Tokyo Ghoul Jack & Pinto OVAs Review
Tokyo Ghoul OVA collection is an Anime Limited exclusive release; available for the first time in English, the OVAs Jack and Pinto tell two separate tales that take place before the main Tokyo Ghoul story begins. Jack follows Taishi Fura and Kisho Arima, two seemingly ordinary high school boys who are brought together when Taishi’s best friend is killed and another is gravely injured by a Ghoul attack. With Kisho secretly working undercover for the CCG, the pair come together to hunt down the legendary Lantern Ghoul. On the other side, we have Pinto taking place during Shuu Tsukiama’s early days as a young Ghoul, where one night whilst trying to eat a helpless human for dinner he’s interrupted by a budding photographer by the name of Chie Hori. Instead of being horrified, Chie seems to be more interested in getting the ‘perfect shot’ and the pair develop a strange friendship thereafter.
One of the strongest and most endearing aspects of Tokyo Ghoul is its portrayal of both sides of the Humans Vs. Ghoul story-long struggle, and the lack of pure ‘black and white’ views of them, which is a great achievement considering it’s a story revolving around demonic beings that have humans as their only source of food. Luckily this carries over to these OVAs. Jack looks like the clearest example of humans being the good guys; Taishi and Kisho come across as doing heroic work whilst taking out incredibly violent and sadistic ghouls, but with Arima’s cold disposition and showing very little emotion when he kills, it doesn’t take away from the ‘shades of grey’ that the original series strives for. The same goes for the Pinto OVA, which follows one of the hammier and bombastically gory Ghouls we’ve come to love, and gives him a chance to show more sides of his personality with his curiosity for humans overall. Through him we learn that sometimes the darkest sides of humanity can be right in front of you without realizing.
Both OVAs do feel like added stories that complement the main series, however Pinto is the stronger tale of the two for several reasons. First of all, Pinto follows a character that the audience is already very familiar with, and since he’s mostly known as the comical relief in the main story it’s nice to see him take center stage (if only for 20+ minutes) and add layers to his character. Secondly, it’s better paced, with his horrific kill at the start intercepted by Chie and then showing them grow as a pair before building up to the interestingly twisted conclusion, and it all feels very satisfying. Jack, on the other hand, follows a pair who are top CCG agents from the original series, however in the anime they do not show up until the last two episodes of Root A, therefore we do not know them or feel any attachment to them. Whilst it’s interesting on paper to see where the CCG’s very own ‘Reaper’ started out and how he influenced others to join the organization, the character himself is very one-note throughout the episode. We don’t learn anything new about him nor does he grow as a person through the OVA episode. The pacing is also very fast; it jumps from introducing the three friends to the violent kill, then Arima’s introduction, and so on. It doesn’t allow for a lot of breathing space or quiet character moments, which arguably you need more of when we know the characters least of all. The story itself is also quite generic; we can empathize with Taishi’s need to avenge his friends but in the grand scheme of things we’ve had across the Tokyo Ghoul anime so far, it feels unoriginal and small in nature.
Animation at first looks very similar to the original series, but budget cuts have been made and it’s very noticeable during the fight scenes. The animation for them, especially for the Ghouls’ powers, is far more loose and cartoon-y in their movement, so instead of coming across as tense and horrific as in the original anime they instead look cheap and almost laughable. Jack is the worst looking of the pair as it contains the most violent scenes, whereas Pinto’s more character-driven story has less interesting visuals but keeps the horror tone in check within the limited budget.
There are only 2 episodes in the set, with no English dub, which feels odd considering the rest of the series has it although the set comes with subtitles in both English and French (confusingly enough you’ll find them in the ‘audio’ section; really it should have be called ‘subtitles’). Extras include Japanese trailers for the OVAs only, but the Collector’s Edition comes with a unique case and art cards.
Tokyo Ghoul fans who have loved the world building and characters will have little reason not to pick this up; the stories are short but fun distractions that complement the series nicely. If you have yet to invest in the anime however, wait until the new complete series release in December comes around as it includes both seasons PLUS the OVA, feeling more like a complete package and worth the extra cash. Nevertheless, considering this is the first time that these two episodes have been officially released in English, it’s not one for fans to miss.
