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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Becoming The Monster You Hid From

Dragon was birthed on the sacrifice of dozens of children. I’m not really sure why the fact that killing those Kaneki has always considered to be the most innocent–and still considers more innocent than ghouls–has led to Kaneki killing dozens if not hundreds of innocents comes as a surprise. Kaneki has always been afraid he would be his mother: hurting children to prioritize someone else over them. That’s exactly what he did here (and it’s fitting that it’s tied to an organization he named after The Black Goat’s Egg), and it’s literally turned him into a monster.

It’s also relevant when we look at every other character this arc, all of whom have been basically foreshadowing what would happen to our protagonist. Mutsuki loathes his father and Torso:

And becomes so obsessed with clinging to the one thing that anchored him–Sasaki, as a paternal figure who showed him compassion–that he loses himself and does things eerily reminiscent of Torso and his father.

Ui has always prioritized justice, but after feeling like he’s lost everyone:

He sacrifices even that for the chance of getting Hairu back and completely abandons ethics.

And that has led to the living Ihei, Shio, Hairu’s relative, being killed in a fight Ui was also present in.

Juuzou’s only motivation for sticking with the CCG is keeping a vegetative Shinohara (who may already be dead) alive:

To the point where he’s willing to go against his better judgment and kill his friend because it’s just his job:

Essentially, he has turned into Rei 2.0, whom Shinohara wanted to save him from being.

And Kaneki has clung to Touka. Which is fine, a good choice for him I’d say, except it’s not fine when you are supposed to be a king. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

The thing is, Kaneki has never wanted to be the king. It’s a role forced on him by Eto and Arima, and it was more benevolent of a role than say Furuta’s Dragon, but it’s not terribly different in that it’s something Kaneki did not choose for himself. Kaneki prefers just to live with Touka; I think that’s evident and I don’t fault him for this. But because he’s spent so long clinging to the illusion of not having to choose, he let himself get to the point where Furuta was able to transform him into becoming the embodiment of what he hates. There was really no good choice for Kaneki by that point, only wrong ones, and either way the narrative would punish him for it.

It’s fitting for the Moon Arc. Kaneki’s clinging to the illusion that he has to be a king has led to him losing himself to his darkest instincts, to the monster inside. He also thinks that just being with Touka will fix everything, and it won’t (though it can and I believe will help).

The good news? Hopefully there’s a Sun Arc coming.

Hide, Sunshine Child, get on it.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Rize Kamishiro & Norse Mythology

While examining Rize’s character in the manga, I noticed some relative connections between her and the children of the God Loki, and his wife Angrboða from Norse mythology. Another interesting thing to note is, the Kanji in her name can also mean “Age of the Gods, Advantage, World”.

~ Jörmungandr, also known as the “World Serpent” who coils itself around Midgard (Earth), and is so massive that it swallows it’s own tail to form an ouroboros. This is commonly depicted with snakes/dragons, and represents a cycle of infinity/wholeness.

Considering Rize’s Kakuhou was farmed 101 times to be placed in the Oggai as a sacrifice to create Dragon who is currently coiled around Tokyo, alongside the heavy serpent symbolism surrounding the Washuu Clan, it fits pretty well. Plus the overall fact that Furuta had intended for Rize to be reborn as the true Dragon all along, with Kaneki as nothing more than a simple offering. The cycle of wholeness is key too, since Rize was the start of Kaneki’s journey, and will likely play a part in his self discovery towards fulfillment in this final arc of :re to bring things full circle.

~ Hel, the fearsome goddess of the underworld where the dead dwell. In appearance she is half black/half white, half dead/half alive, and is often presented as greedy, cruel, and apathetic towards matters involving life and death.

Personality wise, Rize matches those qualities well. She greedily binge ate throughout the 20th ward, to the point where it attracted Doves into the area and endangered the safety of other ghouls in the ward. She has a cold nature and is sadistic towards both humans and ghouls on multiple occasions, and is unsympathetic towards life to the point where she kills at a whim to cure her boredom so she can live an enjoyable life.

She’s also likely underground acting as the source of the oviduct poisoning that is currently turning humans into ghouls, they of which originate from Arabian mythology as flesh eating demons from the underworld.

The half black/half white motives surrounding Hel also apply to Rize. After all her Kakuhou was implanted in Kaneki’s body to transform him into a half ghoul who represents a link between species. He also splits his mentality in two halves, (black) human/ghoul (white), and ate her symbolically as a symbol of strength to embrace his ghoul abilities so he could face Yamori.

~ Fenrir, a monstrous wolf who caused havoc throughout the Nine Realms and grew in intensity at a rapid pacing which provoked the Gods, who then bound him with a magical chain until his foretold return in Ragnarok (Doom of the Gods, destruction and recreation of the cosmos). During Ragnarok, Fenrir is said to break free of captivity and run throughout the world devouring everything in his path, from the sun to the moon alongside Odin himself before being slain in revenge by one of his children.

In correlation to Rize, before and during the events of the story she traveled from ward to ward, devouring humans and spreading chaos until her abrupt downfall by the hands of Furuta and the Clowns during the “Steel Beam Incident”. She was then sent off to Kanou and placed in captivity for experimentation for a long period of time. Although she was rescued by Yomo and kept safe for a brief moment, she was taken away by Arima and once more stripped of freedom before being tanked for months to possibly years.

She doesn’t make her appearance again until her resurgence/rebirth during the Dragon arc which coincidentally takes place between the Moon & Sun Tarot arcs, and will likely face Kaneki (who parallels Odin a lot) to attempt to devour everything in her path out of rage during this final arc of :re. This arc could also be considered an equivalent of Ragnarok, since Tokyo is being given a factory reset due to the events of Dragon and will be replenished better than before with the coexistence between man and ghoul to make changes for a better world.

While I don’t see Rize devouring Kaneki since the Norse symbolism isn’t 100% accurate, there has been foreshadowing that she will however consume Furuta.

