the closest I've ever come to actually
talking about Tokyo Google is using it
as a throw away gag at the start of my
Watson and op4 Jojo way back at the
start of my YouTube career and in all
honesty I was content to leave it at
that because from what I'd seen of the
series it seemed like yet another hyper
edgy celebration of senseless violence
and I'd kind of had my fill of that and
then some with a comma a kill but with
the new season Tokyo ghoul re out I
decided to finally give the series
another shot and I'll admit I
drastically underestimated it Tokyo
ghoul is edgy as hell there's no getting
around that but it works it's a series
with a lot of heart and something
meaningful to say although note that I
say series and not show because even the
first season of the anime doesn't do the
manga justice and the second and third
seasons are kind of sort of terrible
like Studio Pierrot we've got a talk but
not today
today I'd like to focus on the one thing
that the studio in arguably got right
the opie unravel is a fantastic nuanced
opening that makes great use of
symbolism and some stunning shot
composition to present the themes of the
show in a very interesting manner it's
nowhere near my top 10 but I can
definitely see why it one read its best
opening tournament back in 2015 so today
let's dig into what makes this one of
the most well regarded anime openings of
all time and what hidden meaning we can
find inside it this whole opening is
laser focused on presenting us with
kaneki's perspective of Tokyo ghouls
world and the people human and ghoul
alike who inhabit it so it's fitting
that we start off seeing the world the
same way kaneki does before his
unfortunate accident in black and white
ghouls bad humans good then as the
backing music comes in the whole world
comes alive with color we see Kenickie
sitting in an ornate chair in the middle
of an endless expanse of water and sky
the way that the chair is framed is
reminiscent of the less fancy chair that
Kenickie finds himself strapped to in
Jason's torture chamber toward the end
of the season the sky and its reflection
below represent the world of humans and
the world of ghouls beneath its surface
as the opie goes on reflections and
duality become an increasingly important
visual motif
in this case the horizon across the
middle of the frame and inverted
reflections tell us that Kenickie exists
in both worlds as do toca and Riza and
even before the color comes in and he
actually becomes aware of it we see that
he's been sitting in both his whole life
at a distance Kenickie looks gray and D
saturated but pulling him closer we see
that he has black hair and a white shirt
with blue trim likewise toca and Ruiz a
first appeared dull and gray against the
vibrant beauty of the sky but moving
near them reveals their own vibrant
colors the closer you get to somebody
this Opie is saying the clearer a
picture you get of who they really are
and even the most monstrous people you
meet may have hidden depths to them the
direction of the wind gives us a sense
of positioning even in the empty void
it's blowing right on Kenickie and left
on visa and toca so we can infer that
they're standing in front of him toca is
looking off to the left ignoring him
while Riza is staring directly at
Kenickie she did say that she's had her
eye on him for a while after all as her
eyes open the lens shatters fracturing
both the image of Ruiz a and the world
behind her as the show makes very very
clear even in the lyrics of this song
the world of Tokyo ghoul is broken and
Reza's attack opens kana keys eyes to
that fact Ruiz a fades away as an image
of a shattered Tokyo takes her place one
by one reflections of the show's main
characters flit by in the foreground
with most of the ghouls appearing in
both their human disguises and their
true forms interestingly tokhes brother
aya toe only appears as a human while
Nishio only appears as a ghoul and motto
and yoshimora are conspicuously absent
after the characters flit by we see the
cracks of the screen slowly disappear
and the city distort itself back into a
single cohesive image as the title fades
into view this demonstrates the ultimate
goal of Kenickie as a character to fix
the broken world by making peace between
ghouls and humans from here we jump to a
shot of Kenickie walking next to a
window in some sort of high-rise while
he looks normal in the foreground in the
background his reflection has the red
gule it's possible that the black and
white tile under his feet is met to
foreshadow Jason's torture chamber
further but the more interesting
environmental detail here is the
nighttime cityscape behind him as the
opie moves forward we see other ghouls
reflected in a similar manner with their
reflections almost always being imposed
against a bigger image of the outside
world the transparency of these
reflections well just as a quick aside
the reflections are actually wrong in a
lot of these shots you can see the
reflected backgrounds through the bodies
of characters who are supposed to be
standing in front of them like the
building behind Nitschke or the railing
behind toka or the tile showing through
Kentucky's leg this seems to just be an
error with how the animators decided to
handle transparent layers and to be fair
you don't really notice while you're
watching the actual Opie because it goes
by so quickly but yeah that's not how
reflections work regardless this effect
creates the impression that these
characters are almost like ghosts living
in the human world without really being
part of it having to constantly hide
their true selves in order to fit in the
reflections also hammer home the theme
of duality there's more to these
characters than meets the eye which is
obvious when you look at say Nitschke
and toca who reveal themselves to have
hidden kindness very early on but it
also applies to characters who appear to
be absolute irredeemable monsters like
Tsukiyama and mato and even to
kentucky's best friend he day everyone
has a side that they don't show the
world while these shots use wildly
different camera angles they keep the
points of focus the characters in
roughly the same position from shots a
shot in order to allow your eye to
naturally flow through the montage
except for the investigators who are on
the opposite side of the screen from the
ghouls beyond the visual motif running
