Tokyo Ghoul: The Live Action Movie – How Hopeful Am I?

Welcome, one and all, to this week’s random anime post. Being in close proximity to Halloween, I wanted to make this one a spooky posting. As such, I’m going to be looking at the live action adaption of Tokyo Ghoul that is appearing next week.

Now, the first thing to note here is that I haven’t read the manga. I do, however, own both seasons of the anime. How do I find it? Pretty good for the most part. I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, and if I’m being honest, I found that leading man Ken Kaneki became more than a little dull as the series progressed. This aside though, I really enjoyed it. The supporting cast were very good, the ghouls’ Kagune were interesting, the action was as macabre as it needed to be, and there was plenty of backstory to sink your teeth into. But … we all know that live action adaptions of anime and manga don’t always hit the mark. How will this one do? Well, here are the trailers for season one of the anime, and the film itself.

So, the movie … I have the say, it does look like the film manages to capture the Kagune really well. What we see looks gruesome, and thoroughly inhuman, which is really how it should be. The only thing concerns me in that regard is that we don’t get to see how the action is going to look. In a way, that’s probably a good thing, as it’ll leave some intrigue, but it would have been nice to see a proper glimpse of how the two versions compare.

Casting wise, I’m reserving an actual judgement until I see the thing. I’ve been surprised many times over the years with how good certain actors and actresses are in different roles, and there’s no reason that this won’t be the same. I would say that what we see in the trailer makes it look like Fumika Shimizu hasn’t quite gotten Tōuka’s attitude down, but I am aware that these are short clips and that she will have a lot more to do in the film. Masataka Kubota, who plays Ken, was really good in the live action Death Note tv series in Japan, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed there. I do think it’s a shame that Miyavi wasn’t cast as Uta though.

From a story standpoint, I’m hoping that it doesn’t try to adapt too much of the tale. Whatever it does, it will need to condense things down, and trying to take on too much will be disastrous. It does look like it captures the general feel of the series well though, so I’m remaining hopeful. Will it really be the ‘best live action anime adaption to date’ like the trailer says? We shall see.

What about all of you? Are you looking forward to the film?