#and touka still so pretty in every panel

[bookdragonofsomekind]

******Manga-Monday 01******

Tokyo Ghoul Volume 01

Summary: 

Meet Ken Kaneki, a shy college student who loves to read. One day Ken’s dream finally comes true when a charming girl named Rize decides to go on a date with him. She seems to be the perfect girl for Kaneki. She even reads the same books as him! Even better she has the same favourite author! What could go wrong now? 

Happily ever after.

Unfortunately Rize is not a big fan of fairytales and seeks a different end for her date. 

Poor Kaneki.

Characters you will meet in this volume:

Ken Kaneki 

Hide 

Rize Kamishiro

Touka Kirishima

Dr. Kano 

Hisashi Ogura 

Yomo

Mr. Yoshimura  

Nishiki Nishio 

Quotes I particularly liked:

"I’m not the protagonist of a book or anything, I’m just a normal college student who likes to read, but if I were to write a book with me as the main character it would be a tragedy." - Kaneki 

"The bird struggles out of the egg. The egg is the world. Whoever would be born must first destroy a world." - Herrmann Hesse/ Kaneki 

"You are both ghoul and human at the same time. You are the only person who has a place in both worlds." - Mr. Yoshimura  

My thoughts:

What brought me to read Tokyo Ghoul in the first place was my boyfriend. You can absolutely blame him for this project. Tokyo Ghoul is one of his favourite manga series. 

You could say that I’m a fairly new beginner when it comes to manga and anime. I only started one and a half years ago with watching anime regularly and I think a year ago with reading manga. 

(You can also totally and absolutely blame my boyfriend for this)

So starting Tokyo Ghoul I’m not completely new to the premise of the story. My partner already told me a few things about the story and characters. 

Just a small disclaimer that I wanted to get out of the way.

So let’s start…

First things first Tokyo Ghoul is written and drawn by Sui Ishida and was published in 2011. I’ve gotta say I love the art style but also dislike it sometimes. Throughout the first chapters the illustrations are easy to follow and wonderful to look at. But when the action panels start it gets a bit tricky for me. That might be because I have little experience with manga of course. But I wish that he would have drawn some panels with a bit more clarity. 

Kaneki at first seems to be the typical side character even though he is absolutely the main character of this story. But with characteristics like being shy, reading a lot and having a non existing social life (except of course for Hide, his best friend) Kaneki would not have been my first pick as an interesting character. But what makes him interesting is his reaction of the tragedy that befalls his life. He keeps fighting with himself to accept what happened to him. Frankly he doesn’t really know what happened to him. But as he learns more about his new self and the world that changed before him he still is set on denying being a monster and separating himself from the "monsters" around him. He is and always will be human (we will see about that).

He is very strong willed. Which is not always a good thing. He’s also pretty good at talking himself into the depths of depression. 

It was a bit weird for me that he doesn’t tell anyone (not even his best friend) what happened in the alley with Rize. He keeps to himself. Tries to deal with it without help from the outside. He decides to be alone in this matter. 

Even when Hide tries to break through to him. Hide is the polar opposite from Kaneki, loud and he appears not to be the brightest. But as you read on you learn that that is definitely not the case. He notices a lot and he is a very capable people reader. He senses danger. (Something that Kaneki is not as good… unfortunately for him).

As Kaneki is being changed the world around him changes too. Or at least Kanekis perspective of it. Where in his eighteen years he never had an encounter with a single ghoul he now is trembling into them at every corner. 

And we quickly learn that not every ghoul is the same. I really liked Touka for example. She felt very real. She is someone who has a lot of anger inside of her. She implied many times throughout the volume that she didn’t have it easy in life. Being treated shitty from the human side as well as the ghoul side. By just confronting Kaneki how cake tastes or how easy it must be to eat all the time whenever you want. She is scarred from her life and knows the rules how to get by. 

On the other side we have ghouls like Nishiki to show the complete opposite. I’ve got the feeling that Nishiki is the "standard" ghoul in the story. By that I mean a cruel, asshole who doesn’t care about humans but is pretty good at disguising as one and being charming just to get what he wants. Manipulative, greedy and absolutely power hungry. As he doesn’t only treat Hide (kinda his prey) like absolute shit but also Kaneki (a ghoul just like him (who looks to be a bit inferior against Nishiki)). Not to mention the rivalry between ghouls which is portrayed in the territory fights we’ve seen in this volume. 

And then again we meet Touka's boss aka Mr. Yoshimura . He screams father figure to Touka and I could imagine that he will also be a great influence for Kaneki. He is just cozily nice (except for the human flesh in his fridge). He didn’t waste a minute to offer his help to poor Kaneki. And even after Kaneki doesn’t take his first "present" he still wants to help. Mr. Yoshimura  achieves something that didn’t happen before. 

Let me explain what I mean by that. I think and believe that so far Hide was the only good thing in Kanekis life. Of course Kaneki read or drew and found joy in that. But what I mean is that Hide was and is so far the only connection that Kaneki has to his "real" world. He goes out to dinner with or introduces other people to him. So of course Kaneki saw Hide as his only hope to ever live a normal life again after the incident with Rize. 

But Mr. Yoshimura  achieves to give Kaneki a sliver of hope to live a normal life again. And Kaneki, just by asking if he could work for him in his restaurant, takes it.

Not really a character but a thing that I really liked was when Kanekis ghoul side showed up! I really enjoyed the chaos that broke loose between Nishiki and Kaneki… and how Nishiki didn’t even have a chance. I will call it muscle memory from Rize and yes people could say that Kaneki is overpowered from the very beginning. Being good at fighting and all. But I like the fact that he just went feral and annihilated Nishiki (something he deserved). 

Minor characters like Dr. Kano appears to be pretty sus to me (Who transplants organs without permission ?!) just like Hisashi Ogura the ghoul expert (I’m still asking myself how he knows so much about ghouls). I think they will (and I hope, I want the answers!) appear again.

The world building so far is nothing to be mentioned that much. It’s the world we live in but with predators on top of the food chain that aren’t humans. The volume doesn’t explain too much what’s up with the ghouls but I’m fairly sure we will see more of it in future volumes. What we know so far is pretty dope! Ghouls don’t have a choice… they have to eat humans or else they will die. Their weapons seem to be their kagune, they have changing eyes, are kinda indestructible and then the usual heighten sense of smell, very strong and totally sassy. 

All in all it’s a good opening to a story and I’m definitely intrigued to read on. There are many questions still unanswered and I really really hope I will get them answered. 

Please leave your thoughts and be kind and don’t spoiler anything!

Thank you for taking your time!

Please feel free to discuss your thoughts, I would like to hear them!

I will see you in a week with a new volume!

[xellzios]

Touka this chapter:

Me:

[transsexualhamlet]

the many sins of tokyo ghoul :re

or: 13 reasons why :re is fucking terrible not clickbait

Disclaimer: I think no matter how long this post gets I’m missing something, so let’s just outline the worst ones. And I mean to be transparent, the only reason I actually read :re was so I could make this post... (and bc i wanted to see the what, five panels of hide) Well, I couldn’t stand hating it without evidence beyond hearsay and General Vibes. But I knew it was gonna be bad, I knew it was going to ruin me jesus christ. Obviously I’m not hating on people that like it, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with genuinely enjoying it (I do genuinely enjoy parts of it, and by parts i mean chapters 1-50 with exceptions and 75) I think it’s wonderful if you can derive joy from it (lmao) but I can say that through my lens in life, there’s so much fucking wrong with this goddamn fucking piece of shit manga and I feel the need to yell about it because i am ✨autism✨ so let’s get going (this is r e a l l y long just a warning)

tl;dr Ishida stay in your fucking lane

1. Transphobia and Homophobia:

alright here we are first off with the big one and if I had to choose, one of Ishida’s greatest sins here. It’s quite unusual in mangas like these to have any sort of representation for such things in and of itself, and yeah of course that annoys me, but having no represntation at all is like so much better than getting actively harmful representation. Most manga that aren’t specifically about those things shy away from those topics, and it’s tiring but it’s normal. You wouldn’t want a mangaka to try to write about something like that without experience or informed opinions. So I say if you can’t write something correct, just don’t write something like that in at all. Ishida clearly,,, does not get this.

And it’s not just the case of Mutsuki, who, well, gets it bad enough, there are three full fucking trans characters Ishida made like, just to shit on. 

Big Madame- god, made like that specifically to perpetuate the predatory trans woman trope jesus christ is Ishida friends with JK fuckface Rowling. Ah yes the ugly, human trafficking, predatory, pedophilic killer that tried to make their male child more feminine? Has a dick. Really? Could you be a single bit more transparent about your fucking agenda here? I really don’t have to say much here.

Kanae von Fuckwald- Technically Ishida says here that basically this bitch was just like??? Pretending to be a guy for years just to what?? I don’t even know?? Get together with Tsukiyama? Cause he’s fucking gay or something? I don’t even get it but like i read this post yesterday and that’s a whole ass thermian argument. It’s like “oh well this is fine because well this person’s not actually trans and therefore the representation thing doesn’t apply”... it’s useless. You created the character that way and you made it intentionally to for whatever way promote this idea that people would “pretend” to be a different gender and that eventually they’ll realize that it’s a “lie” and they never really wanted it. This is what you’re saying about the real people who are,,, actually trans? Jesus christ. Also thinking that a twink like that would be trans? God yeah trans guys can be feminine but buddy that’s clearly not what you’re going for here.

And of course, Mutsuki- There’s just... so much wrong here. I mean like. Before we even get into anything about his character and what they did to him let me just discuss his entire design. Buddy like if you had to choose one person in that show to be trans that’s the least likely one. Ah yes, the feminine one. With the androgynous haircut and the shy disposition and the physical weakness compared to the others. God that’s like, a fujoshi’s take on ao3 of what character should be trans. As much as yeah of course, trans guys can be feminine, they are in no way obligated to be such and you shouldn’t make them more so to be more “believably” so. Ask any actual trans person ever. A character like that is just perpetuating the notion of trans guys being inherently more feminine or trying to pretend to be otherwise.ThEn, of course, there’s the ridiculous sexualization, infantilization and fetishization of this character, going through a thousand plot hurdles to make him constantly stripped, put in girls clothing, chased by perverts, assaulted, ET FUCKING CETERA. Give him a fUCKING BREAK. Creating this character the way he’s portrayed in canon (including so called backstory of murdering parents because of sexual and physical abuse) is perpetuating a notion that someone would be a trans guy because of internalized misogyny and/or trauma instead of because they’re just... a guy. It’s just it’s just it’s just Really bad. Plus taking his character, demonizing him and making him like, supposedly love haise (which i Really hate for a thousand reasons, god that’s like, a parent and child type relationship they have there not romantic,,, god,,,) try to like fucking murder touka and stop seeing sense, and then just... return him to being infantalized. God. Jesus christ fucking goddamn it I love Mutsuki and he deserves better.

Oh yeah and then the homophobia, this one’s smaller because... most of the trans people are here to go “it’s gay... wait it’s not Really gay so it’s ok” but I would like to leave a small note here for all the gay characters who got thrown under the bus not just in re but in the original, like, you know, Nico and shit? I really do not know shit about Nico but all the things about Jason? God if I had a thing for one person that you shouldn’t try to portray as representation it’s Jason. IDK what’s up with him and Naki but god it wasn’t healthy. (i’d like to say here that i love naki and i think naki deserves the world but honey there are better heroes than yamori) Anyway yeah I think that’s also bullshit and Ishida should stay in his fucking lane. (or her i guess, i just feel like it’s probably a guy bc of just... so much sexism)

Ok, now that we have the big one out of the way-

2. The mishandling of portrayals of various mental illnesses:

I’m not an expert on this one like I can say about the gays TM but just like in general, the whole manga’s very messy and portrays a lot of gritty stuff, and Ishida clearly attempts to throw in some mental illness for fun, but god fUcking damn it they’re bad. I couldn’t really even give you examples bc it’s pretty widespread and i’m stupid, but it was really like trump throwing paper towels “and you get a demonization, and you get an infantalization, and you get a butchered character, and you get a fetishization-”

3. Ishida having no fucking clue how science works

This particular factoid led me to have a very hard time reading this manga because it went from being about like, yknow, torture and fights and crying and stuff to weird experimentation bullshit and mutated whatever and everyone’s a hybrid now I guess. When I heard this thing about the quinxes, I thought that made no sense, because I was like “yeah but wait,,, how tf does that work didn’t Ishida say earlier that kagune literally were fueled by human meat isn’t that like the entire point the ccg is against?” and then Ishida’s explanation of how they’re not just exactly like Kaneki is that “oh yeah well there’s like, metal around it, so it’s different.” OH YEAH OK THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE NOW, THANKS.

The thing is... there’s no way of actually regulating that. You couldn’t move a kagune unless it was attached to your cells, and if it’s attached man, it’s attached and it’s part of you. Also yelling “frame two” won’t like make it any bigger lmao, either you’re gonna have it based on theoretical science in this universe or you’re going to have a dumb supernatural magic pokemon fight deal. The whole thing makes no sense. The science issue isn’t just about this either, it’s also about how the entire thing basically undermines the point of the whole story. When you blur the lines between human and ghoul with little to no real rules or basis in real science, every rule kind of just becomes cheap plot convenience.

So the Quinxes can eat human food unless they use their kagune too much, alright, but Kaneki couldn’t eat human food before he’d even ever used his though the only difference between their bodies was this,,, theoretical metal thing?? And Haise... was never really covered, before he went black hair emo bastard and like vored Eto, did he eat human food like the rest of the CCG? He certainly cooked it. And the squad that lived with him wasn’t aware he was a ghoul until he pulled out the kagune. So I’d assume so, but then how could he have a kagune, how could he survive when his body still was like that?

Is it the RC suppressents? Then couldn’t he just have taken those and lived as a human the entire time? Is that all he fucking needed, is that the only difference between human and ghoul? It doesn’t make sense and the rules are bent so much they don’t function anymore. Ishida like write down your rules somewhere even if they’re bullshit, they shouldn’t contradict each other.

Damn man I’m not even going to go into the dumbass rules of the half humans or the special fast aging thing or the fucking,,, folded up cells deal,,, or the Imagination Kagune, or the fucking,,, Dragon, or the zombie ghoul apocalypse or the “whole new species made of just kagune” i don’t even have the time it is fucking ridiculous and I can’t even with it. Physics. Laws of physics. If not biology, at least follow physics Ishida??? Please???? And if you’re not you need to do that consistently??

4. character glow ups actually being character glow downs 

(with the exception of nishiki, he baby now, and akira, i think her development was valid af)

God, this one gets me every time. Touka was cool. Touka was fucking badass, she had a complex character with many motivations and wants, and in the original having her eventually kind of soften bc of Kaneki is valid. But taking her and turning her into like literally nothing but Pretty Housewife Yearning For Husband At War? God, kill me. She’s a strong person. She can like Kaneki without the guy being her only character trait. Also uh, Touka and Kaneki being a couple was valid before this change, now I honestly can’t stomach it. Like they were the kind of “both bisexual” m/f couple that we stan. No longer I guess.

She’s the most egregious example, but I’d also like to point out Juuzou, not everything they changed about him is bad, honestly we fucking stan his knife legs, but he’s kind of like a rip off L now? You got rid of his ~unhinged~, we do not stan. I’m on the fence about him bc i think that kind of is a valid transition to adulthood and I guess he’s grown up, but again, why change his fucking hair color? What is the explanation for this?

Also Hinami. I mean, I don’t really care about her a lot in general, but it’s weird to see her as like an adult when Ayato emo boy looks like exactly the fucking same and they’re like,,, supposedly the same age. 

There are definitely more I’m missing here. Honestly, Hide was valid. God him with his fucking burlap sack. With a fucking lenny face on it. I can’t with him. That’s so Hide. But there were some bad ones.

5. one hair color change was my limit, enough said

black white black and white black white more white god bitch get some variety

6. Showing me great new characters and then promptly ruining them

And you can tell this one’s about quinx squad, my favorite bastard children. God, I love them. They’re the only good things about Re other than Hide and Haise and like everything else, Ishida took them and went “what if i *guts*” god why. I love these kids with all my heart. Why. Why. Why did you do that to Mutsuki. Why as soon as Haise isn’t in the room they all get themselves tangled up with pedos. Why they gotta break up the squad. Why make all of them lose all the wholesomeness and lessons they learned from Haise. Why do you ruin them all with weird unreciprocated random crushes on each other when they’re like basically siblings. Why fuckinG KILL SHIRAZU HE IS THE APPOINTED CHIEF DUMBASS OF THE SQUAD WHY HIM. WHY. WITH SO LITTLE IMPACT. YOU COULD FUCKING MISS IT SO EASILY. THAT’S NOT RIGHT. AND KANEKI JUST FUCKING ABANDONS THEM BC HE HAS HIS MEMORIES AGAIN N O ? NO ACTUALLY NO.