As @aspoonofsugar pointed out here, the title for Chapter 172 can also be translated as “ten minutes/ten parts”. We know the Clowns were stalling for time so Furuta could reach his destination underground, which is seemingly a labyrinth housing a gigantic vault that is likely locking away the Rize. So perhaps we’ll see her emerge once more before the ending of Volume 16 as a cliffhanger.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Mutsuki, Urie, and Saiko as Love’s Dark Mirrors

So, after reading this meta which reminded me of this ask an anon sent me awhile ago, let’s talk love:

Mutsuki’s love for Kaneki

Hinami’s love for Kaneki

Kaneki’s love for Touka

Hide’s love for Kaneki

Saiko’s love for Mutsuki

Saiko’s love for Urie

Tsukiyama’s love for Kaneki

Touka’s love for Kaneki

Urie’s love for Mutsuki

What do these types of love have in common? They’re a mixture of romantic, platonic, unclear, requited, unrequited, etc. But they all… have flaws that need to be worked on. Love is one of TG’s main themes. Therefore, it makes sense that Ishida’s exploring the flaws and limits of love.

Mutsuki isn’t the dark version of these loves. It’s not Kaneki’s love=good, Mutsuki’s=bad. Rather, Mutsuki is the mirror exposing what the flaws of these loves. They aren’t healthy. Which does not mean any of these loves are doomed (well Mutsuki’s for Kaneki’s is, because it is the one the narrative is most unquestionably identifying as unhealthy, and I would say it’s the most unhealthy), or that there aren’t beautiful, healthy aspects of these loves too because there hella are, but rather that they need work to be all that they could be (aka, to save Kaneki). The Quinxes all are mirrors for these loves, actually, with their Ace counterparts–Saiko also functions as a mirror for Hide, and Urie for Touka.

I already wrote a meta on Mutsuki and Hinami awhile ago, but whether or not Hina’s love for Kaneki has any romantic element, the same principle still applies. She’s looking to Kaneki to meet her needs, and he can’t do that (and through no fault of his own). Her identity is partially rooted in him, rather than in the value of her own life. Mutsuki’s identity is also rooted in Kaneki, in looking to him for approval rather than to someone better suited and willing to meet his needs (Urie, and Ayato for Hinami).

Mutsuki is willing to go to great lengths to get Kaneki back. He is willing to arrest Yoriko and risk her execution, and kill Touka just to get Kaneki back. Kaneki, too, is willing to go to extreme lengths: despite being terribly afraid of hurting children like his mother throughout the entire series, he kills 100 children just to see Touka again (even when he’s making his choice in 144 he thinks of humans as better than ghouls, so he wasn’t doing it to save ghouls).

But let’s move on to the Aces. Mutsuki is willing to forgive Kaneki all wrongdoings if he just comes back.

That’s exactly what Tsukiyama did. Tsukiyama, remember, was also someone who has been violently obsessed with Kaneki, and who functions with high degrees of self-deception. Tsukiyama’s love for Kaneki almost killed him and he moved past it with the love of his family when he fought Kaneki on the Tower, but when they’re dead, he focuses on Kaneki again. He needs to remember Karren, and the others. Which is not the same as me saying he should abandon Kaneki because that isn’t what I’m saying.

Hide, too, is willing to forgive Kaneki anything. Even Kaneki eating half his face. He won’t even tell Touka what happened. Hide’s love enables Kaneki to fall prey to his worst instincts, and it always has. But in the end when his inaction leads to disaster he rallies everyone to help.

Saiko, like Hide, is willing to forgive anybody anything. She is the mirror showing the flaws in Hide’s love. She doesn’t want to lose anyone. Which is good. But she knew something was wrong with Mutsuki and only decided to act when her friend Yoriko was threatened–and then rallied Urie to act in her stead, foiling Hide in that respect.

Her lack of action regarding Mutsuki is very, very apparent in the story. Additionally, Mutsuki’s “it would all be okay if you came back sensei” can be compared to Saiko with Urie, whom, like Mutsuki with Kaneki, she tries to push her own agency onto rather than taking agency for her own decisions. If Kaneki is Mutsuki’s security blanket, Urie is Saiko’s (though it used to be Shirazu).

Touka, herself, also says that as long as Kaneki comes back, it will all be okay.

While Touka’s love for Kaneki is far healthier than Mutsuki’s and I’m not saying it isn’t, the sentiment is still as long as he comes back I’ll be okay (though to be fair, Touka did express the opposite during the Rose Arc: she stated that she just wanted Kaneki to be happy. She let him go, which again is where the contrast with Mutsuki comes in, and why Touken is not doomed or even close).

Urie is more like Touka, too, I think: they know something is wrong with the people they love, but choose not to say anything when the evidence confronts them. These two scenes are almost certainly meant to be compared:

Touka knows Kaneki’s floundering as king, but would rather discuss their future (her choice in this scene was a good one for her child, but she can still choose Kaneki and the baby and confront him). Urie, too, would rather discuss the future and his romantic prospects with Mutsuki than confront Mutsuki. And so, Kaneki and Mutsuki both spiral. Kaneki becomes a monster who killed children. Mutsuki’s attacking a pregnant woman.

Anyways, where does this lead? To the same place. Either they can’t save Mutsuki, and his demise opens the door for them to understand just where they’re all going wrong, and his death shows them what their lack of holding Kaneki accountable leads to. But I think that would be hard to pull off narratively, because Touka, Shuu, and Hide don’t know Mutsuki enough to care about him, or the Qs well enough to understand just what his death would mean or do to them. Plus, the foreshadowing Mutsuki helps stop Dragon. Or, they have to save Mutsuki. And seeing how the Quinx save Mutsuki and realize their own flaws might help the Aces do just that too, and help them realize that saving Kaneki is not just dragging him out of Dragon, but rather it’s a process that will continue after he’s taken out.

There’s also an even darker mirror to Mutsuki’s love that the narrative paints as even more unhealthy: Furuta’s love for Rize. He went from setting Rize free to capturing her and mining her body when she didn’t give him the gratitude he wanted/chose to live her life in a different way. He objectifies her like Mutsuki objectifies Kaneki, but to an even more extreme extent. And he’s completely given up on receiving love. As messed up as all these characters and their loves are, they have not given up on love. And I think that’s very, very important.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Mutsurie/Touken parallels

I originally wrote this meta before the announcement about TG ending was made and never posted it so it might as well be my final meta about TG for now. I was originally going to finish writing it on that fateful Monday, but didn’t go through with it due to the announcement so unfortunately the Akiramon/Ayahina comparison I wrote as well is not going to be included. I noticed that it still needs a lot of polishing and adjustments and since I’m not in the mood to write about TG anymore I had to scrap it completely, sorry about that.

Now that we’re all still depressed about the fate of mutsurie, I can at least prove that it was always intended to be romantic and was leading up to the same point as Touken up until chapter 179. No idea why Ishida shafted it so suddenly, but at least the development in the previous chapters is still there.

