Ishida’s afterword part 1

kenkamishiro:

Please feel to correct me if there are any mistakes. (source of the afterword)

Edit 1: Correction made about volume 7. Ishida was referring to how starting from OG vol. 7, he began pushing himself more and more. Apologies for the confusion.

Edit 2: Missed a couple lines, so I’ve added them in. Also corrected for grammar and fluidity.

I’ve already handed in the final manuscript, and I’m now writing this letter.

I would’ve written 4-komas at the end of the volume as usual, but I had a hard time writing “what comes afterwards” in such a format, so I thought that I would write an afterword instead.

Preface

Tokyo Ghoul began its serialization in September of 2011.

7 years have passed since then. My life has revolved around chasing the deadline, week after week.I felt that if I took a break I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to draw again, so I refused to give myself a break.

Now that the series has ended, I’m finally living a life where I haven’t had a deadline looming over me for the first time in 7 years.

I wonder how I used to spend my time in the past.If I want to be frank about how I currently feel, should I say it feels…liberating?

Tokyo Ghoul has been something that was intimately intertwined with my life, something that dominated my time and emotions, and something that changed my relationships with other people.

There was good that came with it, but oftentimes there was more bad than good.Because of this, I felt like I was finally being released from a cage after being trapped in it for so long.

“But it’s just manga. There’s no reason for you to be pressured so much by it,” people may say with a laugh, but to me manga has always been by my side as a huge obstacle.

From the original volume 7 onwards, my stance regarding the manga changed.

I took on impossible amounts of work to try to push myself.

I cast away all sorts of things from my life, and poured all of my time into work.

I think it was because I was trying to get closer to Kaneki who’s been subjected to torture.I’ve developed complications in my body.

I was scared at first. But after seeing all sorts of symptoms show up every few months, I resigned myself to the fact that this was the kind of body I had.

The most striking part to me was that I lost my sense of taste.

No matter what I ate, everything would taste the same. Even though the symptoms were different, I felt like I’d turned into a ghoul.

I was surprised by to what extent the human spirit is tied to the body.

There may be some readers who are disappointed by this, but I haven’t thought of drawing Tokyo Ghoul itself as fun. I hate working.“Why am I drawing manga?”

These doubts grew ever more in my mind.

midnight-in-town:

midnight-in-town:

So about this “anonymous report”, I’m wondering if Abberline might not be talking about Violet, because…

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…he did tell a policeman in Bath about who the true blue star is in ch129 (something like “Earl Ciel Phantomhive” I guess) and so they could have showed up at Earl Phantomhive’s manor as a result.

The thing is though, Violet knew Bravat was in London, but nothing says he knew Bravat would be hiding at Ciel’s manor (but Scotland Yard could have thought of this by themselves, I guess). 

In that case, more than anonymous, it would just mean they don’t want Bravat and his allies to know who sold them out, out of protection for Violet’s sake.

Otherwise it could be Paula…

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but, rather than Scotland Yard, that should be the explanation as to why Alexis and Edward are here. 

Some fans also mentioned Soma, but then again, Soma didn’t really involve himself with this case and would have no way to know that Bravat could be hiding in Ciel’s manor, so I also doubt it’s him.

In case Abberline means that they really got an anonymous tip however, then the third option is that Bravat was sold out by someone who’s already at the manor and that’s when it becomes trickier to guess, because the only ones who’d have a possible reason to sell Bravat out are:

  • Lizzie? friendly reminder we still can’t be sure of what she meant by “saving the twin” in ch113. It’s looking more and more likely that this was about not having the same blood type, but she could have meant rescuing him from the sect too, especially since she’s actually crying as she’s exposing our!Ciel as a liar. So we’ll need to see the next chapter to check just how far she’s likely to have been manipulated.
  • Tanaka? he already knew about real!Ciel coming back it seems and his attitude clearly shows that he’s not at ease with the situation, so who knows what he did or didn’t do at the moment?

(The other servants hardly even noticed that real!Ciel =/= their young master so I don’t think it’s them either and there shouldn’t be anyone else besides the star lords left on Bravat’s side) 

Don’t hesitate to share if you’ve got other ideas for that “anonymous report”! 

Hey so maybe I’m reading too much into this, but…

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look at UT’s face upon Scotland Yard’s arrival, compared to everyone else who is 100% surprised, he’s just… smiling. 

So maybe he’s really the one who gave that anonymous report then? And in that case, either it’s because he wants to get rid of Bravat or because he wants a lot of witnesses to something that will happen???

Wait guys, 

now that it’s confirmed Othello and UT really did know each other, that means…

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that Will had forewarned Othello about UT most likely being the culprit behind this case if the dead was being brought back. And that means…

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that UT was the one Othello was talking about in ch119???

I know I’ve been annoying with this theory, but I really think that overall this means there is possibly another party (besides just UT) involved behind the blue sect. [x][x] 

And in that case if Bravat and UT aren’t on the same side, that could explain UT possibly leading Scotland Yard right to Bravat, to get rid of him?

Source: midnight-in-town

sianori:

Translation of Touken baby’s profile!