7. the casual racism and sexism :)

i just :) can you stop having girls constantly bring themselves down for being female :) and making them be oversexualized, less full characters :) always in some way connected to a guy :) more weak and hurt more often :) my fucking god :) also yeah it’s way less prevalent but there were a few racist caricatures thrown in there for taste if you don’t know how to draw lips just don’t

8. Ishida being too much of a pissbaby for a real death scene

Basically: undermining the impact of “deaths” fom the first series while also randomly and badly killing off new characters. Oh that character that died in the original in a really cinematic way that made you cry and think about the meaning of life and how beautifully tragic this story was? Oh lol they’re not Actually dead. (x10) Doing that with Hide (at least in the manga, not the anime, god root A really did it with him but we’re not talking about that) was valid, seeing as I love him your honor and in the manga one of the lessons that his character hinges on was like in chapter 75 to live on instead of giving up even if it hurts and all that... (this is obviously kind of the opposite from root A where his character was like more about sacrificing for kaneki since kaneki had already done so much, i think both are valid but we’re Talking About The Manga) he was done well. That was right (even though i think they should have done More of it) but there were so many characters this kind of thing was done to without the proper adjustment in the handling of the messages given here. 

Like with Koma and Irimi, who,,, honestly should have stayed dead because their entire character arc kinda ended there and showed how they were sorry for their actions and this was how they were making it up. And then they just like... come back. And fight more. Really? This wasn’t the only instance either, same deal with Shinohara (though him coming back made me cry) it like, kind of undermines it if you’re going to have Juuzou derive his character development from that. Either Juuzou gets to keep his unhinged and his dad, or he loses his dad for real and he also grows up. God guys choose. What’s the message you’re playing here. (at least they kept Yoshimura dead, his death made me cry and I would have stabbed something if it wasn’t real, probably Ishida.) And even with Kaneki himself, god, if he can’t die from being stabbed straight through the fucking eye, what COULD kill him? It really diminishes the anxiety you feel about “omg is this person gonna die i want them to be ok” if they basically evade the laws of physics and their own previous character arcs 70 times. I’m definitely forgetting more of the same, Ishida can’t write a good death, he needed the anime writers to do it for him.

9. Kaneki. Just. Kaneki. 

God they fucking butchered this man. I could go on about his character is weird and confusing in the manga from the beginning, but we’re focusing on mostly all his weird :re character development, the bad handling of Haise and his memories, and all his iterations.

Before I read :re, what I could glean from fanart and the occasional fic that wasn’t tagged properly was really confusing and kind of a mixed bag. I knew Haise was Kaneki but without his memories, now in the ccg trying to be a pacifist and going :DDDDD a lot yknow. And what I came up with in my own mind for that change was a deal of (this makes more sense with the anime canon tbh, the manga honestly doesn’t do any of this well) like Kaneki after The Shit Went Down With Hide (whichever canon you’d like to interpret that as) he basically realized that he really couldn’t be a ghoul, he didn’t want to be, he didn’t want to hurt people and he wanted to be happy and make other people happy instead of what he thought was right before (trying to fight to protect others on his own etc) because that mentality had gotten people he loved hurt, and well subconsciously I guess that kind of factored into his development into Haise and maybe caused his memory loss (along with the, yknow, shanked eye.) So when I started to read it that kind of checked out, this is what he’s trying so hard to be now. But then this whole bullshit of the whole other like, 37 different versions of kaneki complicated things. 

Haise was scared that when he got his memories back he would cease to be, well, Haise, and he would just like revert back to what he was before everything. Which I can understand him being scared of and I think was a good point in the plot for him to worry about that, but I was like “oh honey don’t worry that’s not how it works” and was kind of vying for him to eventually get his memories back, come to terms with the fact that those were his memories, he did do those things, he was half a ghoul, and maybe come back to his original fight of wanting to bring the humans and ghouls together, still caring about his human people in the ccg and all. That development was real, and it wouldn’t just go away if he got his memories back, he learned a lot and grew a lot and he has a different outlook on life now. Right?

Fucking wrong I guess. Dude gets his memories back (very ambiguously, it was really hard to tell when that even happened tbh) and like. Turns into a flaming ass looking like ebony darkness dementia raven way. Haise gone. Fucking completely. No trace left. Doesn’t care about his kids anymore. When he’s done with that and goes white again he’s just Kaneki again and there’s really not enough left of things that like, really wouldn’t go away? He loses the flair? The dumbass? The :D? The Extra? WHY? Why would those things go away? Haise shouldn’t have been right that he would disappear when he got back his memories. That killed me. I love Kaneki and all but H a i s e. He is my b o y. H i m. With his e n e r g y  s h o r t s. And his m o m. And his c o o k i n g. And his k i d s, I l o v e him. And Ishida doesn’t seem to realize that they’re... literally the same person. Haise isn’t just some stupid bastard occupying Kaneki’s body, he’s a valid part of Kaneki himself and to be honest, peak Kaneki. Should have stayed that way. Would have been great for Hide tbh. Not just having him pretty much revert to his old self, but basically respond equally to both names and balance the world between human and ghoul. I would have loved that. What happened for real? It doesn’t make sense and it breaks my heart.

Some people on the interwebz try to kind of even that whole deal out by trying to say he like, has DID, which although is obviously a valid thing, like, so does not apply to him. God I’m like so not an expert on this but I feel like it’s not that hard to tell. His 87 little Kanekis in his head aren’t separate personas, they’re metaphorical representations of his past morals, experiences, and ideologies that all conflict. Again Haise here is peak conflict because when he gets his memories back, he has all these different conflicting ideas that were all previously separate. They’re all him. Tortured Kaneki constantly yelling at him in Jason’s chamber is basically again, a metaphor for how he’s denying his ghoulhood and the trauma that he’s been dealt. It’s not that this dude still exists just the way he is ready to show up at any moment lmao. Ishida kind of dealt with that badly too because Haise really said

after his memories happened so I can see why people might, but it’s... not right, and it’s Ishida’s fault about that which is Incorrect

Also just blanket statement, black reaper Kaneki? Fuck him and all he stands for. 0% valid. I can excuse literally every other version of him. But wh y. God he leaves the room and Urie starts misusing his power and getting groomed by a pedo, Saiko is just, left behind and sad, Mutsuki gets captured by a perv and mentally destroyed again, Shirazu dies and the bitch is like like “lol it’s your fault” yeah helpful, die

10. P- the- the porn chapter-

Idk about you but that was so fucking unecessary??? Not even going off of how terribly awkward and weird it was to have it there when the opening was “i’m sad about my best friend who’s gonna get executed what do you do when you’re sad about your best friend” “i simply do not think of him or i might actually just curl up and die” “yo lmao same” “wanna fuck” Like ok um I’m biased bc i’m not straight but I like, really hated that. Even just flipping through the pages as fast as I could to get to the end of it like. God. It’s not a fucking hentai. I’m here for the plot. If you’re not gonna release the director’s cut of kaneki fucking voring hide, i don’t think i need to see 20 pages of straight fucking sex. And if you absolutely must have porn, kaneki is a fucking bottom. That man gets pegged do not try to prove otherwise. You started it out that way god I love how they’re like “oh god wait that looks kind of gay, the woman being dominant, better stop that right now” god Ishida not having a single iota of knowlege about his own characters aND THEN SHE GETS PREGNANT? NO. Excuse me. No. I just. I. Why. This isn’t. A fucking porno. This isn’t tentacle porn i swear oh my god kill me

11. Giving the wrong characters attention

Basically, redeeming characters that should have been redeemed and not going into/discussing characters that should have been redeemed/had more backstory. For example, Tsukiyama can go fucking die. I like, do not even care rich boy. I don’t understand how anyone could think he needed to be redeemed he’s just a gay attention whore who really needs to let this kid get on with his merry fucking life. I don’t care. I literally did not need to read three whole books about his dumbass hangup over eating Kaneki. Kaneki doesn’t fucking want you bitch move on. He didn’t need to be redeemed or seen to be in any way sympathetic, no one wanted it. Same with that bitch ass Furuta, he wasn’t really redeemed but he was given w a y too much time to play out his sob story. God man Rize doesn’t fucking want you. These gross ass simps. I swear.

On the other hand, I kind of liked Eto even though she’s a pile of shit, and I got mad when they didn’t really go into much about her. And you know who could have gotten much more screen time/development? TOUKA. God, I love her and she was just sitting around in the background being straight. Let her have some spicy development. Also obviously, Hide. He was... so underappreciated and underexplained? What happened with him? He didn’t just pick himself off the ground in the sewers and go ‘well i’d better get back to the ccg now’ we have a whole two years which are completely unexplained, most of which he was off mysteriously being involved in things but completely missing the eye of Haise and other major players. Where tf was he? How did he get around? What was he even doing??? I wanna know about that! Not all the characters I hate’s tragic backstories that make me feel 0% more sympathetic towards them :)

12. ARE WE ALL JUST GONNA COLLECTIVELY IGNORE THE WHOLE VORE THING???

Ok like i know i say “the entire reason I read :re was __” but like to be honest this was the turning point, I saw pictures of hide’s vore face and went like

So I was like “god fucking damn it ok, Ishida would you care to explain this to me” *cracks open re*

And then they DIDN’T.

Like. It’s actually laughable how much that entire situation was just glossed over. They gave that maybe like two pages. Like what. I. This manga has more sex scene than no homoing that. They just don’t even bother to. I feel like Ishida had that as a plot point but realized halfway in how it looked (i.e., really fucking gay) and decided that was something that he was just gonna, not deal with. Just act like that’s a completely normal heterosexual bro thing to do. Like of course anywhere would be pretty gay but Kaneki chose his face. His face. Like his face and his wholeass neck and his shoulders and nowhere else. (and assumedly like, his tongue, seeing as how the dude can’t talk... bruh) Dude really said extreme hickey. French kiss to the max. Ishida clearly did realize that generally, you can only get a bitten off face by,,, having your face bitten off, which is just inherently really fucking gay. Like, I’m just at a loss as to how it even makes sense. You wouldn’t think that the skin off his face, and specifically around his mouth, would really be the most nutritious thing to consume? I can get like the shoulders but generally you’d think something like his arm or leg would be 1.less inconvenient, and 2.much more logical and nutritious? But NO, Kaneki was like “you know what i’m gonna do? eat your Face” and hide’s like “lmao sounds cool”

(not to mention, wasn’t there another guy with a vore face somewhere? like that old guy in the ccg with the bigass turtleneck, i wanna know about him) But like... my bro Ishida went “yeah this happened but i’m going to cover it up with speech bubbles and the ends of panels guys they clearly had their socks on” Dude didn’t even TRY to explain otherwise. Like hey man, that’s pretty damn gay, you are kind of at liberty to either tell me why otherwise, or accept those implications and acknowledge them?? It’s really hilarious when you ignore it cause it’s like

kind of

pretty damn

WEAK of you to leave it at that fucking pissbaby

hmmmmmmmmm however could this happen i guess we’ll never know

13. What the fuck was even the plot omg

God I’ve been writing this post for like five hours so like, I’ll keep it short but like it made sense in the original, not to be like an anime fan but the anime made fucking sense (not re i mean like the original) this lore is so fucking stupid god, the horrors of the entire fucking dragon arc bleach my eyes, unresolved plotlines who???? (the whole ‘oh yeah also ur dying of old age’ thing etc, is kaneki like??? still doing that?? or was that randomly resolved with the whole spewing ovary bullshit i’m going to fucking kill myself) and to top it off, good job Ishida at a real fucking cheap ending. 

You gave them. Fake human. Really? They just come up with artificial human at the end. Kind of undermines the entire fucking story my guy. Ah yes throw out our whole plot. That was the whole tragedy. You gotta eat human. The ghouls have to eat human and that’s tragic bc they have to kill people or whatever. Or i guess they fucking don’t well fucking ok. God you could have just had them negotiate a kind of peace where the ghouls can get dead humans and such, there are plenty of them and no one has to kill anyone then, there could be a rule system for it, it would be messy but eventually everyone would be ok with it, and I think that would work a lot better than “quick fix i made some hamburger helper human you can eat it fine” guys wtf. It’s like Ishida started plotting out the ending for re approximately 2 hours before his deadline. Anyway yes I hate re and I love yelling about it thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[warlordgab]

Analysis of shipping: Revisiting detracting arguments

I know some people were expecting more content here, and I'm sorry for taking so long to put this thing together. This post will be a little different from the other analyses you’ve seen here...

It's no secret this blog is mainly about LuNa...

...and NaLu

And several post made here are meant to showcase how their respective stories build them up through consistent bonding; defend their position as potent relationships by means of evidence and logic; or both.

We know standing next to each other in the same panel or frame are not “moments” if the context and/or the story doesn’t turn them into a meaningful interaction.

We know a girl slapping a guy is not something inherently romantic, and it’s not a defining trait of a potent relationship, specially when context says otherwise.

We know that brief rescue scenes are not always the sign of a potential romance as there are several elements needed to turn them into actual moments for a pairing

But, there are some arguments that persist because shallow shippers think they give meaning to their premises, disprove the potential another pairing has, or both. This post will deconstruct a couple of those arguments used to argue against LuNa and NaLu's position as potent relationships in their respective stories.

1) Romantic pursuit Vs. Consistent bonding

I was going to call this one the “Touka Argument”, or Touka's Rhetoric. Naming it after FT's Touka...

...she seemed to be the embodiment of nearly everything shippers argue against relationships as LuNa and NaLu until we got a comedic plot-twist worthy of a trolling writer.

Still, the argument goes a little bit like this: any one-sided pursuit of romance should become part of the endgame pairing. It doesn't matter if the story doesn't take such "affection" seriously, it doesn't matter if it is meant to be a joke with little to no weight, all that matters is the character actively looking for romance while proclaiming “love.”

A character who appears much later in the storyline openly expressing "love" for the MC. Meanwhile the MC shares far more development with a romantically inactive girl.

Some shippers may argue that the girls or guys who are actually "in love" are the ones who will win their object of affection. Others may admit this is a extremely subjective matter as some of these girls end up winning, which makes it hard to analyze this stuff properly. But, there's one thing that helps people to keep an objective perspective: development

If we take a look at relationships like Gruvia from Fairy Tail, we get to see that their most powerful scenes are not the ones that involve the characters being all mushy over each other, but the moments of actual emotional significance; actual build-up...

...created by impactful moments

Some of Hiro Mashima's works prove he's aware that what truly matters in this particular regard is not how often a character makes claims of love, but how much development she or he has with a significant other.

What about Eiichiro Oda and his works? We got one notable example from the Whole Cake island arc

One sincere gesture of kindness from Sanji (the local pervert and Casanova wannabe) was enough for him to get to Pudding's heart...

...when he shattered the image she had of herself as monster with that gesture, and later an armor-piercing question, she ended up falling for him as he was the only person on that island that saw her true face and still deemed her as a beautiful woman instead of a monster. Sanji had such impactful moments with Pudding without going "horny" mode on her.

Other authors know that this kind development is needed for the logical progression in both good storytelling and decent characterization. They may not say it out loud, but their works speak for themselves while showing even characters who are not looking for romantic love can eventually develop such bonds.

Take a look at relationships like Kenshi and Kaoru from Rurōni Kenshin...

...they became an item, despite neither of them being romantically active, because they bonded over time, supporting and caring for each other, to the point of developing a much deeper connection. No over-the-top corny lines nor becoming all horny on each other; it was just consistent bonding, which ultimately triumphed.

It's shouldn't come as a surprise given the author of Rurōni Kenshin mentored Eiichiro Oda.

And to add it more to the irony, there was another girl interested in Kenshin who got a role much greater in the anime than the manga, and who was more mild-tempered, feminine, and seductive.

Another mangaka who understood this matter is Seishi Kishimoto, brother of Masashi Kishimoto (of Naruto fame), and author of O-parts Hunters.

The moments shared by the main characters led Ruby to become Jio's emotional support, and both of them to get emotionally attached to one another. Another girl was interested in Jio, but consistent bonding made Jio and Ruby's connection remain as a potent relationship... as well as some other plot points.

And of course, there's the critically-acclaimed Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood for anime-only watchers) by Hiromu Arakawa.

Edward and Winry. Two well-written characters who weren't  romantically active before ending up together, yet their relationship and later upgrade made total sense... I could name Roy and Riza too, but that would be overkill.

The point is that it's not the romantic pursuit (or gag-like claims of "love") that makes or breaks a pairing; it's all about the moments that leave an impact along with shared experiences which give a strong companionship the potential for a relationship upgrade.

2) Every shonen story is the same story?

While this argument sounds ridiculous, it serves as an umbrella for several other claims some shippers may use.

A lot of anime fans know that most popular shonen stories, such as Dragon Ball, usually feature underdeveloped relationships. So, more often than not, shippers may claim or imply significant moments and actual development mean little to nothing in a shonen story. This reasoning can be easily mixed with the "romantic pursuit" argument.

Another related argument is the "informed attribute," which means you can off-screen the whole relationship and just let a character or narration "tell" you how a pairing happened instead of "showing" you how they developed. Basically, a violation of "show, don't tell."

While it's true several shonen stories share similar tropes, the more you examine each story, the easier it becomes to tell them apart.

Eiichiro Oda wrote a story that could easily fit the concept of "romance," as in a dramatic narrative treating themes such as heroism, idealism, mystery and adventure...

In fact, according to Sugita, a former One Piece editor, "Oda revealed that One Piece was something of a deliberate subversion of Dragon Ball through having a vastly more complex story and characters, while Dragon Ball is a manga infamous for its simplicity."

