Hello! Well, to be honest, I’m not so sure we will get so much focus on Nico, for reasons I already explained here.
Of course we will get a backstory (since Roma got one) and a few explanations, but this late in the plot, whatever answers we will get will be related to what’s left to find out about V, the Washuus, ghoul biology and possibly what happened 100 years ago, but in my opinion that’s it.
Same for Itori and Uta, still in my opinion. Just keep in mind that their agenda seems to go beyond just Furuta’s plans, they have other goals in life than fulfilling whatever it is that Furuta wants to achieve, so I doubt we will see these three go all out and fight like Roma did (or like Donato or Furuta might do soon).
Besides, we already saw Nico fight…
and again, there wasn’t a lot of focus given to it, so I’d say this won’t go further than that this time again.
Hello Anon! I hope you managed to catch up with the current arc. :3 So to answer all your questions:
Bravat is the one who’s managing most of the blue sect, at least to the public’s faces. However, he’s human and not the one who’s behind the revival of the star lords, which means that there is a mastermind, if not two who are supernatural and who are hiding in Bravat’s shadow.
You’re laughing now Anon, but what if I told you that every mask of Uta so far apparently meant something, huh? You still sure you wanna call his mask something it’s not? :p
More seriously though, I’m extremely curious about the fact it seems to be an half-mask…
…especially since he always wore full masks in the past.
Also when it comes to the pattern on it, I’d say it’s a cross, which is 200% relevant when you see the latest chapter and the fact that Uta, like Donato, have been associated with this pattern before (Donato => kagune, Uta => tattoo).
What it means exactly I don’t know, but just like his previous masks, there is most likely a precise reason he chose to wear this one:
his very first mask without eyes (flashback of TG vol 12 or TG ch143) was probably about his nickname by the CCG: “No face”
his mask when facing Juuzou in the Clowns’ raid arc was probably about being No Face again, but it also was literally a target, which is “funny” when Juuzou uses knives as favorite weapon (it was like Uta was saying “please hit here on my face so I can transform into Shinohara and trick you”).
So the half mask and, mostly, the cross pattern are probably meaningful in some aspects but personally I haven’t figured out how exactly yet. 🙂
Hello Anon! Well, except that we now know that Seb won’t form multiple contracts…
…so we can be sure that there isn’t any bond between Seb and real!Ciel.
As for real!Ciel being the big bad, I don’t think it is the case and this has nothing to do with if he had had a contract with Seb or not, in my opinion.
Personally
I think real!Ciel definitely played a part during what happened on December 14th, that’s the real!Ciel mastermind theory (see the RCMT tag), but in the end he was manipulated by the real big bad (and target of Ciel’s revenge) which led to the twins being abducted and sold to that horrible cult.
Now that would be a very interesting question, eh Anon? xD Except that fans don’t agree on this subject and this generally leads to debates.
Personally I think there are way too many similarities for them not to have a link (at least), in case they’re not 100% exactly the same entity.
In fact, for a long time a lot of fans were trusting in Schierke’s guess about the boy having to do with the Elf Queen guiding them, but since Gedfryn debunked that upon their arrival, it seems even more probable for these two kiddos to be related (and no character in the story has a clue, because no one knows that Guts and Casca had a baby, besides Guts, Casca, Griffith and the Skull Knight).
Honestly, I think that as long as we don’t figure out the moonlight child’s completely mysterious nature (since we at least know that the demon infant’s corporeal body was fused with Femto to make Griffith 2.0), fans will keep on having debates about whether these two are one and the same or not.
Again, personally I don’t really have any doubt about a link between them and actually, I explained my current guess in two theories (that can go together), if you’re interested…
but that doesn’t have to convince anyone, so unfortunately Anon, I think you’ll have to decide for yourself if they’re one and the same or not, at least for the time being. :3
Sorry if this doesn’t help so much, it’s one of these things in Berserk where it’s easy to think there is a link, but Sensei could give it a more complicated twist anytime. I mean, the moonlight child is way too inconsistent as a character:
he grew up notably in just one lunar cyle (as is his growth is linked to Griffith 2.0 gaining more and more influence),
there was possibly Zodd watching over him in vol28 and not the second time we saw him (or if so Guts didn’t notice and Sensei didn’t hint at it),
the brand doesn’t react to him despite having a strong association with the “Hawk of Light” that’s a religious concept currently embodied by Griffith 2.0 (especially the time he saved Guts from the Sea God)
he’s way too powerful in general
he’s cute but way too unfathomable
which is why a deeper or more complex twist to this part of the plot isn’t impossible.
As always sorry for rambling Anon. I hope you’ll have a nice day!
