Double Feature: Tokyo Ghoul 1+2

Omnomnom.

Bleach and Naruto’s newest sibling left a rather good taste in my mouth. Not…you know what I mean. We’ll be covering the first arc here (more appropriately: Whatever arc ends after episode 11 or so).

A lot of the premise relies on one thing: Your knowledge of the generic Vampire mythos. That’s basically what we’re getting here.  Only instead of Vampires, even the cute cuddly ones who don’t HAVE to kill you to feed, we have the Ghouls, a race that lives in Humanity’s shadow and eats their flesh.

In this regard it’s kind of silly. Most vampire stories in the modern day have acknowledged that yes, animal blood should be a substitute for vampires even if they don’t prefer it. Because, logically (as logical as you can approach the topic), there’s little difference at the nutritional level.  Tokyo Ghoul throws that out the window.  Only Human flesh satisfies these creatures, and we know that because there is no attempt to whitewash their actions, and even those we see who are very keen on blending into society don’t use alternative food sources. As close as we can get with science, there should be little to no difference in pig flesh or Human flesh, or any kind of raw meat.  And yet this is not an option. This even leaves aside the fact that the only reason creatures eat is to acquire carbon. The primary decider of your diet is your teeth and intestines, not the type of carbon in front of you, be that plant or animal form. Most creatures who can eat both, will eat both.  And as the family dog shows, even if they shouldn’t, they’ll eat the “wrong” type all the time.

In short, I feel like we’re being led by the nose through the pretext of horror, when we all expect this to devolve into standard shonen beat-em-up style soon enough. So why go through the effort of forcing it?  Maybe I’m just being overly picky here because there isn’t a lot of supernatural bent to this stuff yet, not really.  The speculative element is the race of Ghouls, but aside of that? It doesn’t appear to have a lot of occult trimmings. Thus, it seems to be approaching from the more “scientific” angle, so I’m probably feeling harsher for that.

Getting to the episode proper, our teaser is brief, a female Ghoul feasting on someone she’s just killed.  She’s approached by another Ghoul, who’s here to take her out.  Well before the old guy can report back to the Camarilla about how awesome a job he did…she totally kicks his ass and escapes, saying she really doesn’t have time for these little games.

Well you’ve got my attention.

Summer 2014 Line Up

As I stated in my newspost before my trip, I think it’s time for DDA to go on cruise control for a while, so only expect, at most, three shows to appear here. If my financial standing improves significantly before then…maybe four.

So, some rules this season… After much deliberation, I have decided neither Sailor Moon nor Psycho-Pass will appear here. The first due to its awkward format, and the latter because it’s definitely the same series, just abridged. It also has an odd format. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy tackling the Sailor Moon reboot, but dedicating a full year? Nooooo, nuh uh.

Confirmed

The following will definitely be appearing in episodic review format here.

Tokyo Ghoul: Kaneki is a college student in Tokyo, which is now haunted by flesh-eating beings only known as “Ghouls”, their identities unknown and leaving the public terrified of going out in the dark. Kaneki meets Rize, a fellow book worm who will change his life.

I’m curious. Judging by previews this seems like an action series with an aesthetic towards the macabre than an actual horror series, but I wouldn’t mind either direction. We’ll be adopting a partial approach here as with Space Dandy or Strike the Blood.  I can’t find confirmation one way or the other, but dealing with Studio Peirrot and a Weekly Shounen Jump adaptation, one must assume the show is planned to go until infinity.  In such a case, we’ll be covering until the end of the first arc, or, whatever natural jumping off point exists around the episode 13 mark. The series recap will then be more of a first-impressions.

Studio: Studio Pierrot.

Wild Cards

The following may or may not appear on the blog. It all depends what catches my eye. You may see one, two, or none of the following show up here.

Akame ga Kill: Tatsumi is from a poor village and has gone to the capitol to earn a living, but finds impenetrable corruption instead. Tatsumi encounters, and is recruited by, Night Raid, a vigilante group seeking to set this nation right.

The animation caught my eye here, and the premise is interesting enough, just this side of original if not groundbreaking. My gut doesn’t feel too optimistic, but it’s definitely worth a first look.

Studio: White Fox

 

 

DRAMAtical Murder: The story takes place many years in the future where the game “Rhyme,” a virtual fighting game, is incredibly popular and people possess “AllMates,” convenient AI computers. Aoba leads an ordinary life, working at a junk shop and living with his grandmother on the island of Midorijima. Unlike his friends, he doesn’t participate in Rhyme, nor does he belong in a gang. However, when rumors of people disappearing spread, Aoba finds himself needing to unravel the mysteries behind the island in order to protect his everyday life.

So Mekaku City Actors and WIXOSS had a baby? Fiiine, I’ll bite.

Studio: NAZ

 

Momo Kyun Sword: Momotarou, re-imagined as a female, lives with various animal gods in her village until demons attack and steal many precious treasures that ensure her home’s prosperity. Momo seeks to reclaim the treasures with her companions on this adventure.

So…Sengoku Otome with a mythological bent? I admittedly am watching this least, but I feel almost obligated to at least peek at it. If for nothing else, the mythological elements with the spin intrigue me.  Bishamonten 2.0? Hardly…I can tell already. Still I can’t help myself, but the Nobunaga the Fool shiny rubber skin leaves me…unenthused. Our only hope? A lot of the staff is freshman material, and you never know what people unencumbered by habit might do that’s interesting. Or completely amateurish. Which makes it a good vehicle for our hate.

Studio: No one’s claiming direct responsibility for this mess.

 

…So, this next one, I’m just going to leave at synopsis, and you can fill in the blanks as to my motivations.

Terra Formars: With the space program attempting to travel to Mars, 21st century scientists were tasked with warming up the planet so that humans could survive on its surface. They came up with an efficient and cost-effective plan of sending cockroaches and mold to the surface so that the mold would absorb the sunlight and the insect corpses would serve as a food source for the mold. It is now the year 2577 and the first manned ship to Mars has landed on the planet and the six crew members are ready for their mission. But what they find are giant mutated humanoid cockroaches with incredible physical strength. The crew members are easily wiped out, but not before sending a transmission back to Earth. Now, humanity will send elite warriors to exterminate the mutated bugs and claim back Mars.

Glorious.

Well there you have it, everything I’m making a point to watch.  Some other show might work its way here by word of mouth (or my idle boredom leading me places it should never go), but these are the likely contenders.