That may have contributed, but I’m positive it was to his daddy issues. See, the statements aren’t: A and B. They’re A so B.
The statements aren’t separate. They’re pointing out that Furuta’s father just sees him as a piece of trash. He’s a piece of trash because he can’t acknowledge his father as his father, and because Tsuneyoshi never saw him as anything but a tool. The context shows us this as that causes Furuta to flashback to the Garden, to Rize, to the fate he wanted to save her from (he wanted to save her from his father).
If we look at the story from within the context of the story as well, Furuta has never once expressed that kind of sensitivity to being called a loser. He seems quite content to be overlooked until he strikes, and is content to lurk in the background and pull strings until it’s time to come out front. His goal wasn’t power or he wouldn’t stayed in charge of the CCG; it was to destroy the CCG.
Furuta literally killed his father and his mentor and tried to exterminate all members of the Washuu clan.
Look at this. Uta asks Furuta if he’s okay having killed his dad. Look at how many times he stabbed him. Not to get uber psychological here, but stabbing is usually considered a personal crime to cite @mercyandmagic my familial Furuta lover and who once worked at a crime lab. Let’s contrast this to how Furuta’s had others killed: he had Suzuya and the Qs and Ui and everyone do his dirty work for him throughout the series. He rarely kills himself with the exceptions of Matsumae and that squad (because what were the options there), Eto (whom he vowed revenge on for this), and his father. Either he had no choice but to kill his dad (that isn’t the case I think we all know it) or he was deeply infuriated with the man. That Furuta did this himself and comments that essentially Eto was right implies that he’s deeply angry with Tsuneyoshi.
He referred to Tsuneyoshi, his dad, as a disgusting man who was going to rape the woman he loved.
Dude has major daddy issues; that’s really indisputable. Furuta is what Kaneki would have been were he born into Furuta’s circumstances and Kaneki is who Furuta would have been if he were born in Kaneki’s circumstances. That’s the tragedy of Furuta’s situation. Really how they go about it is:
Kaneki: no one loves me and all I want is to be loved; I might as well die a hero and maybe then people will mourn me.
Furuta: no one loves me and all I want is to be loved; I might as well die a villain and make everyone suffer with me.
They have the exact same motivations and considering how Jungian TG is everyone has trauma stemming from terrible parents. The difference is Kaneki hopes. Kaneki is loved even if he doesn’t see it. Hide intervened, and then Anteiku, the Qs, on and on. Furuta is not loved. Even at the CCG, in contrast we have Sunlit Garden kids Hairu who was loved by Ui and who loved Arima. Furuta had Kijima as a mentor, a man who tortured an innocent ghoul named Rio into insanity with the body parts of his dead brother. Furuta loved Rize and she ditched him (not faulting her there, just saying that please imagine Kaneki if he’d never met Hide or the Qs or anyone from Anteiku and Touka ditched him, which she would never since she and Rize foil each other to extremes too, but can you see what I mean?)
Which isn’t to absolve Furuta of personal responsibility. On the contrary. Kaneki makes bad choices a lot but he makes better choices than Furuta does, and in part that’s due to the influence of those who love him and a part of Kaneki that truly does want to live. Furuta doesn’t have that, and that’s the tragedy. It’s why the series will make 0 thematic sense if it ends with Kaneki killing Furuta, and I personally hope it ends with denying Furuta his suicide wish as well, and with someone, anyone, showing him a moment of compassion.
When I first watched/really read Tokyo ghoul, although I shipped Touken to get together eventually by some point; I didn’t really understand why they fall so hard for each other at first. Upon looking back however, a lot of that could be attributed to the very nature of both characters. Touka with a harsh/lashing out and violent exterior due to the violent past in which she grew up in as a ghoul, whilst still having a gentle interior and being selfless in most cases wanting to help others even whilst getting herself hurt.
Kaneki with a gentle exterior, yet a violent interior due to his own past and misgivings that we all know of as a human and being selfish in wanting to be needed by others and unconsciously hurting others by trying to burden everything upon himself and not fully rely on others.
I’ve noticed how Ishida likes portraying the values of Yin and Yang between the two (depicting them as polar opposites attracting and being complementary/interconnected/interdependent with some similarities as well, he did explicitly say they are characters of a set after all when he came up with them). Passive/ Active. Strong/Weak. Black/White. Direct/Indirect. Selfish/Selfless. Human/Ghoul. Harsh/Kind.
These terms aren’t purely static stances but rather semblances of self that each saw/admired/invoked in the other, both positive and negative.
Kaneki said human relationships are like chemical reactions, if you have a reaction, you can’t return back to your previous state of being.
