Y'know, because of how this ended up doing in the end, it gives me some hope that things will improve regarding the animated version as things go on. This blew up in their faces in a way they never expected it to and I'm actually very hopeful they'll put a lot more effort into the series because they can see it's worth far more than what they thought at first. They're definitely gonna want to keep their hands on the rights to animate the series. Yeah, the series wasn't as good as it could've been, for sure, but look at the upside: They might just give noticeably better treatment to the series from this point on.
You know, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that Hide isn't actually dead in this version. My interpretation of the episode is thus:
- After Hide collapses, Kaneki assumes he is dead and burns down Anteiku in his grief, hoping to die with him.
- He realizes that Hide is still alive after the latter smiles (also the moment where his hair turns black)
- he gives himself up to the CCG so that they'll save Hide
Agreed. Things like this are why I think we'll get a 3rd season working as an "interquel" of sorts to put things back on track when it comes to :RE or they might just head into purely anime original territory, though I have some doubts on the latter, they'll probably just want to make something to give people more Tokyo Ghoul for the sake of more money while getting things back on track so :RE can actually work. They could actually give some meaning to Kaneki being with Aogiri if they go into the "fix it interquel" seeing how we could have a case of "I'll give you info on Aogiri if you save Hide" or something, I dunno. While the ending being as ambiguous feels really troll-ish, it at least leaves the possibility of them doing something to help put this series back on track so :RE makes sense.
Frankly, I have the feeling this entire mess was caused by everyone involved in the series, Ishida included. You have the higher ups not confident on the series doing well at all and just cutting budget, a scriptwriter who ends up focusing on thematic consistency within episodes but ignores a lot of important elements, and you have Ishida coming up with the crazy idea of doing a new storyline longer than his original manga which he hadn't even finished by the time the series started, which was likely part of the cause of dividing the series into two 12 episode seasons which meant you needed to get to the torture scene in a matter of 12 episodes seeing how white haired Kaneki was something marketing was so focused on. And there's probably a lot more to it but I can't think clearly atm. Even then, I enjoyed the series, though it could've turned out much better. It gave me a fair amount of entertainment and it was one of the series I enjoyed the most this season from the few I watched and it gave me some of the moments I wanted to see animated. Besides, it's not like I was paying to watch it (as well as I'd daresay many of us), so I don't feel any reason or right to be actually upset at how it turned out, y'know.