How was the Tokyo Ghoul anime made?
Four cours from Studio Pierrot, an Oscar-nominated director, and one of the most famous opening songs of its decade.
The Tokyo Ghoul anime was produced by Studio Pierrot and directed by Shuhei Morita, who came to the series fresh from an Academy Award nomination for his short film Possessions. Series composition across the whole run is by Chūji Mikasano, and the score is by Yutaka Yamada. The first season aired on Tokyo MX from July 4 to September 19, 2014, compressing the manga’s first seventy chapters into twelve episodes, and opened with “unravel” by TK from Ling tosite Sigure.
The franchise’s production record is unusually well documented on paper: Shueisha’s official book Tokyo Ghoul [anime] (September 18, 2015) collects the settings, Ishida’s √A storyboard excerpts and all of his ending-card illustrations.
THE RUN, SEASON BY SEASON
2014–2018Season 1 (2014)
12 episodes, July 4 to September 19, 2014. Opening: “unravel” (TK). Ending: “The Saints” by People in the Box.
√A (2015)
12 episodes, January 9 to March 27, 2015. The original-story season; see the √A page for the documented draft story.
The OVAs (2015)
[Jack] on September 30, 2015 (30 minutes) and Pinto on December 25, 2015 (24 minutes), both from Pierrot.
:re (2018)
24 episodes in two cours, April 3 to June 19 and October 9 to December 25, 2018. Toshinori Watanabe directs; Pierrot produces with Pierrot+ assisting, and Atsuko Nakajima redesigns the characters.