Hide is so wrong… so very wrong.
Within a minute or two of starting Tokyo Ghoul, I knew it was a show for me.
Kaneki is a normal guy, with a side-kick best buddy named Hide and a crush on the pretty girl at the coffee shop he frequents. While Hide and Kaneki argue the merits of taking a girl to a bookstore on a first date, there’s buzz that “ghouls” are attacking again, indiscriminately murdering and eating people. It’s all background noise to Kaneki though — at least for now — as he tries to calm his nerves for his big date.
It’s a bit cliched — more than a bit — to say that Kaneki’s life is about to change on that first date, which almost proves to be his last.
Within the first two minutes we know Tokyo Ghoul isn’t going to shy away from blood and murder — ghouls eat people, remember — and we’re treated to a “binge-eating” ghoul who we later find looks suspiciously like Kaneki’s lady love having a snack of some poor victim. The atmosphere is dark and there’s no OP in the beginning of this first episode – it all reads very seriously. When we switch to the coffee shop we see how normal everything appears to be; when Kaneki does finally make it on the date with his mystery girl — Rize — things go a little too smoothly, though Kaneki notices she doesn’t eat much…
Tokyo Ghoul reads to me like the vampire stories that are so popular nowadays, where the main character fights to become anything but the monster he’s possibly doomed to be, to remain human. It’s not completely original and it’s no secret that Kaneki is slowly becoming a ghoul, but his realizations — that food doesn’t taste right, that people suddenly look a little tastier than they should — are the best parts of this first episode. When Kaneki hears on TV that ghouls can’t stand the taste of human food, he tears through all of the food in his house, throwing up every bite through tears. His apartment is dark and the camera is a little shaky; you know that Kaneki is desperate to be proven wrong.
I’d cry too if hamburgers didn’t taste good anymore.
Except he’s obviously not. Kaneki is hungry and quickly finds that there are other hungry ghouls to contend with — territories, turfs, dead people. Not only will it be interesting to see how Kaneki manages his new “hunger,” but I’m also curious to see how Hide and Kaneki’s friendship will fit into everything. Obviously they’re good buddies — Hide loads Kaneki up with food once he’s home from the hospital, and lets him know his favorite author is doing a book signing — but I’m afraid Hide might become a “meal”…
As I was watching Tokyo Ghoul I thought, “This may be my show this season,” which is every bit as premature as it sounds, but I liked Tokyo Ghoul just that much. It’s dark and bloody with music to fit (the OP playing at the end is perfect) and you get a good peek into Kaneki’s mind…is the second episode out yet?
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manjiorin
Manjiorin is 26 years old and not nearly as cool as the characters she reads about in manga, unless they hold desk jobs and try to discreetly read manga at work. She prefers seinen manga of the bloody variety (yay Berserk and Blade of the Immortal) but d'aww's and baww's at Kimi ni Todoke. Her boringly sporadic thoughts are on Twitter.
Latest posts by manjiorin (see all)
- Summer Anime 2014: Tokyo Ghoul Impressions - July 7, 2014
- Urasawa’s Monster: The Perfect Edition Is Out July 15 - June 25, 2014
- How Do You Purchase Your Manga Today? - June 2, 2014
- Kids Like Manga, Too! - May 30, 2014
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