Tokyo Ghoul √A Episode 1 東京喰種√A Anime Review

Alternate setting done right

Tokyo Ghoul's popularity increased dramatically last year after it's anime started airing. By the time the 12 episodes were aired and all the dust settled, there were 3 kinds of people. Those who have only seen the anime and liked it, the ones who had read the manga prior to Anime and just plain hated it and criticized it for skipping a lot of stuff and then those who had read the manga and liked the anime as well. I was one of those who belonged to that third category. And so after the rumors were clarified and official season 2 was announced, I was over the moon at the time but somewhat came down to Earth on realizing it was based on "original manuscript" and that it won't follow the manga. 

Beautiful

Diving right into the anime now, I've read the complete manga of Tokyo Ghoul and the first volume of Tokyo Ghoul :re so I knew what kind of twist I was going to expect after reading some wild rumors of  what happened from those who saw the first episode in early screenings. It has a new opening song and pretty much everyone I know pretty much hated it but still, I liked it for some reason. The story progression may feel rushed at times for example when Suzuya is dragging a body of someone. Most people wont get it but for those who read the manga pretty much knows that Suzuya found Jason lying helplessly after Kaneki defeated him and somewhat ate him but didn't kill him. He attached Suzuya and well Suzuya killed him pretty quickly. Anyway moving on, they skipped one of my favorite Kaneki's scene where he "half kills" Ayato as well but what surprised me was Hide was actually watching or saw Kaneki from far away with his binoculars which doesn't happen in the Manga. 

New Family

The OST is superb, the ending song is good as well but I for one think that the previous OP and ending song were way better. The biggest possible twist is Kaneki joining Aogiri Tree, again completely different from manga. A lot of new characters like Kurona, Nashiro, Eto etc are introduced for the first time as well. Overall a lot of set up was done in this episode and there are a lot of scenes in this episodes which contradicts the manga but they so in good way keeping the story interesting for both, those who have read the manga and want something different and for those who only saw the anime. A Really good first episode for the series which is hyped so heavily. Interested to see how the story develops from now on. Thank you for reading this anime review, have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Thoughts? let me know in the comments below.