As a big fan of Tokyo Ghoul I am very much excited for the upcoming third installment of the series. Though the anime might have garnered mixed reviews from fans and regular anime viewers, I have taken it upon myself to talk about the pros and cons of the 3rd season of Tokyo Ghoul.
[Mind you, I have some juicy info about the plot of the 3rd season. Due to my impatience I have read the whole manga and am still waiting for the latest chapter updates, so be warned of spoilers.]
Plot
Though it may seem that third season will be a continuation of the previous season (which by the way omitted some vital information as to connecting the whole story to the upcoming season), it is expected that some characters from past seasons will resurface such as Suzuya Juuzou and Mado Akira.
There's bound to be big changes in the operations of the CCG. New and stronger teams will be formed. As what the teaser trailer has shown we will be introduced to one of the new teams formed under the CCG. The Quinx squad under the guidance of Haise Sasaki is a somewhat experimental take on Ghoul countermeasures. The team comprises of Urie, Mutsuki, Yonebayashi and Shirazu.
This experimental team will surely be the main protagonists of the 3rd season. As to where the original cast is in this season, they will surely surface as the story progresses. The timeline for this season is a few years after the last battle in season 2. Familiar faces will eventually pop up somewhere along the way but all in all the season will be somewhat of a reset.
Pros
Unlike the previous seasons, the overall theme of this new season will focus on the CCG and its plans against the ghouls. The story will become more mature as some of the topics that will be dealt with are more gruesome and violent.
More powerful antagonists are bound to show up and more allies will surface. For fans who have read the manga and have criticized the anime adaptations for the lack of fatefulness to the original source material, it is expected that the next installment should somehow be more accurate in this run due to the major plot points that must be shown in order to satisfy the story progression.
We will expect more battles and satisfying bloodshed and violence from this storyline if only the production of this season will allow such content. Disallowing such scenes will prove to be difficult indeed, so much so that it will destroy major story development. There is no helping it, this season should be more aligned to its original source for better fan reception.
Cons
What makes this next season good might also be its simultaneous undoing. Some of the contents of the next season may be more than what the audience would hope for. The presence of more gruesome violence and other much more graphic displays will surely leave minor fans distraught.
In previous manga chapters, fans backlashed at some point due to explicit contents injected into the story. So much so that it caused some fans to drop from the fandom. This proves that this upcoming season will test the boundaries it dared not to cross before.
Through this information we can assume that the adaptation will veer into the safe zone and once again omit more details from the story or worse, change major plot points into more suitable events for younger audiences. The target demographic will be fed with deceit and lies once again.
Conclusion
Though it may seem like it took them long enough to announce the 3rd season, it still gives fans hope that this time they will do things right for both manga and anime fans alike. I will not criticize the animation for this due to the obvious difficulty of recreating the original art style of Sui Ishida, the author of the Tokyo Ghoul manga series.
Hopefully they will not ruin the hype that has built up for the upcoming saga of ghouls versus humans. In terms of the number of episodes that this will likely produce, I'd estimate that the Tokyo Ghoul:RE manga as of now can provide as many as 2-3 seasons with 12 episodes in them (considering that they don't rush the flow of the story and add every small detail in).
Great things are to be expected from this wonderful story. If you are also a fan of Tokyo Ghoul, I suggest you start reading the manga and let's get hyped together.