THE NEW BERSERK CHAPTER WAS AWESOME! A good belated birthday gift for me. (^3^)/
First thing first, it’s definitely possible we’re on hiatus yes, but when it comes to having a chapter the following month or going on hiatus, either way it’s usually clearly written on the last page and yet this time it wasn’t so
¯_(ツ)_/¯
are we on hiatus/is Sensei just taking a shorter break this time? I’m not sure for now.
As for Casca, it always was obvious, considering how big her trauma was, that she wouldn’t automatically be okay with everything upon waking up, especially since the Skull Knight had warned us (and Guts) from the beginning:
Thus it’s normal that now she needs time to process and cope with remembering everything, even more so when she described herself post-Eclipse as “Elaine”, a woman she initally sees as being distinct from her…
…at least until the memories start flooding back to her.
However, we didn’t spend almost 20 volumes on getting her back to have her being unable to cope with what happened during the Eclipse again, so I’m sure that with time, comfort and talking it through with Guts
(because he too still has a lot of issues that he completely locked deep within himself), she’ll find a way to slowly feel better.
Speaking of Guts, for now I disagree with the general idea I could see in the fandom after the new chapter came out that she’s going to associate him with being a reminder of the Eclipse and that she’ll be disgusted/scared of him again
for a while. I mean, of course it’s a possibility but frankly, since the memories were flooding back to her before she even saw Guts, I’d rather say that he simply was the trigger to Casca remembering the Eclipse and what happened with Griffith.
TBH, Casca has no real reason to be mad at Guts when it comes to the Eclipse. She already chided him for leaving the Hawks before they went to get Griffith back and anyway, Griffith is the one who decided to sacrifice everyone and hurt her and Guts.
So at first I guess she could irrationally be pissed at Guts for bringing her back and for having to cope with everything when she couldn’t before, but I wouldn’t bet for this to last. Similarly, she could understandably be mad at Guts for what almost happened during vol23, but it’s something that he already loathes himself for + anyway, as a parallel to when they made love the first time…
it would make sense that they find a way to both get over it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way trying to dismiss Casca’s trauma, or Guts’ for that matter, but narratively speaking they’re stronger together when it comes to facing Griffith, as Guts’ recent sanity 100% resting on his hope to see the woman he loves coming back is proving. Besides, Guts and Casca becoming very close is what led Griffith to become beyond pissed at them in the first place, which is also why he did what he did the moment he became Femto, so it’d make sense that together they strive to be Griffith’s downfall.
Anyway, all that to say that Casca coming back isn’t supposed to kill the Gutsca dynamic forever or to make either character stagnate. They’ll both have some tough time becoming as close as they used to be and the end of ch355 is literally leading us to that, but ultimately they’ll find a way, if just because…
there is still someone who binds them and that’s without mentioning all the previous foreshadowing of Casca taking both her sword…
and her mantle of leader again.
TL;DR tough awakening for Casca for sure, but she’ll slowly find a way to cope with everything for her sake and the sake of the people she still loves. 🙂
Sorry for rambling! xD I hope it answers the few questions you had about the new chapter!
BTW, I forgot to mention that earlier during the week, but @linkspooky and I discussed the idea that the Clowns might still have a little agent inside the CCG who is leaking info and thus responsible for their perfect timing in the latest chapter!
And since Furuta is not in the CCG anymore in the current arc, it means it’s most likely someone else (a character we know?) who’s been leaking these info.
We’ve had another hint before about an unknown little spy during ch143 of TG actually, when Itori said…
because Furuta was there in the same scene, so the way she explained it to the rest of the gang makes me think that she possibly got this information from another person who had their way into the CCG.
Same for the Auction arc, since Uta didn’t bother hiding to Mutsuki that he knew the details of the operation:
even if this time the info could have also come from Furuta.
So who could this agent be, if they’re real of course (and if we know them)?
I also considered Ito Kuramoto because… well, he’s pretty irrelevant so far amongst all the other recurring investigators so maybe Sensei has something planned with him + he kinda has a fox face and that generally means the character is cunning/sly xD
Someone from Suzuya’s personal squad? Hanbee and Nakarai aside, the others two are like Kuramoto, pretty irrelevant despite being recurring characters…
That’s all I’ve got. Maybe the explanation to the impeccable timing is entirely different and there is no spy, but…
…I’m really trying not to underestimate Itori’s information network. xD
While talking with acchan we came up with the possibility that the spy among the CCG might actually be an unwitting one.
Remember, there was somebody else present at the meeting besides Kimi, Touka, Nishiki and Hideyoshi. Kaneki was there as well, and the attack started the moment the he suggested he go to find the source of the poison.
Kaneki himself might be the informant for the clowns, though entirely unaware of it.