Basically the manner in which Touken and Mutsurie are paralleled is that Touka and Urie share their roles while Kaneki and Mutsuki share theirs for the most part. In the beginning Touka and Urie were hostile towards Kaneki and Mutsuki, though both did it in their own ways, Touka by being openly rude and Urie by not expressing his feelings out loud and only being salty in his mind. They disliked the other person and had a wide array of insulting names to call them, hypocrite, idiot, dumbass etc. Kaneki and Mutsuki on the other hand tried to be kind towards Touka and Urie and had no ill will towards them. They tried to get along, but it didn’t always work out too well

Touka started warming up to Kaneki over time and Urie changed his way of treating Mutsuki after the Auction, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Before that the important parallel moment is the first big battle where the two are fighting together. Leading up to that moment are the first Tsukiyama arc and Auction parallels with Kaneki and Mutsuki going through very similar experiences. Both of them for example end up on display on a stage and have a dangerous ghoul after them, Tsukiyama wants to eat Kaneki while Big Madam buys Mutsuki at the auction and wants to make them her pet.

Kaneki and Mutsuki eventually come face to face with Tsukiyama and Big Madam, but this time they are joined by Touka and Urie. They do most of the fighting since Kaneki doesn’t really succeed at anything he tries and Mutsuki only rather unsuccessfully deals with Big Madam’s lackeys. They’re still very bad at fighting so they just get kicked in the gut and are unable to do anything anymore

Touka and Urie try to fight Tsukiyama and Big Madam after Kaneki and Mutsuki are injured, but are unsuccessful as well and fall to the ground defeated.

Kaneki and Mutsuki, despite being very injured, crawl over to Touka and Kaneki. What follows are two scenes that are portrayed in a very romantic manner. As a result Touka and Mutsuki manage to release their kagune.

Touka embraces Kaneki and her biting his shoulder looks rather erotic. This panel as well as the panel before it emphasizes Touka’s lips and Touka bites Kaneki on his shoulder, the same place they bit each other when they later on got married. Kaneki also afterwards looks at his scar left by Touka and thinks about this quote:

Touka left a permanent mark on him that won’t go away so the scene is pretty undoubtedly romantic. The Mutsurie scene that parallels this moment also parallels a Touken scene that happened before the Tsukiyama arc, but it gets the same point across by combining these two. That scene in question happens to be this and it is the one where Touka fell in love with Kaneki

Touka has insecurities about being a ghoul and doesn’t think her life is worth as much as a human’s, but Kaneki says her life matters to him and is empathetic and kind towards her. Mutsuki too shows Urie empathy and kindness as well as comforts him about his own insecurities, about feeling like being a hindrance to Sasaki and being lonely. This is most likely the moment Urie fell in love with Mutsuki too since immediately afterwards his attitude towards them changes drastically so there is the added romantic element. This scene is also sexual in tone like the Touken scene with the embrace, period blood, Urie figuring out Mutsuki’s sex and him penetrating Mutsuki through the stomach etc.

Urie and Mutsuki as well as Kaneki and Touka grow closer after the incident, but the peaceful times don’t last for long. Kaneki and Mutsuki end up getting kidnapped by two horribly abusive ghouls, Yamori and Torso, and are put through very violent and traumatizing torture. This changes their behavior drastically and makes them more mentally unstable. I won’t get into how similar white haired Mutsuki and Kaneki are since that would need a meta of its own, but it should be obvious anyway. Meanwhile back at home Touka and Urie are extremely worried about them and are comforted by their friends.

While both are aware of the fact that there’s a high chance that Kaneki and Mutsuki are already dead…

…they still have a strong resolve to go on a rescue mission to bring them back regardless of what others may think

Here the roles that Urie and Mutsuki have compared to Touka and Kaneki are reversed briefly, but the parallels still stand. When Touka sneaks into the Aogiri base, she comes across Ayato and ends up fighting him while on Rushima, Mutsuki ends up in a fight with Takizawa and Amon. They end up losing, but are saved at the last moment by Kaneki and Urie who appear out of nowhere

Touka and Urie are worried about Kaneki and Mutsuki’s health after reuniting with them

It’s also worth to note that Kaneki and Mutsuki engage in a rather brutal act of violence. Mutsuki after hearing about Urie ends up hurting Takizawa and Akira, Kaneki hurts Ayato after he beat up Touka

Despite doing what they’re doing, they seem to care a lot about what Touka and Urie think

In the end Touka and Urie only want Kaneki and Mutsuki to come back home and live happily together like they used to

(Touka commenting on Kaneki’s hair while blushing and being awkward is probably also a parallel to Urie checking out Mutsuki’s coat in chapter 100, which like this was the first interaction we saw them have after the fight. Touka, Urie, your crushes are showing)

Kaneki doesn’t want to stay at Anteiku anymore though and starts going after his own goals instead. Small difference here is that Mutsuki left the Qs squad already before they were kidnapped, but, started going after their own goals only after the kidnapping incident. Both of them start spiraling downwards with their mental health, doing terrible things and eating ghouls/humans to become stronger. For example Kaneki raiding Kanou’s lab and having to see Rize taken away is a parallel to Mutsuki raiding :re cafe and having to watch Sasaki escape, but again, I’m not going to focus on the Kaneki/Mutsuki parallels much since that would take too long.

Touka and Urie are aware of what’s going on and hear about the things Kaneki and Mutsuki have been doing. They take the initiative and decide to go and confront Kaneki and Mutsuki. Touka runs after Kaneki and meets him at the bridge and Urie comes to Kuroiwa’s wedding just so that he could talk to Mutsuki. However, they both end up struggling to come up with the words.

This time their approaches end up being the opposites though, because Touka and Mutsuki end up being the ones who get angry and shout while Kaneki and Urie are more meek. Touka says true things about Kaneki, but ends up lashing out and getting too angry while Urie doesn’t say and express his feelings anywhere near enough. They both just want Kaneki and Mutsuki to come back home, but Touka tells him to stay away due to getting too angry and carried away in the heat of the moment and Urie doesn’t express his feelings enough to convince Mutsuki to come back.

The scene ends with the boys getting absolutely wrecked and Mutsuki and Touka exiting the stage dramatically. One is beaten to a pulp physically by Touka’s fists, the other is beaten up emotionally by the friendzone. (lol)

Despite Touka managing to change Kaneki’s mind briefly, the end result is the same as with Mutsuki and the two leave and aren’t seen again for a while. They go on dangerous suicide missions to protect Anteiku and join the 24th ward raid despite having people waiting for them at home. That is due to their own goals that they still refuse to let go of, both goals in this situation being related to their father figures Yoshimura and Sasaki. Kaneki and Mutsuki of course don’t succeed at what they set out to do and end up going through a near death experience.

