This Week in Anime

The Tokyo Ghoul OAVs Are a Gory-Good Time

Nicky
Just when I think I'm out of the Tokyo Ghoul hole, a twist of fate keeps dragging me back in. This time, Funimation finally released both Tokyo Ghoul OVAs for streaming, years after their initial release. Today we'll be covering both Tokyo Ghoul: Jack and Tokyo Ghoul: Pinto respectively. Both of them are standalone prequel story spin-offs featuring some important side characters. Going in order of release, let's get everything ooky-spooky with JACK.

I for one, have never stopped thinking about Tokyo Ghoul. It runs around like a piece of bloatware in my brain's task manager, using up all my memory, and also probably doing something illegal.

Anyways, JACK is a prequel featuring the once young and up-and-coming ghoul investigator Kishō Arima. Based on a one-volume manga, JACK shows the future mysterious and cold-blooded starling in a simpler time through the perspective of the current-delinquent, Taishi Fura.

Now, Arima's and his stoic attitude has never been a favorite of mine, but I have a big ole soft spot for Fura's narrative here as a guy that feels out of place.

Those with previous knowledge of the series would remember that the 13th ward (actually, Shibuya), unlike the relatively peaceful 20th ward (Nerima) where the titular coffee shop resides, is supposedly a big hotbed for ghoul incidents, and that maintains even in this blast-to-the-past. Arima passes as a normal high schooler by day, but really he's there undercover in hopes of snooping out potential predators as a rookie for the Commission of Counter Ghoul (The CCG).

Fura isn't a big character in the main series but how he dovetails his feelings about humans, ghouls, and the society they all live under is actually pretty complex. This is briefly mentioned, but he previously dropped out as a star pitcher due to an injury and became a delinquent. After having a fight with his childhood friends he tried to reintegrate into normal society only to find out that he still doesn't really belong.

Arima is a character who is mostly spoken about in whispers, both positively and negatively: a prodigy, a mystery, a reaper. So it's nice to see him acting so warmly to Fura, who just wants to do everything to avenge his two best friends, one of whom was lost to the ghoul Lantern.

Minami is an interesting character, too. She comes off as a standard good girl, but her information on ghouls is always interesting and accurate. Arima doesn't allow her to come along on any missions, however, supposedly because she'll get hurt. Regardless, it seems like she deeply admires Arima.


Fura also seems like he developed a little crush on her, but he's also hung up on his childhood friend, Aki, who was hospitalized after Lantern's attack.

Yeah, it turns out the pumpkin-faced ghoul they were hunting all along was none other than Minami herself! She even gets Yamori (pre-torture) to help lure both Fura and Arima into place.

I mean, we'll talk about a certain gourmand later, but right now I want to talk about what exactly makes Minami so tragic. She attacked Fura's friends after they tore up the town because she was insanely jealous of, from her perspective, their extreme display of privilege and arrogance. She put so much effort into being a goody two shoes that watching someone else waste it infuriated her. Previously Aki stated that it felt like she was punished and that's actually because she was, though not through the eyes of God, but simply another teenage girl less fortunate than herself.

Even after killing her, Fura still manages to serve up a smidge of sympathy for Minami. Like many, he wonders what would've happened if circumstances had been different. It's not new, but I always respect the series for that kind of ambiguity. I think Tokyo Ghoul is one of the few series that even tries to maintain that kind of balance between grotesque, tragic, and introspective.

Ah yes, time for Cool Ranch Dorito.

Here to wreak havoc with their shocking lack of concern for others. Jokes aside, PINTO is actually the only chapter of the light novels to be adapted to anime form. Its story focuses on the ghoul epicurean, Shu Tsukiyama, and his unlikely friendship with a photography-obsessed gremlin Chie Hori. They also happen to be my two favorite characters in the whole series.

That would involve following normal person logic and not two beings only concerned with their particular hyperfocus and general boredom for everything else. Chie catches Tsukiyama in the act of chowing down after stalking him. This poses problems for him as a ghoul, her classmate, and as a prestigious member of society. Chie, a human that resembles a hamster more than a high-schooler, isn't concerned with sharing the photos but rather only looking to live her life to seek opportunities for more interesting photos. In fact, she barely wants to give Tsukiyama the time of day, consistently brushing him off and also any sort of philosophical questions he might have about her.

I think it's also good to note that their relationship is completely the ghoul-version of platonic where he has ZERO interest in eating her because she's so physically unremarkable to him as a stuffy gourmand. Compared to her, Tsukiyama has everything. He's got money, popularity, a bad hair cut. Yet he has his curiosity piqued by someone so average in comparison. It's is a really strange feeling for him, and it's nice to see some of his thought process and how much forethought he puts into things before going into full "Mamoru Miyano" performance mode.

It's very cringe.

This is why we need Chie to dunk on him.

For the record I have entire folders on my computer dedicated to pictures of Tsukiyama's face, and also some very cute rubber keychains of him living on my desk right now. Words cannot describe how much I love this drama nerd and, more importantly, I still really like his fascination with humans, despite the fact that he eats them. I still think that comes through even if I gotta see it come out of his Dorito-mouth.

Anyways, he brings Chie to an affiliated hospital. There they see an elderly patient who keeps troubling the nurses but avoids being reprimanded because he's too old to remember sexually harassing them. The old guy is also too rich so they can't really do anything to stop him anyway. Tsukiyama promises Chie that if she manages to bring her smol-self, she's in for a good performance. Charming.

Well, if it was only ghouls as the ones who are monsters, that would be missing the point. Even without the need to prey on others for sustenance, humans are already cruel and unfair to each other. In this cycle of abuse it makes Tsukiyama's strange display of horror feel almost karmic. After all, humans are, well, downright rotten.

I should also note that unlike the broadcast version of the show, these OVAs are completely uncensored, so enjoy the bloody display to your heart's content.

I'll also note that he's still clearly the villain as much as he is the hero here, and he's happy to play the part – complete with soaring orchestral, singing harmonies, and a stellar 10/10 landing. Composer Yutaka Yamada does a great job to hit those crescendos. In a way, Tsukiyama is performing as service for his victims just as much as he is for Chie, himself, or the viewing audience, in a weird, twisted sort of way. It's dazzling.

Miyano can hold a note. I would like to see Mads Mikkelsen try that.

HAND OVER SEASON 4 OF HANNIBAL, COWARDS

I'm pretty sure both Tsukiyama AND Chie exist in some sort of genius-idiot paradox. Like they have one-track minds so they're only really good at ONE thing but fail at others, like having a moral compass. It's interesting to think that they're actually pre-existing characters from a failed comedy series pitch and ended up in Murder Town. They still come out as so endearing.

I also gotta give props to the original light novel author Shin Towada, who is actually Sui Ishida's older sister, who took a lot of care to flesh out the characters. Ishida has stated Tsukiyama and Chie are really precious to him, given their past.

Anyways, Tokyo Ghoul's strength has always been its characters and the sheer multitudes that exists within them. I think these two OVAs show a lot of that. It was a really nice trip down memory lane for me but I also still expect a lot of great works from Sui Ishida down the line, whether it be another manga or a musical otome game (pls localize Broccoli).

I'd rather be a called a friend than a pet, at least. Some may find it distasteful to be called a treat but it's imo definitely something worth sinking your teeth into, regardless if it's out of season or not.