Wednesday 8 April 2015

Why is Tokyo Ghoul so popular all of a sudden?


  If your wondering what the video is above then read on, last year it was Attack on Titan and the year before that it was Sword Art Online, what these anime have in common is that they've both become spontaneously popular in a matter of months of being out. 2015 is the year of Tokyo Ghoul, an anime about cannibalistic humans with red tentacles coming out of their back sounds more like a midnight horror movie, but its actually a whole lot more than that.  

  The concept of this anime is that the city of Tokyo is plagued with a species called "Ghouls" human like beings that have a set of red tendrils called a "Kagune" and they sustain themselves on human flesh. These monsters prowl the streets wearing masks killing and eating humans to live. 

  Ken Kaneki, a college student who is an avid reader meets a purple haired girl named Rize Kamishiro who also has an interest in reading. Ken goes on a date with Rize having the time of his life but she reveals herself to be a ghoul and attempts to feed on Ken, but both of them are caught in an accident. Ken suffers fatal injuries and has his damaged organs replaced with the nearest possible donor, that donor was Rize. 

  Ken wakes up in hospital and learns that he's now half ghoul due to his organ transplant, with one of his eyes pitch black and a new craving for human flesh Ken is taken in by a group of ghouls that run a coffee shop named "Anteiku". Whilst working at the coffee shop Ken learns that not all ghouls are monsters and some have control over their urges and live passable lives with humans. Sadly some ghouls are monsters and enjoy bringing pain to others and this leads Ken into a war with many fronts, and forces him to become a ghoul of great power at the cost of what left of his humanity. 

  With an epic story like that you can see why so many have gravitated to the anime, it filled with so many different elements but at the end of the day it main theme is horror and it checks all of the boxes in that department, featuring gore, blood, shadows, predators and violence. But Tokyo Ghoul also has other themes entwined in it narrative, like explosive action with huge battles amongst powerful ghouls and the theme of drama filters though the charismatic characters and their intricate story lines and backgrounds.

  Tokyo Ghoul does an excellent job of following the mental struggle of Ken Kaneki, he starts out timid and weak, he becomes a ghoul and his life is turned completely upside down but he still tries to remain human showing great fortitude, but when Ken is captured by a sadistic ghoul called Jason who lives and breaths to inflict pain on others he is tortured in many different and horrific ways, Kaneki fights to hold on to his sanity but after being pushed to breaking point he is forced to accept his ghoul half and put his humanity aside, by doing this Ken's hair turns white and his nails turn black, his strength is boundless, Kagune is far more powerful and he devours Jason knowing he cannot go back to what he once was. 

  I think one of the main reasons why Tokyo Ghoul has been so prosperous is because of its concept, there so much pain and suffering in the world and Tokyo Ghoul tries emulate that in a more believable sense, ghouls are a physical representation of violent nature that dwells in criminals and murderers but also appears as the discriminated minority that is being blamed for the actions of others and their uncontrollable nature. The human element in the anime The Commission of Counter Ghoul (CCG) are representation of how close minded officials deal with matters they don't understand fooling themselves into think its for the greater good. Many anime fans and average people will resonate with Tokyo Ghoul due to frustration with the world. 

  Tokyo Ghoul is an anime with multiple layers and if you give it sometime and patience you'll discover that it's not all gore and violence but also a story of survival and one poor soul trapped between two worlds struggling to find existence and meaning. 

  

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