We all love Tokyo Ghoul! The Shonen anime and manga about ghouls living hidden within normal society is the right blend of dark, gritty and amusing. It’s a horror anime that mixes stylish battles together with great powers and maniacal villains – and it’s surprisingly short compared to other anime.
So you’ve watched a great deal of Toyko Ghoul and you’re wondering if there’s going to be more of the show to watch. Is the show over forever? If you find yourself itching for more, wondering if the Tokyo Ghoul Anime has finished, or if there will be more – then you’ve come to the right place!
In this article, we’re going to be outlining the future of the anime – examining whether or not the show has any chance of continuing, and why it’s not as long as other anime out there!
Before we can understand what’s going on with the future of Tokyo Ghoul, let’s first learn a little about its history. Tokyo Ghoul is a manga and anime written by Sui Ishida – it can be classified as either horror or dark fantasy manga.
It was written between 2011 and 2014 and was collected into fourteen separate volumes. This has also spawned several different sequels and spinoffs as well as an anime television show that fans have loved!
The story is about a high school student who goes on a date with a nice girl, only to find that she is a flesh-eating ghoul! After being turned into a ghoul himself, Ken Kaneki must learn to survive the strange night-time world of Tokyo Ghoul society.
How Many Series Are There?
Let’s first consider the Manga – as this is the basis from which the anime has been taken from. The Manga is 143 chapters long – which is on the shorter size for a series of such popularity. The series ends with an epilogue that wraps up Ken Kaneki’s storyline.
This manga storyline was adapted into Tokyo Ghoul Season 1 – which has 12 episodes in total and was released in July of 2014. Fans generally love season 1 and think it is a great adaptation.
Season 2 also has 12 episodes and roughly adapts the second half of the manga into one series. This is where the show differs from the manga most clearly – as this squash of the plot makes it quite different.
Now there is more to the manga than just the outline of the manga because we also have Tokyo Ghoul: re. This series is an adaptation of the sequel manga by Sui Ishida.
It acts kind of like a third season, except it’s a little different with new characters and a new identity for our main character of Ken Kaneki. Tokyo Ghoul: re has 12 episodes in its first season.
Season 2 of Tokyo Ghoul: re also has 12 episodes and ended December 25th, 2018.
Is Tokyo Ghoul Over – Or Will There Be More?
Now that we’ve taken a look at the anime that is already out and ready for us to watch, let’s consider the future of the series. The answer to the question of whether there will be more episodes of Tokyo Ghoul is no!
Unfortunately, there will not be any season 5 of Tokyo Ghoul because almost all of the material of the manga has already been adapted.
So far as we know, Sui Ishida has no plans to continue work on the series. This means that there is nothing new to be adapted into an anime – and since the story is over the team working on the anime are unlikely to want to extend it.
Now we know this isn’t good news for real fans of Tokyo Ghoul – ever since its creation and introduction people all over the world have fallen in love with its stylish aesthetic and cool world-building.
There is however something that fans are still hoping for – but it’s a controversial topic! Generally, season 2 of Tokyo Ghoul is seen as a poor adaptation of the manga.
This mostly comes from those who love the manga and were disappointed in how its second half was condensed. This packing down of the plot into 12 short episodes was always bound to anger some fans.
So maybe in the future, we will get more Tokyo Ghoul – only not a new story, but a different version of what we already have. This wouldn’t be the first time that this has happened in anime.
The most famous example in recent years is the different adaptations of Full Metal Alchemist. This Manga has two different adaptations – Full Metal Alchemist, and Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood.
Could it be that we will one day get a longer, more faithful adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul? Some fans certainly hope for this! That’s not to say the anime was a failure, or that we shouldn’t want more of it – just that it isn’t the most faithful adaptation of its source material.
Beyond this, we can hope that one day Sui Ishida comes back and writes more manga within the world of Tokyo Ghoul so that there will be new material to make anime from! Who knows if he will or not – but we can hope!
Final Thoughts
Tokyo Ghoul was a great series while it lasted, and with four seasons fans can be safe in assuming that they got everything out of the story that they wanted.
But that said, it’s sad to see it not being a long-running anime in the same way other favorites around the world such as Naruto and One Piece are. Shorter anime is great too – sometimes it’s good to end a show before it outstays it’s welcome!
We hope that this article has helped you to understand the history and future of the Tokyo Ghoul anime, as well as the reasons why it is unlikely to continue. Let’s hope that one day in the future we’ll be back on the dark, moonlit streets of Tokyo with Ken Kaneki!