Remember we still don’t know the full explanation of what happened in V14, and when Hide and Kaneki were on the rooftop talking abot it and confirming that Kaneki was indeed the one who scarred Hide’s face, it would have been the perfect time to finally elaborate on that whole scene…
Unless… there was something we are still not meant to know about it. Both Nikki and Shar @kingkishou and @mawjaw respectively have put forward a theory for awhile that during V14, there’s something suspicious about the empty eye underneath Kaneki’s eyepatch. [1,2].
Basically the theory goes, before Kaneki has his eye gauged out by Arima, we’re shown an eyepatch covering one of his eyes and his mask missing. Then the eyepatch is removed and the eye is already gaged out and looks like an empty socket before Arima even struck there.
However, afterwards suspiciously Uta is shown holding an eye while musing about the fate of Kaneki.
If that’s indeed Kaneki’s eye that he’s holding, removed by Uta himself that would put Uta present at the scene, as a third party besides both Kaneki and Hide.
Before I go on, here’s what we do know about V14.
Hide found Kaneki and either brought him too or found him inside of the sewers and told him to flee through V14.
Hide knew ahead of time somehow that Arima would be there waiting for him.
Hide told Kaneki that he would have to “prove his worth” to Arima.
Hide offered himself for Kaneki to eat up to replenish himself. Kaneki was indeed the person who ate Hide and scarred him.
However there are still several missing pieces that we do not know, and really cannot solve with just inference and occam’s razor.
We still do not know:
Who saved Hide when he was lying in the sewers half dead with half of his face eaten off.
Who gave Kaneki the eyepatch that covers half of his face.
Also, who took Kaneki’s mask after that point. As he was still wearing it after the fight with Amon, and is shown still wearing it when crawling around in pain before Hide found him.
Considering the fact that Hide lived, therefore it’s logical to infer that there was a third party. We also now have an explanation for who sent Kaneki the book, but not who sent him his mask back.
I mean, presumably it was Uta.
We don’t know exactly though his reason for sending it. Unless it was bait for Kaneki to return to his shop. However, if Uta knew that Kaneki was missing his mask becase Uta was the one who removed it from him due to him being the third party in the sewer than the reasons behind the two presents would click together.
Uta as a third party, removed Kaneki’s eyeball, either saved or facilitated the saving of Hide, and then placed a microphone behind Kaneki’s eyeball, or some similiar device to the one on Hajime Hazuki’s tongue in order to further track him as the main character in the clown’s play or for some other weird Uta related reason.
We are given several hints that there’s something behind one of Sasaki’s eyes that is giving him chronic pain. Specifically a pain in the back of his eyes.
In a recent color illustration, Kaneki is also shown as bleeding from that exact same eye which has caused people including myself to speculate he might need to rip out his human eye at some point rather than his ghoul one as a symbol of accepting his ghoul side.
Anyway, that’s all food for thought. Here’s my takeaway from what acchan put forward. There’s a microphone behind Kaneki’s eye still and Uta’s the one who put it there because he’s sneaky the clown.
@linkspooky THANK YOU! I had forgotten to mention this precisely but this is indeed another possibility (and I just love the sewer theory, because it also gives an agenda to Hide, as I explained in one link I added above)!
Hi Anon and thanks for reading! 🙂 Well, it’s because Kuramoto is rather recurring as an investigator and yet he has 0 arc or development (unlike Ui, Takeomi or even Kiyoko) that I’m suspecting him. I mean it’s Ishida-sensei we’re talking about here and he even gave him several birthday arts, so I simply think there could be more to his character. xD
As for Hide, well, you said it, there is indeed something about his outfit in that childhood’s play to be remembered since Ganbo (a Clown) had a very similar makeup. I proposed other ideas in the link I added above, so please check them out because there is more than one I’m suspecting a link between Hide and the Clowns!
Just to precise though, Hide possibly having a few interests in common with the Clowns doesn’t mean that they’re 100% agreeing on everything or that he’s a villain (since not all the Clowns are villains in the first place, in my opinion). I mean, this is just a theoretical example, but since Hide motivated Kaneki to go find a cure in the latest chapter, if he’s actually the person who informed the Clowns, you could see this as him making sure that the Clowns would act up precisely so that Kaneki would get moving.
Anyway, it’s all theoretical and I also really like the idea that Spooky-chan proposed just above 😀 so this should give us plenty to think about until we can see which explanation it is. 🙂
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts! Have a nice weekend Anon :3
…OKAY, you sound like you want the whole thing Anon, so I and @linkspooky will deliver. 😉
For the record though, let me just say I really enjoy Hide’s character (and I think his friendship with Kaneki is 200% genuine) but I can’t stand fans who make it sound like he’s only about Kaneki. Taking away a character’s agency when he was given so many warning signs of playing a bigger game is just the worst you can do as a fan, because Hide is way more compelling as someone who has other goals besides just Kaneki (and besides Kaneki himself really doesn’t need people revolving just around him, be it Touka, Hide, Tsukiyama or anyone else).
