Tokyo Ghoul: "Jack"

If only Tokyo Ghoul √A was this good...
This short OVA tells the back story of Arima who appears in the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, and was honestly a fascinating clip of the Tokyo Ghoul world. Although it is recommended that you watch both seasons of TG (Tokyo Ghoul) before touching this, I thought that it stood firmly as its own interesting piece, with a defined character.

To begin, I'll discuss the artwork, sound, and story as a whole. I would argue that the artwork has indeed changed slightly from the televised versions of TG, and it gave it a very different "atmosphere." For the ... majority of this OVA, it really felt like a slice-of-life anime, partially because of the art, and also because of the relationship between the characters. In the past, TG characters, although close, seldom shared "memorable" moments with each other, and I was glad to see that element added to this OVA. The characters really came to life, and it got me to not only feel closer to them, but want to support them. This was the most drastic change between TG and "Jack," and it increased my overall enjoyment of this piece.

My overall rating for this is a 9/10, due to its solid artwork, character development, and story. The only reason I won't give this one a perfect score is because it didn't meet my expectations in terms of action scenes and, if it's a word, Ghoulishness.

"I always wanted to be like them. I wanted to be normal."

Tokyo Ghoul : Jack, an ova I have been anticipating since it was confirmed. And now that I finally watched, I want more, a lot more.

Story (9) : The story follows Fura, who belongs in a gang but then left it. One unfortunate day, he witnesses the murder of his friend by a ghoul of the name "Lantern". Wanting revenge, he and Arima start to go around killing ghouls hoping to find Lantern with the help of, Minami. There isn't much to the story, but it was quite interesting to know a little ... more about Arima's backstory. Unlike Tokyo Ghoul, this ova focuses on making the ghouls seem bad. But in the end, you will feel the feels when you understand that most ghouls just want to be human and live normally with the rest of us.

Art (8) : The colors are quite vivid and fit this ova quite well. The gore animation wasn't too over the top like some anime could be. As expected, the fight scenes in this ova is quite good. I also really liked that character animation.

Sound (8.5) : There isn't an op or ed to judge, but I must say, the OST was quite good. It fitted the anime very well and didn't seem out of place at all.

Character (9) : For characters, we have the overpowered Arima and the guy who wants revenge, Fura. We also have Minami, who seems like a cute and innocent girl. There is a little character development for Fura, from a rebellious teenager to an outstanding ghoul investigator. It was quite interesting to watch the main characters interact with each other.

Enjoyment (10) : The original Tokyo Ghoul series (Not Root A), is one of my favorite anime of all time. So of course, I would have enjoyed this ova and I enjoyed every single bit of it. Unlike root A, which I disappointed me a lot.

Overall (9) : I really liked this ova and can't wait for Pinto which is coming next season. I would recommend this ova to anyone who enjoyed Tokyo Ghoul. It would give you feels, when you watch the ending. I also recommend you to check out the manga series if you enjoyed it.

My first ever and very simple review of this OVA. All I can say is thank you Studio Pierrot, but I still don't forgive you for Root A. They did a 180 from Root A and did not butcher Ishida Sui's work at all!

Tokyo Ghoul: Jack's story, art, and characters are all beautifully adapted from the manga for our viewing pleasure. The OST is also completely brand new and fitting! You will not, I repeat, you will NOT be disappointed in by the Tokyo Ghoul: Jack OVA adaptation.

The only possible downfall is that it's only 30 minutes long! Overall enjoyment is 10/10.

P.S. No ... Arima dorito-chin.

*Minor Spoilers Ahead*


There is one word that describes the Tokyo ghoul Anime and that word is "Lacking" from the first season through the second season and now this OVA , Which is something disappointing since I like this series very much and the idea of it ,

The Story of this ... OVA follows the Arima Kishou the God like CCG Agent or as the description says the CCG Shinigami through his high school days , now it might say that the focus in this OVA is Arima high school "DAYS" but its not completely true because its focuses more about another main character , Enter Taishi Fura Who is a high school student hell bend on revenge after seeing his former gang getting killed by a Ghoul Called the Lantern Ghoul , so the description is somewhat off

now to point out some good and bad points about this series
now the good thing that I found in this OVA is the animation and background music same thing as the first season and the second season of tokyo ghoul but that is the only good things about this OVA

now when I say lacking I'm not exaggerating at all when I finished this OVA I had so many questioned unanswered to give an example :
why is Arima so powerful at a young age ?
how did he end up working for CCG ?


now this can all be answered in the third season maybe ? but the problems doesn't stop there , there were only two fighting scenes and they were mediocre at best and all others are skipped , now I'm not saying fighting scenes matter all the time but when there is no much character building which required more than one episode because I didn't buy the friendship between the two main characters at all and this is why I say the LACKING , this needed more episode and the fact that we had two time skips in only one episode with 30 min run time doesn't help at all

I feel that this OVA was a really well developed and had great depth of character and story. It felt like a bit of a let down since there was no Kaneki. But that still doesn't affect my review cause the characters and action was great without it.

