The first season of Tokyo Ghoul is good on its own, but unfinished — and you have to read the manga and disregard the anime.
Root A is confusing — it doesn’t adapt the manga and follows its own storyline, with many characters not properly introduced.
The :re adaptation compresses its 179 chapters into just 24 episodes, which is an absurdly fast pacing.
Tokyo Ghoul went from being one of the most popular anime franchises to a series that is often mentioned when someone asks what adaptation deserves a remake. The anime was initially a huge hit — praised for its unique premise, tense drama, cool action and amazing worldbuilding.
However, with multiple sequel seasons, the opinion on the anime gradually shifted — to the point that now many manga readers refuse to even acknowledge the adaptation’s existence. If you’re not familiar with the source material, you might find it bizarre — but the anime is very much not worth it past the first season.
The first season is decent, but unfinished
If you only watched the first season of Tokyo Ghoul, you probably didn’t think it was that bad. In fact, it was actually good. While it still isn’t a perfect adaptation — the manga has a lot of things going on, so some moments had to be cut. Still, it looks good, and the opening theme has become iconic.
However, after watching the first season, you want more content — because it’s obviously unfinished. And when you want more content, you’re faced with a choice: watch the sequel seasons or read the manga. Granted, you should read the manga anyway for a more complete experience, but the sequels are just… not good.
Root A is the kind of sequel fans didn’t want
The second season of Tokyo Ghoul, Root A, was probably made with the intention of giving the original manga a different, anime-original ending. That said, the attempt was mostly a failure — and not just because fans never asked for a different take on the manga in the first place.
Root A diverges from the manga storyline, but it still requires you to have read the manga. The result is a bizarre and a hard-to-understand mess, where many characters and plot points are left unexplained for the anime-only viewers.
The source readers are disappointed with it not being a proper adaptation, so in the end, it’s just made for no one.
:re is even worse
The adaptation of the sequel manga, Tokyo Ghoul:re, is arguably even worse. It disregards the fact that the original wasn’t even properly adapted — if you haven’t read it and only watched the first season and Root A, you’ll be incredibly confused, because it is not a sequel to the latter — it’s a sequel to the manga.
And even if you did read the manga, the adaptation of :re is bad. The animation quality is significantly lower than that of the previous seasons. Moreover, it adapts the first 58 chapters into a 12-episode anime, which is already not good… and then stuffs the remaining 121 chapters into another 12 episodes.
The result is incomprehensible for anime-only viewers and infuriating to manga readers. Perhaps you should just stick with the manga for this one.
We really need a reboot for this one.
Summary:
The first season of Tokyo Ghoul is good on its own, but unfinished — and you have to read the manga and disregard the anime.
Root A is confusing — it doesn’t adapt the manga and follows its own storyline, with many characters not properly introduced.
The :re adaptation compresses its 179 chapters into just 24 episodes, which is an absurdly fast pacing.
Tokyo Ghoul went from being one of the most popular anime franchises to a series that is often mentioned when someone asks what adaptation deserves a remake. The anime was initially a huge hit — praised for its unique premise, tense drama, cool action and amazing worldbuilding.
However, with multiple sequel seasons, the opinion on the anime gradually shifted — to the point that now many manga readers refuse to even acknowledge the adaptation’s existence. If you’re not familiar with the source material, you might find it bizarre — but the anime is very much not worth it past the first season.
The first season is decent, but unfinished
If you only watched the first season of Tokyo Ghoul, you probably didn’t think it was that bad. In fact, it was actually good. While it still isn’t a perfect adaptation — the manga has a lot of things going on, so some moments had to be cut. Still, it looks good, and the opening theme has become iconic.
However, after watching the first season, you want more content — because it’s obviously unfinished. And when you want more content, you’re faced with a choice: watch the sequel seasons or read the manga. Granted, you should read the manga anyway for a more complete experience, but the sequels are just… not good.
Root A is the kind of sequel fans didn’t want
The second season of Tokyo Ghoul, Root A, was probably made with the intention of giving the original manga a different, anime-original ending. That said, the attempt was mostly a failure — and not just because fans never asked for a different take on the manga in the first place.
Root A diverges from the manga storyline, but it still requires you to have read the manga. The result is a bizarre and a hard-to-understand mess, where many characters and plot points are left unexplained for the anime-only viewers.
The source readers are disappointed with it not being a proper adaptation, so in the end, it’s just made for no one.
:re is even worse
The adaptation of the sequel manga, Tokyo Ghoul:re, is arguably even worse. It disregards the fact that the original wasn’t even properly adapted — if you haven’t read it and only watched the first season and Root A, you’ll be incredibly confused, because it is not a sequel to the latter — it’s a sequel to the manga.
And even if you did read the manga, the adaptation of :re is bad. The animation quality is significantly lower than that of the previous seasons. Moreover, it adapts the first 58 chapters into a 12-episode anime, which is already not good… and then stuffs the remaining 121 chapters into another 12 episodes.
The result is incomprehensible for anime-only viewers and infuriating to manga readers. Perhaps you should just stick with the manga for this one.
