Tokyo Ghoul:re Episode 1 Review: Those Who Hunt: START

Alright! Tokyo Ghoul is back once more with its third season. Is it going to be a disaster like the second one or this time it will actually follow the plot of the manga? The first episode was promising enough, so let’s hope to see a decent plot that explains what happened and not just randomly throw at us random events and just let us deal with them.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 狩る者たちＳＴＡＲＴ

Plot

The events take place some years after the Anteiku raid, where CCG has created a new force of investigators called Quinx, humans that possess ghoul abilities. The CCG is currently after two ghouls, the S-Rated Orochi and another one called Torso. The story follows the Quinx team which is consisted of five members, the leader Sasaki and Urie, Mutsuki, Toru, and Saiko. They are looking for Torso and in their attempts to capture him they stumble upon Orochi which ends up in an intense fight between them. The Quinx team is easily defeated by him until Sasaki decides to let his kagune out and release his inner beast.

Episode Highlights

Mado Punch: She really gave him a lesson with that vile punch. The older she gets the more tsundere she gets. I wonder if she is in a relationship with Amon by now.

The photographer – informant: Why the hell did she need a personal item from Sasaki? And why the hell did the other guys brought to her his underwear? Does she want to run a DNA test on him so she can learn more about him and his abilities, or is she just a perv?

Torso: So… Torso is named Torso because he only takes the torsos of his victims when he eats them? Not very innovative and deep as the rest of the names in Tokyo Ghoul but I will take it. Probably because he is just an uninteresting side-character.

Themes & Trivia

Orochi: Yamata no Orochi, (‘8-branched giant snake’) or Orochi (大蛇), is a legendary 8-headed and 8-tailed Japanese dragon. So get ready to see some real badass skills and kagune from that character.

Quinx: In ancient Rome, a quincunx was a coin with a weight equal to five-twelfths of a libra, a unit of weight similar to a pound. The coin’s name comes from the Latin roots quinque, meaning ‘five,’ and uncia, meaning ‘one-twelfth.’ So maybe Ishida is referencing this to show that Quinx are much weaker than an original Ghoul since they are not born with their powers.

Cochlea: The cochlea, which derives from Ancient Greek κοχλίας (kōhlias), meaning ‘spiral, snail shell’, is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans. A core component of the cochlea is the Organ of Corti, the sensory organ of hearing, which is distributed along the partition separating fluid chambers in the coiled tapered tube of the cochlea.

Comments

Okay… am I the only one that can see all these spoilers everywhere? I haven’t even read the manga of Tokyo Ghoul and only from the opening plus the voice acting you can understand a lot of things. I think it’s pretty obvious who Sasaki is but what really got to me is that I know who Orochi is from the way he speaks and from his voice, if you are a fan of the anime’s seiyuus, in general, it’s pretty easy to get it. Mutsuki Toru reminds me so much of Armin from Attack on Titan. I am not talking about his character design only but his personality as well looks pretty similar with Armin. Oh well, I will have to wait and see I guess.

Also, I was expecting another great opening or ending song by Ling Tosite Sigure, but once again I was let down. The opening of Tokyo Ghoul:re is called ‘asphyxia’ by Cöshu Nie and I have to say it really makes you feel suffocated when you listen to it. It’s not bad and it goes really well with the vibe of the anime but all the different elements of music in the background almost gave me a migraine. The ending though, “Half” by Ziyoou-vachi was so chill and refreshing, I really liked it.

I don’t have to explain myself to a side-character that is about to die.

Orochi is definitely sassy and I really dig this. The next episode is probably going to be the first bloodbath of this season and I hope that it’s not going to be super censored as they usually do with Tokyo Ghoul fights. What are your thoughts on the third season? Did you like the episode? For those that have read the manga, is it up to your expectations? Let us know in the comments!

NEXT TIME: Fragments ‘Kakera’