English Dub Review: Tokyo Ghoul √A “Old Nines”

I have to hand it to the writers of Tokyo Ghoul. First, We get some much needed information on the One-Eyed Owl. It took 20 episodes so far, but we get the origin of the Owl…to an extent. The entire segment before the opening was Kaneki talking to Yoshimura, and Yoshimura dropped the bomb that the Owl is his son! Yeah, that was something that hit my upside the head.

As for the rest of “Old Nines,” I kept getting a “calm before the storm” feeling. I was finally feeling, that the big payoff may finally be coming. I can’t get into too many specifics, Yoshimura seems to be putting a lot of his last moments in order before he goes to fight some  epic battle. But it wasn’t just that. Kaneki, who has done nothing except almost becoming a kakuya and getting his ass kicked. However, the one interaction he has with a character not kicking his ass advanced the plot extremely far. The pacing still sucks though.

I honestly can’t put a finger on why I really enjoyed “Old Nines.” But “Old Nines’ was the first episode of Tokyo Ghoul that felt like a complete episode. Granted, I am going to need to watch this a few times just to get all of the hidden plot. It sounds really weird, but I am going to go back and see how much of the garbage it had written off actually could make sense after this week.

It took eight weeks so far, but I think we finally have a destination to go to, and it looks like all out war is coming to the 20th Ward. Kaneki is on his own team, the only person who knows anything is going on at the coffee shop is Yoshimura, and everyone is making moves on the One-Eyed Owl.  If this doesn’t make for good television, then Tokyo Ghoul is a lost cause.