Tokyo Ghoul:re Episode 2 Review: Fragments: member

This week’s episode of Tokyo Ghoul:re was great. Wonderful setting and pacing of the plot with so many emotions involved. It feels so nice to see old characters coming back to the spotlight and see how they developed over the course of time.

Japanese Original Episode Title: 欠片 member

Plot

Orochi, aka Nishio, fights with Sasaki who has embraced his inner beast, aka Kaneki, and becomes deadly serious for blood. Kaneki realizes that Orochi is Nishio and starts having unclear memory throwbacks, but before he even gets time to think of what is happening, he is suspended by Akira and the CCG. When he comes back to his senses, he demotes Urie for his behavior and promotes Ginshi to Quinx Squad captain. Sasaki then meets with Arima where they spar and talk about his memories and Rabbit meets up with Torso to make him join the Aogiri Tree. The Quinx Squad is given a new target, ‘The Nutcracker’. On their way to their mission, they decide to stop by a coffee shop named ‘:re’, where Sasaki recognizes Touka and starts crying.

Episode Highlights

Orochi Vs Sasaki: That fight felt like an introduction to all the violence that is about to follow in the anime. The action was okay but didn’t really have an amazing impact. It was nice to see the insane version of Kaneki into battle once again though. How funny were the sounds that Sasaki made when he was punched in the belly? I honestly thought that the audio of the video looped or something.

Nutcracker: I am starting to love all the obvious names that this season’s ghouls are given. First Torso with his torsos and now Nutcracker that literally likes to crushes nuts-testicles.

Saiko: That little girl will definitely have a big fandom. She likes to stay inside the house and play video games, she likes to eat ham all by herself, plus she is chibi with huge boobs. Yup, definitely ‘best girl’ material, as they say.

Sasaki and Touka: That was probably the best scene in the whole episode, seeing sexy Renji as soon as he goes in and then the beautiful Touka. The moment when they meet eyes, and even though they understand who each other is, they say nothing, with Touka only smiling and Kaneki crying. Just lovely.

Themes & Trivia

Ghoul eye: When Sasaki saw Touka in the coffee shop, he shed a tear from his ghoul’s eye and not from his human eye, so it is safe to assume that the one who was crying was Kaneki and not Sasaki who doesn’t remember a thing about her but feels reminiscent of the whole atmosphere.

‘I’ll die, I’ll die, was it?’: That was such a great reference from the first season. When Sasaki is fighting Orochi and his mask drops making Kaneki realize that he is Nishio, he says the following: ‘I’ll die, I’ll die, was it?’ If you remember, in the first season of Tokyo Ghoul, when Kaneki was fighting Nishio and he went all crazy, Nishio yelled at him: ‘I am dying, I am dying, I am dying!’ countless of times. This is what Orochi is referencing in that scene.

Comments

So uhm… Urie is clearly bipolar or does he just have a great poker face? With those grumpy cat eyes, he is not very easy to read anyways. He will definitely stir up some trouble in the near future with his personality and the way he does things. And now Ayato goes by the name of Rabbit? And Touka just works in the coffee shop? It’s kind of hard to believe that but surely we will be enlightened about their situation soon enough.

A couple of things about Sasaki aka Kaneki. First of all, his design is much more thorough and polished than any other character in the show, except maybe Touka, but seriously if you take him and compare him to Ginshi, for example, the difference in the details is quite apparent. The situation that he is in is very sad, even Akira said it. If he realizes that he is being tricked by the CCG and is basically manipulated, he is sure to go insane and on a rampage with no turning back. Despite all that, I think Sasaki should stay away from girls in coffee shops. Last time he met one there, things didn’t turn out pretty well.

You are irredeemable.

That was a nice quote from Nishio. Really enjoyed this episode. The quality finally matches up with my expectations and I really hope that this will be consistent throughout the whole season. Even though I am sure that some things will be rushed and bits and parts will be missed nevertheless this looks promising so far.

NEXT TIME: Eve: fresh (前夜祭 fresh)