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.
So you know those headaches Mikasa gets when something triggers her trauma? Well, we know now that the Ackerman bloodline is a result of titan science, a kind of byproduct. Which means that there is something genetically similar between them and people who hold the titan power. The extent of that we still don’t really know yet, but that would be getting off topic.
The anime omitted this scene and instead threw the flashback of Eren being injected much earlier in the timeline – the night it happened. In the manga, this happens after the graduation ceremony when the kids run into Hannes. Hannes brings up Eren’s father and asks him if he knows where Grisha disappeared to. This instantly triggers a mind-splitting headache for Eren before a brief recollection of this same memory (which he forgets as soon as he wakes up).
But what I noticed while looking this scene over again was that Mikasa kind of shouts at Hannes like this is something he knows he’s supposed to be wary of. To which Hannes just replies like, “oh oops I forgot this is a thing that happens.” Eren also mentions that this has happened to him on more than one occasion. So the headache thing was never exclusive to Mikasa to begin with. It probably just goes further for Eren becuase he actually has the titan power.
Basically what I’m getting at is that the titan science byproduct hints have been there since chapter 3 and long story short, my mind is very blown right now.
The April 2018 issue of Monthly Comic @Bunch hits Japanese shelves tomorrow, February 21st. The cover features Alex and Nicolas from GANGSTA. along with the 50th overall chapter of the GANGSTA. manga, which is included inside. Kohske had previously tweeted a glimpse of the magazine cover art, but this is the first time we’ve seen it in full. Kohske has done her best to put together a milestone chapter despite her illness, let’s all get out there and buy & enjoy it~!
Please support Kohske and her fellow @Bunch authors by purchasing a copy for yourself when possible. – Amazon JP / Mangaoh / YesAsia –
Hi Anon! No worries though, you’re free to have a different opinion about our!Ciel’s name, and it’s not because I personally think we won’t learn about his true identity in this arc (if at all) that I’m right or anything, as always. :3
I can totally understand people being annoyed with him not being “called” in the flashbacks (or in future chapters), but personally I’d rather have him only referred to as “Ciel” in the story, so I’m not particularly bothered by that, haha.
To address the rest of your asks:
what’s left of the flashback?
I think it’s likely that next month will be the last chapter because there shouldn’t be much left to cover + it will be the last chapter of volume 27, so in my opinion next chapter will cover until this moment:
In other words:
Ciel will be taking the ring from his brother’s belly
Seb will annihilate everyone else
Ciel will ask Seb to burn it all to the ground (his brother’s body included?)
“I name you after my dog”
Ciel will be going home to Tanaka and find out that the whole house burnt down for a reason yet explained.
Ciel will possibly meet Ann and get Vincent’s other ring back from her
Ending the flashback on our!Ciel facing his dead family would be very moving and symbolic, that’s why I think Sensei could stop it there. And if so, then April’s chapter will have us back in present time and might be a recap chapter (like ch121).
However, Sensei may also decide to continue with the flashback for a little while longer into vol28 and possibly take us until Ciel officially became “Earl Phantomhive”, which means that we could address the following moments…
Ciel finding out/being explained about the Watchdog duty (this is when I’m hoping Frances or Tanaka might explain stuff about the family but I’m probably dreaming since it’s not really the point of that flashback),
Ciel meeting Elizabeth (or more generally the Midfords) again,
Ciel meeting his father’s Evil Nobles (Dee, Klaus, UT, Pitt…) as the new Earl Phantomhive.
Overall I think it depends on if the whole point of the flashback is to show why our!Ciel took on his brother’s identity, or if it’s also to explain all of his initial motivations when he became “Earl Phantomhive” (if so we’ll be joining up with Seb’s record).
I guess we’ll have to see next month, no can do. :3
About Lizzie “instantly” switching side
I hope we agree there that, presented like that, it would be bad writing if such a thing were to happen xD without mentioning that it’d make Lizzie incredibly shallow as a character (something that the Campania arc debunked completely).
