Tokyo Ghoul √A Episode 5 東京喰種√A Anime Review

the One-eyed owl?

Wow, speechless. This episode was probably the best episode of this season so far in my opinion like straight out 10/10 and no, this is not fanboying all over the place, this is serious. One-eyed owl? Holy shit, like anime only viewers might wonder what I mean but for those who have read the manga know that this is way to early for that ghoul to show up! Before I get into that, lets discuss some other stuff we got to see in this incredible episode. We were shown a glimpse of Nashiro, Kurono and Suzuya's past during their ghoul-academy days. If there is one thing that has not changed in all these years is Suzuya's psychotic nature in fact this episode just helped to showcase it even more. His ideology about how he didn't care when one of their friends died back then was shocking. There's also a really sad and sentimental scene in which both the twins hold hands as Suzuya beats the crap out of them only to get sliced by him I suppose, I don't know, they blurred a lot of stuff during their whole fight. As those Twins escape and stop to catch a breather, Amon with struggling Akira catches them resting. Amon vividly remembers who these twins are and is shocked to see them turn into ghouls. 

Besides that we are also shown another really sad and tragic flashback during Shinohara and Ayato's fight in which Shinohara is shown having the upper hand, as Ayato runs out of energy, he just lays his fist on Shinohara's armor, the Arata which as we know is made from Ayato and Touka's Father. He remembers his dad telling a story to him and Touka back when they were kids, the symbolism in that story and the relation he had with his father is really striking as he never got as close as he had wished for with his father. Interesting to note how Shinohara mentions that his Arata was acting sluggish, pointing out that even though Ayato's father is dead but some of his memories are still passed on. After Ayato pretty much passes out, Centipede-chan comes out of nowhere, I've got to say, that entry was bad-ass. He's fast like way faster than even Shachi, speaking of Shachi, where is he? Anyway coming back to the point, Centipede-chan! Shinohara mentions that this form of ghoul is likely a half Kakuja and is the craziest ghoul he has ever seen. 

Shortly after their encounter in which Kaneki pretty much hurts Shinohara to an extend where he is unable to fight, CRC gas is released that suppresses the regeneration of Kagune or RC cells, and then things get ugly, off course in a good way. Amon, with Akira comes to the scene and watches "eye-patch" eating Shinohara's Arata. Fumed with anger like never seen before, Amon rushes all out on Kaneki and slices Kaneki's Kagune one by one as they fail to regenerate due to the gas present all over the place. Amon asks him that why he didn't kill him back then and says that the fact that he was eating just proves he is just like other ghouls. This is when Kaneki comes back to his senses. I really think that both Amon and Kankei are the only two characters who want to establish a coexistence between both Ghouls and humans, I mean Amon could have easily killed off Kaneki but instead he kept asking him questions thus proving they share similar goals.

Right towards the end, the One-eyed owl appears out of nowhere with the big claws of his and rescues both Ayato and Kaneki. Akira realized who the ghoul was pretty quickly, there's more to it which I suppose will be revealed in the future. Honestly, I was blown away when I saw one-eyed owl cause I didn't expect that to happen in this episode. One thing I've noticed in this season so far is that not a lot of focus is given on Kaneki's development, like he hardly has any screen time except for this episode and cause of this, it kinda feels like we are getting disconnected from him or is it done deliberately? I mean, anime only watcher might be wondering what this "centipede mode" is all about and would probably come to the conclusion that its a super form of a ghoul or something but trust me there's a lot more than what meets the eye and I hope they reveal all of it soon. Overall, a superb episode, Almost all build-up leading up this episode was executed superbly. The tone and atmosphere that the music created was superb, the tragic slow type music really suits this series. animation for the fight scenes was top notch as well. Thank you for reading this anime review, have a wonderful day or night wherever you live! Links to this episode are available in download section. Thoughts? let me know in the comments below.