After which they disappear for a while and their loved ones don’t know what happened to them. Touka nor Urie make an effort to look for Kaneki and Mutsuki and instead sit still and do nothing, waiting for them to come back instead.

Meanwhile Touka and Urie go on their own missions unrelated to Kaneki and Mutsuki, Touka goes to Cochlea to save Hinami and Urie goes to save Kaneki from the Dragon, both joined by their respective groups. In the middle of the mission they happen to come across Kaneki and Mutsuki and are finally reunited with them for the first time since their fight. It is the same for Touka and Kaneki since Kaneki only now regained his memories and met Touka while being fully aware of who she is. The situation isn’t sorted out so easily though, because both Kaneki and Mutsuki are very suicidal. Kaneki is trying to get himself killed by his father figure Arima and Mutsuki, after their plans were soiled, is trying to get themselves killed by their own family, Urie and Saiko.

This is the point where Hide and Saiko come especially relevant. Hide is Kaneki and Touka’s friend (yes, he is Touka’s friend too) and Saiko is the friend to Urie and Mutsuki while Touken and Mutsurie are the intended romantic pairing. The group dynamic is basically the exact same. What ends up saving Kaneki and Mutsuki from committing suicide in the end is actually their friend rather than Touka or Urie, though they did contribute to the cause. If Saiko and the imaginary Hide were the MVPs, Touka and Urie provided the necessary support. They for example manage to shake up Kaneki and Mutsuki and make them cry and falter, but it is not enough to stop them from trying to kill themselves.

Imaginary Hide and Saiko to the rescue, because sometimes you just got to call your friend out for being an idiot.

Kaneki and Mutsuki’s need to die is put on hold for now since they have people waiting for them. Touken and Mutsurie are eventually reunited in an place that resembles the old days at the beginning of their relationship. Despite Kaneki being the One Eyed King and the leader of Goat, the Anteiku still has been reborn in a way with Touka and Kaneki together in a cafe again with rest of the gang. The CCG too has gone through some changes with the human-ghoul alliance, but now Mutsuki is back in the Qs squad with Urie and Saiko, even Kaneki is back.

Things don’t start working out for between Kaneki and Touka as well as Urie and Mutsuki immediately though and there is quite a lot of awkwardness and lack of communication. They have one conversation together that doesn’t really go anywhere even if both Touka and Urie have things they’d want to say, instead they seem rather content with the way things are on the surface (they also have such beautiful smiles)

There’s also the moment of very obvious discontent, Touka’s bothered by being left behind again and Mutsuki’s bothered by Urie’s “work this, work that” attitude.

And those are all the major parallels we got until TG:re ended. The way the ships developed were identical and leading up to the same point, that point being them finally having a heart to heart talk together about their issues together. After the parallels I showed before, there was a big mission Kaneki and Touka were part of before things calmed down and they talked together, that being started with the famous “are you virgin” question. Urie and Mutsuki too were part of a big mission after some issues with their relationships were highlighted (the big fight with V), meaning that logically they would have talked things out too after the fight was over.

Instead though we got the time skip and chapter 179 so the parallels stopped in a rather awkward spot, right before we got the pay off Ishida had been setting up for a long time. Touka confessed in her discussion with Kaneki so logically we would’ve finally seen Urie confess his feelings to Mutsuki as well. If the parallels would’ve gone even further than that, we would’ve gotten everything beyond that point as well. So even if there was a major 6 year time skip, Urie and Mutsuki should’ve been married with kids by now, just like Touka and Kaneki were. It feels rather strange that Ishida would do something like this with the parallels to an obviously romantic relationship if he didn’t go through with it in the end. Even if mutsurie was meant to be an example of two people that never got together due to Urie’s feelings being unrequited, we should’ve still gotten the heart to heart discussion before the manga ended and Urie confessing. Now that Ishida ended it here, none of the build up lead anywhere. Why include that panel of Mutsuki looking bothered by Urie’s words if it never even was addressed? It’s clear that Ishida’s plans were always to do something different with this ship than what we got in chapter 179, but I guess that’s all we’ll still get and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever find out why. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mutsurie got a rather disappointing end, but it’s clear that they were always intended to be a romantic couple.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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I just hope that y'all's criticism doesn't stop Ishida from writing again, I mean, after all the online harassment that he suffered, if I was in his shoes, I would never touch that kind of environment again

Honestly, Anon?

How. DARE. You. You are rude, and sending this was a really not a kind thing to do. What part of you thought it was a good idea to be like “I hope Ishida Sensei isn’t ever criticized, guess I better send a passive aggressive (aka a way to bully while still looking good) post to someone else telling them they’re awful for something they DIDN’T EVEN DO?”

I have expressed absolutely nothing but GRATITUDE towards Ishida for his amazing work.

I never will express anything but gratitude towards him. TG saved my life. I think the last arc was terribly written, but I separate the work from the person. I think Ishida one of the most talented writers I have ever had the privilege of reading, and I have nothing but complete love for the man. But I don’t have to blindly accept everything he puts out just because. I doubt he wants that since a major theme of TG was empathy and allowing for different opinions.

I am so SICK of this fandom equating things that should not be equated. I certainly have not nor would ever attack Ishida for my l=not liking the ending, call him a bad writer (good writers can produce less than quality work sometimes; it’s called being a human being). I love his work and want to see more of it, and will gladly purchase all the TG volumes.

But since I’ve wanted to say this for months now let’s fucking go.

I’ve been really frustrated with the way the TG fandom has been acting lately, in particular equating all critical analysis/meta with hate and saying anyone who did not like the TG ending or anyone who says it feels like Ishida rushed it is hating on him. That simply is not true, and people who say that betray an immature understanding of the words used and also a lack of understanding of literature and how the field of literature functions. Which I studied. I have a degree in it.

Critique and critical analysis are parts of fandom though they don’t have to be your part of fandom. You don’t like most metas? Don’t read! That’s totally fine! It’s fine to engage in fandom via memes or meta, shipping or fanart, fanfic or stanning or roleplay or whatever, and to not engage with the types of engagement you don’t like. It’s. All. Good. Take care of your mental health first. It’s also totally fine to unfollow if it’s really not good for you right now. Nothing wrong with that.