This is consistent to Oda's own statement: "I write ONE PIECE as dramatically as I can. If I had written a pure battle manga, it would have been easily defeated by Dragon Ball."

Given the amount of themes the series covered and the engaging emotional narrative, the argument of this story being the same as every other popular shonen doesn't hold up. The characters are all bound together as true companions not by a desire to become "stronger," but because they're "in love with adventure" as the author put it.

What about Fairy Tail? Hiro Mashima wrote a fantasy shonen series centered around thematics that are common in other shonen stories: Companionship and Family.

While some people already commented how the manga seems to have strong similarities with One Piece, Hiro Mashima had his own ideas when making the story. As he himself said once: "Usually a shonen manga starts with just a main character, who then slowly accumulates his or her allies as the story progresses. But in the world of Fairy Tail, everybody pretty much knows each other at the beginning. That was sort of what I was going for." 

In another interview he even stated one of the thematic differences in relation to his previous work: "Rave Master was about friends saving the whole world, but Fairy Tail is about closer-knit relationships."

This is consistent with what we've seen in Fairy Tail, as the titular guild is all about that theme, how different people of several backgrounds are connected by intimate bonds and the search for exciting adventures.

What about the characters?

Both Eiichiro Oda and Hiro Mashima (just like many other mangakas) grew up watching and/or reading Dragon Ball. But, are their main characters Luffy...

...and Natsu...

...just mere replicas of Goku and other shonen heroes?

It's true that many authors follow the shonen hero archetype when writing the protagonist of a series. Both Luffy and Natsu are golden-hearted idiot heroes, and both of them have personalities that reflect the idea of "No Challenge equals No Satisfaction."

But, unlike Goku their ultimate aim is not all about following an endless cycle of self-improvement. At their core, both Luffy and Natsu are thrill-seekers who are constantly looking for fun and adventure.

Luffy is all about freedom, and even if he's not the sharpest tool in the shed, he can still display actual leadership qualities when the situation calls for it. Natsu, like some other of his guildmates, is a mischievous trouble-maker but still pretty much the embodiment of the values of Fairy Tail.

The more you examine both characters, the more differences you can find...

All of this is related to shipping mainly because people may claim "every shonen story is the same story" to justify pairings that do not have enough canon material supporting them.

So, if the hero and the heroine have a far more substantial development and actual chemistry, shippers who oppose such characters getting together may imply the following: "if several popular mangakas make their official couples with no regard for moments or build-up, why Oda or Mashima should be any different."

Because each author is different, and even if their stories use similar tropes from time to time, elements like themes, purpose, focus, plot, and characters will vary from writer to writer.

3) Anime Vs. Manga

'It's easier to watch a series than read a story'

Which is why whenever a manga gets an anime adaptation, if the story is good, its popularity rises.

However, sometimes the directors and writers of the anime do not share the same vision as the mangaka. And people who are up to date with both mediums can perceive such differences. Dragged out fights, OOC moments, inconsistencies with plot points from the source material, etc. are common place in some adaptations.

But, some directors and other staff members take some liberties to add "shipping fuel" according to their own views and taste.

I apologize in advance if this comparison offends someone, I’m just using it as an example. The anime adaptation of Bleach made by Studio Pierrot featured some ship tease...

Such scenes weren't written by Tite Kubo, the author of Bleach. And they could easily pass as something "romantic."

However, during an interview, one of Bleach's editors, Toya Taichi, stated that "in Kubo sensei’s mind, Orihime is the heroine character and Rukia is a comrade" and he later summed it up as "feeling like a pal" (相棒 in japanese).

When it comes to modern japanese storytelling, the term "heroine" (ヒロイン in japanese) is interchangeable with "love interest." Orihime herself was even present in the Shonen Jump heroines covers. But, people who take filler scenes as the real deal may think otherwise.

When it comes to Fairy Tail, A-1 Pictures did a decent job in adapting the story but they also added shipping fuel, small things like Gray following Lucy and getting teased by Happy for it, or the big things like the non-canon expansion of the flashbacks involving Lisanna, which some people still treat as the signs of endgame pairings.

People who watched this version before reading the manga are more prone to overhype relationships that have little to no supporting evidence from Mashima's works. Fortunately A-1 Pictures toned it down later, too bad some shippers never forget...

If we talk about One Piece, the story is very different to say the least. TOEI Animation didn't stop in this regard, as some people may recall I already posted several of the changes they made for the sake of ship tease, and unlike A-1 Pictures they keep going and going with the moments they keep adding being more and more blatantly shippy (specially with Nami and Sanji) as time goes on.

Since One Piece is very long-running manga, more and more people only watch the anime and they take all those additions as the real deal despite the heroine of this story sharing far more development and solid chemistry with the hero.

However, not every fan is into well-developed relationships, so not every manga-reader will go LuNa/NaLu. Same could be said about anime-only watchers, as not all of them are swayed by filler, so not all of them will disregard LuNa/NaLu if they like consistent bonding.

The point is that the anime adaptation has a strong influence in how the fans perceive the story, the characters, and the bonds they build. And not every anime adaptation presents a favorable image of the in-canon premises made by the mangaka.

Here’s a little bonus:

Who's the One Piece heroine according to Oda?

When talking about Strong World, the movie he wrote, Oda said “I really wanted to make a ‘hero saves the heroine’ story." A movie about a hero (Luffy) saving the heroine (Nami). He added: "You might think otherwise, but I had no intention of bringing in someone new to fill that [heroine] role. So when I had to think about whom to use for it amongst the straw hats of course that meant Nami.”

He also stated in 2019, when an interviewer addressed the fact his wife is similar to Nami, "They say a mangaka often marries a person who's similar to the heroine."

Across the several years the manga had been going, Nami often appears in the Shonen Jump heroines covers due to her role in One Piece.

You can see the latest Jump heroines poster here

Who's the Fairy Tail heroine according to Mashima?

One of his latest works (HERO’S) answers this question...

Context: Ellie is talking about Haru, Natsu, and Shiki (the heroes of Rave, Fairy Tail, and Edens Zero). Each one of these girls has the role of "heroine" in each of their respective stories. One of them even ends up with the hero.

BONUS: The Elephant in the room

As you probably noticed, I used a lot of official statements to back up my post. However, even those who oppose LuNa and Nalu use those kind of statments...

In the case of One Piece, several fans considered "romantic love" a concept completely foreign from the series due to a couple of quotes from the author. When asked about this particular subject, Oda stated that the members of Straw Hat crew are "in love with adventure." And later when asked again, the mangaka said that since this is a shonen story "romance isn't depicted."

Based on these answers, several fans created the myth of "romantic love" not existing in One Piece. Many held onto this conclusion with so much intensity that they always dismissed the bad girl Alvida's obvious attraction to the hero (Luffy).

However, as a clever and perceptive reviewer pointed out we're talking about the same author that once claimed he doesn't kill characters and went as far as to say "I hate when supposedly dead characters come back to life." Yet his story has a couple of "supposedly dead" characters who turned out to be alive. No spoilers here.

Some of his statments are meant to be taken with a grain of salt. He said "romance wasn't depicted" but as of recent years it's been a thing in One Piece...

...Señor Pink and Russian are one example of how traditional romance gets integrated in both story and characters. So, using the author's words to invalidate all possibility of romance in One Piece no longer works.

Ironically, haters take Oda's old claims literally when talking about Luffy, but they completely forget about it as soon as someone mentions Nami or Robin in this particular regard. A clear display of a blatant double-standard...

When it comes to Fairy Tail, some haters love to quote that Natsu and Lucy are "more than friends but less than lovers."

Yet, they choose to ignore that in recent years, when asked about the relationship between these characters, Mashima himself replied: "I feel that the Natsu and Lucy ship is more suitable."

Some time before that statement, during a New York Comic Con, when asked what he feels is “right” in this regard Mashima held up his drawing of Natsu and Lucy...

...so everyone could see his answer to the question.

So, using Mashima's old quote to deny the plausibility of a relationship upgrade here and there is not going to work either.

If people want to defend a pairing or prove a potent relationship has what it takes to become canon, they should try to stay true to the author's works, and the story's internal logic, instead of trying to find a way around them and/or promoting a baseless process of elimination, all to justify another premise.

Consistent bonding, chemistry, and natural development coming from the author’s works should be superior to mere rethoric, hype, and/or anime filler

[thefandomsurfer]

Who do you think are the best looking characters in tg?

Alright Im gong to be a little cheater-Because a characters outward appearance changes in ‘best looking’ to me. Like whos the most aesthetically pleasing, who has my favorite character design, and all that stuff.  I know that your talking about like ‘whos the hottest characters?? Who would you fuck though??” And Im not that upset by it-Because there are good looking characters in Tokyo Ghoul lol

Characters shouldnt be dwindled down to looks-But i’ll still do this. All of these characters are much more then just pretty faces and I hope I’m not coming off as belittling or something.

Just keep in mind who I think is the best looking isnt subjectively the best to everybody~Also I wouldnt date any of just on appearance either. Thats a different list lol This is a long one so have a ‘keep reading’ lmao

Alright my favorite character designs would be, this is not who the hottest are,-

My boy of course lol. Hes not ‘hot’ to me but I do love staring at him. I love his stitches and the way his hair is drawn. My favorite stitching pattern is the one he has while fighting the twins-But my favorite in general ‘look’ for him is in Re:. Hes just really-really nice to look at. ^^ Next would be-

Haise is a dork and I love him~ Once again-I dont think of him as “hot” at all. But I love to stare at him. His hair is so fluffy and his face is just nice. I love the black and white hair together-Its different to me and is just…pleasing. I love his character design haha.

Karren is a very underrated character in my opinion. But I’m not here to talk about her character-Im here to talk about her looks. I love her hair, her eyes, her face everything. I think shes just-very, very nice to look at. I still wont count her at the ‘best looking’ in hotness but I think shes very pretty, very nice to look at. 

Last one for character designs is-

Something about Saikos eyes and the way her hair is-Its draws me to her. And she has a cuteness factor thats also amazing. Shes smol, adorable, and cute. I just like to look at her panels. 

Now for the real meat and potatoes I know you want. Still going to cheat tho lol

I’ll do five female characters and five male characters-Since both are really good looking. 

Females-

5. 

Kimi is beautiful and just-Damn Nishiki I see what you see in her.  I have a weakness for the ‘hair being pulled behind one ear’ and Kimi has that and I just-Look at how beautiful she is. Shes so, so good looking. I love her appearance so much.

4.

You’d be hard pressed to find a scene with Hsiao NOT being hot as hell. Like shes very curvaceous, has a beautiful face, her legs are to die for and thats not even part of it. Her hair is also just. Ugh shes so good.

3. 

Kurona is yet another underrated character-In looks and personality. Shes very good looking to me, her hair style is one of my favorites in animes-and her pupilless eyes are just stunning to me. I love how she looks-Even with the ‘body horror’ element to her I still love it. I dont know maybe I’m just weird lol?

2. 

Touka is literally just so. Attractive. Is every sense of the word. Her half bun hairstyle, her blue fluffy one, her normal one-All are just so, good looking. I dont remember a scene where she looks ‘bad’. 

1. 

Akira is just. So pretty, so beautiful. I cant NOT look at her when shes on screen. I just-I love her so much and her looks are unparalleled to me. All of these women are beautiful-But shes on a whole other level to me. I know most people prefer Touka, Rize or Eto-But I think shes my favorite beauty.

Honorable mentions- Eto, Hinami, Itori Hairu, and Rize.

Now for the men-

5. 

I mean just like-Look at him. Hes so good looking? Like to his hair, to his body, its just all-really, really good looking. lol I dont know what else to say other then that lol.

4.  

Everybody in the fandom already knows how good looking this man is lol. I dont even have to explain it much. I love his piercings, his tattoos and his hair and hair style is all attractive. Hes an all around 10 you know?

3. 

Tsukiyama is so pretty? Like I love to stare at him. Especially in Re:-He had underwent a total glow up and Damn. Am I loving it.

2.  

Literally everybody should know by now just how HOT AS FUCK Urie Kuki is. Hes a literal fireball. Like hot damn dude-Can you just NOT distract me for a full five minutes?!

1. 

Mutsuki is just really, really good looking. I love how his hair is, how his eyes are-Everything. I just really love how hes been drawn-And always look forward to it next time-Not just because of my love for the character-but because of how attractive he is to me.

Honorable mentions: Kaneki, Yomo, Ayato and Nishiki.

Soo-Yep there you are~Hope you dont hate my list to much lol. Im going to go to sleep now because I havent been to bed yet.

[kyanitedragon]

Tokyo Ghoul Anon has returned! Now that I have your permission I will ask you what your favorite moments in the Manga were?? You can do some things in the anime as well since I know Root A did its own thing sometimes! I loved the part where Hsiao and Higemaru helped Aura and When Saiko and Urie did the same for Mutsuki. I also loved Seidou and Kurona vs Amon and Seidous backstory with Amon. Juuzou at the auction is also a fav of mine haha

Takizawa’s development in that fight was amazing! And yes! Juuzou’s auction scene was so good!

Okay. This was so difficult. There’s so many great scenes and moments in the series and I’m sure I’m forgetting about several that I love.

But I’m going to kind of cheat and divide your question into 2 parts, because I have scenes that I love for different reasons:

My favorite scenes thematically/emotionally

My favorite scenes for enjoyment/humor

Thematically:

If you couldn’t already tell… I like angst.

#1: The “Even though you’re a ghoul” scene, which I talk about here (x)

#2 - Chapter 160. The one where Touka goes to rescue Kaneki from Dragon. That entire chapter. 

There’s no dialogue whatsoever, but every panel holds so much emotion. She’s so desperate, so tired. When she finds his arm, and screams because she thinks he’s dead and she’ll never find him. But she composes herself and pushes on. The whole chapter is so powerful and emotional. It doesn’t even need any dialogue.

#3: Kaneki’s torture

I like it better in the manga, but I will say that the voice acting in the anime is perfect. Kaneki’s lines break my heart each time I watch it. Especially the “Why couldn’t you live for me?!” And although not manga-accurate, I love the aesthetic of his hair turning white in that gif.

In the manga, the torture is pretty different and much longer. You find out that his aunt was abusive. And Kaneki snaps at Yamori fairly early on, after he finds out Yamori lied about letting his friends go. 

And the lines. The lines are so raw. It’s so sad and painful: 

“Though the purpose of those instructions escaped me at first, I realized the task was meant to force me to retain consciousness as much as possible. And I clung to those numbers. Using my head distracted me.”

“Let’s say I knew a secret, and this torture was meant to make me talk. Then perhaps I’d still have a little piece of mind. But meaningless torture where torture itself is the purpose… What is there but despair?”

“In the background, I heard somebody laughing. It was me. If I just went mad like this, oh how pleasant it would be.”

#4 - All of Hide’s CCG manga scenes. His time in the CCG is spent much differently than in Root A.

You can tell that each time he talks to the investigators Hide is choosing his words very carefully. He’s plotting something. He’s choosing how much to tell them and when. Whenever I reread these chapters now—knowing that the Anteiku raid and sewer scene happen—it hurts my heart when he tells the CCG that he knows Kaneki. Hide knows that the CCG is closing in. He knows they’re going to get Kaneki eventually. And the card he chooses to play is—tell the truth. Tell them that he knows Kaneki, knows him well, that’s he’s his best friend and thus cares and trusts Kaneki. It’s clear Hide didn’t want them to know that much, but at this point its his best play for keeping Kaneki alive.

#5 - “It may not be stylish, but live”

I think this scene speaks for itself. It’s so sweet and meaningful just how much Kaneki thinks of Hide. That at his lowest point he imagines Hide there with him, encouraging him. And telling him that when he sacrificed himself, he wanted Kaneki to live, and to live on with him. And of course Hide then says that iconic line. And the line “I’m so lonely without you…” combined with Kaneki’s tears always breaks my heart.

Enjoyment/Humor:

Juuzou giving Haise the money back that he stole, and how confused Haise and Shirazu were over this. It still amuses and terrifies me just how perceptive Juuzou is. (I also love any Juuzou and Kaneki/Haise interaction. They’re my favorite brotp)

The anime version of Kaneki vs Yamori: The animation is beautiful. I love the movement of Kaneki’s kagune and seeing it release from his back up close and the colors and how much Kaneki uses it to maneuver himself around. The finger cracking and him being a badass and getting his revenge on Yamori. All with Unravel playing in the background. It’s all just so good.

That one Tsukiyama omake: “This is a real punch!” *punches Kaneki* “And a real kick!” *kicks him* “And this is!” *throws mask at him* “A real boomerang!” *Clonk*

The omake with Aura’s baitless fishing hook. “I just enjoy letting down the string.” “What is this child doing?” It’s such a stupid joke but for some reason it makes me laugh each time

Kaneki’s fight with the 6th Ward ghoul Gil. You get to see how great of a fighter Kaneki is now. Banjou’s concern and Tsukiyama’s certainty that Kaneki will win. Kaneki taking Gil down, and then apologizing for being violent and rude despite Gil starting it. As much as Aogiri changed him, he is still very much Kaneki, and I love the soft moments like that apology that show this.

[pyropsychiccollector]

I normally wouldn't waste a post on this, but it is kind of morbidly fascinating. I'm not even a fan of Lucy, and I feel the slightest twinge of pity for the total loss of dignity she's experienced in this spinoff. It's like.... Lucy has crap happen to her all the time. We've seen her in the buff enough times for any appeal to wear off, and yet this stuff happens to her with increasing frequency in the spinoff.