  • Kaneki Ichika
  • Will soon be 6 years old, blood type B, size: 112cm/18kg
  • Favorite food: apples, Yoriko’s bread
  • Kaneki and Touka’s daughter.
  • Friendly, has a lively personality. 
  • Because she’s a natural half-ghoul, she can eat human food.

When we’re back to present, do you think our!Ciel will order Sebastian to kill real!Ciel after his imminent mental breakdown?

midnight-in-town:

midnight-in-town:

Hi Anon! Okay so, seeing how Ciel totally blames himself for what happened to his brother…

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I don’t think he will be able to face him at first, so I doubt he’ll be able to order Seb to take care of his twin either.

In fact, I hope that Seb will be absolutely irrelevant to how this confrontation will turn out for our!Ciel, because we know he’s not particularly good at being sensitive and helpful whenever our!Ciel faces his trauma (ch95 anyone? -_-).

It’s as I wrote here, I think this arc is supposed to help our!Ciel with confronting most of his issues surrounding his trauma and what happened with his brother, so I don’t see how Seb is supposed to be the means to an end here (unlike all the previous arcs before), not when he’s the one who ate the twin’s soul in the first place. 

No, in my opinion, if the twin is to die before this arc ends, then I think it’d make a lot of sense for him to be stopped by anyone but Seb. 

Obviously, right now the most symbolic ending for the twin would be to be stopped by our!Ciel himself, since that’d also imply that our!Ciel found enough strength within himself to face his brother despite how much he was blaming himself for his death, and a catalyst to such an ending could be Lizzie herself.

I mean, if the twin hurts/allows someone to hurt Lizzie (which I think is likely to happen) then…

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…in my opinion it could be shocking and despairing enough that our!Ciel would realize he has to stop his brother. 

Other candidates for the same job would be Soma (since the twin attacked him and Agni), Lizzie herself (since she realized a while ago in ch113 that she “couldn’t save the twin”), Ed possibly (if he’s angry enough should Lizzie be hurt) or Tanaka (since surely he’d notice that the twin hardly is the boy he used to be). 

So nope, Seb killing the twin again would just… not help our!Ciel with the fact he’s constantly blaming himself for what happened to his brother.
Seb can go face the other star Lords (like Polaris, who’s real!Ciel’s butler and who apparently was strong enough to kill Agni), or the mastermind behind the arc (UT? someone else?), but the twin isn’t going to be his call in my opinion. 

I hope it answers your question, have a nice day Anon!

Bringing this back because I keep mentioning this but I never expand, so when I say “it’s likely (in my opinion) that Lizzie might get hurt”, that’s what I mean:

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I’m pretty sure we discussed it before, but these scenes really make me think that, instead of anemia because she possibly gave some of her blood, Lizzie is going to get hurt (shot?) at a later point in the arc and will lose a lot of blood as a result, enough so that Sieglinde will need to use Wolfram’s for transfusing her. 

Of course it’s just a theory, but as I explained above, I think this might happen precisely because the twin isn’t the boy he used to be and only seems to care about staying with our!Ciel, so when things escalate, depending on what Lizzie will do she might end up getting the same treatment as Soma and Agni. ://

Many already noticed:

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+

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= there is a good chance now that Lizzie may be hurt badly enough (get shot?) that Sieglinde will need to save her by transfusing her with Wolfram’s blood. :///

WHERE IS FRANCES?

the–dark–crow–smiles:

I’m starting to think her absence is not an accident…

Same and, I hope you don’t mind @the–dark–crow–smiles, but I’ve been thinking and right now I see a few reasons why Sensei might leave her out on purpose:

  • she already knew about our!Ciel’s lie so there is no need for her to be here:

Discussed previously here [x][x][x] and especially possible in case the recent chapters are A Gathering of Characters Who Had to Find Out about the 2ct.

It’s confirmed Tanaka knew (even if we don’t know what gave our!Ciel away, either the Funtom corporation or a consequence of the RCMT?) but who says he was the only one? And he could have simply told her since they are really close and she’s Ciel’s aunt, in case she initially didn’t figure it out on her own.

  • she can’t be here, because her presence would solve a part of the arc too easily: 

Includes the first idea. Specifically I’m referring to Lizzie being obviously hurt about our!Ciel’s lie in the cliffhanger of the newest chapter.

It’s kinda similar to why the Midford parents were not getting involved when Ciel was trying to understand why Lizzie had run away and how to get her back. 

For some parts of the narrative the characters have to manage by themselves in order to reach more developments: so just like Ciel had to try and bring Lizzie back by himself to end up where we are currently, she has to try and reach out to him by herself to find out why he lied in the first place.

And the thing is, Sensei confirmed that Frances was Lizzie’s role model, so if Frances knew about our!Ciel’s lie, were to show up and say “I knew but didn’t say anything because I thought he must have had his own valid reasons” (just like Tanaka), it may influence Lizzie into giving our!Ciel a chance more easily than the way it is going now, with the sect obviously having an influence on her way of thinking. 