Touka was there and saved Kaneki numerous times in Part 1 when he desperately needed someone the most aside from Hide and the others, while Kaneki also saved her several times.
What I love is the evolution of their feelings and relationship that started out pretty horribly with both seeing each other in a negative light as human (living a good peaceful life) and ghoul (being an evil killing monster).
The fact that a human becoming a half ghoul developed to be able to care and fall in love with a full ghoul that hated herself, the world, struggled working and living life as a human and ghoul is really phenomenal narratively speaking. Kaneki saw past all of Touka’s violent exterior anger issues and looked at the gentle interior she possessed when it comes to how much she cares about people other than herself, even as a murderer. “If you died Touka-chan, I’d probably be sad”.
That line is so simple, yet for Touka it created a lasting impression since no one in her life really in viewed that kind value upon her, also count in her abandonment issues in always being left alone (Hikari, Arata, Ayato, later the Anteiku crew at the end of part 1).
Even if she had the Anteiku crew, no one truly gave that emphatic value about her life having importance and worth as a ghoul trying to LIVE in the human world amongst all the killing and violent predicaments of murder in the world, not even her uncle Renji or old man Yoshimura, even though they did look out for her. Meanwhile for Kaneki he felt like he belonged somewhere, again his most desperate desire. He felt needed as their friendship grew in training, fighting and working together, he wasn’t alone anymore.
Even after getting separated after the Aogiri arc (about 6 months) and the Re time skip (about 3 years) you could always notice the subtle mentions of how much both thought of each other, Touka wanting to see him again and especially from Kaneki’s perspective even after each personality change in always mentioning Touka and Hide separately from every other important person in his life.
All personalities have mentioned her separately from everyone else (yes even centipede), “The others, Touka-chan and Hide”.
Even with the infamous bridge scene in part 1, Hide entrusted and helped Touka to expose Kaneki. And she did, however she unfortunately fell back on her violent anger issues and communication problems in truly conveying what she felt to Kaneki due to what can be seen as her fury at him being just like Arata and even Ayato to an extent. Kaneki promised never to leave her, yet he lied and left her to become stronger and shoulder all the burdens of everyone by himself in some tragic hero manner. Yet this time Kaneki genuinely believed his own lies, wanting to sacrifice himself to protect others when he said he wouldn’t leave them.
However, unknown to Touka at that time, that encounter made Kaneki want to go back to Anteiku. “Touka, can I come back?”.
Haise sees her after 3 years at the second Anteiku home “Re” and cries after seeing that Touka was still alive after all this time and the encounter is titled “Inherited feelings”. Not for the person he knew the most in terms of time span, but for the beautiful person that created such a huge impression on him at the most vulnerable periods of his life after becoming a half ghoul and not having a true grasp on both worlds and companionship.
Is it unrealistic that Touka waited over 3 years for him and still had feelings only for him? “Even if time has passed, even if our bodies have changed, even if he had forgotten me completely… As long as he comes back home, things will be alright”.
Mostly yes for the majority but not strictly no… I view everything as not strictly one way with this; the main thing is about deep impressions that both instilled in each other, kinda like Star Crossed lovers, “I have faith in him, he will return”.
Touka was even willing to prioritize Kaneki’s own happiness and well being over hers as Haise in not forcing him to come back, but waiting for him come back of his own free will, even with all the new relationships Haise/Kaneki developed with other characters like the Qs family.
Time, change and distance never stopped them from still yearning to see the other, even amongst them both living different lives with different people and settings in part 2 of Re, most notably Haise/Kaneki with the Qs, CCG, Juuzou, Akira, Arima, Eto etc. Haise often visited Re just to look at her like he did with Rize even with his suppressed memories, even at times wondering what that girl(Touka) was up to. “I wonder what that person is doing today, on a date maybe?”.
Fast forward later to Touka also wondering about what Kaneki was up to in their 121-122 conversation… “Are you a virgin?”.
Black Reaper, the most savage,harsh and suicidal personality even changed his whole stance on dying simply upon looking at Touka in Cochlea.
This was also reinforced by Arimas threats in killing his ghoul friends, and the Hide inner dialogue about eventually finding a reason to live. I viewed this as a reverse of “If you died, I’d be sad” from part 1, both were scared at the very thought of the other dying. This time Touka is the gentle and kind exterior, Kaneki the violent harsh exterior not caring about his own life until someone reminded him the value of his life and the people that still care about that life. “Your life has MEANING, to us and to ME” type of thing, and as ghouls, they are hardly given any true instances of happiness, care and love that lasts before meeting a tragic end, some fuckery or death due to the harsh nature of the world.