I really liked the mood the Introduction of the OVA generated. It gave me a sort of "Japanese Hotline Miami" feel, which i loved.
Fight Scenes were action packed and full of tension.
I think conclusion was a great summary, which was also not a completely closed ended ending as it leaves room for other OVA's to develop.

T~T No Kaneki ... but still 10/10

Arima is a boy shown in Tokyo Ghoul √A and he is mainly what this OVA is centered around, along with a few other likable characters.

The production value for this OVA is spectacular. The artwork, animation and sound are all "√A1" and while they differ from the actual anime series, it is a good change. I felt immersed from the first opening shot of the city and streets. I was given the sense of atmosphere which I desired going into something Tokyo Ghoul related.

Character development is done well for a 30-minute runtime. However, one thing that bothers me is that Arima is a tad bit ... "Overpowered" for his age. Most investigators are older, wiser and through experience gain the skill he seemed to show off in only 2-3 scenes. The fights could've been a lot better too. When I think of Tokyo Ghoul, I think of fast paced, glowing characters across the screen where as we only recieve a small amount of that in this OVA.

I respect this OVA more then the anime series but it does have flaws which are not that bad in comparison. "Jack" is a 7/10 in my eyes because of the artwork, decent character development, and really good story arc.

Art: 9-9.5/10 Character designs are eye-pleasing and there is a decent amount of detail (e.g weapons, clothing etc could be seen clearly). Not quite "insanely awesome" like I would say for Kara no Kyoukai (the original 7 movies not the abomination that came later) or say Mardock Scramble or a lot of other anime, but still looks pretty damn good.

Animation: 9-9.5/10 There are a few very well animated scenes that would frankly put most animated movies to shame. I'm talking about the arima vs minami fight at the end of the episode. The character animation for minami was simply drop-dead gorgeous when she revealed ... her kagune (having her slowly glide to the ground on her kagune was a beautiful touch). In general the kagune animations in this OVA are incredibly smooth and eye-pleasing.

Choreography: 6/10 Unfortunately the OVA (as does the main TG series itself) drops the ball when it comes to fight choreography. Most of the time Arima is just running around dodging tentacles here and there and fights are typically ended by him just running up and slashing the ghoul across the midsection. The most decisive action in the final fight was just a simple spear throw which while arguably more practical is visually unimpressive. If you compare the fight choreography here to the choreography in let's say Seirei no Moribito (and in fact most Production I.G-directed action series such as Real Drive or most BONES-directed action series like FMA and FMAB) it's very lackluster. Now you could argue that the OVA is limited by the manga in terms of how good of a choreography it could actually use and having read the manga I think this argument has some merit. On the other hand I would argue that there is such a thing as Creative License (I know it usually refers to something different but here I use it to mean "freedom to not stick completely faithfully to the source material") and I know that a lot of anime studios do not adapt a manga totally faithfully (see the 1993 JJBA OVA for example) and this may lead to lots of bitching by manga readers but also an excellent and enjoyable work when viewed in its own right (yes I know that OVA had Mitsuo Iso working on it but it doesn't mean you can only take liberties when you have a godlike animator on your team). So I think in this case a more thoughtful and perhaps more daring director could have chosen to alter the scenes so as to depict superior fight choreography. In any case there is large room for improvement.

Direction: 8.5/10 There are quite a few very well directed scenes in the anime but I felt the transitions between scenes were a bit abrupt and not very smooth. There were too many jump cuts than necessitated but overall the choice of camera angles (both perspective and level of zoom) is sound. There were not any outstanding shots that I would call attention to unlike the case with Trust and Betrayal and a few scenes in Hunter X Hunter 1999 which I consider among the most well directed action anime ever. Whilst there is a good amount of foreshadowing in the anime I felt that took away some of the surprise from the reveal at the end so I would argue that is not a sign of excellent direction after all. I would also question the choice of scenes to include as I thought that perhaps a few more scenes could have been devoted to developing the character relationships so we could actually care about the people who died. It would have helped to show a more human side to Arima (maybe show him waking up in the morning or cooking or eating food or something) so he doesn't come off as a complete autist. The meeting between Yamori and Lantern also did not give off the vibes of 2 extremely dangerous ghouls meeting one another so could use some improvement.

