Tokyo Ghoul Re – S3E5 – PresS: Night of Scattering

Previously on Tokyo Ghoul, “MAIN: Auction”

So you managed to fit some Tokyo Ghoul: re in between Avengers: Infinity War watching too, ha? It was worth it. For the first time this season, I was geeked for the rewatch. By the scores, you can see I haven’t hated the show, but this season always seemed to have something lacking, leave us hanging, or was just stalling for time at some points. There was no wasted motion this week, even when they stepped back from the fighting.   

Hey Man, Nice Shot

For the non-wrestling fans out there, you’re going to have to bear with me for a second but this is going somewhere. We all know Undertaker and his mystic dead man gimmick, including having to take a good beating before he gets knocked off his feet. Stone Cold called it “selling on the run”, which is something this season finally got around to doing. PresS: Night Of Scattering skips the monologues and info dumps for just feeding us organically, allowing them to parse out the hints and reveals at a nice pace.

Getting ambitious, they tried to bring this attitude to the editing room with jump cutting between fights the way Archer cuts to scenes while finishing sentences mid-dialogue. It didn’t come off so great here. It was irritating to get drawn into cusp of a big moment just to switch to an unrelated fight (especially jumping from Nutcracker to Naki). I don’t know how bringing the audience up for a letdown multiple times sounded like a good idea, but they tried it. I appreciate them taking the swing but they have some tweaking to do if they’re going to pull it off.  Otherwise, this week’s fights easily squash this season’s so far. There are no lazy hack ‘n slashes or temporary dips in animation, making everything feel more important.

Need A Hug? Tony Did.

Connecting a few of those fights showed off what Tokyo Ghoul: re can pull off when the writing is tight. At the end of Mado’s Naki ass whooping, she tells him that he’s weak because he’s stuck in the past. If you don’t change, you never advance, a sentiment that connects a few of these characters. In the past 2 years, she has risen higher in the ranks, gained the Quinx Squad, and mastered her dad’s unwieldy quinque. Meanwhile, Naki is still talking to Jason (who didn’t even make it out of season one) and had to be saved this week by Miza, Gagi and Guge (RIP), the White Suits, and then Ayato in that order. Even as Downy soft as he is, it’s Urie who the shoe fits more.

Slicing and dicing with his quinque and upgraded kagune, he can only think of besting Takeomi, the fellow agent whose dad was part of the group that left his dad behind. How petty do you have to be to have 2nd generation beef? Petty enough to disobey orders from the top, take ole Mutty directly into danger rather than safety. Huffing his own farts over demolishing weaklings, it takes Big Madame to humble him in a cliffhanger that feels very Attack on Titanesque.

As for Takeomi, he’s not as far behind Urie as you’d think. Being a normal human, there are no ghoul power shortcuts so he must train harder. Facing off against the big Clown, our new buddy loses his quinque, only to lock in a sleeper hold (2 wrestling references in one week?!) and snap his neck, a feat even Uta is impressed with. Normal humans don’t last long on this show, let alone take down anything higher than a scrub ghoul solo. Where being a slave to the past (and harnessing some powerful petty) causes Urie to stray and fail, Takeomi overcomes by relying on his training and orders. It’s the little things that make a show pop sometimes. It’s not a grandiose, earth shattering theme, but the way it is illustrated across the board makes you have to see it again.

They Change When They Get To The Top

One ghoul in particular that has let go of his past is “The Owl”, Takizawa. Thought to be a new character, we actually met him back in season one when he was a dove bickering with Mado. Ever the twerp before, now he only seems to be consumed with hunger. As he psychotically mows through agents, he brings something that Ghoul hasn’t had in almost a season:  terror. So much time has been spent humanizing ghouls that you forget how frightening they can be until you meet a truly insane force. Perhaps the worse aspect being that he fully remembers his past and can still be this sadistic.

For even more fun, Takizawa isn’t only powerful as a one-eyed half-breed, he also has multiple kagune types. Each is familiar, including Ayato’s diamond shooting kagune, so both sides are in the ghoul making game now and we’re in an arms war. Slowly this season has been priming us for it with the emphasis it has put on kagunes and quinques. Kagunes types have been called out and quinques have been given names, which would really be a nice added layer if they took the time to fill in the details. It still remains to be seen if Watanabe is expecting us to do the research or if we’ll get more information in series. Hopefully it’ll be in the show. With Funimation apparently dropping the DUB in SimulDUB, that’s more reading away from us, and you don’t want to do that. Nobody wants that!

PresS:  Night Of Scattering is the shining star so far this season. Kaneki and crew finally started clicking on all cylinders and I’m here for all of it. We didn’t get the reunions I was hoping for, but for those who saw the preview, you know I can’t wait for next week’s. Plus it’d be nice if Uta would stop toying with Hirako and let that go somewhere. There has to be a pay off after two weeks of taunts, hints, and knives.