Hi! Hmm… to be honest, I might as well tell you about the only arc I didn’t particularly like, because otherwise I never had any problem with the pacing & writing of TG and :Re.
Sensei has always been consistent for me, which is why I was hardly ever bored for the last 3+ years. :))
So, ahem, the only arc I’m a little unfazed about is the Rose investigation arc in :Re. It’s not that it was badly written because it definitely wasn’t and I never wanted to stop reading, but it’s the only arc I find very annoying to reread.
I mean, I started rereading TG in July/August and ever since then I’ve been stuck on this arc, so I think this is enough to tell you just how how meh I am about it. xD
If I were to try and explain though, I’d say that, overall, this arc was extremely interesting and I loved what its conclusions brought as new developments to the story, but it’s just that, until it ended, weekly chapters were… a pain, lol.
…I think the main reasons I felt like that were because of the characters this arc focused on, as well as the fandom’s huge hypocrisy at the time:
I like Tsukiyama now, because of the changes the Rose arc brought to his character, but up until it ended, I wasn’t really a fan.
he was put on a very high pedestal and many people ignored how extremely selfish he was. So readers were crying their eyes out during the whole arc and I was here like “but that was obviously coming to him and that’s necessary development?!”. I think I felt very alone xD
I had no major problem with Karren though: her development was one of the best aspects of this arc. However, the debates and aggressivity about her within the fandom at the time nearly ruined it all for me. -_-
Kijima: in the end, he was just a feint so that Ishida could really introduce Furuta’s character with a huge twist, but I just couldn’t stand that guy.
Hairu: okay, unpopular opinion I know, but ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I’m sorry I don’t get particularly invested in characters who die 10 chapters after being introduced.
It’s a little different now, because she’s still got a narrative significance for Ui’s character, but overall my interest in her is really not high.
Same for Matsumae. Secondary characters whose only narrative value is to trigger the development of more important characters generally don’t particularly interest me (*waves at the 2nd gen of Qs*).
Ui: same as for Tsukiyama. I like him better now than the pretentious investigator he used to be.
No major problem with Sasaki, the Qs or Eto.
So you see, it’s not really a problem of content or writing for this arc: it really is good because it triggered a lot of necessary development. However these developments were at their starting point after the Rose arc for me and I think that’s my issue with this arc.
To give an example, it’s different from, say, Touka’s character, who I got to slowly know better before the Aogiri arc in TG and for whom looking back on previous chapters/arcs always made me appreciate her character even more from the moment I understood her better. For Ui and Tsukiyama though,
they give me literally no reason to like their characters before the developments that the Rose arc triggers for them, so I guess that’s why it’s so tedious for me to read through this arc again. xDDD
I hope it satisfies your curiosity, it’s really the only arc I feel differently from all the others! Have a nice weekend Anon. ^_^
Haha, well, as they say “to each their own” Anon. xD I’ve seen that written often, when the Rushima/Cochlea arc was on its way, but I personally don’t considering that Sensei’s writing ever turned abysmal.
For me, the turning point and narrative peak in :Re was the Rushima/Cochlea arc, not the Rose arc, and to be honest, I’m glad it seems we lost a part of the fandom during that long arc, because the fandom’s behavior overall ever since then is much better than during the Rose arc.
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts Anon! Have a nice day! ^_^
Hi Anon! Hmm, well, first of all, in general, I like how the Phantom Five are way less cliché than the Starlight Four.
I mean no offense to any fan of them, but the Starlight Four are a literal example of “One Character = One Trope” aaaand I don’t really like that:
they have the color of their dormitory in their name: Redmond, Bluer, Greenhill, Violet
they’re stereotypical examples of how the different Weston dormitories are categorized
and they’re extremely naive and simple-minded, something the current arc emphasizes even more than the Weston arc.
To be fair, I think Yana wrote them like that on purpose: initially it was to show just how simple-minded they were (i.e not as in stupid, but rather as showing very little judgement), since they were so taken by the rules and traditions at Weston that they went as far as to kill to preserve their little world.
The second point is that Yana probably wrote them like that also in order to create a huge contrast with their fags. In comparison, the P5 are not any of these things (well, Clayton still is a little stereotypical tho’) and were meant to have more impact narratively speaking, if just with the presence of Soma and Ed who are two important characters.
An example will probably explain better, so look at their respective stage performances:
the S4 are literally themselves on stage. Meanwhile the P5…
are playing a role, Ches aside, but Ches is so very singular in the first place that it’s not even out of place. For me, that’s a metaphor that speaks volumes about their depth as characters and the S4 just can’t compare.
Anyway, in general that’s why P5 >>>>> S4 for me. More specifically though:
Ed & Soma: I don’t think you want me to ramble about them xD As I said they’re two important characters so they’re completely endearing on many aspects outside of their choice to help Ciel with the P5 in this arc.
