English Dub Review: Tokyo Ghoul: Re “TAKe: One Who Writhes”

There are consequences to everything.

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Shu hates life right now. The disappearance of Kaneki two years ago left him depressed and starving himself. Unfortunately, that also brought him so close to death that he’s gone crazy. He’s lost control of his kagune, and attacks indiscriminately. They’ve resorted to using Kanae’s power to restrain him, while other servants dope him up. This whole thing brings Kanae no end of torment, and she runs from the villa. After she bashes her head against a tree for a while, Chie arrives with a gift that may be Shu’s best chance. Three photos.

In the meantime, the Tsukiyama household’s hunting has caught the eye of the CCG. The Quinx Squad teams up with S1 and Shiki Kijima to capture these villains. They know that these are organized ghouls since there are no signs of predation at the scene of the abduction. With no clues as to who these ghouls are, they have to think outside the box.

After the meeting, second in command of the S1 squad come over to introduce herself. This is Hairu Ihei, and despite her demure nature, she’s a veteran of the Owl Extermination Mission. She’s the same age as the Quinxes, and Shirazu gets a bit flustered. Don’t blame him. That is one cute lady. While the Quinx squad canvases the area, S1 and Shiki bait out the ghouls with Shiki’s servant. Their ambush catches Matsumae off guard, and she throws up a hasty bramble wall to block them. Too bad Ihei’s already on her side of the wall. She makes quick work of one of the ghouls and severely injures Matsumae. They also capture the other of Matsumae’s aides.

In the meantime, Sasaki chases a few leads as to his mysterious package. He talks to Hina, and she goes on about how he used to read to her when she was younger. His other stop is HySy Artmask Studio to talk to Uta. He doesn’t gather anything useful from the artist, but Uta insists he keeps the mask. After all, it is his… As is the first photo that Kanae shows Shu. Sasaki in his CCG uniform. Shu erupts into tears.

Our Take

Today’s episode was on the slow side again. That’s fine with this show since it is a bit more character based than previous installments. All of the characters advance their individual stories (except Urie, because forget his mopey self). We are also properly introduced to Shiki, who has been a creepy little so-and-so for a while. For those of you who don’t know, Shiki comes from the video game Tokyo Ghoul: Jail. He’s Machiavellian, and more than a little scarred by the experience of fighting Jail, physically and emotionally. He’s going to be a problem.

I like Ihei. She’s a solid fighter, but humble and personable. Or at least, she seems to like that for now. I hope she doesn’t turn out to be a darker character. Perhaps there could be something with her and Shiazu, but I won’t hold out my breath. His story seems to be more about accepting the death of Nutcracker. He’s having nightmares of her last words, and can’t pick up the quinque he had made from her without a panic attack. After all, it is a chunk of her body. It’s a pretty standard story, but it works well for his character. He needs to toughen up a bit, especially since his own kagune is rather weak.

The animation of the battle scene between Matsumae and Ihei was a slight step up from a standard episode, but not quite the level of the dedicated action episodes. Ihei’s movements could have been more simply done as loops, but they chose to put effort into it. I appreciate that. The voice acting was rather good as well. Sarah Weidenheft gave me the chuckles with her work on Saiko. Her sarcasm made the character so much more likable this episode. She was almost the comic relief. Her lines were well written, as well, as she often said exactly what we were thinking. Jill Harris also did a great job with Ihei. She made her sweet, but there is a hardened combatant under all that.