So, currently, my personal take is that Lizzie is hopefully not taking a side despite how confusing the situation must be for her, it’s just that…
real!Ciel possibly currently needs her more than our!Ciel does (or so she thinks).
That’s why, when this balance inverts, because our!Ciel will very possibly break down when confronting his brother, she will most likely decide to support him instead (as always, just my opinion though).
What Lizzie knows or doesn’t know isn’t clear at this point. We don’t even know for sure why she is so sad, but (and that’s the difference with Soma) Lizzie had her suspicions about Ciel hiding something before this arc rolled in, so my personal take is that her crying has more to do with…
the twin being involved in something extremely fishy than “omG I fEll in loVe wiTH the wrong CIel”.
Besides, wouldn’t you agree that, since our!Ciel’s issues are partially expressed through thinking he disappointed his family because “the best twin” died instead of him…
…Lizzie’s role isn’t to “switch back to his side”, but rather to reassure him that he shouldn’t have had to become his brother for her sake or anyone else’s in the first place ?
So the concept of Lizzie taking a side, although it’s one I considered for a long time during this arc, is really irking me nowadays and that’s why I hope Lizzie’s sadness isn’t about our!Ciel lying but rather about the whole arc itself.
Sorryyyyy for rambling! I hope it makes sense? :3 Please have a nice day Anon!
I know I have 10+ answers to write now that the chapter is out, but I just wanted to say that this is the whole point of the current arc, the 2CT and Ciel facing his brother in my opinion, because it will mean finally confronting the survivor’s guilt and inferiority complex that have been holding Ciel back from developing much further.
Initially, it’s a decision that was taken to become the Ciel his brother wanted to be (& I don’t doubt that he really meant it to be that way), but over the years this issue just turned out to be about who the current “Ciel Phantomhive” really is.
We’ve been introduced to the idea a while ago that our!Ciel was “different” from the rest of his family (and thus from his brother)…
mostly in the sense that he’s more selfless and @her-majestys-watchdog did a great job in giving some examples here.
And the thing is, until now our!Ciel is probably the only one who never wanted to acknowledge that fact (because of survivor’s guilt and inferiority complex) despite everyone else around him having noticed a long time ago…
and that’s why this upcoming confrontation is significant because this mentality is something that needs to change.
Elizabeth didn’t fall in love with him because he was called “Ciel Phantomhive”, Soma didn’t become his friend because of that either, and let’s not mention Tanaka who kept his mouth shut probably because he thought Ciel had his reasons and he didn’t want to address a very painful and traumatizing topic.
Besides, I have no doubt that Ciel Phantomhive will remain his identity until the very end, but by now it needs to become a choice made because he wants to keep it and not because he thinks he still has to pretend doing all of this in his brother’s stead.
The twins’ confrontation is symbolically a chess game onto which Ciel walked in ch129…
but that duality within him (his inferiority complex mixed to survivor’s guilt pushing him to think he had to become his brother when, in fact, he acts and thinks differently from his brother most of the time because he’s his own person) has been existing for a long time…
and that’s why it finally needs to be addressed in the current arc.
^^^ This. I 200% agree with you Anon and I caught on that as well!!
Besides the fact that I really relate to characters suffering from inferiority complex for personal reasons (so I love our!Ciel so so so much and totally understand why even UT would catch on him being different), our!Ciel literally decided to “become his brother”, not in order to live on as strong as he thinks real!Ciel would have been, but because he thought he owed it to his brother and to their remaining family. ;_;
Of course his thoughts were influenced by the horrible life he led for one month and by Seb taunting him (because he certainly didn’t willingly give up on his brother, as ch136 confirmed), but still even in his trauma, we can still see signs that he’s not the worst human being Seb made him believe he was.
In fact, this decision was so not made to benefit himself initially that…
An inferiority complex is a painful mentality to break from, especially when for our!Ciel its roots mainly originate from a trauma he hasn’t learnt yet to cope with and also when Seb generally makes sure he doesn’t start to see himself as a very outstanding human being.