Don't believe me? 3 of the 4 chapters thus far has some quirky moment that's presented in a comical way, but is ultimately perverted or just torturing the girl in some way.

Chapter 2

We've seen Makarov spank Lucy as far back as Phantom Lord arc. Nowadays, the client will nestle between her boobs like it's no big deal, and it's made more comical by Natsu shove his hand between them to get the guy out.

Chapter 3

Weird jellyfish thing springs into Lucy's mouth of its own accord. For what reason, we don't know. To attack her, to possess her, to get pervy inside her, to play with her.... who knows? We never find out what the deal is with these things, but apparently Natsu and Lucy struggling to get these things out of their mouths serve as a "dorky but cute" Nalu moment. .... Yeah, from where I'm standing, this was just a weird moment, but hey~ Natsu ate the thing and he's fine. Lucy's mouth went numb, though....

Chapter 4

.... And in the latest of "Lucy has no dignity" Weekly, she actually gets stripped of her bikini by fish that turned on Team Natsu because they're here to defeat the "Water Lord." She'll most likely get a new change of clothes from her Spirits or by changing into one of her Star Dresses - because fans looove to see those in action~ - but this still makes this the umpteenth time she's been stripped, partially or otherwise. You'd think the fans would get tired of seeing this, but I'll bet you they'll write it off as humor and just another Nalu moment because of the next few panels.

Yeah, Natsu saving the day again.... Not like Gray, Erza, Wendy, or Carla could've stepped in. Only Natsu could've done it, right?

Having said all this, Fairy Tail is no stranger to fanservice. That much should be obvious after just watching one episode of the anime. However, the point of this post is that Lucy has been even more underwhelming than she was in canon; she's the very picture of comic relief, when at least in canon she made an effort to hold on to even a single strand of her tattered dignity. If you like the over-the-top humor present in this spinoff, good for you. If you think each of these hilarious moments presents an iconic Nalu moment.... you might want to check your head, 'cause you're clearly grasping at this point. None of these moments are really applicable to a "shipping" moment - if every moment where a friend saved a friend could be registered as a shipping moment, Fairy Tail would be an orgy. .... As would every anime/manga for that matter.... The main problem lies in Natsu, who doesn't indicate he feels romantic feelings for Lucy at any point; though Lucy's crush also hasn't been present in this spinoff so far. If you disagree, do feel free to point out the specific panel that contradicts either of these points.

That's just my thoughts. Feel free to defend your ship if you want. The spinoff "kind of" seemed interesting when it started out, but now as it drags on, it's seeming rushed and not so well put together. I might not have been expecting them to do much with Juvia and Gajeel, but the investigation into Touka kinda bore fruit pretty quickly. We might still be in the dark about details about her character and past, but at the least, she's been made to appear very suspicious and potentially plot-relevant. Unless she's suddenly made to be a red herring, she's likely going to be connected to the "Water Lord" somehow.

[sparda3g]

Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 171 Review

Emotional attachment can lead to complexity within a person. “Easier said than done” is one quote that will be thrown around a lot when it comes to settling the issue. It’s up to their companion to relieve them from despair or among themselves to accept it. The arc is drawing near to the end as one battle ends, another one coming to a close. After a long period of waiting, it was well worth it for this emotional driven chapter.

It’s a bit challenging to say which scenario is the best part of the chapter. Sometimes I like the first half more, sometimes I like the latter. Both scenarios carry the similar theme of attachment to the world and its people, human and ghoul. When it comes to connecting themes and character’s growth, Ishida shines brightly with his delivering on his compelling characters.

I thought the last chapter concluded the battle between Yomo and Uta, but instead, we got a definitive ending here and it’s all for the better. It’s good to know Uta didn’t die from that devastating attack. Granted, I had a hunch he was going to live, but if he did die, that would be a bit easy. The chapter treated us with a really delightful ending to their bout and if there’s more room for the series, a really good future for the two.

Uta goes into greater detail on his thoughts on life itself. The way how he described his life in the past compare to the present somewhat reminds me of Citizen Kane. In that film, there’s this “checkpoint” of a man’s life that often look back and think that’s where the path was decided. Uta had fun back then because nothing in life mattered, even when they break their legs, him and Yomo. It began to change when Yomo was heading towards a different path alas Anteiku with Yoshimura. If Uta doesn’t follow or move anywhere else, what does he have left?

I thought it was pretty sad that Uta did in fact try to help Yomo to avenge his sister because it was like his way to keep him together. You know how many stories go about revenge won’t reward you greatly, if not any. This one is no different but it doesn’t address the obvious, rather use strong words to not only address the morale but connect to Uta’s despair. They couldn’t avenge for Yomo’s behalf, but now, Yomo has move ahead of it, because the world is changing.

Uta is a man that watches the world change but don’t adapt any of it. He has tried enough to adjust, or rather recover from the losses but he just couldn’t change. Every man adapts differently; he’s just harder to crack open. Honestly speaking, I am amazed and moved by Yomo as of late, which is funny considering how much of a mute guy he was. I know he let out his inner feelings when the moment is right, but his connections and thoughts speak to me.

Yomo comes off genuine with his words that it’s a bit unbelievable. Okay, no more knocking on him; I actually like his character a lot. The thing about his words is the fact they are sincere and relatable. He doesn’t come off as a leader or spokesman for a noble peace prize; it’s just two friends talking like friends. Surprising how Yomo did once come close to become another Uta on simply saying life sucks. He lost many loved ones before joining with Anteiku and convinced himself that cruelty is inevitable. When the café was burnt down, his reaction didn’t match up to his thoughts. Easier said than done.

It’s relatable to his thoughts about what should he have done instead of following orders to stand back and watch it fall. Many of us would often think about the past action and debate if it was a mistake or not. What I really like about Yomo transcribing his past is how we get a better view of his character. He was a mute person, but his subtle reaction clued you in how he really felt about it. The most obvious display is against Arima, but it’s also the moment of change for the better.

It’s ironic due to how Arima revolved Yomo’s character for past vengeance yet it intertwined with the present with Ayato and Touka. It’s no longer about fighting for the past cause. It connects very well to theme of attachment since Yomo is now fighting forward to see what rewards him, good or bad. Uta was avoiding the change around him, so nothing seem to progress. He’s there to adjust other’s life. Yomo is part of the world changing and contributing it till the end, hence soon to be a grand uncle. Best grand uncle ever, that’s for sure.

It has a charming way to end the grudge with Yomo willing to allow Uta to earn his desire. Yomo only wants for the best for others and prefer to be taken alone and him alone. It makes sense since Uta was only part of Clowns to change shape of others, even though his target has been only on Yomo. I like how Uta’s reply simply state that they are adults now. These two had a good sit down chat over their problems and reason each other like adults. It also implies he is finally stepping forward and hopefully for a better path.

The charm is how they start talking like good friends again. The topic is amusing because even the characters themselves can see the obvious pairing that is Kaneki and Touka. Who knew that they’re shippers since the beginning? I still remember when Uta asked Kaneki on his opinion on Touka; now it makes sense. The parallel panel is a nice way to end the battle; past or present, some things never change.

The rest of the chapter belongs to Amon and Donato though not without some new revealing details that was well timed for connecting themes. You got to credit Amon to keep on striving against Donato, even against the odds. I know some fans are tired of him getting wrecked, even though most of them are understandable; however, this time is actually relatable, reasonable, and powerful.

To my surprise, Takizawa isn’t there to join along the battle with Amon or even watch him to die. I was certain that the former was going to happen. It came close that Takizawa was pulling the old Shounen method of “Don’t interfere. He is fighting for his honor!” However, the reason to not to interfere is valid because Amon is actually struggling to himself. It wasn’t because Amon is weak or outclassed completely, though wouldn’t mind to be the case. He simply can’t kill Donato due to his attachment.

Whatever the missing pieces from the last chapter were are found here, including Tomoe. Like I said before, she had the perfect chance to kill Amon, but she didn’t do anything. Although she has some pity, it shouldn’t stop her. What stopped her is fear of losing a purpose. All she has left is vengeance and that can be settled now if she like, but then what? Not a single word came out from her after that thought. It’s a small yet valuable moral to exploit on fearing to fulfill their selfish wish.

The part that got me compelled is the flashback scene with Takizawa versus Houji, back at Rue Island. It was a bout that was skipped entirely, and I never knew why. With how Ishida put two and two together, I can understand clearly why it was on hold. In retrospect, fans including me believed Takizawa overwhelmed everyone, but the truth is in and it turns out that Houji held back and accepted death.

It humanizes the theme further because that bout was more emotional influence than a typical a monster versus humans. I was left believing Houji was a cold guy that had no remorse, even though I believed he drew a tear while confirming their next target. Takizawa was a loose cannon but that one expression opened his mind; Houji did care and felt sadden to end up this way. You can argue on why he was sad like regretting to save him before, but the bottom line is he was hindered by emotion and Takizawa technically took it for granted.

Basically, Takizawa’s purpose is to watch Amon develop or die before anything. If he steps in and somehow defeats Donato, what does Amon gain from it? It’s equivalent to a guy who wanted revenge on a criminal, only to be killed by another. No lesson will be learned and if there’s no other way around it, the man is lost. Amon has always been one of my favorite characters of the franchise. I find it appealing whenever he gets a development. While the bout as a whole is pretty solid, it transpires to one of the best humanized development that the series has offered so far.

What intrigued me about Amon the most is his justice system and his origin with Donato. Normally, it would be a simple premise with a boy who grew up with an evil father-figure, now against his kind. While he did embark that journey, he however remained attached to him despite everything he stands for. This portion would challenge readers if they are fine with his struggle despite one is clearly evil. The context is what saved it for me and bonus, shined his character deeper.

It’s a complicated scenario where a character meets his/her faithful enemy who is also the one who fathered them. It has a great parallel display of his tie with Kaneki and the current situation. The two prime examples of his divine character development. He has stuck to the code of justice system based on CCG. His hatred from his past went on Ghouls and killed them for what he believed was right. Once he becomes a ghoul, his view started to change.

It’s a shame that those who are so high up on their code would be forced to be a Ghoul alas force them to wear their shoes. He established a while back that not all Ghouls are evil but they are classified as one, so that may never change. I do wonder about the aftermath, which I still press on for part 3 as long as there are other elements left unsolved. Basically, Amon established both Human and Ghoul are largely the same, and yet he can define who is real evil and Donato is one. So why can he kill him if that’s the case?

The most powerful part is how he finally developed his view about the world being twisted. Remember how he told Ghouls or Kaneki to be specific that they’re the one that ruined it. After what he has gone through, he realizes the world would be twisted by anyone and among them is him. If he let Donato roam free, he is no better than anyone he’s against; a cruel irony. It’s intriguing with Takizawa realizing late of Houji’s emotional attachment result to a sad end while Amon realizing late would result to a good end. Not everyone have a same meaning and he has to deal with it.

The ending is interesting. Amon makes a sword shape weapon, though it can be considered as a cross; a fitting design. Donato looks at him and smiles like a proud father. Amon finally pushes through and takes a huge portion of his left’s side body; similar with Kaneki to Amon in Part 1. Amon actually concludes that he loved Donato and he can’t be hold back because of it.

If it wasn’t for its context and delivery, it would be difficult for readers to accept to like a murderer. The point is Amon and Donato did come a long way in their life in the orphanage. It’s hard to dispute any connection and detach any love they harbored in the past, especially since childhood for Amon. Growing up as such isn’t easy to forget and set free. Even if he seeks for vengeance, it didn’t grow out of air. The bond exists and he had to accept that fact no matter if it is wrong.

After a long break, this chapter was a great return with emotional connection with these characters. The art is pretty solid with its nice use of parallels and expressive feelings. Yomo and Uta have a relaxing bromance ending and Amon and Donato are closing their feud soon with a strong message. It seems like this arc will end in this volume. It’s a only matter of time.

[linkspooky]

Tsukiyama and Furuta: Two Moons Heading Towards an Eclipse

If you flip this number down it’s.... absolutely nothing. If you flip and reverse it, ie what would happen if you were to place it in a mirror than you get a backwards nineteen. If you just flip it it looks sort of like a 16 in the wrong order. If you take the numbers as individual, an upside down six can be the lovers in reverse while an upside down 1 could represent Hide as he was just mentioned in the last chapter. They could also not even be numbers but representative of a moth’s wings instead. They could also be moths wings as depicted at the beginning of the chapter. 

They could also just be a pun on the word orgasm [x] with japanese numbers. My point is things can have many possible interpretations so try not to refute the assertions I make in this post with ‘that’s a nineteen’ or ‘that’s representative of the sun’.  Anyway, continuing forward read under the cut for the explanation and yes I actually do get to Tsukiyama. 

Generally if you want to put a tarot number in this manga in reverse it’s been upside down. Not reversed and then mirrored, that’s not really anything to do with tarot that’s just... da vinci mirror code. 

The sun in reverse sort of relates to this situation: 

The Sun reversed indicates that finding the positive aspects to a particular situation may prove to be difficult. The clouds may be blocking out the warmth, and preventing you from feeling as though everything is on track. You may have experienced setbacks that have damaged your enthusiasm and optimism and have perhaps led you to question whether you can really achieve what you have set out to achieve.

However I find it too positive, and as usual I sure do love being negative about things. It doesn’t make sense to me, the sun being in reverse would indicate that the moon arc is ending, but having sex doesn’t really resolve any of Kaneki or Touka’s issues. Sex isn’t really a net positive or a net negative, it’s just neutral. 

Nonetheless, the Sun is never a negative card, so this is only temporary. The obstacles you see can be easily removed if you put your mind to it. It may just take a little more effort than usual.

Having sex, or advancing their relationship might solve their relationship arc, but it’s tangential to their individual character arcs. The sun is too much of a net positive here for me to see it as appropriate. For imagery reasons, Kaneki crying and then sitting in Touka’s lap could be a connection to the naked baby on the sun that is in itself a symbol of rebirth.

The child playing joyfully in the foreground represents the happiness of our inner spirit when we are in tune with our truest Self. He is naked, having nothing to hide  

 Kaneki isn’t really experiencing a happiness of his inner spirit though, considering he started crying in the middle of sex and could not explain why. This isn’t to say that Kaneki felt worse after having sex with Touka of course, but that the act of having sex with Touka doesn’t really have much to do with finding commune in his inner spirit. He literally, couldn’t explain why he was crying. The line “Why, indeed?” is a parallel to when he could not explain why he was crying to Touka.

There’s also the fact that they’re having this sex in the darkness, with black borders around the panels and constant cut to black. I hope this makes a good case for why I think the sun isn’t exactly the perfect fit for this scene. The sun in reverse doesn’t indicate darkness, or the moon, it’s still the sun just in reverse. That leaves two more possible tarot interpretations, the lovers and the tower both in reverse.

The lovers reversed indicates that you are avoiding responsibility for the consequences of your own actions. You have made a rushed decision based purely on your desire for instant gratification and now you are trying to lay the blame on others or on fate. 

The lovers can also indicate inner conflicts being at war with external forces. It suggests disharmony and difficulty in being able to balance your own inner union. The lovers reversed may also reflect that feelings within a relationship are not mutual. One person in the partnership might have stronger feelings than the other, and may be more emotionally involved. 

This is closer, Touka and Kaneki are basically ignoring the whole outside world to have sex right now. The timing is pretty spectacular considering they’re both on the run from the law, and they’re not really Bonnie and Clyde. There’s also allies they have to meet up with, and the Oggai are a real pressing threat for every ghoul that the two of them claim to be fighting for. 

A real and pressing danger which outsiders like Takizawa seem to acknowledge but neither Touka nor Kaneki really do. Which is in line with both of their characters as they’ve always fought for personal relationships rather than the big picture affecting all ghouls. The problem with taking a siesta to boink therefore being that Touka and Kaneki’s lives no longer belong solely to themselves. They themselves have made the choice to accept the responsibilty of this revolution, and it’s not something that only Kaneki wants, but also something that Touka wants to fight for.

Ayato makes the point that they’ve all chosen to make everyone rely on them, so to go back now and act on personal feelings like their life solely belongs to them at this point is betraying that choice. In Ayato’s words it makes them half assed, because it means they care less about their committment than they presented themselves as having done so. 

Which is part of why Kaneki’s flaws seem so much more stagnant in Tokyo Ghoul Re: than original Tokyo Ghoul. Tokyo Ghoul was Kaneki’s story through and through, it was the tragedy of how he failed to change in time to survive in the ghoul world. Re: is the story of a king, a king’s story is not as personal by its nature because it has ramifications that affect the entire world. 

Therefore yes, Kaneki and Touka’s decision to have sex is an ignoring of consequences just for the simple logical reason of rendering themselves vulnerable right now while they’re being sniffed out by the oggai, if both of them were to die then the revolution would be snuffed out before it could ever truly have begun. It’s also okay to judge them for this because Touka and Kaneki both want to be important figures in this fight. It’s different than two people just trying to have sex on their own time. 

