Tokyo Ghoul Root A is Significantly Better Than the Manga

This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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The truth can hurt, but that’s why they invented biting the pillow, baby.

 

A Divergence That Doesn’t Suck

Let me get this out of the way first: Root A should not be judged on the sloppy execution of the first season, but rather by how well it builds on that broken foundation. Understand that there is no way they could retcon everything that they skipped in the first season, so Root A was always going to be “different”.

Kaneki-kun Genderswap
Sometimes change is good.

As a standalone product, Root A is exceptional, but it shines at twisting the expectations of those who read the manga first — each differentiation provides a way to keep manga readers guessing at what’s gonna happen next.

Sure, I understand a lot of people were butthurt about all the skipped material. However, they need to understand that in order for Season 2 to “close out” the anime, Studio Pierrot had to condense ~80 chapters into 12 episodes (most series cover 1-2 chapters per episode). But while some of the modifications were out of necessity, many actually improved the series. Win dash win.

 

Solo Hunter

Rather than having Kaneki create a crew of useless low-tiers, Root A rolls with the assumption that you don’t give a shit about the cannon fodder. With only 12 episodes to cover the essentials, I’m not sure anyone could deal with even the most minute amount of time spent on meat shield, meat sword, and fresh meat’s forced-yet-non-existent character development.

I'll leave you to figure out which is which.
I’ll leave you to work out which is which.

 

lol Scanlations

While DDY made a few mistakes (and Funimation, a few more), Twisted Hel managed to ruin every line they touched. With no sense of flow or even a basic understanding of English, their dull lines truly make them the brainchild of the scanlation scene.

Are we supposed to be laughing here?
Are we supposed to be laughing here?

Kind of hard to truly enjoy a series when you have to read past the dialogue.

 

No Finding Rize Arc

While Rize is inarguably the best girl…

So good.
So best.

…skipping the arc in the anime meant I didn’t have to deal with this bullshit:

Not like this

Don’t fuck with my yangires, Japan. I forget a lot of things, but a best girl slight? Nope.

 

Better Ending

In your heart you knew this was coming

 

 

Characterization

I figure most of what I’m gonna say here goes without saying, but some people need a bit more convincing than others.

Kaneki-kun Ken-kun

This is how the anime makes him look.
This is how the anime makes him look.
This is how the manga makes him look.
This is how the manga makes him look.

 

Banjo-kun

He doesn’t even appear in Root A, which makes this the best thing that could happen to his character.

He doesn't even appear in Root A, which makes this the best thing that could happen to his character.
Useless.

 

That One Girl

The most important part of Android 18’s character is how cute she is, which the anime did a bang-up job at.

Kissu
They say some men’s dicks bled three times that day.

She’s cute in the manga too, but let’s be serious here — it’s hard to beat those mouth curves.

 

Touka

All this bitch does is run and cry
Bet you can’t even guess what episode this is from.

We’ll skip this one cuz it doesn’t fit my narrative.

 

 

Pacing

Into my heart~
Jumping right into my heart~

Excluding the beginning of the final episode (they probably blew their budget on the electricity bill from constantly fucking with the light switch), Root A has much more precise timing than the manga. Skipping from thought to thought like you’re getting paid per chapter only works when you’re actually getting paid per chapter.

Anime always has the benefit of having a more controlled pace, where you’re generally not going to be read a dictionary at by a creator who hasn’t figured out how to show rather than tell.

What kind of monster would read every line here? Gotta skim this like it's diet milk.
What kind of monster would read every line here? Gotta skim this like it’s diet milk.

Rushing at breakneck speed through the manga, Root A never breaks a sweat. Definitely a better use of your time than reading a “graphic” novel where Kaneki doesn’t even spend three minutes trying to kiss a dead Hide.

Kiss the boy
You wanna tell me you weren’t leaning in for this?

 

 

In Closing

Tokyo Ghoul Root A > Tokyo Ghoul Manga Route. That’s a formula, and that’s a fact.

I know you don’t even care about me proving the premise of my post when my writing’s this good. But I did — perfectly — and that’s just one reason why you love me.

And because you love me, I love you too.
And because you love me, I love you too.

Oh, and grab a towel; we’re going another round soon™ — Spring 2015 preview up next.

44 thoughts on “Tokyo Ghoul Root A is Significantly Better Than the Manga”

    • Tokyo Ghoul is broken, sure, but it’s damn entertaining. And I can’t really come up with a better metric a series should be measured by.

      Reply
      • Yup, I too think “entertainment” is the best metric to measure a series by. It’s the most “personal” way of judging something. Unfortunately I could not enjoy TG at all. There’s something wrong with the characters that simply ticks me off.

        However, despite the anime’s faults, it managed to be at least more entertaining than the manga. Plus the scanlation was horrendous. It’s difficult to concentrate when you are bashing your head on that shit.

