read light novel or manga versions of certain anime, it should not have that big or significant an impact on my impressions, feelings, experience, and/or analysis/critiquing of the anime adaptations themselves, because I honestly feel that the adaptations are their own things…their own piece of work or art (or at least attempts to be so, half-hearted or not). How I feel about a certain adaptation’s loyalty or faithfulness to its source should not be something prioritized when making a serious judgment on it. This is personally how I feel regarding LN/manga adaptations, being an individual who prefers to be an anime-only fan and viewer, and I would only check out some of the source material for purely out of my own separate curiosity.(This review will mainly encompass TG:Re 2nd Season, but it will also involve aspects from the previous RE season as well as the first two TG seasons. Because of this, the grade given by this review may not necessarily be the same as the one I gave for this season in particular.)STORY: 1/10For starters, like with the first two seasons, Tokyo Ghoul:Re tried to document a compelling psycho/horror story about a young man named Kaneki who treads between living as a human and living as a Ghoul, and the conflict surrounding him and the companions he made.Let’s backtrack a little bit here: the TG story itself starts off fairly decent, where it portrays the livelihood and strife of Ghouls in human society. Due to their carnivorous nature, being only able to sustain off the very species they most physically resemble, Ghouls are often the targets of countless acts of discrimination, which include, but not are limited to, law enforcement, public fear, and general hostility. Ghouls are still very much like human in terms of emotion, sociality, and just about everywhere else, except biologically; because of this, living peaceful lives is something they value (at least what the show tried to portray in the first season). This kind of setup was what Tokyo Ghoul tried to utilize to distinct itself or put itself a cut or level above the usual urban horror or semi-vampire stories out there.While the initial setup and ideas were very good on paper, the overall execution of the show was an underwhelming mess. For my perspective at least, the entire show just seemed like a redundant showcasing of material that would belong more to shounen (or shounen-esque) shows; basically, Tokyo Ghoul is practically a shounen series disguised as a beautiful-looking, one-of-a-kind psycho/horror story. The entire Tokyo Ghoul anime series also suffered from a considerable lack of exposition and details, so it fails hard in trying to make the show’s plot/narrative easier to understand. Another issue the Tokyo Ghoul anime has is its complete, utter lack of a sense of proper pacing. The pacing of the entire story, for the most part, only moves at one speed: FAST. Fast and Furious.For the TG:Re series by itself, the story is extremely incongruent with the story from the first two seasons, resulting in a complete lack of cohesiveness and siegeway. I’ll explain why.From what we should know from the first two seasons, Tokyo Ghoul mixed its levels of extreme violence with fleeting moments of beauty and/or emotion to demonstrate that the Ghouls are genuinely striving for normalcy amidst the atmosphere of brutality, and the struggles they go through in their attempts to achieve that ideal peaceful livelihood. The taste of coffee and the tranquility of a coffeehouse, due to Ghouls being able to at least enjoy coffee like humans do, are the sole two things that Ghouls and humans can share peacefully, so the usage of the coffeehouse in the first and second seasons as a base for the Ghouls to set up a peaceful coexistence makes so much damn sense.With the two RE seasons, most of that pretty much went out the window. Tokyo Ghoul:Re basically betrays almost everything positive that the two “OG” seasons tried to use, abandoning the storytelling elements altogether. Tokyo Ghoul:Re, as a story, doesn’t seem to really know what it’s doing or where it’s going, as it bounces between several different points of ongoing conflict as well as foregoing any necessary content that would act as important transitions or siegeways. Thus it does not seem to let us as viewers try to understand or comprehend just exactly what the heck is going on. The way it goes about trying to introduce new characters and plot points makes me feel like (or realize) that the TG:RE story in particular is just….without a soul. There are no moments where the story tries to make contrasts between brutality and beauty. Nearly all the characters on either side of the conflict no longer seem to fight for something important and precious that they’ve lost…they seem to fight for the sake of triumphing and looking supposedly like the good guys. I’m gonna be real here….there is no absolutely no sense of good guys or bad guys, and not in a good way. The whole chaotic jumping from battle to battle to battle…prevent us from having emotional impressions for the characters’ reasons to keep fighting and struggling. Additionally, practically all the main characters, who were the focal point in the first two seasons, are pretty much all sidelined, and barely make much of a difference in TG:RE’s story progression. Because this also defeats the narrative and thematic parts of what Tokyo Ghoul’s original concept had, it has to get me and others wondering: “What was the point of all that effort in storytelling in the first season? Was that just all for naught?” Instead, we