Tokyo Ghoul | Episode 12 (Finale)
GingaDaiuchuu: Haha, that was the end? Man, they really didn’t give a fuck about being conclusive on this one. It was a pretty decent penultimate episode featuring some of the strongest content in a while, thanks to the fact that they didn’t try rushing it, but because of that it also left them with no time to wrap anything up other than the very immediate issue at hand. Of course, even if this was the penultimate episode it would still be a typical truncated anime adaptation of a long-running manga series, albeit one that was much more briskly paced, likely caring more about getting things done than slavishly adhering to the source material. Obviously it needs a lot more than one cour regardless, and its one cour really needed the full 13 episodes, but it was still better than it could’ve been in a lot of ways. I wonder if they had actually plotted it out with plans for a thirteenth episode and got cut down at some point but decided to just say fuck it.
Buckeye: This episode feels just like the way the original Evangelion ended, but in a much more violent way. At least Kaneki has found his resolve to live as a ghoul, but the war is still going on, and there’s no resolution whatsoever seeing how the previous episode sets the stage for some big fights to go down, only for those to never be shown. The episode itself wasn’t so bad, but it is just an improper way to end this series.
Overall, this show has a very strong story that has me captivated like very few shows could do. What I really like about this show is that this story is well-developed from both the perspectives of the humans and ghouls. Episode 8 is in the running for best episode of the year is seeing the kind of spillover effect this war is having. While the story is great, the adaptation at the end was poorly handled given the rushed nature of the war itself, and that’s really the biggest gripe I have about this show (and then there’s the censoring that will be removed once it is ready for BD release). So coming into this season, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this show as much as I did seeing that horror isn’t my kind of show, but this show ends up being a whole lot more and it’s that stuff that really made this show go. But while there was a lot of good coming out of this show, Pierrot just dropped the ball on the ending.
Sly05: Damn, I didn’t realize this was the final episode. While we did get substantial character development for Kaneki, it cut off before providing any sort of conclusion for the current story arc. I’m not familiar with the source material, but it does seem like one more episode would have been all that they needed to at least provide a better ending.
Tokyo Ghoul has been one of the highlights of the season for me, even with the heavy censoring and unfortunate ending. It did a good job making both sides of the conflict seem sympathetic despite more than a few characters who were over the top evil or a little quick to turn into good guys.
Buckeye: According to the official Chinese site that a second season is coming this winter. Of course, I won’t believe it until it is confirmed by Sui Ishida or Pierrot and it is on the Japanese website. But if it is true, then that would explain why the series ended the way it did.
GingaDaiuchuu: Still a bizarre season finale considering it ends with neither a conclusion nor a cliffhanger, but if we only have to wait a cour for more, that should serve to solve at least some of the problems I mentioned in my post. Hopefully all goes well. The manga apparently ended on the same day as the first season, so they may be able to conclude the story if they go quickly enough.