The fact that they got together so quickly and yes rushed, after losing cafe Re and both feeling lonely and taking comfort in each other in 125 I found really emotional.
Touka asking Kaneki “Why are you crying?” was such a sweet gesture when you remember Haise crying when he first saw her in Re, but also how Kaneki felt that he was always beat a lot by the people he loved the most. And yet he was able to fully expose himself and have an extremely intimate moment with the woman that he’s in love with, and to find out that she also loves him back and didn’t hurt him at all this time.
Additionally was finding out that Kaneki was “dying” and how quickly they married after finding out about Touka’s pregnancy and her even CHOOSING Kaneki and their child over saving her best friend Yoriko (one of Kaneki’s biggest flaws in choosing), for me only reaffirmed how desperate and strong each others feelings were for each other. Touka chose a life with Kaneki, something he wanted his mother to do… Choose him.
It’s kinda like… “We lost each other before so many times, let’s just confirm everything while we’re still alive (The marriage Bite mark and ring) because who knows when we’ll lose these moments and our time together,” especially at how unforgiving shit can be with most TG relationships (AKA Eto’s parents Ukina and Kuzen, Touka’s parents Arata and Hikari and so forth).
Their love is flawed, rushed and has several problems yes with the time development and communication issues in execution… (I truly wish Ishida gave Touka more screen time and development in most of Re although she has developed and changed from Part 1 in her own way); but they are still growing and learning, nothings ever perfect. In fact even with that time discrepancy and change, its one of those relationships that’s so genuine and loyal AF to me. Both can see the dark horror in each other, yet still love each other regardless and show genuine care to go through such lengths to make sure the other is okay in a world where such a thing for ghouls and humans is extremely rare. Especially during all the fuckery in the previous Underground and Dragon arcs. ALL of the Kaneki personalities agreed to literally kill and eat the Oggai children along with humans and ghouls just to see Touka again in fear of her death and hopefully to name his kid one day, repeatedly chanting her name over and over.
Touka played a prominent role and went out to save her husband with the CCG, Hide, hell even the Qs… incurring so much damn physical damage via all the fighting and all the mental/emotional stress concurred spanning days to weeks whilst fucking PREGNANT, starving herself with human food, and weakened as a ghoul.
Again, love is complicated, and it’s not exactly “healthy” per say from that point of view… I’d say these two need some damn marriage counseling or some shit😂, but it is MUTUALLY genuine given the fucked up circumstances. (I’m also glad it didn’t fall under the common anime/manga trope of “Will they? Won’t they? shipping game that stalls for time… Just do it! Especially when TG isn’t a romance manga, although it has romantic elements)
Personally for me, Touken represents an overall symbol of coexistence and hope for humans and ghouls (the positive core message of TG, even though yes I know it’s not the main focal point outside all the story fuckery as a whole). It illustrates breaking past the species barrier of mutual understanding along with other ships to a degree like Ukina x Kuzen, Nishiki x Kimi etc; and I find it beautiful that Kaneki finally has a tangible reason to LIVE, with his Best Waifu Touka… And now also his Best Bro Hide and everyone else.
I wish I could add more insight, but as you can see… I’m a Touken boy through and through😅
Putting aside the fact that, ever since last year, we got no new info about her character in canon (hopefully my grandchildren will be here to see the day it happens and tell my ashes about it), I wanted to make some sort of list about the few things we know + link to some of my favorite posts about her
written
over the last year. 😀
Feel free to add some links to fanarts, fanfictions or posts that you may like about her too! However, I must insist, you have to source and respect the creator’s wishes about their work if you intend to do that. Thanks in advance. 🙂
Facts/likely ideas
She was born as a Phantomhive and was Victoria’s Watchdog before Vincent (from ch15, 103, 116)
I’m partial to SeiAki, I’ve always loved the “arguing like an old married couple” trope. I love how Seidou’s envy of her is mixed in with his attraction and, as 115 suggested, romantic feelings for her. The way they’re constantly torn between fighting alongside each other and fighting against each other is really something to watch; which reached its ultimate culmination on Rushima, where he almost killed her only to later choose to risk his life to save her. And Akira’s hidden care for him is also very moving when she lets it show.
But I find it works just as well as an unrequited love – or rather, an unrequited romantic interest, because Akira said herself that she loves both Takizawa and Amon. This is a very angsty ship so the unrequited suits it well. I just hope to see them fight unreservedly on the same side in the future, not fighting amongst themselves or directly against each other. But all that said, I still approve of Akiramon, especially because of all the Touken parallels.
