English Dub Review: Tokyo Ghoul Re “union: Close Game”

Old rivalries.

Overview:

As the raid continues, new parties come face to face.

Our Take:

I feel like I’ve talked a lot about the animation in Re: and boy, I could talk about that forever, because the quality is just so low for a show that should surely have a decent enough budget considering how much of a big IP it is. However, this episode didn’t have as much action- at least not as much plot-heavy action, so we’ll take a break from my criticism about that front.

Let’s talk about pacing.

I don’t think the original Tokyo Ghoul was without faults: I really do think that some portions could have been sped up to be more contained as a narrative, as it felt like Ishida was almost getting tired towards the end. If he was, I don’t blame him, but it was fairly visible. Some parts definitely felt stretched, and I recall reading through some of the chapters thinking, ‘okay, more could’ve happened here.’ There were some good stretches, but a lot of just mediocre ones. The anime however, seems to be taking things in the exact opposite direction.

The anime is very determined to make things as fast as humanly possible. Now, of course this is necessary for the anime to function. Not everything can be shown in full detail in a short 12~13 episode season, this so it’s expected that some details will be left and things will be relatively compressed. Unfortunately, the anime seems to be speeding things up to the extreme. This is more harmful than helpful, as something that has depth and is impactful now feels hurried and tacked on. There is no urgency because there’s no time to feel the seriousness of things. There are no stakes because we are told something is important as opposed to coming to that conclusion ourselves. We’re being lead along by the hand and told to invest in things, but that’s not how it works. Not to mention the fact that not everyone is like me and had read the manga. To anime-only fans, trying to keep up with a roller coaster plotline is more of a chore than an enjoyable factor.

Suzuya is one of my favorite characters, and his rematch with Kuro has been set up since the very first season. I thought I’d be excited to see him in action. Instead, I felt like I was watching an imitation of the character I enjoy. Most of my investment came from my previous investment instead of what was being shown to me. Quite simply, that shouldn’t be.