Anyway, “am I suspecting Hide”? Why, yes I am. I even gave a link above to a recap post about why I think there might be a link between him and the Clowns + Spooky-chan just wrote above too why there might be a strong link with Uta. If you need more to consider that Hide possibly has an agenda though, then how about the latest crack theory thought up by @linkspooky?
It’s about ch31.5 and Kaneki’s two gifts for Christmas. We know that Hide definitely is the one behind the book (:Re ch164) and Uta the one behind the mask (:Re ch36). The remaining question is who, out of them both, sent the two items since they arrived at the same time?
One could think it’s Uta, but…
…he denied it. Obviously Uta is not above lying (he’s a troll for a reason), but @linkspooky pointed out to me that Uta literally said that he “intended [the mask] as a present for a regular customer” precisely as we get a panel focusing on the headphones he was listening to and…
guess who is often associated with headphones?
Besides, didn’t people point out that Hide’s wound totally has a similarity to Kaneki’s very first mask? Which means that Kaneki’s first mask would be ideal to cover Hide’s wound:
So @linkspooky’s latest idea is that Uta actually sent Kaneki’s old mask to Hide as a present and he’s the one who then sent both the mask and the book to Kaneki for Christmas, which would mean that 1) Uta didn’t lie in ch36 and 2) Hide and Uta totally have a link in that case (and as I also proposed a while ago, maybe Hide even was the one Uta was playing chess with in ch38).
You can add this to the sewer theory that Spooky-chan explained just above, as well as my own recap post that’s proposing a few other ideas of the same ilk.
Finally, if you or anyone else still don’t think that a link between Hide and the Clowns is likely at all, then how about some early foreshadowing instead?
Because this is definitely about the current arc + it says “controlled by magicians” right above and Hide…
…was strongly associated with being a magician from a long time ago already.
Anyway, you have to understand that I’m not calling Hide a villain. However, he’s an extremely cunning character about whom we know almost nothing and, most importantly, he was being a thorn in the Washuus’ back according to his own words, which means that strong allies (like the Clowns) could have been useful and thus I’m totally calling him out on having an agenda that isn’t revolving just around Kaneki.
TL;DR I totally suspect Hide of having a link with the Clowns (Uta and Itori specifically), just like I suspect him from possibly being the one who made sure that the Clowns would start shit up the moment they did so in the latest chapter (possibly because he’s a part of Itori’s info network), so that Kaneki would hurry up and leave to find a cure.
And if not him, then it’s Kaneki who doesn’t know that he has a microphone behind his right eye ever since V14. Or it’s Kuramoto.
As always though maybe I’m wrong, but frankly there isn’t a lot of things we know almost nothing about besides V, the Clowns and Hide in the plot, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all linked one way or another.
I hope it answers your question! Have a nice weekend Anon :))
Obviously, my friends still carry their medication with them in case of an unexpected asthma attack, because those can still happen depending on several circumstances
(I even had one dealing with a massive attack despite being in their 20s and needing to go to the hospital just in case), but the gist of it is that their immune system definitely thoughened up over the years. 🙂
I’m certainly not going to give a lecture about how/why asthma happens (physical overactivity and cold being two big triggers), but since we could see ever since the circus arc that Ciel wasn’t cured from his illness, it’s just that he’s sick less frequently, this does seem to be the most likely explanation at this time!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I definitely agree with you. :))
Awwww thank you so much! But you know, you will still be able to send asks, it’s just that I’ll answer privately because the Anon mode will be off. ^_^
It’s not because I go on semi-hiatus that I won’t be around at all to discuss the series I generally blog about, it’s just that overall I will have less and less time, the closer we get to December. Besides, I’m as nice and rambling privately as I am publicly, at least I hope that it’s the feeling I give in my private answers (hopefully some people can confirm this). xD Otherwise there is still commenting on my posts that’s enabled and I answer there too! :3
As for Berserk, ahhh I’m so very happy you’re giving it a try!! ^3^ It’s truly an incredible series on so many aspects, despite how violent it is, and it’s really the perfect time to get into it, since we just reached a big pivotal moment in the story! For real, we were heading there for basically 18 volumes (12 when it comes to this goal in particular) and it finally happened, so it’s the perfect time to dive right in!
Good luck for everything since you seem so busy too Anon and I wish you a wonderful weekend as well! ❤ ❤
The specialization I’m going for with the exam of December is not the usual job people know/think about when you say “pharmaceutical” though… + I guess the study paths are different in every country, so the usual job people think about when I say what I study (i.e dealing with prescriptions) hopefully won’t be what I end up in, at least if I can avoid it. 🙂
midnight-in-town 