        Reply
        • Made in Japan… imagine if you had to translate a comic of yours to japanese, you would have to hire someone from your country that knows japanese, otherwise it would be too expensive. Anyways, you can always look for fansubs

          Reply
  1. With the recent shift articles on crymore have taken, and my not having read or watched tokyo ghoul, I can’t tell if this is a troll article or your real opinion :-/

    Reply
  2. Please. It was only 112 seconds.

    That said, can anyone think of a longer shot in TV anime? Evangelion topped out at barely over a minute, and using such a huge chunk of your runtime on a single cut does take a special kind of mad idiocy-genius.

    Reply
    • It wasn’t continuous so it’s not a single shot…

      Aku no Hana has probably a longer sequence in this vain where they walk home after trashing the classroom.

      Reply
  3. I’d agree with you D_S, but that last episode felt as pointless as the last two episodes of Evangelion.
    About 5 minutes of it actually did anything, the rest was a very slow conversation, Kaneki’s longass walk, shots of Anteiku burning, and not much else.

    The rest of the series yeah, you’ve got a point. But that last episode just gives me a sour taste for Pierrot.

    Reply
  4. “Kaneki doesn’t even spend three minutes trying to kiss a dead Hide”
    Five. The slow motion and statics are cheap. The studio run out of budget… Wasn’t this obvious from the opening?
    “Studio Pierrot had to condense ~80 chapters into 12 episodes”
    Actually Sui Ishida is the author of the anime scenario (or at least for root A), it wasn’t entirely butchered by the director or someone else.
    There are a lot VNs and games with more than one possible route.
    After the end of the manga people wanted to know what happened to Hide and etc, so I guess the anime was a good way for the author to show some of the scenes he skipped (probably on purpose?)
    Just go with the one you prefer… in the end they both lead to “:re”.
    “Sure, I understand a lot of people were butthurt about all the skipped material”
    Every little detail seems to be important for the later chapters and it is showing Kaneki’s personality and how he plays different roles, I guess that most people who prefer not so complicated stories will go with the anime.

    Reply
    • >in the end they both lead to “:re”.
      they skipped some important things before going to :re, like rize’s state and others spoilery things

      Reply
      • Anime was much better,people who say about how manga is better than anime making me laught and cringe at same time,even if you would read worst shit in the world your still tought that its good if its long,in 10 hours (or more) of the anime its enjoyed me more than 20 hours of reading manga,no matter how stupid people saying ,,ohhh i watched anime and i think manga is better” i will still know that this anime is amazing,stop acting like kid who think that his game is best because he spend 100 hours
        in game

        Yeah anime is much better than manga

        Reply
  5. The main problem I have with Tokyo Ghoul in all forms is the characterization. The author clearly had no real idea of the characters and probably still doesn’t. No doubt the author thought, “Ah, so the character is actually entirely different and like this.” A few chapters later, “No, actually they are like this.” Several chapters later, “Oh seems I’ve been doing the character in a different way again.” Why make new characters when you can completely change existing characters without any reason? I would call it a “retcon”, but generally that’s explained, so I’ll call it “adaptive continuity” because whatever happens at the moment is how it’s always been regardless of what happened on/during the page/minute before.

    Reply
  6. Lol if you wanna compare appearances between the manga and the anime Arima’s chin says hi.
    I might be taking this out of context, as in, this is a parody akin to Everything Wrong with X Movie, but if you really believe amateur unofficial scanlators are the reason why the manga is bad, then I’m really astounded.
    You also seem to miss key reasons why Tokyo Ghoul’s characters are written this way, and really this is Writing 101 going on here.
    Also stop being such an action junkie characters have more to offer than being a badass 24/7, Banjou being weak was the whole point of his (and Kaneki’s character).
    And one last question.

    did you notice Arata was Touka’s dad?

    Reply
  7. Totally disagree… Let’s see

    There is no solo hunter, he joins Aogiri, he decides to sucks Aogiris d*cks. In the manga he makes his own crew (also Tsukiyama joins) and choses his own path.

    About the scanlation… Find a different fansub then, It’s a manga, not a Hollywood movie… It was pretty good for me and I had to read it in spanish.

    Rize scene was necessary, Tokyo Ghoul isnt over at all, not yet. Also Kanou was using her to create hybrids ghouls, she cannot be dead or missing.

    About the characterization… In the manga he has a plan, he’s strong, and has good dialogues. About the look… You chose the worst page of the manga, indeed, the rest of it is even better, especially the firsts episodes, when he wears the cemtipede eyepatch. In the anime he barely says like 2 words per episode, and nothing relevant, and he’s such a p*ssy, even when he just wants to be stronger…

    Banjou was also necessary, otherwise… Kaneki and Tsukiyama looking for Dr Kanou? Seriously? He needed someone to trust, also Banjou had 3 guys with him all the time, they ARE the crew.

