This review comes after having just finished :Re myself after hearing a cavalcade of general backlash and dislike against it, so allow me to start with the conclusion:

Give this series a chance. Read it like the conversation the series' protagonists fight to produce and meet it at its word rather than at the expectations you may or may not set for it.

Now, to be more specific...

At its worst :Re is occasionally crippled by difficult to track plot lines that intersect maybe a bit too much for their own good, but at its best it's an excellent meditation on the appeal of anti-heroism, tragedy, and nihilism.

:Re's artwork follows a lot of the more experimental and ethereal work of the original manga's conclusion - in many ways experimenting even further with its use of almost sketch-like illustrations throughout. And whilst its artwork was unsurprisingly an excellent continuation of the original series', its characters exceeded my expectations despite the already stellar cast of the original; their fun, exceptionally well explored, and larger-than-life personalities make them a natural fit for Tokyo Ghoul's expanding universe, and the way they bounce off of pre-existing characters is just as natural.

If your fear is quality, then I can assure you that should be the least of your worries going into the series. :Re is Tokyo Ghoul 2 in that respect; an effective continuation of the previous series' successful artistic efforts and styles of character writing. What isn't so similar however is the story's overall direction.

The original Tokyo Ghoul sets a clear expectation; "My life is a tragedy" are its opening lines and, as many of you reading a review for its sequel are likely to know, that tragedy was in many ways fulfilled by the conclusion. In that sense I can understand a dislike of :Re with that expectation in mind, as Tokyo Ghoul :Re is in many ways a narrative designed to deconstruct Tokyo Ghoul. Rather than sitting upon the throne of its original series' conclusion, it challenges said conclusion with a series of twists that - whilst admittedly coming across initially as out-of-left-field or in some way jumping-the-shark - when seen in the wider context of the story that :Re (and in many ways its predecessor) is telling, they function more as direct criticisms of the attitudes of the characters involved and the expectations their perspectives set up for the reader.

In short, Sui Ishida isn't afraid to tell his audience they were wrong, and :Re in many ways feels like a bite back at the nihilism that the original series produced. Despite hearing complaints of a rushed ending the story concludes at a comfortable pace with practically every plot line completed or otherwise addressed.

Tokyo Ghoul is a tragedy, but it's equally anti-tragedy, and dismissing :Re on the basis of it not being sad enough or otherwise subverting the expectations of an otherwise depressing story is less an issue of the work itself as much as the expectations those reading it came to it seeking to fulfill.