Inner feelings being at war with the outside world... that’s obviously the moon arc so no need to dwell on that. The final part is interesting though, it indicates that one may not love another as much as the other. Now to get this out of the way, of course I think their affections are mutual to an extent. You have to be blind to not acknowledge that Touken is canon by this point. 

In this case though, I actually think Kaneki’s feelings might be stronger than Touka. At least when you look at the way that Kaneki uses people he is close to.

You look like you’re about to die. Between the two of us, the only one who thinks it was okay for you to just up and leave.... was you. 

Touka says it outright, she would be willing to have sex with him to prevent him from wanting to go off and die. Kaneki says it indirectly a few chapters earlier. 

Kaneki wants somebody to attach himself to, and Touka wants to be that person of attachment. It’s a reaction in opposite directions to the same basic problem, they’re both afraid of people leaving them. In a way it’s an unequal love because Touka can never value Kaneki the way Kaneki wants to use her, as a reason to live, as a symbol for all the good things that make life worth living. 

There are criticisms of Touka’s character that she bases herself entirely around Kaneki’s actions and what will make Kaneki stay around, or what is good for Kaneki’s well being but tha’ts not entirely true. A more nuanced view is that Touka since losing everybody at the Anteiku Raid, has shifted her priorities to try to ensure that her loved ones stay near her. Kaneki is just the crux of this issue, the symbol of all the important loved ones who left her, he himself inserted himself into that position by making that promise.

“Don’t leave me alone.”

That being said, defining yourself entirely by the relationships you have in your life and trying to keep them around is in and of itself a flaw. That is unless you think Touka has some secret agenda she has been running entirely offscreen when it comes to managing Re:, but even in that case we haven’t been presented any of that onscreen so until it gets focused on in the narrative it might as well not exist. 

So we have two characters with flaws that render their love unequal, Touka wants to be a point of attachment and Kaneki wants someone to attach himself too. Just because the way in which they are codependent weirdly complements one another however =/= a healthy relationship. However since we are in the arc of people finding refuge in one another and using that as an excuse to hide from the truth, it’s understandable why the characters would make this mistake. Touken is a bit of a sad and tragic relationship, it’s always been. At it’s core it’s a struggle of people from two different worlds trying desperately to connect. 

The snake in the fruit-laden tree behind the woman suggests the story of Adam and Eve, the fall of humanity from grace, and the temptations of the world.

The couple in the garden also have strong connections to the story of genesis. Something Touka and Kaneki parallel heavily right now. Think of it, Re: and Anteiku before it was a place where both of them were sheltered and allowed to be mostly innocent to the world. To them it was like a paradise. Both times it was completely destroyed and they were ejected from it however. When Adam and Eve lose their innocence they look at each other naked for the first time and begin to make love. 

The story of Adam and Eve is much like one of Touka and Kaneki, a fall from innocence but at the same time they gain knowledge of right and wrong and self actualization. At some point theoretically the idea is that Touka and Kaneki will decide for themselves what they view as right and wrong, rather than following simply what Yoshimura or Arima told them, or endlessly substituting new parental figures to guide them. 

Another clear parallel is that Kaneki and Touka are placing themselves as male and female figureheads of a new revolution. Ignoring the pregnancy thing, if Kaneki and Touka were to succeed in their revolution they would be the figurative parents of an entirely new world, one where their descendants both humans and ghouls would be able to coexist. 

Touka is pictured with the apple several times, but different from Eto and Furuta who are both tempters offering the apples to others, it is Touka who bites in making her the eve in this situation. The manga has already given us a good summary of Eve’s actions, and her reason for biting into that apple.

Sound like Touka and Kaneki at all? Surely she did that because she wanted to love a man, yet you say she wanted to be loved. It’s a good summary of their relationship and the tragedy of Touka’s own self conflicting selflessness. 

Which is finally where I can start talking about what I think the most accurate tarot number to be read from that imprint in the bedsheets is, the 16 in reverse or the Tower. At first these situations seem only superficially connected to the tower arc, but allow me to make my case on how all the dangling plot threads from the tower are finally going to come to roost this next arc. 

First off, the meaning of the tower in reverse compliments the moon arc well:

Upright, the Tower indicates a time of great turmoil and destruction, which will eventually bring with it change and regeneration.

 Reversed, however, the Tower card indicates that you are simply delaying the necessary ‘destruction’. You need to go through this difficult time in order to learn an important lesson. Do not resist it. Even though it is shocking and hard to deal with, it is a very important part of your life journey.

Similarly, the Tower reversed suggests that, while you consciously want change and transformation, you seem to be afraid of these two things. You may feel that change and transformation may bring with it destruction and pain, and thus you are resisting this.

Characters consciously wanting to change but being unable to do so is basically the theme of the past ten chapters. 

Every character has had their moment to show how they haven’t changed at the core despite everything they have gone through, because to them change is too painful a thing to face head on, and now we are finally getting to the lowest point of that with Kaneki and Touka. That’s not to say sex is a bad thing, but it is very primal in a jungian sense. There’s almost no better metaphor for characters acting on their most basic desires, no wonder both Jung and Freud lenses are so sex obsesed. 

In seeking comfort in each other, both of them prioritizing their fear of loss over their duties and the change they want to make to themselves and the outside world Kaneki and Touka both stagnate the necessary change they need to go through. The tower is a scary card yes, but it’s also an optimistic one. People have a tendency to dwell on the loss, but after loss comes rebirth. That’s the entire point of Kaneki’s supposed goal of breaking the egg and transforming the world, but he himself shies away from it. 

Just like in the lover’s card, it’s also specifically a man and woman who are falling. Quite morbidly you could say this is the result of their sudden spiritual awakening, the two of them are thrown off the tower together and lose control upsetting all our old notions about the relations between subconscious and self consciousness. 

If it’s truly invoking the tower here, then this connects back to an old scene in :RE. That time when Kanae and Tsukiyama were experiencing their own version of the Tower as they attempted to find enlightenment of themselves in the clumsiest and most disastrous way physically possible. 

1) The building that the final Tuskiyama Raid took place in was called the Lunar Eclipse

(Imperial scans translated it weird, it’s supposed to be Luna Eclipse). 

2) It’s the first place where Furuta showed his true nature as a moon character

Furuta as a character is one who exists to bring about an eclipse and invoke the moon card. At the moment he stands as the biggest obstacle in the background to the characters own enlightenment while at the same time encouraging them to indulge in their own shadows. He’s also been physically invoked with the moon before. 

3) It set up the major incidents of trauma that are driving key character’s right now, namely Urie’s loss of Shirazu, Haise’s leaving of the Q’s, and Ui’s loss of Hairu. 

Furuta calling back to Hairu’s loss is a deliberate callback to that time, and I believe he’ll repeat this temptation again and again for the point I am about to make later. Let’s continue with listing these parallels though. 

4) It’s the last time Tsukiyama had an arc in regards to his family, and Karren’s final words to Tsukiyama are the same kind of emotional openness that Touka and Kaneki are experiencing now. 

The same way that Touka and Kaneki are now falling off the tower, Kanae and Tsukiyama were in their own arc. However they are not given the same resolution that Kaneki and Touka were, mainly because of one active interfering participant.

Which is ironically enough, Kaneki himself is the direct reason why Kanae died before either of them could get proper closure or growth to finish off the great conflict between the two of them. Kaneki made a deliberate choice to sacrifice Kanae at Tsukiyama’s expense, one that he has yet to face any consequences for in the narrative. 

Clearly there are a lot of loose ends both emotionally and plot and character wise from the tower arc, and this arc is the continuation of them. Which is why from this point forward this post will be dedicated to where I think Tsukiyama’s arc will lead him next and why it is going to be an important continuation of his character arc which has been left in suspension since the raid arc. 

As to the image above, Tsukiyama just deciding to forgive Kaneki before he even apologizes is obviously not the proper way to resolve a conflict. If anything it avoids conflict so Tsukyiama can pretend everything is as it always was. This is what he thought he wanted after all, a false return to those days when he was a member of Kaneki’s kru.

In a way it’s what he always wanted, but Tsukiyama is not satisfied from what we see in the omake. We already know he dislikes being treated as a wallet, to the point where he gets jealous over somebody who Kaneki basically treats like a servant.

Chie has a point though, the way that Tsukiyama views relationships si that he can simply just be important without putting any of the actual work in. It worked with Chie because Chie doesn’t really care, she has a fondness for Tsukiyama yes but she’s not driven by closeness or loneliness the same way Kaneki is. Kaneki is difficult as a person to navigate, but Tsukiyama then doesn’t really see him as a person to begin with which is a major reason that stops them from getting close. 

It’s from the start of their relationship, Tsukiyama refers to Kaneki as his gourmet food which belongs only to him. Chie acknowledges that part of Tsukiyama doesn’t really feel that way but there is a distinct difference between Tsukiyama’s conscious and subconscious minds. 

In other words he’s an excellent example of a moon character. He has, all of the symptoms of the moon that others characters are exhibiting in this arc. His main method of satiating himself is obsession and pursuit of aesthetic reasons to live when in reality he’s quite emotiionally distant and lonely. Most of his actions are in trying to satiate those actions by, in a nihilistic way, moving from obsession to obsession. Chie even comments on this.

Which is what makes his connection to the only other moon character, Furuta, even stronger.

Furuta even drops him by name, which is a pretty major signal that the two of them are going to have a connection at some point. After all our first introduction to Furuta is when Tsukiyama brought Kaneki to the gourmet club. 

The way they present themselves is even similiar. Early Shuu Tsukiyama is close to a clown in motivation, where he only seems to care about living life for the pursuit of aesthetic desire rather than forming substantive relationships. We later learn that’s not the case but it’s also Shuu himself who has to learn this lesson. Also talk about unsubtle, there’s a moon directly drawn on his face. 

While Furuta/Souta are introduced similiarly, most of the details of their character deliberately contrast each other to set up a foil. 

Furuta is actually quite good and intelligent at shutting down his emotions and only ever wearing masks, and Shuu is the opposite, he thinks eh’s only reacting to the aesthetics and passion for food but actually he ahs real emotional issues that are super uncontrolled and also transparent.

They both quite clearly deviate from the actual clown mentality in different directions. Shuu’s “I care about the aesthetics” is a lie he’s convinced himself of because he can’t process his own emotions. 

Furuta’s clownish nature is a kind of repression and a really bleak coping mechanism for being born into a tragic life. They’re both at removing themselves from their emotions, but Shuu genuinely believes it and Furuta knows it’s a sham. 

These two are both moon characters, they experience emotions they athey don’t understand but just assume they are about aesthetics and comedy because that’s the only framework they can deal with their actual emotions. Tsukiyama even pretends his attachments to people are purely aesthetic when they are so obviously not. 

There’s also situation parallels, they were both born to families that have a great deal of influence over the ghoul world. The Tsukiyama’s however primarily use their influence to give other ghoul’s a place in society, while the Washuu stomp out ghouls from society. Tsukiyama himself is an unwitting heir like Matsuri who cares more about personal freedom than his responsibility, while Furuta is closer to Karren a cousin who is instead treated like a servant to the family and loses their sense of personhood because of it. 

Even their birthday poems are total and complete opposites. Shuu’s is one of calm reassurance that life is going to work out okay, while Furuta’s is telling you to laugh because the world is awful and then you die. 

Then the question is, if Shuu is a character heavily associated with the moon why has he done absolutely nothing this arc of note so far? My answer is that Ishida likes to play with his cards close to his chest, but there are a couple of hints as to what might happen next.

I think it’s important that Shuu was the one to interrupt the initial Touken talk, and also he does so with news o the real world, that thing that Kaneki and Touka oh so conveniently avoid a lot.

This was also shown a few chapters ago, a clear and obvious “Behlit” and in the same chapter a deal with the devil happens. 

If you take this entire brewing arc as a parallel to Berserk, a certain scenario can be mapped out. In Berserk Bejlits are stone fetishes of unknwon supernatural origin said to govern the fate of humanity. They are primarily used for summoning the angels of the God Hand, at which point the owners are granted a wish in exchange for a sacrificed. 

The most major activation of a Behlit we see in Berserk, is one where Griffith chooses to sacrifice his comrades in order to pursue his goal of being king. The strongest parallel we have right now is that in Berserk the main characters Guts and Casca, finally connected and had sex right before the Eclipse happened. 

This is just going to be summarizing Berserk for a second so let me just, Kaneki and Guts have several parallels that can be drawn between each other. In particular Guts tastes happiness for the first time in the band of the hawk and then leaves it because he is unsure of himself. This is a repeating thing with Guts several times, he’s unable to grasp happiness because he’s generally lived a miserable life up until this point and is afraid of losing him.

Gut’s abandonment of the hawks sends Griffith into a downward spiral which culminated in him becoming an emaciated husk of his former self (Tsukiyama) and having his tongue cut off (Kanae). What drives Griffith over the absolute edge though is overhearing Casca and Guts make plans to leave Griffith eventually and start a family of their own. Hearing Casca and Guts act of their own free will especially when Griffith is so close to losing everything impacts him greatly because he viewed them as objects that belonged to him, so them leaving is the final nail in the coffin of his own downfall. Griffith attempts suicide. 

When they rush to find him though, they encounter the eclipse. Which is when the godhand descend and slaughter the band of the hawk. I don’t think an exact parallel of this is going to happen in TG of course, but there are parallels that can be drawn between the main character.

Tsukiyama in the past has seen both Kaneki and Touka as objects of interest, and any emotional attachment to them has always been framed in this lens. Rather than a love triangle, their decision to confide in each other to that extent could be what pushes Tsukiyama to the edge. Especially when he wants to be close to Kaneki and seen as more than a wallet. A solar eclipse is also what is happening metaphorically in the manga, when the moon blocks out the sun and the characters lose all of their insight causing their shadows to grow even deeper. 

Griffith of course is a character who is willing to stand atop a pile of corpses and climb their in order to become king. The same blind and destructive ambition is reflected in Furuta as he climbs to the head of the Washuu family and declares himself Washuu king, building his pathway there on the bodies of dead ghouls and humans alike. 

In this case Griffith the betrayer can be represented in two persons, Tsukiyama for his complex emotional relationship that exists on the outside of Touka and Kaneki’s own relationship, and then Furuta who propels forward with blind ambition. Tsukiyama is also defined by his selfishness in his own relationships as Touka points out. 

(Just leave the other aspects of Griffith’s character aside for now). 

Therefore if Tsukiyama and Furuta were to ever come together, a disaster and a betrayal quite like the eclipse is likely to happen. We know three things about Tsukiyama’s character arc going forward, one that his character arc should have him letting go of the idea of Kaneki he clings so tightly onto.

In his great moment of character development he even rejects Kaneki and fights against him. If Shuu is ever able to move forward he first must let go of this idea of Kaneki in his head. 

Second he has yet to properly mourn Kanae. Part of the reason why is because after they died, he was immediately told that Kaneki did so for his sake which must have complicated his feelings on the matter. Repressed feelings are never a true way of dealing with them though, so Kaneki’s direct hand in Kanae’s death is something that should boil to the surface sooner or later. Especially considering the unacknowledged hypocrisy that Kaneki is a once Dove who slaughtered ghouls en masse now claiming to fight for them. 

This could also tie into Furuta’s way of tempting Tsukyiama away from Kaneki. If he still has Hairu’s body, then it’s likely he could still have Kanae’s as well. Kanae’s even already had Noro’s kagune inserted into them. Furuta could offer Kanae’s revival as a way of bringing Tsukiyama over to his side, especially if the alternative is working with somebody who doesn’t regret much less care about killing Kanae.

Third and most important is that Tsukiyama is basically Kaneki’s second in command at this point. If there was anybody who could bring a devastating fissure to the group spiderweb of delicate bonds which holds Goat together at this point it is him. He acts as defacto leader when Kaneki is gone, is in control of gathering assets for them, and even knows the codes. 

There is no better point of infiltration than Tsukiyama, and also considering that Tsukiyama saved both Naki and MIza’s life, and has a close relationship with Hinami he might even be able to take a few key members with him. Hinami I think is most important because like any youth she needs some form of rebellion against Kaneki, because watching her repress all of her emotions for Kaneki’s sake is just getting painful at this point.

Notice how, quite predictably her and Akira’s supposed reunion had no emotional growth for Hinami or acknowledging of Hinami’s feelings and centered entirely around Akira. It’s almost like Hinami’s too selfless for her own good or something. Her time in Aogiri, her decision to join them was pretty critical for her move to grow up and towards her own independence but now she’s back to attaching herself to Kaneki again. 

There you have it, my long and far fetched guess of how Tsukiyama will factor into the moon arc and also the big explosion that might finally get these characters motivated. 

[breakfast-at-anteiku]

ASDfLSDKFASDASD:SADSADSLKK AYAHINA AFTER ALL THIS TIME AAKGALSDJASJLDASD

x A WHOLE ARC WENT BY WITHOUT THEm INTERACTING AND  I JUST????

[Warning: TG:re 117 spoilers, long-ass post, AyaHina spazzing]  [More general spazzing about every other thing in the chapter in my next post]

[PS I promise you, the spazzing will become coherent under the cut]

x I’VE JUST BARELY RECOVERED FROM THAT ONE PANEL OF THAT NEW OMAKE WHERE AYATO WAS PRETTY MUCH IN THE BG but they were together anyway I’ll talk about that in another post but;;;;

x AYAHINA. IN THAT ROSE GREENHOUSE. WHERE AYATO WAS ANGSTING ABOUT HER. THANK YOU ISHIDA SENSEI. 

x I wonder what’s so special about this hideout? Did they have dates up here when it wasn’t used as meeting space? Was this where they had a few of their firsts? Did Hinami pick this hideout because of the roses? Orrrr did she grow those roses herself and Ayato took care of them for her? 