That being said, it hurts to read vague posts lumping you in with antis and misogynists and haters just because you interpret things differently and don’t think a story is perfect. Critical analysis is not hate: it’s a legitimate way to analyze what a series means to you personally, and for every meta writer I know it’s a way for them to express their love for the series.

For some of us, character flaws mean a lot, so maybe we write about that and how the characters might overcome it, because that’s genuinely what we find the most meaningful part of a story to us. Like, do people really think meta writers devote hours and hours and hours of our time to rereading the text, pouring over panels to identify patterns, writing 10K word essays on how a character can overcome their flaws because we hate the story and want to shit on the character? Even when I wrote about how I think TG has bungled its themes, I wrote it because I love those themes (which are GOOD) and I love this story.

So part of critical analysis involves, well, critique. It’s why movie critics are a thing, TV show critics, book critics. Ishida is an amazing writer whom I respect immensely, but he is human and not a god, and it is not disrespectful to say that the story has flaws, nor to discuss those perceived flaws and how they affect one’s view of the text. What isn’t okay is ad hominem attacks on a writer just as it is not okay to ad hominem attack a blogger. The notion that one should be quiet and not critique work because it’s being written by someone else is baffling because that’s legitimately what literary/journalistic criticism is: critique of another person’s story. You don’t critique your own work; that’s called revising. It’s disrespectful to imply an author doesn’t expect critique; all writers expect it. Name calling on the other hand is wholly wrong, and anyone trashing Ishida or insulting him should stop immediately. But I’ve seen so many in the fandom conflating these two things (attacks and critique) and it’s really unfair and creates a strawman argument and rather than addressing the issue of hate simply addresses nothing at all.

A lot of the vaguing and occasionally actual bullying I’ve seen is coming from people who claim to have experienced the fandom being made an uncomfortable place for them before with hate and antis (this, for the record, is not singling out a particular subset of the fandom as I’ve seen it on multiple sides). And it probably has been, and antis for any ship or character are honestly horrible. But the way the same people treat meta writers makes me feel like it’s not about creating a more comfortable fandom, but rather creating a fandom where everyone agrees with them. Like, after the release of 177, people who have previously complained about dealing with antis posted literal hate directed at real people (people w/ a perspective I happen to share) over a fictional story/character. Just focus on what you like to do, be it meta and critique or fanfic or writing about how a character has impacted you and how much you love him, and let other people do what they want to do. That’s all fine. But actual attacks were a thing.

What else am I supposed to conclude besides that the TG fandom doesn’t actually have a problem with bullying or with hate, but only has a problem when it’s directed at your particular likes?

Like legit one time I wrote a 1000 essay on how meaningful and beautiful I find Kaneki’s character with like, one mention of “selfish” in the context of “I can relate” and do you have any idea how much pushback I got from that, how people vagued for months about how I was ableist for one word used in a context of “I love him?” I’m a real person, not a fictional character. I cried. What do people want anyways? A 500 word disclaimer before every post that me saying x is selfish sometimes doesn’t mean I’m reducing a character to just being selfish? I don’t have time for that. No one does. I don’t know what else I can do.

If you relate to a character to the point where you cannot handle someone not loving every attribute of said fictional character and you start lashing out at realpeople over it because you feel personally attacked, you might need to take a step back. There’s also a difference between “I think this character is acting selfishly and needs to overcome it” or “I personally find this character unlikeable,” and “I want this character to die painfully.” The latter one is definitely hate and by all means complain about it being tagged or whatnot, but the former two are not–they are merely different opinions.

I’ve seen so many people saying for months now that popular meta writers discourage disagreement when there are no receipts to back that claim up. It is true that occasionally every single one of us gets passionate about something and requests that a certain topic (usually with real world triggers, like the death of kids, abuse in the case of the ongoing BNHA arc, etc.) not be debated on our blog, but like, every meta writer I know, whether I agree with them or not, knows that meta writing is literally founded in disagreement. Like for real. That’s how the field of literature and literary criticism (which is what meta is) works. Someone disagrees, or a thought is provoked by reading someone else’s essay (professional meta) and then they write their own. Ishida definitely knows literature, so I am sure he gets this. Every. Writer. Gets. This.

So if you don’t like the meta content out there, create your own. That’s legit why I started writing TG meta: no one was making the points I thought of when it came to Mutsuki so I decided to post them. If you disagree with certain metas, instead of vaguing about the writers or speculating about how they treat their families over an opinion on a fictional character (yes, popular bloggers have done that), respond with a meta of your own outlining the textual evidence why your opinion is strong. I’d love to read it. Metas have really helped me enjoy the story more and find new perspectives from which to appreciate TG–even if I don’t agree! Literally one of my favorite metas theorized Mutsuki would die. Clearly I strongly disagreed with that but like, it was still a meta I really loved.

People also can’t post about how people who use one word once are ruining the fandom for them when they post similar things about characters whom they don’t like, or story choices they don’t like. People are allowed to do that to post salt about characters and story choices they dislike, by the way, but they can’t pretend they hate any version of salt and only want positivity when they clearly do not: they just hate salt that stems from a different opinion. Maybe some of us just wanted to enjoy the anime while knowing it wasn’t going to be great. All the salt about it wasn’t what I wanted to see as I just wanted to enjoy it, but again, I’m an adult who can read their opinion and not have it affect my own.

Responding to ideas is again, fine to do. What isn’t fine is making it personal with vague, yet still ad hominem, attacks. For months I’ve put up with people complaining on both twitter and tumblr about how meta writers are ruining their fandom experience and in those posts they’ve been making it personal, attacking my or my friends’ ability to read (I like… have a degree in literature), attacking my empathy, attacking my family relationships which they know nothing about, and saying I’m selfishly hurting people by saying X Character can be selfish. Do people have any idea how it felt to see people reblogging posts that actually called people who didn’t like certain recent chapters names? To see some of those posts get occasionally hundreds of reblogs?

There’s not a better way to say to me, “you aren’t welcome.” It makes it seem like the people accusing meta writers of just being bitter are simply focused on erasing any kind of disagreement even when it is polite. If the fandom wanted an echo chamber, this is how you create one.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Farewell Protagonist, Hello Kaneki Ken

You will burn and you will burn out; you will be healed and come back again.

~Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Who is Kaneki Ken, and what does he want?