That’s why I need as many people as possible
(Lizzie, Soma, Sieglinde, the servants…)
to make him understand that learning about his twin brother won’t change their bond with him. That he has a right to admit that he’s enjoying some aspects of this life he built for himself.
That the current “Ciel Phantomhive” became mostly about him and not his brother and that, not only is it okay that it turned out this way, but some people can now tell him that they’re happy he’s the one who came back.
Anyway, it’s a lot to wish for and it’s hard to believe that it will happen through just one confrontation, but I doubt our!Ciel will stagnate in this mindset after everything Sensei revealed in this flashback. Narratively speaking it just wouldn’t make much sense, or so I think. :3
Thanks for passing by Anon, let’s hope the next chapters won’t be too hard on our boy, although I already totally doubt that. ;_;
Hello! Sorry for the slight delay I wanted to read the chapter in English before answering you. 🙂
First thing first though, if there is one thing I don’t really like to do, it’s to speak of someone else’s meta when I’m not privy to their whole thoughts behind the process of writing it, sorry Anon.
However Anon, all I have to say is that meta, especially on symbolism, can be really subjective and similar to a personal interpretation, so I don’t have to agree or not as long as it doesn’t contradict canon.
OP presented their arguments, it’s clear and logical, so for me it works as a possibility,
and when it comes to the conclusion, myself I’m considering both ideas (that demons’ true form can’t be seen by the human eye or that Seb just doesn’t have a true form because demons are more a concept than actual beings). Only Sensei knows if their post really was the intent behind what was shown or not though, so I’ll personally leave it at that. 🙂
Sorry again for the delay, especially since this is probably not helpful. Nonetheless, please have a nice day Anon!
Hi Anon and aww, please don’t depreciate yourself, it’s totally okay to ask!! :3
I’ll redirect you towards @mawjaw though, since it’s their post in the first place and they might want to expand more on my little summary.
The initial theory was just that it seems a lot of the story can be “predicted” using Uta’s many tattoos (whether it’s because Uta is a troll or that similar events happened 100 years ago, we don’t know yet) and @mawjaw just pointed out that we could see a phoenix amongst the skull king, double-headed snake, kitsune and cross.
Still according to them, it seems the phoenix is the dragon’s (the double-headed snake in Uta’s tattoo) counterpart in feng shui symbolism, which is why they were wondering if maybe Touka couldn’t be what this tattoo is hinting at, to which I added that I really enjoyed the idea because:
Touka is a ukaku and ukaku are more correlated to birds or butterflies than the other Rc types
Sensei described Kaneki and Touka as a set several times, Touka can be seen as a foil to Rize and, also as we were discussing, it seems that the double-headed snake is hinting to be representing Kaneki and Rize.
Overall, it’s just symbolism, nothing particularly tangible or about Touka rising from her own ashes like a real phoenix (although never say never with Sensei), and it’s only interesting if you think there is a possibility that Uta’s tattoos actually foreshadow the whole story!
To be honest though, seeing as Rize is actually the “Dragon” Furuta was talking about and that Hide is still fishy with what seems to be a link to the 24th ward…
…I’m taking this “Touka-as-a-phoenix-being-a-counterpart-to-the-double-headed-snake-representing-Kaneki-and-Rize” probably more seriously than I should. x)
Please don’t hesitate to ask @mawjaw for more details, I’m probably overlooking some stuff!!
Ohh it looks like we’re getting more and more info on ghoul biology!!
So far, it appears that kagune with the same “fingerprint” can fuse, but will also explode to avoid harming kagune that it mistakes for itself. It makes sense when you consider how only kagune can cut kagune, but it doesn’t cut itself when the structure is forming.
Basically, Kurona’s kakuhou mistook Nashiro’s for her own.
In a way it could begin to explain kakuja mutations. One RC type may trump another, but what happens when they’re absorbed into the body? Since we know what happens to a ghoul when they absorb “themselves” hundreds of times over (vis a vis Kaneki’s humongous kakuja), we have to consider what happens when the RC type of ghoul is different from the ghouls they consume.
midnight-in-town 