Okay I know I’m reaching BUT THINK OF ALL THE POSSIBILITIES. AyaHina fic writers, GET ON THAT SHIT.

x She chose him, out of everyone else, to talk about Akira. 2 points to this:

1) This is the first AyaHina interaction SHE INITIATED. Now I’m seeing some reciprocation narrative-wise. It’s very unlikely that Ishida would write it like this if this was still one-sidedly AyaHina.

2) She could have talked to Kaneki directly. Or Banjou, who has been shown to discuss the matter with Hinami already. Or even Touka, who was with her in the fight against Mado. 

But she chose Ayato, who has had no significant interaction with either Mado. The only reason he could even be there is as a close confidant of Hinami, and that speaks volumes. They’ve spoken about this before - probably when they were still in Aogiri. That she trusts him with the basest of her fears is proof of this. And the clincher? He understands.

Gundammit. This ship.

x Also, I want to see fanart/fanfic of Hinami pulling Ayato aside for this. I would but I’m swamped with AyaHina week as it is

x ALSO OMG ISHIDA GAVE US THIS JUST IN TIME FOR AYAHINA WEEK I’M??

x Can I just talk about my precious angel for a bit? Look at how young she looks here. I think it may have been said before but she’s been wearing her hairpins when she never used them while she was in Aogiri. I think there’s a bit of significance there - she’s gone back to her “child-like” pre-Aogiri state, where she’s surrounded by people she loves who love her just as much, who probably care enough to give her small luxuries, like hairpins and time enough to wear them.

x For someone who has gone through about 4 changes in alliances (neutral > Anteiku > anti-Aogiri > Aogiri > Goat), about as much as anyone else, her core personality has not changed. It was just something we had inferred in previous TG:re chapters, but her dialogue in this chapter is solid proof. She’s still kind and wise and introspective, even if she’s a little more melancholy.

This plays into why I like AyaHina so much - she’s put more of her own values (kindness, tolerance, patience, filial love) into Ayato, than his own (violence, anger, hatred) into her. This is so significant, because these were the exact values that he had shunned when he left Touka and Anteiku. Somehow, Hinami had gotten through to him, and we can safely assume that there were some strong feelings towards her involved in that development.

x “That’s why... I still can’t.” Even if we say that her values of forgiveness and patience still hasn’t changed, she still has a hard time forgiving. I take it for granted because this is Ishida’s superb writing at work, but he could have just as easily written Hinami being the one to chase after Akira’s forgiveness and not have angst of her own. I’m just so happy that Hinami is as well-rounded a character as any of Ishida-sensei’s.

xASDALKDSA CAN I JUST??? SAY??? THAT THESE ARE MY TWO MOST FAVORITE PANELS OF ALL TIME AND I SIMULTANEOUSLY HATE AND LOVE IT?

x I MEAN. Look at how beautiful Ayato here is, first of all. Long fingers. Exquisite bone structure. Hair falling lazily over his face. Dark broody eyes all concerned at his waifu and feeling all of her emotions.  His ear isn’t pierced with a safety pin any more. What.

x And then there’s the fact that he most definitely reached out and eased Hinami into his personal space. This boy. Who hated the world. Is now most definitely hugging the softest cinnamon roll in the history of TG:re. 

x BUT. Look at how Ishida paneled this shit. He stopped short of a shoujo manga hug. He didn’t even show Hinami. CHRIST. I know he was trying to maintain the focus on Hinami’s dilemma, but even just a little bit of hugging??? Pls???

So. Ah. tl;dr, I LOVED THIS CHAPTER. WHAT THE SHIT I LOVED IT.

[scenarios-on-ice]

You must have infinite regeneration powers :D So cool. And WELCOME BACK! <3333 I’m glad to hear you had fun in Japan!  and awww, I’m sorry to hear that school’s giving you a hard time (again)! :( *hugs*

For me, I am/was a homeschooler and I just finished the required exam to be considered a high school graduate so I’m basically done with studying for now….

Are they? *blinks innocently* I wasn’t aware!

(If you’re talking about Agni

“WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SAY GOODBYE”

“If I say goodbye, the plot will learn to move on…it outlives me when I’m gone”)

If Isayama actually manages to save the plot with a big revelation about how everything is (once again) connected I’ll be fine, but I really do think it would have been best to leave the worldbuilding at the whole Marleyan/Eldian thing. Personally, I feel like that was just the right amount of complicated to make readers go ‘ooooh so THAT’S what was going on all along I can’t believe I didn’t think of that’. It would have been nice to get some answers and maybe some more character development for the TItan Trio and Zeke instead of all the confusion going on right now (though I do have to admit that I like the new characters. And Reiner’s flashback to his days as a soldier in the recent chapter hurt my feels really badly).

OMG you’re actually going to do it Luna-senpai I bow down to you

I’m not even sure what to say so thank you??? So much???

True, I was thinking that as well since the anime kinda misses out on a lot of stuff and therefore has less usable scenes. And here, my evil side is showing again: ‘Let’s go home’ could definitely fit with ‘it take and it takes and it takes’ but, how about with 'If there’s a reason I’m still alive when so many have died’?

Feel free to make a shorter version or something if it’s stressing you out too much, though! And of course, I’m always happy to talk about this/help find the right panels! :D

To be a bit more clear, Rize isn’t actually pregnant so that’s something (do you think she would have ALLOWED herself to be impregnated if she could help it?). Her kakuhou’s just kinda being used again to create a new, more powerful generation of mini-quinx that are basically the new Kaneki Kens. Yeah. And Furuta refers to them as her 'children’

Here, I’ll explain that if you want:

Remember how we talked about Mutsuki being decidedly not-fine? Well, they completely snapped in recent chapters. It’s been revealed that they had a romantic interest in Sasaki (understandable, since he was the first person who was ever genuinely kind to them) and was extremely jealous/hurt by his behavior when he first met Touka at Re(the cafe). Though they were able to keep their feeilngs in check, after Torso’s torture things got worse and after Sasaki/Kaneki just up and left, Mutsuki kind of went yandere.

There’s a scene with them repeatedly stabbing someone disguised as Sasaki while declaring 'won’t kill, won’t kill, he’s mine’. Then they tell Aura (one of the new members of the Q squad who is bent on murdering Kaneki as revenge for his aunt, who ended up badly injured when Kaneki and his friends broke out of Cochlea)- “Let’s kill him together.” I suppose they resent Kaneki for leaving?

And you know, Kaneki’s group GOAT is all over the news now…Mutsuki finally got a clue where he is.

That 'sensei’ scene is trouble for both Kaneki and Touka.

In case you don’t remember, Takeomi and Yoriko got engaged, right? And Yoriko asked Takeomi to help her find a friend of hers (Touka) who disappeared years ago during the Anteiku raid. In a recent chapter, Takeomi ran into Mutsuki while holding the only picture of Touka Yoriko had and Mutsuki asked for the picture, claiming that they knew this person.

So. Well. Mutsuki’s probably going to go beserk if they get their hands on Touka. And they’ve already got their hands on Kaneki.

I kinda want to scream right now.

As for the 'virgin’ scene, Touken is now officially a thing! That question is followed by Touka and Kaneki finally talking about their feelings like sensible people instead of raging and angsting at each other, and then Touka’s like “When the time is right, I’ll let you do it with me.” 0////0

I’m not really sure how to feel about this though. I always thought Touken was going to become canon so I’m not surprised, but I kinda wish it didn’t in a way as well? Though I see how it works I’m not overly fond of it because it’s a really, really cliche formula in anime and manga: tough girl who becomes softer through her affection for main guy, tough girl whose character development is directly linked to main guy in a way that makes her more emotional and more traditionally feminine. The most 'popular’ examples of this could be the Winry/Ed dynamic from FMA and the Eren/Mikasa relationship from AoT and they’re not the only ones; this is just a really popular trope in shounen manga. Admittedly Winry/Ed seems to be a well-done version of it from what I’ve seen, while Mikasa/Eren puts some interesting twists on it and Touken is a more realistic portrayal, but it’s still a cliche that I get tired of seeing.

I also feel like Touken could have done with a bit more development in recent chapters. They’ve been apart for so long and haven’t had that many significant interactions until this whole 'are you a virgin’ convo (which was feelsy and good but a little more buildup would have been nice).

Whatever, I’m still going to be mad if Mutsuki manages to hurt Touka.

Whoops, almost spoiled something again! Not gonna do it, though.  Well, the next few weeks will be pretty good, so I’m happy about that! And I’m not sure if I wrote this in the last message (but I’m too lazy to go and check), so I’m gonna (potentially) write it again: The perfect way to describe me during the flight back is using a line from ‘Farmer Refuted’. If you repeat yourself again, I’m gonna scream. Only without the If you repeat yourself again part. It. Was. Horrible. And shaky.

Oh, that’s pretty interesting! And yeah, you did mention being quite the genius. You’re like Hiro from Big Hero 6 hahah

... Sure you weren’t aware.

Oh yeah, it’s about Agni. Why couldn’t plot armour save him????  HNNNNNNNGH

Well, at this point I’m too confused with the manga to like anything. He should’ve left it at the basic plot and not evolve it into the mess of plots it is now. (Fun fact: this was originally worded a lot more harshly) I think he’s slowly losing readers by doing this. If they don’t quite understand what’s going on anymore, they give up. How do I know? CAUSE I’M ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE DAMMIT Like I said, Armin is what keeps me going.

I think I’m gonna try to make a shorter version of the song, but I’m not sure how it’ll turn out. I also have 0 idea how long it’ll take (but it’ll be a while before it’s done)).  Ah, that’s a good idea for the lets go home scene! Well, either that or ‘I’m afraid I wouldn’t remember their names’

Oh good, she isn’t pregnant. I was scared ;-; BUT THE OTHER OPTION ISNT MUCH BETTER; IS IT NOW Well, sure, Rize wouldn’t allow herself that, but if she’s starving/drugged, then I guess... THIS IS GETTING TOO DARK

You want to scream and I’m going to scream.  Just. I give up. No.  Why. 

Oh, Touken is canon? Cool! I can’t say I ship it, but it’s really nice something became canon. But did Touka seriously doubt Kaneki being a virgin? Kaneki, the biggest nerd on the entire planet? Oh yeah, he’s totally a fuckboy, there isn’t a girl in town who hasn’t slept with him, pffft

Well, I guess cliches are nice every once in a while ^^

As for Boku no Hero Academia... I’ve binged the manga and it turns out it does get very, very dark. Not AoT or TG level dark (what kind of monster would do that?), but quite dark, so you might enjoy it ^^

[todokori-kun]

(THAT GIF. IT’S THE GIF I WAS OBSESSED WITH WHEN I FIRST GOT INTO THE MCU OMG)

ehehehehehe I’m sure you’ll get over it :) (but you won’t, really. I should probably go and make sure you don’t have any sharp objects in your possession.)

Don’t be upset! *hugs* not until you listen to ‘Words Fail’, 'I am damaged’ and watch Civil War + Thor 2, at least…

I read the chapter! One of the things that immediately stood out to me was Shuu’s design, because it really shows how much it’s changed since the first series (he looks so pretty(?) now. Look at those eyes (down for the count and I’m drownin’ in 'em)).

As for Naki, my boy. The moment I saw him using a freaking PROVERB I think I teared up a little.

But obviously, the one thing he will never learn is Shuu’s name.

And that ending…since it’s the 'king’ it should be Ken, right? But if it is, there’s definitely something wrong (I mean just look at the last panel). When did he get back? Where’s Touka? What has he been doing? I mean, from the spoilers, some fans were guessing that was actually Arima and that’s possible now with the whole 'bring back the dead’ thing, but I don’t think it’s him. For one thing, Arima’s story had a heartbreaking ending, but it was satisfying…it was a clean, simple conclusion. I feel like it wouldn’t be a good idea to mess that up, since it would just makes things that much more complicated. It would also be cruel to Arima because COME ON, he chose his own death because that was the best option for him and he died happy! WHY would you make him do it all over again?!

And weirdly, this chapter is like 'lol Touken? what Touken?’ like the last few chapters never happened. Not sure how to feel about that XD

Also Kou is adorable and if Ishida hurts him I don’t know what I’ll do.

yeah, I do know that 'Aishiteru’ is such a powerful phrase that even married couples hesitate to use it ^^ I just wanted something to compare it to. Apparently Saiko’s 'I love you’ was the same 'I love you’ she uses with the rest of the Q squad…? Idk if that’s 100% accurate though.

OTL that freaking scene…

'Ravenclaw or Slytherin’ ^^ hahaha…ehehehehehehe…the thing is…

King Evans, bringer of angst, breaker of feels, mighty lord of the tragic OTPs, is 98% Hufflepuff. The other 2% is probably Ravenclaw.

MY HEART. Queen Luna…

Ronald and Evans would have the most casual relationship- in public, if they didn’t bother to make it obvious, people would probably think they were just BFFs.

Marco is honestly the best option tbh (he IS freckled jesus after all). Thank you so much for that <3

Vitya is a darling. His PDA would probably embarrass me a lot though haha

You said 'Steve might not be a good choice’, dunno if that’s a typo or not LOL honestly I’m not sure who I’d like as an s/o from the MCU… I mean, Loki is one of my favorites but I would NOT want to date him under any circumstances (dude tried to commit genocide in Thor 1 by killing every single Frost Giant…probably because of his self-loathing about being one himself). And like I said, though I really relate to Bruce, we’d probably just be like 'I’m so anxious’ 'You are? I’m totally anxious too’ 'I’m anxious about you being anxious’ and so on and so forth…

Wanda (Scarlet Witch) seems like the kind of person I’d get along well with though, since we’re pretty similar personality-wise but Wanda seems less sensitive than me and a bit more outgoing/willing to take charge. The reason I picked the Captain is because of out of all the avengers we have the most similar beliefs (I can talk like a nihilist at times but at the end of the day I’m probably Team Cap) and he’s got the nicest personality.

YAS another Joker fan! I thought we were extinct ;-; Luna/Joker sounds cute but Luna/Soma sounds absolutely adorable.

-“I like cute animals,”

-You (sort of) regret those words when Soma gets you a baby elephant for your birthday

-He doesn’t get how you can study so many things and concentrate on all of them. He’s not sure how to feel about it either, because he thinks you’re awesome and calls you a true scholar (he’s just so proud “Ciel, YOUR girlfriend may be a fencing prodigy but MY girlfriend is a genius!” “Well-” “What’s that? I can’t hear you over the sound of how amazing she is!”), but then he doesn’t understand how you don’t get bored of all those things, and he’s kind of jealous that it takes up so much of your time.

-jealous soma=pouty soma asking Agni and Ciel for love advice

-his nickname for you is 'princess’

Armin/Luna is one of the new OTPs

-though you’re an introverted couple you’re both willing to speak up for each other when it’s needed

-Armin loves to tell you stories about the world outside the walls and you often look at the picutres in his books together, making up wild and crazy theories about what’s out there

-Eren approves

-Mikasa gives you The Talk

-'I have two functioning blades and dozens of titans waiting outside. Hurt him and no one will ever find your body’

Phichit/Luna…

-Of course he wants to skate with you. If you already know he’s overjoyed and loves to have friendly competitions/races, and if you don’t he’s happy to teach you. He’s very sweet about it (until you realize he’s been taking pictures of your 'progress’ throughout the entire lesson)

-Phichit FLOODS his instagram with pictures of you and him together 'Look at this goddess’ 'Me and my bae’ 'Georgi’s jealous’

-In fact he just rambles about you on social media to the point where everyone decides that either he’s lost it or this Luna person is, in fact, a goddess

-Phichit also has a tumblr so he quickly becomes a part of the constant fandom discussions between Luna and Evans

-expect a ton of Hamilpuns

-Evans third wheels like a pro

Oh I Ken totally Hide (sorry)

YES those are also some of my favorites parts! (Thor is very disappointed with his little bro. Though I have to say, it’s a bit like

Thor: “COME HOME MY DEAREST BROTHER AND END THIS MADNESS I KNOW YOU CAN STILL BE REDEEMED”

Loki: “I am a strong, independent frost giant who don’t need no Odin. Go home yourself.”

Thor: “Ok.

HAMMER TIME.”)

Ah, you’ll get to see Loki’s softer side in Thor 2…prepare for the feels. Also, I do recommend you watch Thor 1 sometime. You may already know the plot but Thor 1 is the only movie we actually get see Loki before he turned into a complete and utter mess. He was actually a nice guy before the daddy issues…I was planning not to watch the first movie either but after watching it I’m glad I did.

Yeah, I don’t think you have to watch anything other than the ones you’ve listed, since those seem to be the ones most involved with the main, running plot (the Infinity Stones).