Cheslock: I love his choice to constantly prove his singularity even if it makes him stand out from the pack (to the point even Seb commented on how unusual and brave it was), as well as the fact that he’s a very gifted musician. 🙂
Harcourt: well, to be honest, the reason I like him is because I really liked his character during the Weston arc. I love how he’s so grateful to Seb too. xD
Clayton: I’m not his biggest fan but it’s funny how he was the one who had the hardest time keeping to his role amongst the P5. However he’s also the one who had more selfless reasons for joining (he wanted to help the S4) and it’s why I still like him more than any of the S4.
Sorry for rambling, I hope it answers your question! Have a nice day. ^_^
Hi! Yeah I totally do, I more or less explained why here. :))
I think most of all, I like how the contrast between them isn’t reductive. I mean, on the one hand you’ve got Ed, who’s extremely righteous because of how he was raised but who’s also multitalented. And on the other you’ve got Ches,whom we know is very gifted for music and very determined to live by his own rules and to prove his singularity, even if that makes him stand out from the rest.
So initially, it wouldn’t seem like those boys could get along. And yet…
we see them interacting more with each other than with the other prefects or any students of their respective dormitory. 🙂 That’s the reason I ship them in the first place: I don’t think they give off particularly romantic vibes in canon, but the chemistry they developed has the potential to go even further and that’s great in my opinion.
Hmm, I don’t know if I have many headcanons to share though, except maybe that Ches started to see Ed slightly differently from the moment he managed to pull a convincing bad boy act. I think he’s not the only one though, since Ed’s change of attitude is the most extreme transformation out of the whole P5 (Clayton had a change of looks, not particularly of attitude) and anyway, it just can’t be helped, Ed’s game using his Phantomhive genes was too strong to be resisted. xDD
Their chemistry is also a reason I liked the part with the Phantom Five a lot during the current arc, which is what I was talking about with Anon above.
I hope it answers your question :)) Have a nice day Anon!
I think that a good chunk of us have some sort of routine in our lives. Do this one thing at that specif time, and this other thing at another time. Routines and having something familiar to do is a good way to keep life organized, and in order. However, if you just repeat the same things over and over again from day to day, you will likely get bored. You might crave a some change in you`r daily routine, something to make things more exciting.
Roma is something of an extreme case of this. When she was old enough to realize her surroundings, she found out that she was alone and had no parents. So she just wandered the streets, killing when she wanted to. Roma´s life from the early days seems to be just this. Wandering the streets, and killing humans and ghouls alike when she needed to. Her life was surrounded by death. That became her routine, and maybe that was all she had in the beginning. However, as I rambled about in the more daily example above, doing the same things over and over again will make you bored out of you`r mind in the end. And that is what happened to Roma, she got bored.
But then she discovered humans from the”society”, those weak, ugly, enjoyable things. Like small pathetic toys. Roma calls them “bread and circus”, give to her by the Gods. As a good chunk of you know, that phrase was created by Roman satirical poet Juvenal. I´ll quote a few lines to open up the term:
“Bread and circuses” (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace,[1] as an offered “palliative”. Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns.[2][3][4] The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.
something, as extravagant entertainment, offered as an expedient means of pacifying discontent or diverting attention from a source of grievance.
The points I am going to focus on when it comes to this term are “diverting attention from a source of grievance” and “superficial means of appeasement”. I find these the most fitting in this scenario, since I think the weak, self centered and fragile humans were indeed a manner of “distraction” for Roma. Something fun and stimulating that diverted her gaze from the boredom she felt. The important word is superficial, since while a constant stimulus indeed keeps you occupied and makes things fun, it does not the cure the “core problem”. I think Roma was very hollow and empty. That is because she had no one in her youth, and all she knew was killing and death. Because of this she probably did not develop any sort care or attachment to the surrounding world. Maybe when Roma has nothing to do but just the boredom, this hollowness crept into her mind. As she says to Urie, when boredom takes over you start to question what is the point of even living.
So the foolish human were bread and circus, a superficial distraction from a empty and meaningless life which only knew death and loneliness.
This is also the core difference between Roma and Eto. While both had an rough youth, are very strong and etc…, in the end they are rather different. You see, Eto lost her parents but that was trough an act of injustice. This memory and the diary of her mother gave her an direction in life, and objective. To not be a coward and run like Kuzen did, but to change this warped birdcage. She lived in the violent 24th Ward, likely witnessing and going trough the struggles ghouls go trough when they live in a society that hunts them.
Roma had nothing like this. She had not drive, no objective, nothing. Everything around her was just death, so she likely never developed any sort of attachment or drive to change the world.
So while Eto, an revolutionary fueled by hatred seeks to change the world, Roma who´s life was devoid of meaning, seeks only stimulus that distracts her from meaningless world. A life without conflict and drama would be very boring in Roma´s eyes, so she does not want to change it. Instead she wants to be the audience who sits on the benches while watching a grand tragedy being played on the stage of life. And since she likely never learnt to care about the surrounding world to her, why Roma would want to want to change something in it.
Viewing the world as circus keeps you going in a world that has no meaning to you. Fun and stimulus distracts you from the emptiness of life, which has no purpose.