Story: The story was weird as fuck. None of the characters acted realistically. Especially Lantern and Arima. I know they're ghouls but...are all ghouls supposed to be mentally messed up? They are literally batshit insane. Lantern wants to experience human life, then she goes out and starts fucking murdering people. Like...what are you trying to go for here, seriously. And I'm not sure why she suicided at the end but that felt weird and out of place. I know it's supposed to make you cry or some shit? But we had like 5 minutes of screen time and she was acting fake as fuck all the way through so...yeah. There was not a minute of genuine emotion from Minami except when she was dying so I can't say she was a very well developed character. Arima is an emotionless autist so not much to say there (he acts weirdly out of character a few times like letting Fura and Minami in on his secret Lantern-hunting mission which he isn't supposed to let anyone know about but w/e maybe he's psychic or something). Fura is...not very delinquent-like. Idk what delinquents are like in Japan but he doesn't act like any delinquent I know of. And especially that guy that died at the start - "we should have stayed and played baseball" - FUCKING REALLY? THESE ARE YOUR LAST WORDS? Come the fuck on man...okay. Enough bitching about the one aspect of anime that I don't really care about.

Overall: Delicious Minami tentacles and some hot Arima-on-ghoul action mmm tasty. Watch this if you're an Arima fan and you can't get enough of those batshit-crazy pretty girl ghoul tentacles.

The tragic world of Tokyo Ghoul continues in this prequel focusing on Arima as the mysterious High School investigator. If anyone needed a reaffirmation that Arima Kishou was a badass "Jack" OVA is a pretty good refresher.

Story/Character:
Having read the manga prior to the anime adaptation I have to admit the story was captured quite well. Aside from a few events out of order and expected dialogue differences nothing felt out of place. The only thing that I would have changed was less foreshadowing someone's "true identity" and a little more development between Arima and Fura. It felt like their commitment to each other was a ... little rushed seeing as they had spent almost no time together unlike the manga that shows them take down many a Ghoul before even saving Minami.

Art/Sound: The animation in this OVA was brilliant and had quite a few exhilarating fight scenes. The music was good as expected of a Tokyo Ghoul related animation. I have always thoroughly enjoyed the mixture of haunting as well beautiful piano tracks the series has to offer.

Overall, I really enjoyed Tokyo Ghoul: Jack. This was a very short review seeing as I only had 30 mins to work with, but I look forward to reviewing the Tokyo Ghoul:re manga when it concludes with a more through break down.

Might contain spoilers, So, read on your own risk.

Been waiting for this one to air and after watching, I'm somewhat happy. It follows younger arima and his 'High school' life time (he wasn't actually studying to get into college, but, to kill ghouls). Everything was just fine. There was enough romance, suspense (a little), mystery and action for a 30 min. ova.

They's packed so much in 30 minutes and I've loved it. Thank goodness it was nothing like ROOT A.

Although, I felt as if, the end was kinda rushed. Felt like they just ended it out of nowhere. So, I'm dissappointed a little for ... the ending, but, it was worth watching.

Whoever is thinking whether they should watch this OVA or not, I'll say... 'What are you waiting for? THIS IS REALLY GOOD!!! Go and WATCH IT!"

Tokyo Ghoul: "Jack" (2015)

Well for a side story I must say pretty confidently it was great. The storyline was a nice easy running ghoul story with a very relatable story from Uruka Minami who is super cute in all ways. If the main show kept this sort of pacing it would have soared even higher.

The art is a great standard and very much the style of the show.

The sound was nicely selected and gave a really good side story vibe even.

Characters are developed off the main story of course which is great. Aki is the weakest of the characters that matter since ... she is somewhat selfish compared to Minami especially.

A nicely constructed story well worth a watch.

English version:
The story is basically about the youth of Arima Kishou, showing how he was such a prodigy and powerful since as younger. In the other hand, I think that te lack of development of the characters of this OVA make us don't care about them, like, they can die and we're just to stay like "oh, no, what a shame...".
Btw, they don't explain why Arima is how he is, if you wanna know it, you've gotta watch "Tokyo Ghoul:re" (good luck, you're gonna need).
Lastly, I really enjoyed the graphic design, the sound effects and the animation, they're pretty pretty good. In general, that's far ... from being a masterpiece but it is very nostalgic and I highly recommend it to people that already finished the second season of Tokyo Ghoul.

Portuguese version:
A história se trata basicamente de um conto da juventude de Arima Kishou, mostrando como ele era mesmo um prodígio, mostrando que desde adolescente ele seria (ou talvez já fosse) o membro mais forte e habilidoso de toda a CCG. No entando, acho que a falta de desenvolvimento dos personagens introduzidos na OVA faz com que os prejuízos que os mesmos sofram sejam insignificantes pro espectador; além de que não explicam sobre porquê o Arima é do jeito que é, se você busca assistir isso buscando explicações sobre a backstory do personagem, sinto lhe informar, mas isso não é mencionado (para isso tens que ver "Tokyo Ghoul: re", boa sortekk).
O que mais me agradou foi como o estilo gráfico está lindo e como a animação fluiu super bem, além das trilhas sonoras que, mesmo não sendo muito marcantes, encaixaram muito bem nas cenas. No geral, mesmo não sendo uma obra espetacular, eu gostei muito e tive um momento nostálgico e gostoso ao assistir. Recomendo pra todos que já viram a segunda temporada, "Tokyo Ghoul √A".