After over 300 chapters of Tokyo Ghoul, I think the answer to both of these is that Kaneki doesn’t even know. The one thing the Kenference could agree upon is that Kaneki wants to be with Touka. He loves her. He is also loved by many people, but he doesn’t know that. He’s a murderer. He also knows murder is wrong.

Kaneki’s sense of self is broken down. This is something extremely common in abuse survivors. He doesn’t have a concept of who he is besides that he hates himself, and because of that, he doesn’t trust himself. He lets others write his story because of this self-hatred: first Eto and Arima, and then Furuta.

Furuta warns him he plans for Kaneki to become a villain to unite humans and ghouls:

Which is exactly what happened. Kaneki disappeared into the 24th ward and was transformed into Dragon. Kaneki also stylized himself as the OEK, a role forced on him by Arima and Eto, and started living out the actions of Nameless, the character from Eto’s King Bileygr.

while I think the theory he will become the Nameless King is interesting and has some great thought behind it, i don’t think Kaneki is going to become the Nameless King because Kaneki already is the Nameless King. He has no concept of his identity. He may accept that here, but the Nameless King won’t be a new persona–it’s whom he’s been all along.

(First panel is Nameless, next panel is Kaneki.)

But. I don’t believe this is a path forward for Kaneki though I could of course be wrong and I’d be fine with that.

Why? Because it’s another narrative written by another person who tried to force Kaneki into a role he did not want. And don’t forget that Nameless is the protagonist of Eto’s novel. I think we know how stories wherein Kaneki stylizes himself as the protagonist end:

Eto gave him a way forward though, but she told him it was an option, an option he didn’t have to take, and that she did not care what he did:

What’s so interesting is that this was a choice presented by Eto. A choice, which Kaneki has avoided making because he doesn’t trust his ability to make decisions.

Touka, Hide, Shuu–they all love him. Kaneki’s burned out, but if TG has taught us anything, it’s that a combination of love and self-awareness heals. If Kaneki accepts what he is at his worst, and also realizes that he is truly loved anyways, he can start to explore just who Kaneki Ken is. Perfect love casts out fear, and fear of himself and fear of not being loved is precisely what inhibits Kaneki. Understanding he is loved at his worst can set him free to make decisions. And then he is equipped to make a choice: to sit on the throne that already caused him a lot of pain, or to tear it (imo a symbol of the world that needs to change anyways) down. Since Kaneki already tried to sit on it and I don’t see how after this anyone will accept him as a leader though you never know, I think it’s a lot more likely that he will tear it down, and become Kaneki Ken.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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TG:re, Tarot Descriptions & Correlating Occurrences

Let’s talk tarot. Not precisely how TG relates to the Fool’s Journey or how the individual cards relate to certain characters, etc. (though kind of), but instead how the images on the cards in :re specifically often tend to relate to what happens during that particular point in the Fool’s Journey. They don’t always and some images are clearly referenced more than others but here let’s try. (Contributions are welcome btw because some I find more puzzling than others.) Let’s go. (Descriptions are taken from BiddyTarot).

Firstly, Temperance. The card that we started :re with.

On the Temperance card stands a winged angel. The angel is actually a hermaphrodite (the child of Hermes and Aphrodite), showing a balance between the genders. The angel has one foot on dry land, representative of the material world, and one foot in the water, representative of the subconscious. In this position, she also represents the need to ‘test the waters’ before jumping headfirst into unknown circumstances. Here she tempers the whimsical flight of the Fool who jumps without giving a second thought. The triangle inside the square on her robe represents the female being protected by natural law. In her hands she holds two cups which she uses to mix water. The cups represent the sub- and super-conscious minds. One cup can be thought of as holding hot water and the other cold water. The water flowing between them is actually going from the lower cup to the higher one, signifying rising from a lower plane to a higher one. The temperate individual mixes the opposites and finds a balance in life by avoiding extremes.

It’s no coincidence that :re begins by blurring the lines even further between supposed dichotomies. Firstly, the Quinxes, whose existence is both ghoul and human despite their refusal to acknowledge it.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Penny and Death in Fiction

Musings more so than meta, brought to you by frequently receiving asks accusing me of hypocrisy for having different opinions on characters dying in different stories, and as a way of me working out why I feel very, very differently from most of the RWBY fandom about Penny’s death. Obviously this is not to say people can’t have their own feelings or disagree (clearly the majority do disagree) but these are just my thoughts based on how I read death in fiction and the themes/set up or RWBY in particular.

“Anyone can die” and “redemptive death” and “sacrificial death” are overused tropes for sure. But that doesn’t mean they never work or never fit. They just are often used as cheap ways to hook an audience (instead of relying on the substance of the story) and/or avoid difficult questions in a story that would demand exploration (like what happens to the mass murderer after redemption?). The oversaturation, and frankly, misuse, of these death tropes almost seems to have led to a sort-of knee-jerk reaction in fandom in the other direction, where death can’t happen at all or it’s bad writing, and I just… I don’t agree.

A story doesn’t need to avoid the topic of death to be hopeful. In fact, to many of us, it’s comforting to see grief on screen and to be encouraged to grieve.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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So there's that poem by Ishida again called "Talk It" with ironically, a white haired Rize as the illustration. The final line in the poem however was, "I think the last person standing will certainly be the villain", Rize is which was essentially the Dragon who ripped apart Tokyo and was reborn while Kaneki is symbolically Jesus who died and will rise again to help ghoulkind. I doubt Rize will be kind when she recovers her senses so, might she be the final boss of :re..?

Yuuuuuuuup. @linkspooky has written quite a few metas on that poem (which was rife with Biblical symbolism). There’s… a ton of Revelation symbolism in that Christ defeats the Dragon in the end and throws it in the lake of fire. (Being raised in a fundamentalist cult is good for some things, such as recognizing apocalyptic imagery):

1 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rideris called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on himthat no one knows but he himself.13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”[a] He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

king of kings and lord of lords.

17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun, who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God,18 so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty, of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small.”

19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.21 The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.

Cute right. But anyways. An angel standing in the sun.

Plus Judgment as a card is clearly a reference to Revelation 20 which in Christianese is often referred to as the “final judgement”:

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. 13 The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.

Idk about Rize being the final boss since she still seems like a victim to me but. We shall see.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Who is Kamishiro Rize?

This isn’t a meta so much as speculation + what I would like to see.

Itori starts this question by telling Kaneki that a ghoul named Kamishiro Rize does not exist… but also that Rize is the key to everything. Which the latest chapter reinforced.

