Ken Kaneki continues his accepted path as a ghoul as he joins the ghoul terrorist group Aogiri Tree. ‘Abandoning’ his allies at Anteiku, Kaneki struggles to control his power and mental state as he begins cannibalizing ghouls in an effort to get stronger so he can protect his friends and loved ones.

Tokyo Ghoul Root A is the second season of the Tokyo Ghoul anime adaptation, it is produced by Studio Pierrot,  and licensed by Funimation. It is currently available in English on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Enemies become friends in Root A.

Being a huge fan of Tokyo Ghoul (having read the original manga and currently reading the sequel), I was happy to learn that the anime would be receiving a second season. Unfortunately, most of this season would not be canon, however it would be supervised by mangaka Sui Ishida. While others have had a tough time warming to season two of Tokyo Ghoul due to it’s original story (with little canon added), I thought for what it was it’s a fun “what if?” story for Ken Kaneki and his comrades.

Improved animation, action sequences, and more continue the Tokyo Ghoul series’ quality work.

THE GOOD: Tokyo Ghoul Root A is a great continuation to the well received first season of the anime. A huge improvement on action scenes and animation overall makes astounding work of the series quality. The OST is still fantastically composed by Yutaka Yamada. It should be noted that Root A is far more gory and action oriented compared to season one.

High octane action is in Root A.

THE BAD: Despite being an original story, I felt that there could have been far more canon moments put into season two than the little amount we received, I’m admittedly very keen on canon anime adaptations, especially when I’ve actually read its source material.

RIP  Hide.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Tokyo Ghoul Root A will definitely have a love it or hate relationship for fans of the original manga. More likely than not fans of the series who haven’t read the manga will enjoy it more (though I do know some of that crowd who were still disappointed). I will say that I appreciate Ishida getting involved in a non-canon follow up of his franchise, and his attempt to try something different. And in reality we don’t know if this was Sui’s final draft of the manga before changes were made or not. However, Tokyo Ghoul Root A is still a quality second season to a quality anime. Otaku Dome gives Tokyo Ghoul Root A an 92 out of 100.