@dreamofcentipedes I hope you don’t mind, but OMG I absolutely agree with you and I just wanted to add, because I see too many people “forgetting” about this ever since ch121, that Akira never indeed to this day made any difference between her feelings for Amon and Takizawa, so it’s not like either ship currently prevails over one another.
Akira may have left with Amon in ch121, but Takizawa had already left first in ch118 and, again, Akira’s feelings never did anything but put the guys on the same level:
Of course, she apparently kissed Amon in ch121 and so she might indeed end up with him, but both Akira and Amon are currently stuck in their character development, which is something that only Seidou can help them with and which means the Seiakiramon dynamic isn’t set in stone at all.
As for Seidou, as you explained in your other post, he needs to confront them again because he’s totally running away from them out of a wrong assumption of still “not deserving to be by their side”, which is yet another argument as to why the whole dynamic is in for more significant developments.
I wouldn’t say that polyamory is more likely as an ending for this dynamic when ch121 did seem to give an advantage (so to speak) to Akiramon, but my point is that Akira’s character has always been Defined by keeping a lot bottled up inside (see Gori’s words in ch143 before she finally starts crying), which means that she’s bound to address her feelings for the two men again (either to finally discriminate between them or to end with both).
Again, I hope you don’t mind my two cents :3 Great post!
Actually this is mainly the reason why I would like the manga to finally discuss this in details – even though I totally understand that there are more important priorities for the current events.
We’ve seen the CCG develop new Arata armors and this is why a huge chunk of the fandom is hoping that Arata is still alive and that the “farming process” process requires that the ghoul remains alive.
I doubt that there are other members from the Yomo family that will be introduced, this is why I think, if Narukami is really made from Hikari, then T-Human is also made from her. Whether or not its from her preserved kakuhou or from her being alive, I am still not really sure… and I am dying to know.
I discussed this previously with Uno, albeit in the context of a different subject, but human cells can be maintained in culture for a long time.The same applies for human biopsies. So this can easily be extended to ghoul cells. In my previous project, I had many patients and I received biopsies from them that I used to grow in culture and get cells from them. The cells are maintained in special incubators where temperature and oxygen/carbon dioxide conditions are adequate, and they are soaked with nutritious media (that is changed every 2 days). When the bottles of cells become dense, we just transfer the cells into new containers and let them grow more, over and over again.
The problem with this approach is that eventually the cells will accumulate mutations or will die, or they wont behave as they used to be (for complex reasons)… this is why all research projects make use of immortalized cells (cells that wont stop dividing, and will not die, and are kinda resistant to changes). The way to immortalize cells is by making them cancerous. Even with this process though, it is important to get a new batch of cells every now and then (again to avoid accumulation of mutations). The way to do so is to store fresh batches of cells in liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees Celsius, or -321 degrees Fahrenheit) and thaw one tube whenever the old cells in culture are no longer good. Ishida-sensei has been dropping countless of hints that rc cells behave like cancer cells, so perhaps the immortalization step (making rc cells cancerous) is not done.
tl;dr if CCG wants to harvest rc cells from a ghoul to make new quinques after the ghoul’s death; they can through the following:
1- Extract the kakuhou or a biopsy of it (or multiple biopsies), preferably before the ghoul dies, or instantly after their death. 2- Maintain the biopsy in culture (critical step bcz biopsies are very difficult to grow and stay alive in culture, and require few weeks to start giving cells). 3- Make aliquots of the first batch of cells that the biopsy yields (called passage 0/1) and freeze those that are needed for later use by adding glycerol and putting the tubes in liquid nitrogen. 4-Use the non-frozen cells to make more cells, by maintaining the cell line in culture. 5- Use the cells for quinque formation. 6- Repeat the process. Optional Step: Immortalize the first batch of cells by making them cancerous, if the rc cells are not already behaving as such.
Liquid Nitrogen Tank:the cells stored in special tubes to be frozen are put in the Pails and the Pails are immersed in the liquid nitrogen.
Fun Info: One of the most common, commercial, cell lines that is immortalized and used widely in cultures across the world is the HeLa Cell Line, that was derived from a Henrietta Lacks, a patient with cervical cancer, in 1951. This cell line is the oldest and most commonly used human immortalized cell line. You can buy this cell line for your own research use. This is how much this cell line was farmed and continued to be farmed for scientific interest. Amazing.
Keeping a ghoul alive and farming them though is a better way.
The other example we’ve seen of farming is during the Cochlea raid arc where members of Squad 0/S3 had quinques that looked like Ixa.
midnight-in-town 