This is foreshadowing both for Rize’s past in the Sunlit Garden (was her original last name Arima? seems possible), but also for her role in the story going forward, in which Rize is not given agency since her attack on Kaneki. She’s first captured and mined by Kanou and then she loses her mind. She’s then recaptured in :re and taken to the lab again, where Furuta turns her into the Oggai. She appears in Kaneki’s mind, but she’s just a hallucination in Aogiri, unable to speak for herself. Kaneki instead projects the worst of himself onto her and this continues. Furuta becomes enraged she wasn’t grateful to him for freeing her and lashes out.

Personally, if Furuta and V are intending Rize to be some kind of final Dragon/Boss, I’d like her to subvert that expectation in the end. Because the Rize we have known has been a plot device more than a villain, an unkind person yes, but someone who never deserved the things that happened to her. Unlikeable people are victims too, and I would really like to see Rize say “fuck it” to Furuta and his expectations one last time. He’s someone who, while I love him, has repeatedly seen himself as a god in her life, as someone who can give and take her agency away from her (and V has as well, given what she was born to do).

Rather than the ending be Rize being killed by Kaneki as the Revelation/Kaneki as Christ symbolism seems to hint, I would like Rize to say “No” to Furuta’s plans again, as saying “no” to expectations is something Rize does best. I’d like her to begin by not eating him, leaving him alive to witness her defiance of the constraints he repeatedly places her in.

If Kaneki’s identity is a giant question mark to us, and it is, so is Rize’s. Kaneki willingly submits himself to the loss of his agency, Rize does not submit but loses her agency all the same. If Kaneki is going to take his agency/responsibility the next arc, as the story seems to be setting up for him to do, I would love to see Rize, a foil and parallel of Kaneki, do likewise in the end–choose not to be some sort of villainous Dragon, or (more likely) choose to stop.

That would be hard to do, of course, given that facing all you’ve done is something that Kaneki could barely do and Rize even said so (hallucination or not it seems pretty likely Rize wouldn’t really want to do this)

Plus. Rize doesn’t have the world working together to save her. But there are a few people who might try to stop her without killing her. Banjou possibly, Yomo, Uta if he is the previous Nagaraj (for Yomo’s sake lol), Kaneki even, and Yoshimura in the lab who made that promise to Shachi.

Basically I just want to learn who Rize is, and for her to choose her own path rather than serve as a plot device for Furuta and Kaneki.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Do you know of any metas written on HOW TG is a tragedy? Like what exactly makes it one?

There’s this one from @aotopmha about how TG’s structure is like a classic tragedy!

But at its core, tragedy is a story in which a protagonist’s arc does not end with them overcoming their flaws, but rather instead succumbing to them. This is exactly what we see in the first TG. There are a lot of subsequent divisions: for example, Greek tragedies tended to be about fate controlling a person (think Oedipus, who had no control or choice about marrying his mother and did not know his father was his father when he killed him) and this is also what Kaneki seems to think about himself (hence his lack of taking agency). However, Shakespearean tragedies tended to be more about how a protagonist made terrible choices that led to their own downfall (Macbeth for example). I’m going to quote from WH Auden, a great poet and one of my favorites, who wrote this on the matter:

I think TG and TG:re pretty clearly fit the Shakespearean tragedy genre more. Kaneki is not exceptional: Furuta even tells him this in chapter 101.

Kaneki is not special. But he considers himself that way:

(Hence why I’m not anticipating a Nameless King/Kaneki finally learns how to lead transformation. Kaneki needs to become just Kaneki, not a hero–though obviously he will still be the major driving force behind defeating V I’m sure, but I highly doubt he’ll be a leader.)

TG and TG:re works as a nice deconstruction of Greek neoclassical tragedy, because it’s continuously pointing out to the audience that Kaneki does have choices, and that this does not have to be a tragedy if Kaneki chooses better.

It’s no coincidence that chapters 143 and 144, the moment Kaneki seems to be repeating the tragedy of the first TG and the moment he actually makes the decision not to, are all about choices.

So the first TG is a tragedy brought about by hubris, among other flaws, not Kaneki being randomly singled out by the gods because he’s exceptional. TG:re is also a tragedy until 143 at which point everything resets. Once Kaneki makes the choice not to continue this way, it’s game over, and the story resets and the characters actually have chance #3 to overcome their flaws and tragedy. And I strongly believe that they will.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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TG’s Chiastic Structure and Final Arc Predictions

What’s a chiastic structure? Glad you asked. It’s a narrative structure used in a lot of epics (the Iliad and Odyssey, Paradise Lost) and modern classics as well. Harry Potter and Star Wars employ it, as do maaaany books of the Bible (no I didn’t take several entire classes in chiastic structure when I was in college why do you ask; hi Professor B I hope I’m making you proud rn). It basically refers to a paralleling structure, wherein events or motifs parallel other events and motifs, forming a chiasm if you were to chart it out. (It’s also referred to as ring structure.)

Here’s my handy dandy chart for TG’s structure:

I’m using arcs as dividing points and this is reeeeeally simplified but I’m going to discuss the motifs used in each arc and how they parallel each other. This is not to say the arcs only parallel each other in this sense; for example the first six arcs of both TG and :re parallel each other really eerily well, and of course the Fool’s Journey is a structure of its own, but I’m specifically describing the chiastic structure layout (which is also present) so I’m sticking to that in this meta. Yes I switched the Cochlea and Clown Raids arcs because I think that works better (keep in mind arcs are broad frameworks I’m using, remove the arcs and the motifs used would all work together chiastically but for the sake of simplicity and also the fact that I simply don’t have time for that rn I’m using arcs). Let’s start in the middle. The Torso investigation Arc and the Auction Arc. Notably, these arcs are about the Qs, and they’re about Sasaki struggling to fit in with his new “family” and yet being perpetually reminded of his family back in Anteiku. We have Touka appearing to Kaneki at the end of the Torso investigation as the Nutcracker investigation picks up, and we have Hinami appearing to save him at the end of the Auction Arc.

Both of these arcs tell Kaneki he belongs in two worlds. With the Qs family and with ghouls, and that humans and ghouls are not so easily separated into good and back, black and white. We see this when Saiko, the one who is ostensibly human, chooses to not save Kaneki from Takizawa, but Hinami on the other hand chooses to save him (both Saiko & Hina are coded as children of Kaneki).