Also, idk if you’ve heard, but the post-credit scenes matter A LOT in marvel movies so I suggest you try to watch all of those :)

I think I’ll try BHA if I get the time ^^ it’s easier to get into that than Love Live in Korea. Manga is more common than anime over here unless the anime in question is really popular

Don’t worry, I’ll have you sobbing over them soon enough :)

And I suppose you’re talking about the Hamilton Believer PV? I look forward to your reaction! :D Mine was to sob and then start screaming the lyrics all over the place

I love pretty much all the Loki gifs. Like, look at them:

Also, that knife gif. When I search ‘Loki’ in gifs, most of the results are that one. I understand why, though. I mean, dayum,

Oh I’m sure I’ll get over it once I’m deep enough into the fandom. And I’m slowly, but surely getting there :)))

I loved Shuu in the new chap! I was like ‘oh la la the gourmet has returned, finally’.  The chapter does raise a lot of questions, though. I mean, who’s the king? What’s happening to the world? Kaneki? Touka? ANYONE?

When Naki started talking my reaction was ‘slow down, kid’. I’m so prout T^T

I don’t want it to be Arima. He finally found peace (in death, tho), so let him have he’s peace. He deserves it. We’ll just have to wait a week until we know, I guess. There better be some good explanations in the next chapter!

Well, I guess we’ll never know. Unless I somehow find a raw. Then, I guess I could at least see which form she uses. It’s a mystery, though, and I really want to know what she used.

You what. Hufflepuff? Nah, can’t be. Feel murderers don’t go into  the house for cinnamon rolls (but, then again, you are a cinnamon roll with an evil side).  Ever heard of hybrid houses? Yeah, I think you belong to one of those. 

Yeah, of all the character you’ve chosen, I’d say Marco is the best for you because he’d always be able to calm you down and make you laugh when you’d need it. It’d be the most adorable relationship ever and I’d be that stalker friend who’d secretly take pictures of the two of you together and would try to get you together before you’d confess. 

Yeah, that was a typo. I mean to say ‘Steve would be a good choice’.  I think the two of you would make a cute pair. Like, he’s a huge sweetheart and somewhat old fashioned. My new OTP is forming....

Ah, you and Loki might be cute, actually. I mean, once you’d open up and let your sass out, he’d be like ‘I like this mortal’. I must admit, though, I think Steve would be just a tiny bit better choice...?

The second I saw Joker, I was like ‘he’s my new problematic fave’. And then he died. And I cried. Then I heard the dub and almost threw my phone out of the window because they ruined his voice. I know he’s not the youngest person ever but he sounds like he’s in his 40s or something. 

THERE GOES MY HEART AGAIN, IT WAS NICE HAVING IT FOR A SHORT WHILE.  Goddamit.

Souma is the purest cinnamon roll in the series. I have no idea why some people dislike him so much. Sure, he’s oblivious and a tiny bit annoying at times, but he’s a nice person and does his best. NOt to mention what happened in the recent chapters. He definitely deserves more love :)))

Armin and Luna would have reading dates 90% of the time. Also, random glomping from my side because he’s too adorable.  But something I found out recently: he’s also ripped. Like, damn. It might be a consequence of his new... condition, but still.

Evans would never be a third wheel. In fact, I’m sure Luna would ditch Phichit every once in a while to talk to you hahah  Tbh, from YoI, I’m not sure I’d actually date anyone, but if I had to, Phichit would be my top choice. 

I am proud to say that I stayed up until 3:30am, binging on all the Avengers fics I could find and came to the conclusion that Loki is number 1 after all. Thor is nice and all, but I think I would get a tiny bit fed up with his constant obliviousness. Also, Jane.  And a lot of the fics described Loki as a huge bookworm, however I’m not sure if it’s fanon or canon. Either way, I like it hahah Also, imagine the sass battles. I’m 100% sure everyone would be fed up with us hahah

I am going to get all the feels during Thor 1 and 2, aren’t I?

Actually, from the ones that aren’t one the list, I only haven’t watched the Hulk, but I know what happens.

One of my friends is a huge fan of MCU and constantly yells about the post credit scenes, so i’ll definitely remember ^^

Oh, I see! LL has a mobile game, though ;) Your choice!

I almost cried over believer. It really does fit well ^^

[thefandomsurfer]

My top 20 favorite Tokyo Ghoul characters

I usually only do top 10s but like...I love so many characters in Tokyo Ghoul it was really hard for me to do?? So I did more. Also DO NOT GET offended. Even my honorable mentions are very...very dear to me. (Also the places are just how mush I, myself, enjoyed the character not how great the character is or that your opinion isnt valid. And I skipped most of the Suzuya squad because they would probably dominate my top six or something and that wouldnt be fair haha )

Honerable mentions:

Hide:

Itori:

Arima:

Matsumae

Kimi

Nishiki:

Shirazu ginishi

THE ENTIRE SUZUYA SQUAD (Nakarai, Mikage, Mizurou, Hanbee.)

Now onto my list!

20.  Shuu Tsukiyama

I really didnt like him much at first. He made me uncomfortable and really annoyed. I mean, yeah, certain times I thought he was pretty funny but he made me more and more unnerved the longer I saw him. But then when I saw his nicer side and especially during seeing his loyalty and love for his family he started to grow on me. And now hes on this list!

19. Rize Kamishiro

Rize always was interesting to me. I wondered how she got to where she was, why she was so important in the ghoul world and just how she got to be so strong. Not to mention her characters personality made me very compiled to her. Then I got her backstory and understood her more. I liked her even more and began to respect her character. 

18. Renj Yomo

I always liked his ‘silent protector’ vibe even before finding out his backstory. I thought he was loyal and smart. And then it was revealed that he was the uncle to some very improtant characters and it made me love him even more. His backstory contributed to his gruffness and protective nature and not to mention his kagune is freaking AWESOME.

17. Ayato Kirishima

Hes grown into someone I really enjoy. I...really didnt like him. He hurt Touka and acted like an ass the whole time. Then I saw a softer side when it came to Hinami. He was so concerned and cared about her so much that it touched me a lot. And he was a little more calm and controlled compared to what he had been in the first series as well. He developed into someone who not only cared for his love interest but his family and those important to both of them as well.

16. Amon Koutarou

Amon, poor poor Amon. This guy has went through a whole lot during his time in the series. And hes accepted a lot as well. I always liked Amon even before everything like changed him. He seemed like a really cool guy who truly did what he thought was best. Then he learned what we the audience already knew. That ghouls weren’t as bad as everyone thought they were. And then fought for peace. And that coupled with how much he tried to help Seidou and loved Akira made be like and respect his character even more.

15. Kurona Yasuhisa

Another character I really liked from the beginning. See, I have a weakness for twins. I always loved the idea of one and think that no matter the relationship they are always interesting to watch in media. And her relationship with Nashiro, while not explored a whole lot, was still prominent and known. And her denial about her death and the form of insanity she went through because of it was both sad and entertaining to watch. The fact that she started to think about forgiving the person who killed her as well was...amazing. Over all I wish she was explored a bit more but am happy with what I got.  

14. Urie Kuki

Another character that I slowly learned to appreciate. He started out as someone who cared only for his own motives but after losing someone who he hadnt realized he cared for he begun to care for his team and mant to protect them as much as he can. Becoming someone worthy of their loyalty and love. Going as far as to save one of the ones who betrayed him and tried to kill him just to get them all together again and keep his promise to his dead friend.

13. Ui Koori

Im not sure what made me drawn to him? Maybe his relationship with Hairu or his sense of Justice? I dont know but I do know that I like seeing his appearances. His fights and thought process was always fun as well. Over all Im not sure why I like him all I know is that I really do haha 

12. Ken Kaneki

Okay I know, its basically illegal to have him so low on my list but honestly? I never really got that deep into his character? I mean he was sweet at first but then he was kind of boring? And I liked Haise a lot but really didnt like the reaper? The OEK one is cool and all but I still never got overly attached? I dont know. But I will say he is cool and I love how dedicated he is to his loved ones. And how honest he is about his flaws. Its really nice to see a protagonist that admires that he is selfish in certain ways and isnt always trying to do things for ‘the greater good’. And will do cruel and horrible things when push comes to shove. It makes him seem...a lot more human and tragic. Yet the fact he still had his happy ending made me happy for him. After the hell hes been through he deserves it.     

11. Seidou Tawkizawa

Seidou. He...certainly needs a little help. Poor guy was such a innocent kid before his whole life was turnt upsidedown. I’ll be honest...I thought he was kind of annoying at first and then very scary later on. But after seeing a bit of his side of how everything went down and how much he cared for Akira and Amon my liking for him skyrocketed and I couldn't wait to see him again in the next chapter. How he sees himself and his future...it just hit to close to home for me. And soon enough he became one of my favorite characters.

10. Haise sasaki

Ahh, my favorite of all the Nekis. I really, really liked him. How parental he was with his squad and his storyline always interested me. The amnesia thing has always been one of my favorite tropes. He, to me, was a perfect mix of Kuroneki and Shironeki. Having the lightheartedness and empathy of Kuroneki and having the toughness and ability to fight as Shironeki. I liked how goofy he could be (i.e dressing up as women) and all his little moments with Akira, Arima and Juuzou. But he was a dream, nothing meant to last, so he had to go. But that does NOT mean I didnt enjoy watching him the most.

9. Kanae

I just really like her. I think her backstory is sad but not overdoing it and her dedication to Tsukiyama was certainly something that drew me to her. At first I thought I’d hate her but found myself sorely mistaken. And I cried a whole lot at her death and the touching moment when Tsukiyama, the person she loved so much, called her by her real name and accepted her despite

 the fact she thought she never deserved anything even similar to perhaps she’d be even higher had she stayed longer but she left far to soon.

8. Eto Yoshimura

Eto is very interesting and fun to watch. Cruel and mean, yes, but also unpredictable! She never failed to make a impression on me everytime I saw a panel of her. I was always wondering ‘what will she do next?’ you know? I absolutly loved watching\reading her. Her backstory made me love her even more seeing as she had a bit of a struggle to get to were she is now.

7. Hairu Ihei.

Hairu is someone else I dont know why I like so much? We didnt see her much at all and what we did see of her was little. But something about her drew me in. She was cute and I didnt expect much from her but found out she was pretty strong. Also with how sweet and air headed she acted I already liked her a little, the strength was only a added bonus. I only wish we got to see more of her. 

6. Uta

Uta, someone who I already liked, only grew on me as time went on. I thought he was funny, unique and very good looking. And as time whent on, and seeing how twisted he could be, it only made be want to see what would happen next with him. Whose side he was really on. Things like that. But then his fight with Yomo made be see him in a more emotional light. Seeing how close he was to him and still was in in a way. It was sweet and only made me like him even more. 

5. Akira Mado 

Akira Mado. At first I never thought much of her. Just a sort of bland character who had lost her father. Nothing new, nothing interesting. But her relationship with Amon certainly made be feel a little closer to her and made be pity her at the end of the first manga. But then in Re: I grew a lot closer to her really quickly. Her character seemed more open to others and friendly. Her realtionship Haise especially made me like her a whole lot. Then all her confusion and journey forgiving and accepting ghouls made he so interested and caring of her character. How much she wanted to protect Seidou and the fact she still loved Amon-It just...Made he love her. So much. 

4. Saiko Yonebayashi

Saiko is a very funny individual that I didnt like much at first. I thought she was more or less dead weight and didnt understand why she was their to begin with. But the more we got to know her the more that I grew to love her development and character. Shes funny and kind but also strong and determined. I love her a whole lot. How determined she is to do what she thought was right and how much she cared for everyone in her squad despite her own initial unwillingness to try and work. All things I love about her. 

3.  Tooru Mutsuki

Now I know how much this character is hated...And I understand too. He did a lot of twisted and messed up things. Stayed on the bad side a long time, attacked Touka and his squad helped turn Kaneki into  a monster...But his backstory and the personality we were originally introduced to made me love him so...so much. It didnt matter much to me what he did because I knew why he did it and not to mention...Mutsukis one of the most interesting characters to analyze because of his mindset. Also the fact he tried to redeem himself and felt guilty about everything he did...It shows that he is trying to do better and he is. I just....really, really love Mutsuki.

2. Touka Kirishima

Touka is a very rough character, and I get that some people just dont like her, But I loved every second of her. The person with a rough outside slowly breaking out of their shell and becoming gentler as time goes on- its something I have a soft spot for. Loyal, selfless, strong and knows what she wants. A woman who is strong without being controlling or mary sue. I never got annoyed or bored of her and looked forward to seeing her every single time a new chapter was put out. And also her protectivness towards Kaneki, her child, Ayato, and Hinami made me love her all the more. Shes also got my favorite Kagune of the whole series-Yet another thing I love about this character.

1. Juuzou Suzuya

By FAR my absolute favorite character in Tokyo ghoul. Now dont get me wrong-Im well aware of his faults. And I know he wasnt on the good side for a while either, But even though these things are there, I love him anyway. Hes so interesting and his backstory was so heartbreaking. When I first saw him I was indeed mildly creeped out but it also made me curious. The more I saw of him the more I wanted to analyze and get to know his character more. And right when I thought I got to know him-The one person who saw him as a person and treated him as he should be treated was taken away. This caused Juuzou to experience his first emotional loss in a very long time. And he changed. I personally enjoy his more mature personality compared to his more bloodthirsty one but love both either way tbh. And hes also very adorable when he wants to be so thats always a plus.    

[sparda3g]

Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 172 Review

It would seem that we are very close to the end of the arc, which also means the end of :re. I sensed part 3 is on the horizon. With that said it begs the question on how much change awaits. It’s all on Kaneki to handle the last and prominent problem. The end is near and Ishida is set to go all out with a bang. With a surprisingly emotional end to Amon and Donato, and the badass and hyped start to Kaneki versus Furuta, it’s certainly going to end strong.

As I said before in my last review, I am a fan of Amon and was really glad that he was able to get a closure with Donato. Hell, he won the fight after a series of beating he received. What I didn’t expect is how emotional this bout turned out to be from the moment Takizawa called him out on his struggle. It is better this way to invest it more than a simple revenge bout.

Donato was decapitated, though able to speak for a while before he dies out. Nico did heal his head to speak for a bit, so that make sense for its universe. It’s eerie how he laughed at his loss though. I understand that fans would find it strange, though Ghoul RC cells and what not is something takes imagination to accept. It was also established that there are Ghouls that could speak without a body for a short while, like how Roma was speaking before Urie sliced her face off to end her for good. I believe it was Ishida’s way to have a strong Ghoul’s slow death moment.

It does reward us a really emotional scene that I wasn’t expecting. If it wasn’t for the last chapter, I would think this is just purely revenge and justice storyline. Donato isn’t asking us to feel bad for him, rather establishing how he has been always in the dark and corrupted side of living. Interesting that he’s the third Clown King that the title was given by the second; not sure if Ishida wants us to theorize it. He’s the definition of what CCG once defined Ghoul as and he capitalized it to the very end.

He was everything that you must hate him as a villain. It helps with the visual of him laughing his way out to death. Every time the panel shots his smiling face, he meant every word of it and it’s disgusting to fathom. He came a long way to meet his fate at the hand of his one and only “son” Amon, which even he said it was the most fitting end. His grin in the last chapter makes sense with how perfect the setup is for him to go out, but Ishida goes in deeper with the later scene.

As his death was going to be a cold and dreary end, Amon adds in for the powerful emotional impact. After learning about his inner feeling, it’s a bit surprising that he kept his straight face for so long. I know this is his enemy, but a small crack on his face can happen. I got a bad feeling that his last words were going to be really sad.

Donato talked about his life as a villain; Amon talked about the memory. Those moments he recollected can be argued to be contradicting to everything what Donato finished saying; it’s night and day difference. The fact he remembers those days prove how much dear they are to him, even after the moment of “betrayal” or rather heartbreak. Those times cannot be erased and it will always be effective to Amon, no matter how much he denies it. It was supposed to be a simple revenge story, but it became sorrowful.

What did it for me is Amon elaborating how he has all the reasons to hate him, despise him, and wanting to get a closure; yet, it was too much to bear the emotions he still have. Amon crying for him is so disheartening yet humanizing. His words never felt so powerful. It’s not easy to kill someone who raised you and it’s even harder when you loved someone dearly. Amon couldn’t hide that fact and that’s why he finally let out his genuine feelings. It’s the development that was long waited, but the cost was always severe.

Donato’s final laugh is really interesting as it leaves on ambiguous note. He was called “father” by his cherished “son” and it makes his story into a masterpiece. He laughs with tears until he finally dies. Was he crying from laughing so hard because of how perfect the story was or crying from sadness because of how he was seen like a father to Amon, who arguably the only child he legitimately cared for?

There were many hints from the past that Donato was always fond of him as well as vice versa despite the disconnecting thoughts. They both found a connection to remember in the orphanage; it’s only fitting for one to end another. I thought this was one of the best death scenes of the series. It was eerie, cold, and teary by the end; I was sold by the reactions. Ishida is at his best when exploiting the emotion in subtle and explicit way.

It’s not really funny but I find it comical that Owl is now stopped, only we still don’t know if it was Eto or not. It left with CCG and Ghouls about to approach it, ending before any confirmation. You got to wait for a bit longer. Ishida is probably at his best when teasing. It’s a small scene but I find it charming with Touka sitting beside Saiko whispering “Maman.” Seriously, Touka should adopt her once this arc ends.