We know Sensei likes to expand on drama: having Frances possibly knowing about our!Ciel’s lie for a while would make Lizzie consider why even her mother kept quiet on the subject and she might be more willing to listen to Ciel’s explanation as a result. So that could be why Frances can’t show up. 

  • she can’t be here because she’s elsewhere doing something that will end up being plot relevant later?

I mean, unless the whole point of her not being here is because “it’s not proper of a noble lady to show up alongside Scotland Yard to your nephew’s house without sending a letter to forewarn him”, I’d say if she’s not there and didn’t know about our!Ciel’s lie, then it’s because she is busy elsewhere, relating to another part or a future arc or something similar. 

  • she didn’t want to show up because she figured out/Tanaka told her (?) that UT was behind the current arc and she and UT don’t get along

This also ties to the UT = Cedric theory in my opinion, because with usual comic relief being always treated the same way, it isn’t that far-fetched to consider that Frances’ strong dislike of bangs and unsightly men might originally root from UT. So she might have something personal against him and wouldn’t want to meet him if that were the case.  

However, nothing makes this theory more likely than its counterpart about UT not being Cedric and we’re far away from the truth on this part of the plot anyway, so this might be reaching a little too much right now. 

(I’ll consider it more seriously in case we’re never given an explanation as to what Frances was up to)

  • she’ll show up later (along with other characters like Diedrich, Klaus, Pitt, etc)?

just a last idea in case all the others turn out to be wrong but I’d rather she doesn’t show up at this point: it’s way more interesting like that if that was really done on purpose. x)

I’ll have plenty to say after Wednesday and Kuro142 is released b u t

[original post]

@ronaldandthemachine​ Replying here because this got insanely long too. xD

Anyway, listen: actually, I don’t really care whether readers like Lizzie or not. 🙂

There is no character that everyone has to love and she’s no exception, so I’m not blaming anyone for not being her fan. What I can’t stand however is people criticizing her for something a male character wouldn’t or, more accurately, wasn’t criticized about, because that’s misogyny and honestly? As a girl myself, I’m allowed to think that it sucks.

As @hitsugikuro​ explained here, Soma thought our!Ciel was the reason Agni died and he even punched him before swearing revenge on him and like… where is the criticism then, especially when our!Ciel has nothing to do with it? 

Whereas Lizzie gets called out for being hurt and confused, because he really lied and because she actually loves our!Ciel so damn much that the blue sect went as far as to use the truth against her in order to eventually hurt him: 

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So don’t get me wrong, I don’t wish for Soma to be attacked for what he did or said either, but it feels unfair for Lizzie to face this is at all, just because she’s considered to be an annoying little girl when she’s so much more than that. 

So there is misogyny and then there are readers calling her out because they’re doubting that Lizzie will obviously side again with our!Ciel’s eventually. And that I can’t understand because, as I was trying to explain above, that’s just ignoring 27 volumes of Sensei’s writing and honestly? Well, that sucks too. 

At this point people gotta realize that, if both Soma and Lizzie are hurt and confused about what’s going on, it’s all because Ciel needs to realize that unfortunately…

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…as much as he may pretend to wish he were, he’s not alone in this and there are consequences to acknowledge regarding most of the decisions he took so far.

Again though, I’m definitely not hoping that a wave of criticism ever hits Ciel: the poor boy went through so much and has a lot to cope with, but this arc is about confrontation, so it’s time to get the skeletons out of the closet (literally, @ thanks UT). 

Additionally about Lizzie, to get back on a few things you were saying (and because some readers seem to still misunderstand her character, which is for shame), her whole character revolving around her fiancé can indeed be seen as a flaw because it’s slightly extreme, but in that case again, context is needed: 

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Because training in order to be as strong as possible and survive as the Watchdog’s wife is literally her whole life. So like it or dislike it, again I don’t mind either way, but that’s the whole 15 years of her life and so that can’t be ignored when it comes to how one reads her character.

BTW, for the few who may read this and misunderstand, blaming Frances for this won’t do either, because Frances just wants her daughter not to end like her own brother and mother and for that I believe she’s extremely commendable. 

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I don’t think that most readers realize how much Frances must have loved her brother’s family to accept that Lizzie would marry and become a Phantomhive, having already lived through her mother’s probable murder and still going with the engagement for our!Ciel’s sake even after Vincent, too, was murdered. 

So I spoke of that many times before, it’s one reason I’m so damn fond of these characters and why I can’t stop rambling, but the Phantomhive family has special circumstances whether you like or not. 

I’m not saying we’re not

supposed

to see character flaws or dysfunctioning dynamics where they exist, on the contrary, but they have their own standards and they would probably do things differently if they weren’t constantly targeted by the burden of the Watchdog duty.

I mean, why do you guys think that UT went bat shit crazy on the subject?

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It’s no coincidence.

Final point but “Lizzie needing to please her fiancé” used to be a thing that Ciel managed to undo with the Campania arc in my opinion, because what he told her allowed her to realize that she could defintiely be her true self with the person she loved the most and he wouldn’t push her away. 

And that’s a main point as to why she’s definitely going back to him without a doubt. :)) 

Sorry for rambling, I think you unknowingly addressed a subject I’m fond of. xD But yeah, context matters.