Just a warning, this review contains some slight spoilers about the structure of the show and how certain characters progress (no actual events), so you probably shouldn't read this if you want to go in completely blind.
Ah, Tokyo Ghoul. Where to even begin with this one. Some of the most common words I hear about this show are that it's "dark", "badass", and most of all, "edgy". And I think a good way to describe this show is through the meaning of the word "edgy" itself. In my eyes, edginess is used to describe something overly dramatic in a dark sense to the point where it's unrealistic enough to break immersion. Unfortunately for Tokyo Ghoul, despite doing everything else mostly right, it suffers quite a bit from this lack of realism.
STORY - 6.5/10
Let's start with some of the good stuff. The story revolves around a society built around humans and ghouls, which are humanoid creatures with weird powers that can only survive by eating people. I know, real pleasant. This dynamic created as a result of ghouls and humans living in the same world sparks some interesting discussions about discrimination, isolation, and best of all, the power of kindness. However, the story often feels forced into going in certain directions, not leaving enough time to properly foreshadow or develop big events. This starts happening especially near the end, and it takes quite a toll on character development. Which leads me to my next point....
CHARACTERS - 5.3/10
This was the weakest point of the show for me, and it's where the flaws in the writing really started to present themselves. Our protagonist is Ken Kaneki, the man who's worshipped around the globe by 12 year old boys and crushed on hardcore by 12 year old girls. Whenever this dude puts on his mask, panties drop so hard that....ok I'll stop. But yeah, this is the guy who gets the by far the most screen time, the most development, etc. He starts out pretty well as a nice kid at heart trying to fight off his harmful urges. So far so good, but there's a certain degree of ridiculousness in the way the show overdramatizes his inner conflict, to the point where I had to suppress my laughter. He keeps struggling with these urges for most of the show, and it doesn't really seem to get much worse or much better. That is, until near the end, where our boy undergoes some MASSIVE changes that are not just forced story-wise, but literally forced out of him by an outside influence. There's extremely little time to actually flesh out his development, and this causes his character to just feel unrealistic and inhuman, which is a shame since they'd been doing a fine job of showcasing his human side before then. As for the other characters, there's really not much to say. There are some nice ghouls, some mean ghouls, some nice humans, and some mean humans. There are also some of these who appear mean at first and later show caring sides, like say, Touka and Nishiki. But none of these are really developed beyond their personality traits. Now don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. The personalities of these characters are well defined and human-like, even in Kaneki (for most of the show). But in terms of development, there's definitely something left to be desired across the board.
ART - 7.3/10
The art in the show is the textbook definition of solid. Settings look realistic, fights are smooth and vibrant, and there's even some visual symbolism scattered throughout, which is always nice. Something that especially stood out to me was the art style for the characters. The people/ghouls look reallyyy good in this show. The dudes are hot and the girls are *hot*. That's all I really have to say, no complaints here but at the same time, nothing groundbreaking.
SOUND - 7.1/10
Soundtrack's also good. It fits nicely with the tone for each scene, and it never breaks the immersion of an impactful moment or fight. One track that stood out in particular was "Licht und Schatten," and it added a nice amount of hype/emotion to every scene it was played in. As far as the opening goes, it's also pretty good, and it's super iconic so there's that. The ending didn't really stand out to me though. And voice acting, well, it did what it was supposed to do successfully, but as I said before some of our characters can be quite the drama queens.
OVERALL ENJOYMENT - 6.5/10
As a result of all of this I definitely ended up enjoying the show more often than not. The premise was fun to follow and think about, and the more than adequate production quality helped drive home the experience. Even the characters were enjoyable to watch, but their emotional moments didn't hit quite as hard as they could've if these characters had been written more carefully. So in the end, If you like a lot of dark and heavy drama and you can suspend some level of disbelief in regards to characters, chances are that you'll thoroughly enjoy this.
Ah, Tokyo Ghoul. Where to even begin with this one. Some of the most common words I hear about this show are that it's "dark", "badass", and most of all, "edgy". And I think a good way to describe this show is through the meaning of the word "edgy" itself. In my eyes, edginess is used to describe something overly dramatic in a dark sense to the point where it's unrealistic enough to break immersion. Unfortunately for Tokyo Ghoul, despite doing everything else mostly right, it suffers quite a bit from this lack of realism.
STORY - 6.5/10
Let's start with some of the good stuff. The story revolves around a society built around humans and ghouls, which are humanoid creatures with weird powers that can only survive by eating people. I know, real pleasant. This dynamic created as a result of ghouls and humans living in the same world sparks some interesting discussions about discrimination, isolation, and best of all, the power of kindness. However, the story often feels forced into going in certain directions, not leaving enough time to properly foreshadow or develop big events. This starts happening especially near the end, and it takes quite a toll on character development. Which leads me to my next point....
CHARACTERS - 5.3/10
This was the weakest point of the show for me, and it's where the flaws in the writing really started to present themselves. Our protagonist is Ken Kaneki, the man who's worshipped around the globe by 12 year old boys and crushed on hardcore by 12 year old girls. Whenever this dude puts on his mask, panties drop so hard that....ok I'll stop. But yeah, this is the guy who gets the by far the most screen time, the most development, etc. He starts out pretty well as a nice kid at heart trying to fight off his harmful urges. So far so good, but there's a certain degree of ridiculousness in the way the show overdramatizes his inner conflict, to the point where I had to suppress my laughter. He keeps struggling with these urges for most of the show, and it doesn't really seem to get much worse or much better. That is, until near the end, where our boy undergoes some MASSIVE changes that are not just forced story-wise, but literally forced out of him by an outside influence. There's extremely little time to actually flesh out his development, and this causes his character to just feel unrealistic and inhuman, which is a shame since they'd been doing a fine job of showcasing his human side before then. As for the other characters, there's really not much to say. There are some nice ghouls, some mean ghouls, some nice humans, and some mean humans. There are also some of these who appear mean at first and later show caring sides, like say, Touka and Nishiki. But none of these are really developed beyond their personality traits. Now don't get me wrong, it's not all bad. The personalities of these characters are well defined and human-like, even in Kaneki (for most of the show). But in terms of development, there's definitely something left to be desired across the board.
ART - 7.3/10
The art in the show is the textbook definition of solid. Settings look realistic, fights are smooth and vibrant, and there's even some visual symbolism scattered throughout, which is always nice. Something that especially stood out to me was the art style for the characters. The people/ghouls look reallyyy good in this show. The dudes are hot and the girls are *hot*. That's all I really have to say, no complaints here but at the same time, nothing groundbreaking.
SOUND - 7.1/10
Soundtrack's also good. It fits nicely with the tone for each scene, and it never breaks the immersion of an impactful moment or fight. One track that stood out in particular was "Licht und Schatten," and it added a nice amount of hype/emotion to every scene it was played in. As far as the opening goes, it's also pretty good, and it's super iconic so there's that. The ending didn't really stand out to me though. And voice acting, well, it did what it was supposed to do successfully, but as I said before some of our characters can be quite the drama queens.
OVERALL ENJOYMENT - 6.5/10
As a result of all of this I definitely ended up enjoying the show more often than not. The premise was fun to follow and think about, and the more than adequate production quality helped drive home the experience. Even the characters were enjoyable to watch, but their emotional moments didn't hit quite as hard as they could've if these characters had been written more carefully. So in the end, If you like a lot of dark and heavy drama and you can suspend some level of disbelief in regards to characters, chances are that you'll thoroughly enjoy this.