Tokyo Ghoul:re

Episode 15

Hey, remember that raid on Rushima that we saw like one minute of back at the beginning of this season? Well, we're putting Kaneki's story on hold and going back to that. In fact, this is an entirely Kaneki-less episode of Tokyo Ghoul:re, which I don't mind in theory, and I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen more often given the story's constantly ballooning cast and byzantine collection of subplots. I even mentioned last week that I wanted to follow up with the Quinx squad and how they've been handling the loss of Shirazu. It's just too bad that we get practically none of that.

This is a mess of an episode, jumping around the island of Rushima between about half a dozen miniature conflicts, which themselves vacillate between at least a dozen different side character arcs and subplots. Mutsuki is captured by Torso. Takizawa kills Hachikawa (that guy who looks like Vash the Stampede). One of Juzo's goons has a fight with one of Aogiri's goons, which then gets interrupted by some ghoul named Kurona, which then gets interrupted by Juzo himself, who also has a history with this new ghoul. Eto's right-hand man Tatara squares off against Mado's squad and turns into a Dark Souls boss. Takizawa swoops in and kills Tatara because he still wants the CCG's approval. Kurono goes off to complain to a mad doctor named Kanou that she wants her sister, who is currently grafted into her torso, to be revived. Said doctor sics an army of ex-investigators-turned-half-naked-half-ghouls on her. Also this doctor created Owl-Takizawa and probably Kaneki too. Mado still orders Takizawa to be killed. Amon's alive. He's a half-ghoul now too. Nishiki arrives at Kanou's lair. Urie and Saiko show up to exterminate Takizawa. Remember Naki? He's that blond ghoul with the white suit. He's poised to have a heroic sacrifice. And look at that, Shu's here.

I don't even know if I covered everything that happened, but you get the idea. This feels less like a Tokyo Ghoul episode and more like an episode of Riverdale, determined to cram in more plot and more twists than the human body can handle. But whereas Riverdale lets itself be absurd and fun, everything here feels grim and exhausting. You might have noticed that I dropped in the revelation about Amon unceremoniously in the middle of the paragraph, but I was only trying to mimic how the episode itself handles that bombshell. In a way, I appreciate the nonchalance, which seems to respect an audience who by now have surely figured out that nobody dies in Tokyo Ghoul. Or at least, nobody dies only once. But Amon's death was a huge lingering concern at the end of Root A and at the start of :re. He used to be the show's secondary protagonist! This revelation should be treated like a big deal, especially by Mado, who loved him, grieved his death, and is right there when he swoops in, but the episode's pacing simply doesn't allow for it. He's thrown into battle immediately, and even that heavy confrontation between former coworkers and friends is cut short by more players entering the scene. There's no room to form an emotional connection with anything that goes down.

But Tokyo Ghoul needs that emotional connection. One of its defining characteristics is its willingness to dive into the pathos of every character regardless of their allegiances. However, this requires time and thoughtfulness, and while I'll admit that Sui Ishida is better than most at turning a minor character into a tragic figure on a dime, this technique breaks down in this rushed environment. Take Hachikawa's death, for example. I can only remember him from one or two prior scenes, so he's hardly been an important character. His partner, Hogi, I definitely don't remember. Maybe she's been in the background before, but let's just say she's a brand new character. Anyway, he dies protecting her, and all we get is a short flashback between her and Hachikawa where he comments that she shouldn't hide her freckles with her hair. The expectation is that we're supposed to feel sad for her loss. But we only met this character a minute ago! All we know is she was insecure about her freckles, and Hachikawa was nice to her. That's not enough time or information to form a connection. You can't go through the motions of a tragedy and expect it to feel like a tragedy. There's an art to painting the spectrum of human emotions, and this episode sacrifices all of it for the sake of jamming through as much plot as possible.

At least there are some interesting nuggets in this episode. Owl-Takizawa's genesis as an attempt to create another Kaneki, horrific torture and all, fully establishes him as a foil. He's an example of what would have happened to Kaneki without the support of Anteiku and people like Hide. Urie seems to have taken Shirazu's death hard and reverted back to caring only about moving up the CCG ladder. Kanou's experiments further blur the line between ghouls and humans—and raise a lot more questions about the CCG's real relationship with its supposed enemy (and vice versa). I'm sure we'll get there eventually, and maybe these events do set off interesting trajectories, but for now this episode stands as a graceless dump of exposition. The only way it might have worked is with some captivating direction and above-average animation, turning it into a technical showcase. Sadly, it's rather boilerplate, and if this is how we're starting, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the season. I will still hold out hope that Tokyo Ghoul can find its dramatic footing once again, but it needs to let itself breathe if that's ever going to happen.

Rating: C

Tokyo Ghoul:re is currently streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Steve is an anime-reviewing zombie who can be found making bad posts about anime on Twitter.