You know I love your post because, even though Roma founded an organization (one of the few still going strong in the series so far btw) for the reasons you pointed out, it’s just very interesting to me how the other Clowns were hinted to be different from her despite all sharing the same motto:
This really makes me wonder how different all their backstories are going to be: Roma was “Gypsy”, and as the founder she had precise reasons to create such a gang, so I love how the union between the remaining Clowns is still that notion of “seeking fun” that Roma thought of to make her boredom disappear.
The other Clowns probably didn’t feel hollow (or didn’t have the same reasons as Roma to feel hollow if they also did), but still, despite their probably different backstories, what remains is the notion of seeking the fun hidden within their respective goals. It’s like Roma’s personal touch as the founder, even if she never led them.
I don’t know, for me it’s part of the Clowns’ complexity as characters: they’re a weird group but that’s why I love them all. 😀
The chapter opens with both Higemaru and Hsiao suggesting that they simply lie about what Aura has done so far so that the slate can be wiped clean and things can go back to the way they were.
The chapter itself is called “Several Lies” and thematically within the chapter we explore the lies that several characters tell.
The manga’s made like several thousand remarks on how Ayato keeps disappearing and being forgotten, and it even shows up in the omake.
As I said though, I can’t help but see this as anything but deliberate. I doubt that Ayato actually is just going to play the role as the small retriever of the macguffin that led to a clue in solving dragon and then fixing it for everyone. That plot scenario all seems too neat -> Ayato shows up again with 24th ward information -> Kimi makes revelation about the eyes and the center -> Touka remembers the ring -> The ring becomes the key to solving Kaneki and everything is resolved peacefully.
Yes, it would be nice but usually Tokyo Ghoul’s plot structure isn’t that neat. This almost seems like a lord of the rings scenario where everything can be solved by just returning the one true ring back to where it belongs…
As I’ve sad before though Ayato’s leaving out is deliberate. Ishida doesn’t just forget about characters, even if sometimes it’s a bit poorly paced he makes them reappear again when they’re necessary. The reason Ayato disappeared during the 24th ward arc is because Ayato didn’t really need to learn the lesson the rest of Goat did.
He was already calling out Kaneki. The thing which a lack of calling out led to the predicament of the 24th ward and Kaneki’s slow spiral into dragon. Ayato didn’t really have that problem, so it makes sense to leave him out of all that.
If Ayato did have a problem though, ironically it’s the same problem that Hinami has. He’s often left out of things because he is 1) a child and 2) much more observant about the world around him. As I said, it’s Ayato specifically who calls Kaneki out, and often Ayato seems to grasp the bigger picture. Hinami seems to be left out of the current dragon plotline and sidelined once again, not only because of her injuries, but in the way that Juuzou fought her isn’t something that could be easily looked over.
In the same way there’s a couple of vital information pieces that haven’t made it to Ayato yet. The identity of Renji, the truth of their father, the fact that Touka is married.
If all of this is deliberate, if Ayato is deliberately being left behind again that sets out a precedent. Remember, Yomo also said that Hikari’s two children are his reason for living.
Ayato clearly takes after their father though, and even is closer in personality to Renji himself than Hikari.
Because of that Yomo’s always doubted the ability he had to guide him. I don’t actually think he’s playing favorites, but Yomo’s offered much more guidance to Touka throughout the plot whereas Ayato is for the most part left by the wayside. Which is strange because Ayato was about 13 when Renji just sort of resigned to the fact that he was going to be stuck in Aogiri from now on.
I think there’s a deliberate parallel drawn in Yoshimura’s inability to care for his daughter, and Renji’s lack of self confidence when dealing with his niece and nephew. I genuinely believe he cared for them both but the end result is Ayato got parented a whole lot less.
This entire arc begins with 100 children being eaten, and then not mentioned again. A reoccuring theme within Tokyo Ghoul is the fact that children are the first ones tossed aside and forgotten by this world. So the same way that the Quinx are in a way forgotten children, and child soldiers, Ayato should inevitably come to represent that too.
I think it’s important that the key to Ayato’s arc, Hinami, the only person that was ever able to understand him enough to get him to calm down, moreso than even Tatara who did parent him a little bit, is a member of his own peer group who felt equally lost and weak in the face of the world. Who shared the same insecurities that Ayato did.
While I think Ayato needs to be addressed again and filled in on some important details that he’s missing I also think Ayato will have a future role in paying Hinami back and showing her the same support she did back then, by revealing his same vulnerabilites as well. That Ayato is also a lost child who feels weak and could not protect the people most important to him when he needed to.
As for Renji, I think he’s already been called out a little bit on his need to die to save Touka. Uta spells it out for him quite clearly, he always says that he can sacrifice and move on for others, but there’s some part of him that clearly wants to die in order to combat his loss.
He was so eager to die in that scene, forgetting that Ayato was still there and still unaccounted for, and therefore by his own words he still should have had a reason to live. Therefore Yomo’s heroic sacrifice is taken away from him, not only did he fail to die, he also failed to stop Mutsuki from becoming a problem for Touka in the future.
The same way Renji was constantly telling others to keep living, Renji himself is now told by his friends to live, and the end result is him not looking nearly as heroic as he did when he was rushing off to save Touka.
midnight-in-town 