The Anteiku Raid and the Rose Arc. Gee, look how the most tragic arcs in the mangas–the arcs in which we see the most deaths (or fakeout deaths) of characters we love–parallel each other and how Kaneki’s confronted with how badly he just wants to be loved the entire time.

They also represent Kaneki losing his sense of security--in the Rose Arc when he gets his memories back and in the Anteiku Raid when he loses his memories. Tsukiyama also wants to save Kaneki in both of these arcs.

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Not to be controversial, but I’m not fully convinced Furuta is dead. Ishida has a knack for having characters seemingly die under ambiguous circumstances, only to subvert our expectations when he reveals they’re in fact alive.

Most people seem to have interpreted this page as Furuta’s heartbeat stopping (so have I at first), but that’s weird, isn’t it? :re has been about hope and forgiveness. It doesn’t make sense for the narrative to punish Furuta with death, or rather, supporting his fatalistic worldview. The two foils, Furuta and Kaneki, have been inextricably tied together and as such it would be illogical for one to receive death for his actions whereas the other gets to live. They’re both responsible for the deaths of 100 children and probably thousands of other citizens of Tokyo.

That being said, doesn’t the page above remind you of this panel from chapter 11.

During their converation, Furuta might’ve been inspired by Kaneki’s will to strive.

He even expresses his genuine desire to live immediately after that. And Kaneki even reassures him that that is nothing laughable.

Uta also mentions in chapter 11 how the rope’s condition depends on the choices made by the individual.

In other words the rope represents one’s will to strive, to live.

The black page with the white line could actually be Furuta’s rope starting to take shape. It’s in a poor condition due to his fatalism, just a thread, but depending on Furuta’s future choices the ropes condition can improve.

(As for how and when Ishida might reveal his survival, with only three chapters left, you should read these two posts (here and here) by @sentrakk. They provide a good insight.)

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tsundere-child · 2 years

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Was the black reaper Kaneki is the most interesting or is it the aesthetics?

It’s because he’s sexy. Just kidding. Black Reaper Kaneki will always be the most interesting, because it’s when Kaneki is at his most raw, and honest as a character. I’ll explain more under the cut.

As I said above, Black Reaper is Kaneki at his most honest. It shows Kaneki’s behavior, the effects of his behavior on other people, and also how incredibly unhealthy this behavior is for himself without sugarcoating it at all. It has been established several times that Kaneki, even around his closest friends will be hiding things and wearing a mask at all times.

Kaneki, is avoidant. Rather than directly confront his problems he’ll tell himself little lies to avoid them and pretend that there is nothing wrong. Kaneki, is a lying, liar who lies. Black Reaper is the result of several of Haise’s lies becoming undone. Haise is the lie, and Black Reaper is the truth. Black Reaper’s trigger is several of the lies Haise told to himself becoming undone. Haise as a character continually repeats to himself over and over again “I’m fine with this, I’m fine with this.” When he is in fact: Not fine with this.

Haise’s relationship with the Q’s.

Haise’s relationship with Arima.

Rather than confront the truth of his behavior Haise tries to content himself with a lie. What makes Black Reaper appear is several of the things Haise had been telling himself coming undone at once. First, his relationship with Arima. Haise sees Arima as his protector, and the one watching over him. He ignores the violent side of their relationship.

Right before Black Reaper appears and Kaneki’s memories come back. Haise remembers that Arima killed him, and is using him practically as a quinque against ghouls. While it’s true Arima has genuine affection for Haise and views him as a son, he also violently killed him, used a psychologist to manipulate him to become more complacent, and trained him up as a tool against ghouls at the same time. Both of these things are true that’s what their relatinoship complex. However, rather than confront the truths, Haise has instead been ignoring the darker side of their relationship. This is the nature of Haise and Arima’s relationship.

This is the surface. Edit, by Makyun.

This is what’s underneath.

It’s commented multiple times that instead of looking at the whole picture, instead of looking at the ugly parts of his relationships with other people Haise will instead try to ignore the bad and only look at the good. He wants to only look at the light, and avoid the shadow behind it. Even though both are true, both are equally important.

Rather than confront an uncomfortable truth, Kaneki will often choose to delude himself and tell himself he’s fine with something when he’s not. The problem with lying to yourself is that it merely avoids and looks away from the problem rather than try to confront it. Reaper shows us the truth of several of Kaneki’s behaviors. First, he’s at his most violent in Black Reaper. Haise pretended the CCG was a happy little family, whereas Black Reaper shows us that Kaneki’s role in the CCG is to slaughter ghouls en masse.

Black Reaper also shows us the truth of Kaneki’s relationship with the Q’s. He distances himself and avoids them, because he doesn’t think he’s worthy of being around them. This is a behavior that Kaneki repeats with all of his loved ones. He desires to be close, but ultimately he’s the one who pushes them away because he thinks he’s unworthy of that closeness. The result is nobody takes the Q’s away from him, Kaneki makes the decision to abandon them himself.

Not only is the audience confronted with the reality of Kaneki’s actions, as raw as possibly without any pretty little lies but also we see Kaneki’s loved ones being confronted with what he did. Mutsuki is trying to reconcile the differences between who Haise was, and Black Reaper’s actions, how he could suddenly turn so cold as to cut off all of them without even a word or explanation.

Kaneki views himself as a protector, fighting to protect all of these people. That’s why he throws himself into all of these conflicts. However, Black Reaper is the closest we come to Kaneki admitting the truth to himself. It starts out with once again a reveal of a truth. Kaneki believed he jumped into the Anteiku raid in order to protect everyone at Anteiku.

However, just before Kaneki’s memories return he admits to himself that his “attempt to protect everyone” was really just a suicide attempt. Not only are we shown the truth of his suicidal behavior but we also see the way it affects the people around him.

His actions aren’t going to protect Hinami, he’s going to hurt her. She never wanted Kaneki to commit suicide in her name. His “Dying in a cool way” isn’t going to protect or save his loved ones, just harm them. His way of carying for Hinami this arc is to, abandon her in the cochlea and cut off all communication to the point where she’s slowly going insane. Show up at last moment in an incredibly risky jail break that Kaneki himself doesn’t even plan on surviving. Then inflict the pain and guilt of his suicide on her, in the likely event she does survive.

It’s incredibly unhealthy and harmful behavior, and Black Reaper shows us the ugliness behind Kaneki’s pretty little lies. It’s only by confronting this shadow of himself, the absolute worst of himself that Kaneki can start to take the steps towars bettering himself. That’s why Black Reaper is the best phase of his development.

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