    Touka was out of context for this season, of course she appears sometimes so the fans wont cry (It’s strange that they didnt make her breasts bigger)

    Pacing… Lol At this part I started to think that you were just trolling or something, that was one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen. I mean it’s ok if they wanted to make it that long but seriously, it was so much time walking, I was expecting something cool at the end, then he meets Arima and… Nothing, that’s it. Manga ending was epic, the way Arima recognized what Kaneki actually was, who was inside him…

    I didnt liked Akira in the anime that much, shes better in the manga. For me, the only good thing about Tokyo Ghoul Route A was the soundtracks.

    I guess you just dont like manga. Of course you wont like Tokyo Ghoul manga then. This was the result of the adaptation from a Seinen manga to a Shounen anime. Of course this is my opinion, but you’re considering yours as a fact… C’mon.

    Reply
    • Correct; imagine them using the Quinx Squad in season 3.
      They probably won’t be as interesting as in the manga.
      Oh, and I love what Ishida did with Ayato. He is so badass right now.

      Reply
    • I agree with you, the entire manga is better than the anime, story, character development, and pacing i think is great compared to the anime, the fight scene like when kaneki half killed ayato breaking 103 of his bones, kaneki vs sachi, kaneki vs amon when he goes centipede and amon wear arata prototype armor, the ending when he fought arima kishou is so epic in the manga, full of meaning and the way the manga ending is so heartbreaking. in the root A kaneki is such a p*ssy.

      Kaneki have great development and so many great dialogue and monologue in the manga, he’s strong, he’s genius, has a plan, he’s so badass and fearless, in the root A especially in the entire anime he’s like a emo kid that suffer from romantic problem.

      Touka have a great development too in the manga, at first she doesnt give a fuck to kaneki, but in post aogiri arc she developt feeling for kaneki, and kaneki become one of the most important person in her life. Touka goes berserk to kaneki when they two meet at the bridge is because kaneki being selfish , and just care about himself not care to anyone.

      Jason dead is not shown in the first season, maybe its just too brutal, because suzuya juuzou is the one who kill him, kaneki just eating his kagune and leave him to die.

      You never know that suzuya actually lost his right leg, when he and ccg fight yoshimura. Until you read antire manga.

      And i think hide is still alive in the manga, not like in the anime when he shown dead.

      The deep meaning, suspense, symbolism and foreshadowing that we got in the manga is gone in the anime, that is why the manga is million better than the anime, feel rushed and butchered.

      The flashback about renji yomo and uta about they first ecounter, and the fact that narukami (white quinque handled by arima) is actually made from yomo sister kagune.

      I bet you didn’t even know that rize is actually alive in the manga, you doesn’t know that kaneki is so badass in the manga that he can destroying ghoul restourant by himself, and you didn’t know that uta is actually a part of the clown same with itori and roma they are the part of the clown, the organization that destroying kaneki live. Until you read the manga

      When kaneki goes berserk, become the kakuja centipede is handled better in the manga, full of meaning and epic at the same time.

      And i bet you didnt even know that kaneki rating is actually ss after him becoming kakuja, and ccg given him the nickname centipede, ccg admit that kaneki is very dangerous ghoul that must be exterminated

      Reply
  8. this is the one anime i didn’t read the manga for because i didn’t want to compare them and i am now a huge fan of the entire anime, and never plan on reading the manga.

    Reply
      • So not liking the manga means that you’re not allowed to like Tokyo Ghoul? Cause I fucking hate the manga. Everyone says it’s so much better than the anime when the manga and anime are ALMOST THE EXACT SAME!! The anime is like 90% accurate to the manga. The only difference is that kaneki went with aogiri in the anime. A change that doesn’t even matter because it leads to the exact same ending in the manga. Why is it ok for black butler to not follow its manga at all, but when Tokyo Ghoul makes one change from it’s manga, a change made by the manga’s author, all of a sudden it’s the end of the fucking world?

        Reply
    • I agree man, this author doesn’t know what in the fuck they’re talking about. Root a ruined everything season 1 built up. It failed the moment kaneki joined aogiri. There’s no excuse. This is what happens when you don’t appreciate what you have. The manga author saw the adaptation wasn’t flawless, so they fucked up any chance if it getting better. Disgusting. I frankly don’t give a shit if it’s technical aspects worked better, it had a shit story and that’s a fact. Fuck this article, fuck root a, and fuck whoever says otherwise. Bunch of dick sucking posers. Assholes

      Reply
    • Yep this idiota thinks that becouse they spend 100 hours of reading,people who spend mass of time in shit games think that his game is awesome only becouse they spend lots of time

      People who readed manga think the same becouse they spend 100 of hours and anime is about 10 or more

      Yeah anime is fantastic, and kids who readed manga acting like fan of Dragon Ball who watched every episode and dont want watch any other anime and they would insult and argue that his anime is best

      Reply

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