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// On :Monday, October 23, 2017
Hey guys, kanna here. And welcome to Halloween month!
Ok, seriously, we need a better name for this month, given that the theme is horror/supernatural anime. I'm open to ideas.
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| Totoro wishes everyone a happy Halloween! |
NO PICTURE OF TOKYO GHOUL BECAUSE BLOGGER WANTS TO BE A PAIN AND NOT LET ME PUT ONE. *SIGH*
I'll give a little background on Tokyo Ghoul, as I had planned on reviewing the anime, but suffered a major writer's block on it, so I couldn't write a decent review of it.
Tokyo Ghoul was based off of a manga series written by Sui Ishida, who you might recognize from...wow, that's pretty much all you'll recognize him from. Kinda sucks for him, don't you think?
Anyway, Tokyo Ghoul ran from September 2011 to September 2014. In 2014, a sequel titled Tokyo Ghoul:re was serialized, and in October of that same year, a prequel titled Tokyo Ghoul Jack ran online.
Between July and September 2014, a 12-episode anime series of the same name aired in Japan. In 2015, an original story meant to serve as a second season was released, titled Tokyo Ghoul √A (pronounced Tokyo Ghoul: Root A). A third season, Tokyo Ghoul:re (I'm not sure why it's called that, but maybe it's because it's following that part of the manga? I don't know), was announced October 5, 2017, and is set to air sometime next year (no official date has been announced yet as of the time I'm writing this).
Wow...next year's anime series will have a TON of competition. Between the new season of Sword Art Online, Sword Art Online's spin-off series, Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card-hen, and others, there's going to be a ton of competition. It's up to us viewers to see who will come out on top.
Moving on.
The story of Tokyo Ghoul is set in an alternate reality where ghouls (creatures kind of like vampires, but instead of blood, they live off of human flesh) live among humans and hide their secret. Our protagonist is Ken Kaneki, a high school student who goes out with fellow student Rize Kamishiro on a date. Rize reveals herself to be a ghoul, and nearly kills Ken. A beam fell down, killed Rize, and knocked out Ken to the point of near-death. During the surgery Ken went through in order to survive, some of Rize's organs were put inside him, turning him into a half-ghoul. He then has to go through his life while keeping his ghoul identity under wraps.
And...there's your background. Now for the live action adaptation.
So...where to begin? I mean, I already gave you guys background. So...let's talk about the movie's background.
The movie first premiered in the US at Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California, on July 3. They also did a live stream of the movie on YouTube a few weeks later (I think it was a few weeks), where the director, Kentaro Hagiwara, and a couple of the actors (I don't remember who) were in attendance to answer questions from the fans.
I don't remember what date it was, but I do remember that I didn't attend the live stream because it was at 4 in the morning in my time zone (I think that that was around 8 PM in Japan). As much as I love anime and as curious as I was about this adaptation, there was no way I would get up at 4 AM to watch a live action adaptation. Sorry, guys. I really wanted to attend the live stream, but I just couldn't bring myself to set an alarm for 4 AM.
Have I mentioned that I HATE big time differences (ones that are over 13 hours)?
Moving on.
NOTE: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE ANIME OR THE LIVE ACTION MOVIE OR READ THE MANGA, STEP AWAY, DO ONE OF THOSE THINGS, AND COME BACK. THIS POST WILL BE WAITING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
We have some actors who are pretty well-known in Japan, but I'm not sure of how well-known they are internationally. Our protagonist, Ken Kaneki, is played by Masataka Kubota. You might recognize him from the TV drama adaptation of Death Note, where he played Light Yagami. He was in other movies and TV dramas, but I think this is his first lead role in a movie. I could be wrong, though.
Fumika Shimizu plays Touka Kirishima, a ghoul who helps Ken get adjusted to life as a half-ghoul. If you've seen Kamen Rider Fourze, you'll recognize her from her role as Yuki Jojima, which was her first major role.
We have a somewhat internationally well-known actress playing Rize Kamishiro, our ghoul whose organs turn Ken into a half-ghoul, and her name is Yu Aoi. You might recognize her from the live action adaptation of Rurouni Kenshin. She had other roles, but that's the first one that comes to mind for me.
As for the rest of the actors and actresses, I haven't heard of them. That doesn't mean they aren't internationally well-known or not famous in Japan, it just means I either a) haven't seen anything they've been in, or b) if I have seen things they've been in, I didn't know who those actors and actresses were.
Moving right along.
The background of the movie is pretty similar to the background of the anime, so we're going to skip over that for two reasons. One, I don't want to spoil it for you, as this is only in theaters for a limited time (a week, I think). Two, I honestly don't want this to seem like something you can just find on Wiki or whatever. I want this to be a well-written, unbiased, review. If the movie were online, then I would completely spoil it for you guys. But I won't do that this time.
