Tokyo Ghoul: Is It Worth Watching, and Where Should You Start?

The verdict

Worth watching for Season 1; read the rest. Tokyo Ghoul's first season is a strong, gory introduction to a world where flesh-eating ghouls hide among humans, and it was hugely influential in 2010s dark fantasy. But it's one of the clearest cases in anime where the adaptation falls short of its source, so treat the anime as a starting point rather than the full story.

The premise

Ken Kaneki, a shy university student in Tokyo, survives a ghoul attack and wakes up after surgery with a ghoul's organs transplanted into him. Now half-ghoul, he can only survive on human flesh, and he's pulled into the hidden world of the coffee shop Anteiku, whose ghouls try to live quietly, while the CCG, the government's ghoul-hunting agency, closes in.

Season by season

• Tokyo Ghoul (Studio Pierrot, July to September 2014, 12 episodes). Adapts roughly the first half of the original manga, ending with Kaneki's capture and torture by Aogiri Tree. It cuts and compresses side characters, and TV broadcasts were heavily censored, but the core story is intact. The opening, "unravel" by TK from Ling Tosite Sigure, is one of the best-known anime songs of the decade.
• Tokyo Ghoul √A (January to March 2015, 12 episodes). Pronounced "Root A." Instead of following the manga, Kaneki makes a different choice and joins Aogiri Tree. Creator Sui Ishida supplied the concept, but the story, characters' fates and ending all differ from the manga.
• Tokyo Ghoul:re (April to June and October to December 2018, 24 episodes). Adapts the manga sequel, set after a time skip. Because it follows the manga, not √A, it assumes events you didn't see in the anime. It also covers 16 volumes in 24 episodes, and the second season in particular is widely criticised as a blur.

The path most fans recommend

1. Watch Season 1.
2. Read the original Tokyo Ghoul manga. Many fans say start from chapter 1, because Season 1 cut so much; otherwise, pick up partway through the Aogiri arc, where Season 1 ends.
3. Continue straight into the Tokyo Ghoul:re manga.
4. Watch √A afterwards, if you're curious, as an alternate version.

If you'd rather stay with anime, watch Season 1, skip √A, and go to :re, accepting that you'll miss detail. Ishida's art, which grows more experimental as the series goes on, is a big part of why the manga is the preferred version.

Who it suits

Tokyo Ghoul is dark from the first episode: body horror, torture and a protagonist caught between two sides that both want him dead. It suits viewers who liked Parasyte or Chainsaw Man and want a story about identity and what it costs to stay human. If you want an anime that is complete and satisfying on its own, pick something else; Parasyte, at 24 faithful episodes, covers similar ground with a proper ending.

Frequently asked questions

Does Tokyo Ghoul:re follow √A? No. :re continues the manga, so it skips over √A's events. Viewers who go straight from √A to :re are often confused.

How many episodes is Tokyo Ghoul in total? 48 TV episodes: 12 in Season 1, 12 in √A, and 24 across the two :re seasons, plus two short OVAs.

Want something else this dark?

Our anime quiz can match a dark fantasy to your mood, with episode counts for each pick. For a similar case of a strong first season and a weaker continuation, see our guide to The Promised Neverland.