winter 2015 season. I may or may not watch it depending on if I feel I can stomach more animated torture, and I may or may not review it depending on how much more I have to say about it. But as for my thoughts on this first season, I liked the series for the characters, premise, and some of the poignant dramatic moments, but because of all the painfully torturous scenes, I can’t say I enjoyed watching it much of the time.

Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun

In stark contrast to the pain and terror in Tokyo Ghoul, Gekkan Shojo Nozaki-kun was a light, cute, and funny slice-of-life comedy that gave me surprisingly more laughs that I thought it would. Since it’s based on a 4-koma manga and there isn’t much of a story to it, I don’t have too much to say other than, yeah, it was one of the funniest anime I’ve seen a while. The characters are great in how their personalities bounce off each other, which is important in a comedy series. Whether it’s Nozaki being so absorbed in the manga world that he doesn’t have a clue about things in the real world much to Chiyo’s exasperation (the umbrella scene with the two of them…I was cracking up!), Hori chasing down an oblivious Kashima, Wakamatsu going to the theater with Yuzuki (another hilarious scene by the way), Nozaki not having a clue about his editor Ken and subjecting his already cliche manga characters to all the random ideas he gets, the guys having a sleepover and trying to do “girl talk,” Wakamatsu mistaking Kashima for Yuzuki’s boyfriend in the last episode…there were just so many funny scenes and memorable moments in the series. I’m not sure I would place it on the level of the best anime comedies I’ve seen, like Azumanga Daioh and certain episodes of Slayers, but it’s close.

I’m hoping for a second season but it doesn’t look like there will be one. The last episode ended as I thought it would – more focus than usual on the main romance, looking like something is going to develop, but that isn’t the case and it just goes back to reaffirming the status quo and poor Chiyo has to accept that XD So yeah, I don’t have much else to say about it – well written humor, funny characters, and just an overall good time.

—–

Next time I’ll review Mahouka, Free! Eternal Summer, Zankyou no Terror, and Glassip. See ya then~!