It’s evident that this could very well be the final volume of :re when it shifts to the main event: Kaneki versus Furuta. This is the only part left to cover, which would mean that there will be a Part 3. It does make sense seeing how much of a setup this last arc has ensued so far. It would make sense to have another time-skip to clean the awful mess from Dragon. Who knows. Maybe Ishida will pull a Golem Hearts and solve all problems in a matter of a chapter.

I love how the battle begins. First of all, for those who believe Furuta has everything all part of the plan, despite his more or less doubts, fans can be at ease with the fact he was genuinely surprised that Kaneki is alive. Honestly, if he did say it’s part of the plan, that would be too much. Anyway, I was under impression that there will be some serious discussion to be hold but Kaneki waste no time and nearly take his head off.

I laughed at how Furuta reacted; believing Kaneki wants to ask questions. There’s one problem: he don’t care. I feel like Shuu in Part 1: drowned by his badassery. It feels like this Kaneki is the embodiment of all Kanekis before it; basically, when he fights, he becomes Kuroneki as fans would call it. If so, that is awesome. Clearly, he’s done with Furuta’s shit. Poor guy, he thought he’s against a Shounen Protagonist.

I got a good laugh at the narrator while Furuta runs for his life. It opts for describing Furuta’s character in that very moment, only to turn out it’s his monologue. That is pretty funny. He had the nerve to put himself as the hero of the situation. I also laughed at the callback to him versus Eto when he felt like he had some sense of déjà vu. This small scene is rich.

Speaking of déjà vu, it isn’t entirely one until he actually pulls the similar stunt when pleading for mercy, only to surprise attack. Not going to lie, I thought that was it and Kaneki just loses. I don’t think I need chapter 143 déjà vu as well. Also, I thought those Kagune came from Furuta, but it appears to be from Dragon. That is unless Rize is behind the shadow; that would be freaky. It looks like either Furuta knows how to trigger it or it is assisting him.

When it comes to accelerating the hype level, leave it to Ishida to handle it; only thing is he did it too good. It finally comes down to this very moment between the two with everything at stake. Kaneki thankfully wasn’t down and out; only got push back with no sight of fear. Furuta gets his V trademark sword ready and announces his secret: he’s strong. Color me shocked. The hype level goes through the sky with Kaneki getting back up and ends the chapter, cracking his finger. Oh yeah. A complete badass beat down is in order. This is so hype. I must have Unravel ready for the next chapter.

I have to say, the artwork here is outstanding. Ishida went above and beyond here to execute deep heartfelt emotions between Amon and Donato. The details during Kaneki versus Furuta are really good. I like how clean and sense of badass aura oozes out from Kaneki’s line “Don’t care.” The double page is great despite Kaneki getting knocked back; it’s the surrounding that impressed me. It balanced out with the last page that is just pure hype. The dialogues are strong as well; whether it’s the sincerity mood or comical and horror, it has best of both worlds.

This chapter was pretty stellar from beginning to end. I was awed by the emotional end between Amon and Donato with strong dialogue delivery and touching expressive display. Kaneki versus Furuta is off with a strong start with comical and badass reactions. The artwork stepped up and the ending is hype. Seriously, don’t pull chapter 143. I loved it for narrative, but this one doesn’t need it. Go for broke!

[sparda3g]

Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 162 Review

At last, we have the answer to Furuta’s plan. Well, that’s what I want to say, but Ishida decided to pull a bait and switch the focus. On one hand, it’s a shame that we have to wait for another time to understand Furuta and V’s motive. On the other hand, the chapter does deliver more theories and questions that may result to a new direction for the next part of the series. Most importantly, it also delivers an emotional roller coaster with blissful character developments and heartwarming reunions.

Let’s focus on the emotional trip first before raveling on the new twists and turns that was dropped by certain characters. This is one of the best emotional pieces that I have read from this series and the character doesn’t have to die to make it happen. Kaneki is not dead since his brain is still active, which is not really a vegetable state as well. It doesn’t remove the sorrow however. The scene has the atmosphere of mourn or funeral with sleeping Kaneki being watched by his loved ones as they all grief and stay around; waiting for a friend to wake up one day.

We’ll talk about more about his condition later, because the starting point of friends gathering begins with Kimi. As I said in my last chapter review, Kimi wasn’t celebrating because of Kaneki. True, there’s also more to it as well, but she personally wants to save him because she owes him her life. What a woman she truly has become. Seriously, I thought she was just a love interest, but she has grown significantly. From there on, you can argue on which character or moment is the best of the reunion all day, but all of them are special.

Touka was left alone as Hide goes out to check on the perimeter, which leaves a complete reunion of Kaneki’s Ghoul friends. Nishiki’s part is short and sweet with his way to show his grief. He does like to run his mouth, but because Kaneki is in a coma, he cannot; that expression speaks volume. It was reassuring to see Hinami again, along with Banjou and his friends, whom I don’t recall seeing them in a long time. I got to admit, it was pretty sad to see Hinami with one leg. I don’t know if she can regenerate her leg, but it’s still heartbreaking to see her in that condition. Regardless, she is happy to see her big brother alive and that’s good enough for me to warm up.

Shuu is always the best when dealing with strong friendship. The flowers with the definition of never forget is so like him, and it was touching to say the least. The man truly has class. It’s good to know that Miza is in good condition; joining along with Ayato and Yomo, who are just standing by the door. It’s still sad that Naki died; unable to rejoice with everyone as a family.

In fact, I really adore this scene to be more of like a family reunion; similar to like when a person dies, all old friends and family members reunited in one room. It somewhat has an undertone of a wake, but it also captures the deep connection that Kaneki was struggling to find. It makes the theme of his character wonderfully rewarding; so long Ishida doesn’t tarnish that but you know him. This is true happiness that he should not lose.

Although it is arguable on which scene has it best, my personal favorite reunion is with Saiko and she is a bona fide definition of a charming little angel. First of all, she is fine, though it is left on anyone’s guess on her status, whether she’s a Ghoul or a Human. The answer may wait a while, but this moment is what matters the most. I purposely emphasized the reunion to be filled with Ghoul because it plays a subtlety mention that Saiko is friend with Kaneki as a Human. What makes it brilliant is how Akira and Amon bumps to her, wondering if she’s going in or not. They didn’t think anything but wanting to see him because he is their friend. No status would separate that fact.

It’s actually impacting for Touka welcomed them with no grudge or anything; this series seriously came a long way. Saiko immediately approaches to Kaneki, which is sweet since she was behind Amon and Akira in the first place. It really hits the top emotional level when Saiko looks at Kaneki and lays her head on him; wanting to be by his side. “Maman” somehow got me whimpering... It’s really emotional with that one panel of everyone standing by his side. Ishida has been on point on the artwork display of deep emotions running high. It is sublime.

As for the other Qs Squad, I really like how Ishida is handling Mutsuki’s road to redemption so far. She understood her action deemed as unforgiveable; enough for her to lose any right to make amend with those who she has hurt. Thankfully, Ishida didn’t brush everything under the rug and let the consequences and regrets elaborated and understandable. Then, we have Urie, who has to be on top 5 best characters if there’s a new popularity poll.

Honestly, this is my personal favorite part of the chapter and it is simply incredible. If you somehow, someway for whatever reason don’t see Urie as a great character, this chapter can make you into a believer. He has grown to an amazing height of his character. I like how he calmly and gently tells Mutsuki to meet Kaneki to start strong on her redemption; otherwise, she won’t progress. He evolves so well that I can cry right about now. The best part is his character reflection since that moment when Kaneki harshly told him the moral of strength.

I always thought the advice he gave was not really wrong, but not really the best to follow. Thankfully, Urie finally blurts out that it did affect him but not made him. I seriously love this piece of writing of how he simply recaps his life after Shirazu’s death and while it helped him to get stronger, he thought it was wrong. It leaves to great written dialogues to convey deep meanings behind it.

We don’t need a long reel of flashbacks because we know what he has gone through and each of the moments matches perfectly. It describes his character from his painful start to his wonderful ongoing person that shaped him perfectly. The last development he had is reflected here in a powerful meaning. He owed everyone for saving him; he just hadn’t noticed it. That can fall to anyone in real life; we can be blinded to see what we have is helpful and beautiful. God bless him, he has seen it and he will cherish it to the end.

That takes care of the emotional side, it’s time for another round of theories and a new what the hell revelation. To begin with, Kaneki’s body is now a mystery. It is said that it’s no longer resemble to a human, which makes it harder to read the problem. I feel like that’s a sign of what’s happening to those who is subjected to Dragon; case in point, Rize. It’s still not determined if Rize from last chapter is the old but newly made or fragment of Kaneki’s thought, but if we go by Kimi’s theory, it might be the former.

She sheds the light that the nucleus is the source for Dragon to move, but since he’s removed, it died out. The problem is that at a different ward from the first, it is still standing. Her theory is that each spot has its own nucleus to function, rather than one main source that was Kaneki. This would make sense on why Rize was born or whatever in the last chapter. Furuta had a nucleus in him and purposely gets eaten, so he can awaken her. If so, that would mean other nucleus are being used, right? It would suggest that someone else is about to be newly born as well. Who? I got some ideas but maybe I will wait until next chapter.

The megaton bomb is dropped here and this makes the whole path very interesting yet confusing. It was good to see the CCG to discuss the thought of working together with Ghoul, though confliction still stands. It’s not going to be that simple, but leave it to Furuta, because he’s about to make Tokyo into Ghoul City.

Hirako recalls Arima’s warning that is still puzzling and one would think Dragon was it. It turns out it wasn’t that. While others are joking with his uneasiness, Hirako looks pretty worried on what he’s about to say. Arima’s message is that every single human would turn into a Ghoul. That is a hell of chilling words that is sadly happening now.

I assume that Arima learned this from being part of V Organization. If that’s the case, this could explain that Dragon was green lit by them rather Furuta went out of his way to do it behind their back. Hirako and presumably Arima didn’t know how but know that’s the plan. It is hard to understand their agenda at this point. Why would they create a city of only Ghoul? All this time, did they want a One-Eyed Ghoul for this plan rather than eliminate the obstacle? Again, what happened to the first Dragon incident exactly? This really confuses me.

Marude is seeing drastic change of Tokyo with human turning into a ghoul. It finally hits him; what if the Dragon monster is only a bluff and it has another body? If we go back to the theory, it could mean each of them has their own host. It’s confusing but I do believe we will get many answers before the part ends. We are definitely far from over. What’s not over is Kaneki as he surprisingly wakes up. This is great yet very puzzling. I want to rejoice, but something tells me things aren’t exactly normal. Why wake up now and what about his body? Ishida, what is your plan?

This may not be the chapter you were waiting for when it comes to Rize, but this sheds more theories to her awakening. That said it contains very emotional scenes of old and new friends reunion, wonderful result of a character development, and the ending that could be a miracle but perhaps not. I tried not to be optimistic for a happy ending, but dammit I need it. Something is about to go down…

[sparda3g]

Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 163 Review

Don’t you love that feeling when everything is going well despite the chaos since it only reassures that good thing comes for those who wait? You may have to wait for a long time to completely feel that way. This was a heartwarming comfy chapter with Kaneki recovered from his sleep and a tender reunion to kick off. Sadly, the outbreak is far from over; it just never stops.

It starts off pretty good as it capitalizing not just the destruction that Kaneki technically caused since he was a vessel to Dragon, but the trip of accepting his guilt of action. His expression says words that this is not the old him that would feel deep depressing. It’s not to say he doesn’t care about it. The surrounding has him feeling uneasy but moving ahead as he intends to adjust his new way of living.

The flashback begins with a reunion and while it was tough to squeeze in all of the reactions like everyone must get a spotlight, Ishida did a really good job to squeeze as many as he can without stretching it. It was cut a bit short since the bigger news is to get his body check and continue to deal with Dragon, which is for the best. Besides, it’s obvious that everyone would react heavily, just done off-screen.

When it comes to on-screen, the reactions are touching and each of the characters has their way of expressing it. It was adorable for Saiko to hug Maman after so long. It’s like watching a daughter at long last reunite with her beloved father. Nishiki is very like him, with his angry expression yet his words and follow-up shows his actual feelings. It amazes me on how all of these characters have real convincing connections with Kaneki, so I am compelled by their reaction. Touka’s scene was short and sweet. A hug from his wife is all he needs to know how relieved she is; happy wife, happy life.

The question behind Rize’s newborn self remains unanswered, yet I feel more clues towards her state of being are contributed by Kaneki. Granted, she may not have the same effect as him, but if it does, then we could grasp an idea. Kimi doesn’t know much of him still, though he states that his eyes are perfect now and his headaches are all gone. If I recall Nishiki’s theory, he said that perhaps Kaneki will look young again by going cannibal. Perhaps consuming so many cells as Dragon changed his body significantly; almost like the perfect body. Not only that, he also looks younger than before or at least had the best sleep ever and he is as polished as ever. Hmm…

What makes up for the lost time of reunion was how everyone had their input to tell Kaneki the current situation. Kimi told him that Touka and Saiko are in one room because they formed a pact to stand against a threat. I don’t know why but seeing Touka and Saiko together in that panel makes me think Kaneki already has a wonderful family with a daughter. Who said he’s not the father already? Anyway, Nishiki reconfirmed that Human and Ghoul are temporarily united, though it might become much more than that.

Amon stepped in to tell Kaneki that it was all because of Hide that got them together to save him. Kaneki’s reactions in those three panels show how stunned yet maybe confused that Hide is alive. The hype for their reunion continues to rise and it’s a damn shame that Hide is away from the area. The timing of departure seriously needs work. Kaneki has to settle with Hide after that questionable last moment that left him believing he has killed his best friend. This is still a mystery on how he was able to live and who helped him.

I have to admit, I got excited when I saw Urie and insisted that he should give Kaneki a tour outside. If anything, this was among the top 3 most hyped up reunion to wait. This is easily my favorite part and it was a pleasant treat to the memory lane. In fact, I meant that in a literal sense since they actually gone back to the early days and recollect that it was a road that they have drove through. It’s nice that Kaneki have a conversation with his human friends after he was avoiding them for what he believed good intention. It’s definitely a new him with reconciling his connections. That said it is clear that he still working on it.

The best part is how Urie talks to him like a normal close friend, rather than an arrogant prick he once was. Development is an amazing feature. I like his presence displays it as a matured, professional leader as he reports the crisis and how they managed to lessen the damage. Saiko stood overnight to evacuate the civilians and she’s like, “Yup, it’s what I do.” That small detail of Urie looking proud at her accomplishment hits the sweet spot.

The best part of that part (if that makes any sense) is Urie let him know that if anything is bothering him, it’s best to express it with his words, not with his face. The line about pondering things alone got me all teary. Seriously, how could you not love this guy? That was wonderfully addressed that not only Kaneki gets more comfy but it perfectly described Urie’s character development with one simple line. He knows that feeling all too well and he won’t let anyone to go through that negative road. That’s inspiring right there. A simple line can hold a deeper meaning.

It speaks volume that Kaneki is more willing to let his friends to help him out and allow them to approach him like he’s your friendly neighbor. Saiko, as charming angel she is, would like to visit him to talk about many things like the good old days. Saiko is seriously too good for this series and no, I’m not even bashing it. It’s just a great compliment to her and her upmost adorable nature. Kaneki replies with a yes and a smile that must be protected. He is truly reborn as a better man.

Of course, Ishida doesn’t think we need a happy place, so things go dark once a random Ghoul starts eating flesh. I would admit, it would have been hilarious if Urie somehow regressed his character to the very beginning and starts killing Ghoul for a promotion, but this isn’t a gag series, so I am perfectly fine. It’s his job to hunt down Ghoul that is killing Human, so he has to act now. At least he was reasonable about it, so his character remains undamaged.

The woman was all apologetic and that’s when things are becoming very strange. Kaneki remembers her back in CCG and knows that she is a human. Well, more like she was and that’s how they are introduced to the concept of human turning into ghoul in a blink of an eye. Everything is about to get worse.

Okay, so this part with the woman eating a person stunned me, because a fan remembers her. She actually was from chapter 20 of the original series and after looking it up, I was stunned.  It’s not that she’s relevant that shocked me; it’s the fact Ishida has everyone in his book and use them for later moments, including Hajime. Basically, every character will get something. She was the one that belittled Ghoul as nothing but a scrub during the interview with Kaneki, so Ishida decided to get a laugh by making her into a Ghoul. Karma is indeed a bitch.

What’s also funny yet alarming is that we got breaking news live on the big screen. It tells me a few things. The chaos is far from over as the Fourth Ward is under attack with Dragon’s little monsters. Peace? What’s that? That’s an eye opener for everyone, especially Kaneki; the destruction doesn’t need him to go on. Lastly, we have ourselves the boldest reporter of all time: Furuta. News media really can’t catch a break anymore, can they? At least we will get an interview from one of those monsters. Looking forward to it.

It was a relaxing and kind chapter that we solely needed before the cliffhanger. The reactions to his awakening were short yet pretty sweet. The mystery of Kaneki’s new body continues to intrigue. The reunion with the old Qs Squad, minus Mutsuki, is delighting and good feel moment. The cliffhanger flares up that we are far from over from this problem and I believe we may get a better insight of Furuta’s agenda in the next chapter. I think it’s now a good time to give some answers. Then again, we have been trolled before, so we shall see…