The third season of Tokyo Ghoul closes with a big manga reference and preview of what’s to come when the anime returns in October. In the epic finale Haise Sasaki finally accepts his former self Ken Kaneki as he battles Kanae & The One-Eye Owl, Eto. Meanwhile, the CCG battle the remnants of the Tsukiyama family.

Tokyo Ghoul: re is the 2018 third season of Tokyo Ghoul, it is produced by Studio Pierrot and licensed by Funimation. Season 3 is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll & Funimation Now in its entirety.

Editor’s Note: This review contains near complete to complete spoilers for Tokyo Ghoul:re Season 1.

“Will you accept me Haise?”

Taking place after the original manga series, Tokyo Ghoul:re, like it’s source material follows Haise Sasaki, an CCG Investigator who just so happens to be a one-eyed Ghoul. Sasaki leads a young band of one-eyed ghouls known as the Quinx Squad who are also investigators as they invade the dark underworld of Ghouls throughout their career. Along the way, Sasaki begins to slowly unravel the truth of his secret past.

Haise losing control.

THE GOOD: Let’s just get this out of the way. Anime only viewers are going to be confused as hell as to what’s going on in the anime adaptation of :re. If you remember, season two; Root A is a re-imagining of the second half of the original manga, and while they did cover certain panels of the manga the anime original content only hurt the story if you didn’t read the manga as well. I know this because I’ve had anime only friends ask me about what’s happening with the series as :re goes on. Even with that being said, Pierrot tried their damnedest to commit to the panel-to-screen adaptation of the :re manga, and there’s really only important details missing from the earlier episodes, but as the season goes on Pierrot really starts to find its grove with the canon and each episode becomes more and more flawless from a production and adaptation standpoint. Which is funny as Pierrot had to outsource :re to a studio in Korea for some of its animation. Not that outsourcing is bad or anything, it just becomes a bit obvious when it occurs even if you ignore the credits.

Haise (middle) with Shirazu (top left), Urie (bottom left), Mutsuki (top right), and Saiko (bottom right).

While Haise is the lead of the series, other characters of the CCG and Ghoul side of the story do get a good amount of screen time. Mainly consisting of Urie, Shirazu, Akira Mado, and Shuu Tsukiyama. Action does suffer a bit due to the story, but the earlier chapters of the manga was like this as well. Whenever we do get action scenes it’s usually pretty great and the animation of the Kagunes and such is always beautiful. Haise’s struggles with his former identity as Ken Kaneki is a compelling story and Haise consistently being re-introduced to important people of his former life is challenge he has to take on as he’s at odds on keeping his current life or returning to his former life as a Ghoul.

Tokyo Ghoul:re features a robust cast of characters old & new.

THE BAD: As mentioned earlier the lack of total background on the second half of the original manga can be overwhelming from an anime only fan’s perspective, but if you really want to understand the story I highly recommend reading the source material. It’s a little over one-hundred chapters. Some early episodes suffer from pacing and animation issues.

While Tokyo Ghoul:re has issues early on, it becomes a rather surprising & dedicated take on it’s source as it goes on.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: If Tokyo Ghoul:re can keep you invested after the earlier episodes’ mistakes then you’ll be in for a treat, especially as a manga fan. The action, insert songs, and general OST is classic Tokyo Ghoul and even for anime onlys, as confused as they’ll be watching, the twists & turns of the story should keep them glued for the long haul. Otaku Dome gives Tokyo Ghoul:re Season 1 a 90 out of 100.