Do you think Juuzou Suzuya could be a half-human? When he was at the academy there were rumors that he was kidnapped as a child, but we don’t really know how he came into Big Madam’s care. Why would she use a small child as a scrapper rather than a larger slave? Also, when the CCG considering putting Juuzou into the field they stated he uncanny physical abilities, and half-humans also possess heightened physical abilities.

Hello Anon!

Well, had you sent me this question, say, a month ago, I would have raised my eyebrow and answered ‘errrr… no?’. However I’ve reread TG and started rereading :Re since then and as a matter of fact, while I was rereading about Juuzou confronting Big Madam during the auction arc, I briefly thought about it.

This is the scene in question that triggered the idea for me:

Big Madam kept him because his looks were good by chance => which I interpreted as, when she initially got Juuzou, she had no way to know he would be so beautiful and when it turned out that he was, she kept him.

So, in my opinion, that might mean that she acquired Juuzou when he was just a baby, which is to say, when it was impossible to tell yet whether he’d grow to be beautiful or not.

And I agree with you, for such a character, there is only one reason she would have kept a hybrid baby, waiting to see whether he’d be useful or not…

~~At some point I even thought that maybe Big Madam was Juuzou’s biological father (since Juuzou called him ‘father’ at the very end) but that’s a bit too cracky for now.~~

Of course, there are also Juuzou’s physical abilities to consider for this theory, because he was often referred to as Arima 2.0…

And Juuzou was an “exception” when he started working at the CCG, just like Arima (even though Arima was younger), so with this description he could indeed be a half human for all we know.

That being said, I’m not completely sure of this theory for two reasons:
1) if Juuzou was a half human then, being in his early/mid 20s, he should already show signs of advanced aging since Arima died in his early 30s…

…but we never had any hint of that in the story so far (or so I recall, but I could be wrong?).

2) this is personal, but I like the idea of some humans being good enough to hold their own against the ghouls. Like the Kuroiwas for example, but also especially Juuzou, since he’s such an amazingly strong fighter (and he’s Shinohara’s “successor”).

If he’s really human, then Juuzou’s incredible physical abilities could simply be explained by the fact that he was trained since being very little in order to become a very strong scrapper (”like he was from the circus”, they said at the CCG) and it’s a suitable explanation in my opinion.

So I’m on the fence Anon. I considered the idea at the end of the auction arc and I wouldn’t mind nor be surprised, but I think I just like the idea of Juuzou being this very strong human better, if just because we gotta leave some strong people to the human side. ^_^

I hope I answered your question, have a nice day!

Same anon, different ask since this one isn’t related to Berserk. Speaking of parallels, have you noticed any between Suzuya and Takizawa and Amon? I was surprised when I thought I saw the potential for some appear in :re with Takizawa and Amon’s background. I especially found the later very interesting considering how different Amon and Suzuya are and how they handled the trauma. (Granted, Big Madame and Donato are two very different ghouls to be raised by.)

Hey Anon! Sorry, I got so many Anons and a possible identity war between two of them that I can’t say anymore which Anon you were… ;_;

Anyway, hm… Honestly, I do see a parallel between Amon and Suzuya, if just because they were indeed raised by two ghouls. As you said though, Donato and Big Madam didn’t raise them similarly, although neither are exemplary parental figures.

I mean, Big Madam used horrible abuse as a way to “tame” Juuzou into what she wanted him to be (a pet and a scrapper), but she was so violent and destructive that Juuzou turned out to be the kid we met in TG. He had the most amazing luck because Shinohara then took care of him and helped him become an astounding young man, but Juuzou’s trauma was initially due to physical abuse and torture, which triggered a severe mental dissociation (”Juuzou and Rei”) and occasional fits of his own peculiar violence.

As for Amon, Donato probably never beat him, but he forced Amon to become the son he saw in him by breaking Amon’s illusions about family but entertaining his own, which is why he made Amon be a part of his life, by having him help with food after the murders of these young boys.