across them these shots mostly just
serve to show us the series important
characters but a few cool details do
stand out firstly Nitschke is the only
ghoul who we actually see being framed
against the human world instead of it
being shown in a reflection revealing
his true nature to Keamy means that he
doesn't have as much to hide as the
other ghouls do and the secret hidden
side of his life is much smaller than
that of the others now
day is shown moving over to the
investigators side of the screen which
reflects some of his career choices
later in the series and also he's the
only character who we see moving
downward in this entire Opie which in
terms of cinematic language usually
signifies a character falling from grace
or descending into hellish circumstances
which is appropriate given that things
do not go super well for he day as this
story progresses especially later in the
manga and that's not the only later
development foreshadowed in this Opie
before we get to that though I want to
quickly point out that as motto is
marching forward he hides his left hand
the one with his wedding ring inside his
pocket
further burying the symbol of the
tragedy that drives him to kill ghouls
lastly we get a look at Amon leaning
against a window as a car drives by and
just a heads up this part is a bit
speculative and involves a spoiler for
Tokyo ghoul Reese so if you want to
avoid that skip to this timestamp you've
been warned he's the only character in
this entire montage whose eyes aren't
clearly visible in his reflection but
when the light from the car catches his
face if you squint you can see his right
eye in the reflection and it doesn't
exactly look white now does it it's easy
to miss but this for shadows that Amon
will eventually be turned into an
artificial one-eyed ghoul like Kenickie
who's black and red eye is on his right
side rather than his left
you really have to admire the thought
that went into framing this shot in
order to hide that detail in plain sight
from Amon we cut Therese a standing in
front of the Tokyo skyline after a beat
her reflection unleashes its kagune
shattering the window behind her once
more this symbolically breaks down the
barrier between the human and ghoul
worlds for Kenickie but it also shows
him how broken the world truly is in a
flash the visuals become more abstract
and wheezes kagune transforms into a
collage of dancing clipart it's hard to
make out all of the shapes spreading
from her back but we can see several red
spider lilies in there the same flowers
that show up when she appears to kaneki
in the torture chamber spider lilies are
often used in Japanese funerals and have
a heavy association with death and the
after life specifically held they're
said to guide the dead toward
reincarnation which matches their use in
the story as they signify how rise a
becomes a part of Kenickie both in body
and eventually mind after her death we
see this death happen symbolically as
blood red spreads across Riza his white
dress and she closes her eyes mirroring
how she opens them at the start of the
opie her positioned to the right of the
screen compared to toca on the left
further parallels that opening shot next
we see tokhes kagune emerge from her
shoulder like butterfly ways the way
that the images that make up this
collage are stretched out it's difficult
to actually discern what any of them are
but this seems to be a mix of manmade
and natural shapes which would reflect
tokhes deeper involvement in the human
world when we zoom in on her face toca
turns to the camera and to kaneki by
proxy for the first time signifying her
eventual acceptance of him as a ghoul
and a friend from here we cut to human
kaneki falling through the water
bewildered and terrified as the camera
turns we see that he's falling upward
toward the expanse of sky from the
beginning of the Opie as well as his
gula fide reflection on the surface of
the water and we can tell that it's a
reflection because his eye is on the
wrong side as kaneki passes through the
surface his two disparate sides collide
and merged together and out of this
fusion emerges his final form the white
haired black jacketed ghoul that he
transforms into as a result of Jason's
torture session this version of him
contrasts starkly with the black haired
white-shirted Kenickie from the start of
the okie and not just in his colour
scheme where that Kenickie was in a sad
passive seated position this one stands
confidently showing no clear emotion
Kenickie has made a conscious decision
about who he wants to be instead of
waffling between ghoul and human and his
ordeals have clearly forged him into a
much stronger person than he was when we
first met him as the music dies down the
camera spends a few silent seconds
pulling back further from Kenickie while
the sky behind him becomes increasingly
d saturated and less vibrant kaneki's
worldview is becoming starker and less
naive than it was when he first entered
the world of ghouls but it never becomes
as simple and colorless as it was at
beginning and as the camera finishes
pulling back the Opie ends unravel sums
up Kentucky's transformation over the
course of this season beautifully and
succinctly while giving plenty of clever
hints about the characters around him
and even foreshadowing some plot turns
from very late in the manga the
consistent visual motif of reflections
and broken glass makes it feel much more
cohesive than your average jumbled anime
Opie but smart shot composition and
editing still allows for it to present
us with varied and striking imagery and
of course the theme song itself unravel
with its haunting whisper singing
beautiful instrumentation and somber
tone is absolutely phenomenal as well
and feels very distinct from your
average j-rock or j-pop opener with a
few glaring animation errors it's not
quite perfect but it stands apart for
how visually imaginative and information
dense it is combining a stellar song
with brilliant visual direction unravel
really is the complete Opie package and
it's no wonder that so many people hold
it in such high regard
now if only Studio Pierrot could make
the actual anime that good but that's a
topic for another day and if you want to
see me talk about it make sure that you
hit subscribe to catch every mother's
basement video as it goes live for now
I'm Jeff Zhu professional
signing out from my mother's basement