Effects: The effects are...decent. Granted, no film is perfect, but I honestly feel like the effects could have been a lot better. Sometimes, they looked really convincing; almost believable, even. Other times, they were just meh. The movie really capitalizes on the fact that ghouls eat human flesh, so the violence tends to overshadow other important elements of the movie. The ghouls' eyes, which look different from human eyes, don't look too fake, and the kagune (the ghouls' powerful appendages) look pretty decent. Not only that, but (spoiler) the mask that Ken wears at the end of the movie looks pretty darn close to the mask from the anime and manga. It's really impressive.
Scariness: This movie is less horror and more about the gore. While it is scary in some aspects, it really emphasizes on the blood, guts, and gore. I think it's probably because the ghouls consume human flesh to survive. With that being said, the level of scariness in this is pretty low. If you were to rate this movie on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not scary at all and 10 being the stuff of H.R. Giger's nightmares, I'd give this a somewhere between a 3 and a 5. I won't say that this can't call itself a horror movie, but at the same time, I feel like it just isn't that scary. I will admit, there were a couple of moments where I had to cover my eyes, but overall, it wasn't super scary.
Violence: I talked about this mostly in the scary section, but I'll address it again. This movie was CRAZY-VIOLENT. Seriously. I mean, the fight-scenes were well choreographed, but talk about bloody! The lead guy from the CCG (Commission of Counter Ghoul; the task force used to hunt and kill ghouls) with the weird hair, Kureo Mado, was downright brutal when he killed ghouls! He actually used kagune he took from other ghouls against them, and developed a kagune-like weapon that he just carries around in a FREAKING BRIEFCASE! I was very impressed by the fight scenes, and the one between Ken and Amon, the other CCG guy, was really well-done. I'm curious as to whether or not they had stunt doubles. Hm...
Characters/acting: This is a downfall of the movie, in my opinion. While there aren't any movie-exclusive characters (thank G-D) and all our favorites are there, I feel that the character development was overshadowed by all the violence, gore, and the film trying to be somewhat scary. The acting was good, but like I said before, the character development was overshadowed. As an audience, we want to know Ken's internal thoughts of him transforming into a half-ghoul. We want to feel his fear. We want to be able to connect with him on some level. And the anime gave us that. This movie, on the other hand...not so much. I could think of better actors for some of the characters. Not all, but some. I think Beat Takeshi would have made a better Yoshimura than the guy who played him in the movie, Kunio Murai. That's just my opinion, though. The guy who played Yoshimura was good, I just think Beat Takeshi would have been better.
Writing: For those of you who have read the manga, you'll be happy to find out that this movie followed the first three volumes of the manga. Not only that, but it stayed true to the manga and anime. Sure, some scenes were shuffled around or compressed, but that's to be expected with a film adaptation. There's only so much you can fit into two hours, or even a little over two hours. However, that doesn't excuse the lack of character development, insight into Ken's thoughts of his transformation into a ghoul, or...insight into any of the characters, really. I feel like the most insight we got was into Rize Kamishiro, and she was killed off at the beginning of the movie (not a huge spoiler, but it is a spoiler). So...yeah.
Music: The music was actually pretty good. I was NOT expecting to like it as much as I did. The composer for the movie was Don Davis, who is best known for his work on The Matrix movies. The theme song for the movie is "Banka" by RADWIMPS and guitarist Yojiro Noda, under his stage name, illion. It's a pretty good song. While I don't have it on my iPod (yet), I think the soundtrack is definitely worth a listen. Don Davis isn't John Williams or Hans Zimmer, but there's no denying that he's talented.
So...rating. Boy, was I dreading this part. Um...8 out of 10.
Why: Most of my reasons above, but there are some other things. Aside from the lack of character development and the effects being just decent instead of good, or even great, this movie just seems like it's something to get people who haven't seen Tokyo Ghoul into it. Nothing wrong with that, but for those of us who have seen Tokyo Ghoul, not only does it feel like a repeat, but there isn't a ton of nostalgic value. It did leave me wanting a sequel, which I hope will happen. Overall, I think the movie could have been a lot better.
In addition, I think the casting could have been better. I can't really explain why, but I feel like if they wanted to release this movie to an international audience, they should have gotten more internationally-known actors and actresses, like Beat Takeshi. Masataka Kubota and Fumika Shimizu aren't that well-known internationally unless you've seen things they've been in. I'm probably one of a small amount of people in the United States who watches Kamen Rider (I stopped for a period of time...big mistake on my part because I now have a crap ton to catch up on), and I don't know how many people have seen the Death Note TV drama. While I don't have an ideal cast in mind (yet), I do think there are better actors and actresses that would have fit some of the characters more.
Well, that's my review of the live action Tokyo Ghoul! Stay tuned for the third anniversary special, which is going to be a surprise! ~k