Story: It felt nice to be given some background for new characters—like Kishou Arima who was introduced only at the end of the Tokyo Ghoul Root A series—through an OVA. You don't get the characters' full story though, and the plot itself remains mostly a plain police-detective story. To end in a positive tone though, I would say that it had some well crafted elements of surprise with respect to the development of certain events.

Characters: None of the characters impressed me! Both Taishi Fura and Arima seemed really promising, but I was not given enough background for either of them, nor has the plot ... helped in this direction. In consequence, I lost interest. Some aspects about their pasts were hinted at, but in the end no much connection could be made with their present lives. Arima's motives remained a complete mystery too. Uruka Minami was also disappointing. Her motivation seemed exaggerated. However, she presented an interesting perspective about humans—a good subject for contemplation, in my opinion.

Art: I'd say both graphics and animation have a similar quality to the series'. Fura's friends being attacked at the beginning of the OVA, in particular, left a powerful impression on me! It was engaging!

Sound: I found the soundtrack decent. When I say decent, I mean that it didn't impress me in particular, but it did a good job creating the proper atmosphere and accentuating the impact of certain scenes.

With Tokyo Ghoul Jack we get to see the origin story of investigator Arima, a character who was barely in the first 2 seasons of the show and some other guy who as far as I could tell wasn't in it at all. This is a double edged sword in storytelling, on the one hand you don't have to worry much about sticking to established themes or character traits because so far as we know there aren't any, but on the other you have to climb the hurdle of getting the audience to care about what are essentially new characters in just one episode's time.

As ... far as getting emotionally invested in the character I think the episode does a good enough job of that. I certainly found myself caring more about Jack than a good number of the supposed main characters from this franchise. It gives him a clear motivation and really lets you root for him as he tries his best to hunt down various ghouls murder mystery style. It was a neat little story, though the twist was a little obvious if you stopped to think about it for a second.

I think if you have no prior knowledge of the manga or future installments in the franchise as I did when going into this you can still have a good time. It feels like you might get a little more out of it if you had any idea who Arima is, and going into season 3 or season :Re or whatever it's called I think I'll actually care a bit more about him as a character now that I at least can tell you who he is and what his deal is.

8/10 surprisingly good.

The main character is really likeable. It expands a lot on someone I didn't care or know much about in the main series. I don't often come across an anime where delinquents are portrayed sympathetically. In this they are. You are quickly made to realize that they're just goofy kids, theyre not a stereotype. There's a really interesting parallel to the way the way deliquents are described, as "deserving" of the bad things that happen to them, and the ghouls. I think it's also interesting how Tokyo Ghoul, which is largely a story about persecution, could easily have framed the ghouls as completely lacking humanity. ... It's easy to see how Fura could join the CCG thinking they were doing a morally right thing, and how Arima could feel the same. The characters in this OVA have great chemistry. I could easily see them being protagonists in a longer series.

This is a nice 30 minute OVA about a part of the childhood of Arima, one of the best Special Investigators in Tokyo Ghoul. Arima only appears in a few scenes in the first season of Tokyo Ghoul and in the last episodes of the second season. Considering how little he appears in the first season I'd argue that you should watch this after the second season since then you will actually know who the guy is.

The story takes place while Arima is still in school; at this time he is already working for the CCG. In the story Arima ends up working together with ... a classmate who encountered ghouls and using the information that they get from another classmate they take down a dozen ghouls before they finally encounter a ghoul named Lantern who has been terrorizing the district. It's a nice story and it provides insight into the past of a character that could be important in the future.

The characters are relatively simple which makes sense since the OVA is only 30 minutes. Their personalities are very clear though and you can follow their train of thought.

The animation, voice acting and sound were all similar to or the same as in the main anime, so okay overall. There's still CGI for cars and such while the sound is still great.

Overall this is a nice OVA to watch if you like Tokyo Ghoul. It's a pretty okay story that is mostly self-contained and also gives you more information about the characters in the main anime.

my fav OVA of any series ever. if you love arima youre gonna think this shi is absolutely genius. even as a standalone watch its just phenomenal. the chemistry between the trio is amazing, the mystery is interesting and catches your attention, and the animation is stunning. nothing in tokyo ghoul:RE or √A comes close to touching the level of perfection that this OVA reaches. the characterization, pace, setting, plot everything goes above and beyond expectations. arima was my fav character even before i watched this movie, but after the movie it just solidified how much i love him. i cant recommend this OVA enough, ... and even if you havent seen tokyo ghoul im confident you can watch and enjoy this.