get a whole amount of just over-edgy tones, cliché lines, useless plot points, forced drama, etc…..literally everything that ROTS under the sun.ART: 2/10; SOUND: 5/10Contrasting to the first two seasons, Tokyo Ghoul:RE’s animation quality has considerably dropped, especially during this second season. In terms of animation quality, the majority of this season felt more like a slideshow, which resulted in messy, tensionless action and cringeworthy half-hearted attempts to bring emotion. Not much else to say here…it’s just plain awful.As for the soundtracks, I’ll just go ahead and say this as probably part of the minority. I don’t really like the Tokyo Ghoul soundtracks on a personal level, but I’ll at least say it’s still really nice, and does make an attempt to fit the theme of the show itself; additionally, it at least keeps the Tokyo Ghoul fans interested. As for the voice acting, though, there’s no sense of genuine emotion, and feels forced now, compared to the first two seasons; it’s as if the voice actors themselves were starting to give up on the whole season themselves.CHARACTERS: 1/10I’m not gonna be someone to excessively chew out Kaneki as a character, aka TG’s version of Shinji Ikari…I’ll let someone else do that. Besides, that by itself is not necessary anymore…why? Because it’s literally EVERYONE at fault. The reason for this is because the utilization, characterization, and development of the entire cast is virtually non-existent. The show basically introduced a bunch of new characters so suddenly and expected us to care about them right then and there, while ignoring all the characters from the previous two seasons that we actually do care about, as well as deconstructing them to certain degrees to further render them irrelevant to the plot. Because of the story’s “Fast and Furious” pacing and drastic change of themes from the first two seasons, there is no real sense of progression in any of the characters, not a single one. All we really can see in the character department are just mindless husks specifically programmed to emulate fake emotion, resulting in obnoxious, overly dramatic lines that make us cringe more than feel for them. It is also because of this that we tend to easily forget who’s who, even if it’s the main characters…apparently the show neglected to properly address the cast’s collectively similar-looking hair colors and hairstyles.ENJOYMENT: 1/10This could’ve been a 0/10, in all honesty. From the first two seasons, I actually did enjoy seeing the fleeting moments of emotion and beauty, because like I mentioned earlier, they symbolized the Ghouls’ struggles to live normal, peaceful lives. Even though I still though the first season was still barely sub-par, those were good moments that I can appreciate.Tokyo Ghoul:Re, however, throws the good stuff ALL away. Throughout both RE seasons, the show became one of those kinds where it felt like a chore to watch, just for the sake of seeing how this messy conundrum of a show that tried to take itself seriously would end. The attempts at dramatic lines and edgy violence during the fights are just laughable.You know what’s even worse? The story was so discombobulated that Fumination, in order to address the amount of confusion from the viewers, started a weekly live stream of the series where they explain everything leading up to the TG:Re story and what’s happening in each episode. THAT’S NOT A GOOD SIGN AT ALL.So here’s the real reason why it’s 1/10 instead of 0/10: TG:Re Season 2 Episode 7, (or TG:RE Episode 19). Yes, the infamous sex scene. The sequence leading up to that point was especially quite hilarious, I’ll admit, and the comedic gag in the “aftermath” of the intercourse was pretty amusing, too. Sadly, though, the sex scene by itself was screwed by the aforementioned bad quality of just showcasing slideshows. If the production crew had any sort of common sense by that point, then they should’ve just at least put actual quality in that scene and make the show a hentai for at least 10 minutes…is that too hard to ask? If the show is already so bad overall, they should at least give us a fleeting moment where we can say “totally effing worth it”.OVERALL:Tokyo Ghoul:Re’s lack of effective storytelling, overall character development, nonsensical rapid pacing, and degrading animation quality is of diabolical proportions. As an entire story and series, Tokyo Ghoul is probably one of the most overrated series I’ve ever watched in my life, making the likes of Sword Art Online seem all too innocent and actually justified, and that says quite a lot. This second season of TG:Re by itself is one of those shows where I can actually say is “objectively bad” due to the lack of execution, direction, quality consistency, and overall character management. A better alternative to Tokyo Ghoul has already been mentioned at the start of this review: Parasyte The Maxim. That show has far better storytelling and characterization of the cast, as well as better handling of the themes, metaphors, and moral messages.However, if you’re one of those Tokyo Ghoul fanatics who want to watch the show for the sake of quenching your own Ghoul-like hunger, go right on ahead. I’m not stopping you. It’s your choice to make, not mine. As for the general anime fan, I’d suggest watching just the first two seasons of Tokyo Ghoul, and then just stop and avoid the TG:RE mess entirely, cause it’s really not worth seeing the story deconstructing itself and the theme it wanted to show from the start.Or better yet….just read the manga and save your life.