Everything You Need To Know Before 'Tokyo Ghoul' Returns

What Is 'Tokyo Ghoul'?

Originally created by Sui Ishida, Tokyo Ghoul follows Ken Kaneki, a student who survives an encounter with his date, who turns out to be a ghoul. Kaneki's world is filled with Ghouls, beings who eat humans, and they've been living among humans in secret. After surviving this attack he wakes up to realize that he himself has become a ghoul because of a surgery that implanted organs from the ghoul who attacked him. In order to live somewhat a normal life, Kaneki needs to eat human flesh to survive. Luckily he's taken in by a group of ghouls at the cafe Anteiku, who help him reintegrate into society.

The series first began in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump and ran from 2011 to 2014, and has been collected into 14 volumes. The series was adapted into two anime series. Its first season from Studio Pierrot ran for 12 episodes from July to September 2014, and the sequel, Tokyo Ghoul Root A, followed an original story and also ran for 12 episodes from January to March 2015. The manga was licensed for an English language release from Viz Media, and the anime was licensed by Funimation.

What Is 'Tokyo Ghoul:re'?

Tokyo Ghoul:re is a bit trickier to nail down than its predecessor. This series is set two years after the events of the original series and follows Haise Sasaki, a member of the CCG and leader of a special squad of investigators who have implanted the CCG's specialty weapon, the Quinque, into their bodies and essentially have become half ghoul. The kicker, however, is that Haise is actually Ken Kaneki from the original series who's suffering from a bout of amnesia.

While the manga made an easy transition between the two series (sort of like how One Piece and Naruto handled their time skips), the anime series is going to be a bit trickier given that the second season went off into its own original narrative.

What Do I Need To Watch?

While the first season of the series stuck to the canon of Ishida's original manga, the second season, Tokyo Ghoul Root A, eventually went with a non-canon ending and created its own events original to the series. But these events are not necessary to watch and enjoy the third season of the series.

Tokyo Ghoul:re returns to the series' canon, and takes place essentially after the end of the first season of the series. So in order to catch up with the current events of the series, the only episodes fans need to be aware of are the first 12 episodes of the first season.

When Does It Premiere?

Tokyo Ghoul:re is set to premiere on April 3. The series will be directed by Odahiro Watanabe with characters designed by Atsuko Nakajima. The series will feature the voices of Natsuki Hanae as Haise Sasaki, Kaito Ishikawa as Kuki Urie, Yuma Uchida as Ginshi Shirazu, Natsumi Fujiwara as Tooru Mutsuki, Ayane Sakura as Saiko Yonebayashi, Mamoru Miyano as Shuu Tsukiyama, Yu Kobayashi as Kanae von Rosewald, Daisuke Namikawa as Arima Kishou, and Asami Seto as Akira Mado.

The release is a big one for Spring 2018 as not only is it one of the few series to get a simuldub same day release as Japan (along with My Hero Academia), but it's been a while since fans have seen new episodes of Tokyo Ghoul since its second season ended in 2015 (and it's English dub release in 2017).

How Many Episodes Will There Be?

Although it is unconfirmed, many fans are expecting the third season of the series to run for 12 episodes much like the first two seasons of the series. For fans worried about the pacing of the series, it seems those fears are not unwarranted. For fans in attendance during its premiere at Anime Japan 2018, the first episode seemed to cover the first six chapters of the series.

This is a bit alarming considering bits of the trailer tease the third season making it all the way to the Rose Investigation arc taking place in Chapters 32-45. Considering that the first season of the series covered around 65-70 chapters of the original series through its run. Fans felt the pacing was a bit too brisk in the first season, and the worry might follow the series through the third season.

Are There Any Trailers?

For fans interested in seeing how Tokyo Ghoul:re looks before its official premiere, there are currently three trailers available. The first trailer (which you can find here) is more of a teaser trailer for the events of the series, but the second trailer (which you can find here) provides a much fuller look at the series to come.

For fans wanting to see the English dub of the series, luckily the series has released the first trailer for the English dub of the series as well (which you can find here). This trailer features much of the same footage of the previous two trailers but it is a great way of showing off how spot on the English voice cast is.

How Can I Watch?

Now that you're all prepared for what you need to know going into Tokyo Ghoul:re, how do you watch the series? Luckily there are plenty of options for fans of the series to explore when the series premieres April 3. Not only will the series be available for simulcast on Crunchyroll and VRV (Japanese language release with English subtitles) on the same day the episode launches in Japan, the series is part of a major push by Funimation for a faster produced English dub.

The first few episodes of Tokyo Ghoul's third season will be available for English dub streaming on FunimationNOW the same day the episodes will be available in Japan and simulcast on other streaming services. This is a landmark process for the company, and if the kinks are ironed out with the releases of their biggest series perhaps this can be an experiment in how to make this a process for other series as well.

Ready and excited for Tokyo Ghoul:re? Let us know in the comments!