There again, Amon was rescued by the CCG and his traumatic past with Donato ended up making him hateful towards ghouls, something that was entertained when he found his own mentor in Mado Kureo (since Mado hated ghouls as well for what happened to Kasuka).

In any case, Juuzou and Amon developed differently because their respective childhood were different and they grew up to be different men: Juuzou doesn’t hate ghouls but he’s Shinohara’s successor so it’s his job as an investigator to hunt ghouls.

Meanwhile Amon became a OEG and is angry at the world, but he still won’t fight “for the ghoul side”, because he still sees himself as an investigator and he still sees Mado Kureo as someone worthy of his respect, probably because he could never forgive Donato for his traumatic childhood.

As with everything, it’s all relative though, because in Juuzou’s case, Kaneki is an important friend and in Amon’s case, he still has to face Donato because the Anteiku raid arc showed that he still somehow counted as a father figure for Amon.
Anyway, Juuzou and Amon both had their initial parental figures being a ghoul before human mentors took over in their development, but strangely enough, because of Donato’s methods and Big Madam’s being different, Amon and Juuzou grew up to be different men, both astounding in their own way.

As for Takizawa, well, I don’t think he’s similar to either Amon nor Juuzou, because his life is completely different. He had a normal childhood, being raised by a loving family. What lost Takizawa back when Aogiri experimented on him was that he gave up upon realizing that he wasn’t strong enough to even resist eating his own parents.

Then, because of a deeply-rooted inferiority complex, after the investigator in him “died in that prison” because he gave up, he focused on becoming stronger and more threatening because he was referred to as one of Kanou’s successes (a title that only Kaneki got besides him).
Seeing Akira again in the Auction arc made him lose his certainty that this life was the best he could hope to live though, which is why he ended up fighting Tatara for the CCG’s sake.
Aaand now that he’s on a redemption path, he yet took on a different path from Amon’s and Juuzou’s current respective paths.

So I wouldn’t say that his development really parallels Amon’s or Juuzou’s, whose respective backstories are definitely more similar because they were raised by two (albeit very different) ghouls before their respective human mentors took over.

Sorry for the ramble, but that’s my take on the subject, I hope it makes sense!

Have a nice day Anon. 🙂

I’d like to ask you how you would address Grell from Kuroshitsuji, since he/she is a transfemale. A lot of arguments have been going around about this, but I find it kinda irrelevant, I mean Yana didn’t want to cause a ruckus amongst the fandom just because of this, since some people are offended when sb call him « he ». I think calling him « he » is just ok, since he is a fictional character and he isn’t real (sadly) so.. We have such a one in TG, too ( Mutsuki Tooru )

midnight-in-town:

Hey Anon. 🙂

Sadly, this is indeed a discussion often leading to conflict if people don’t know how to act rational instead of going harshly at each other’s throat, and like you, I find these conflicts to be completely irrelevant for the simple reason that the view of the authors, who are of the Japanese culture, are probably completely different from our Western fandoms’ on tumblr.
…And besides, I believe there is never a good reason for such conflicts in the first place.

I’m pretty sure Yana-sensei never wanted people yelling at each other about what pronouns to use for a fictional character and, since it looks like you read TG, I’m pretty sure Ishida-sensei never wanted that either.
By the way, just to be accurate, Grell’s equivalent in TG isn’t Mutsuki but Nico 😉 since both are Okama characters (can’t blame you for the mistake, for some reason people tend to forget about Nico’s character whenever they start debating on the subject in the TG fandom).

Anyway, my answer to your question will be simple: be it for Grell in Kuroshitsuji, or for Nico, Big Madam or Mutsuki in Tokyo Ghoul, you can call them using “he” or “she” when you talk to me, I will never be one to yell at you that you’re being trans/cisphobic.
As for my personal opinion on the subject… Well, I know what pronouns I specifically attribute to them when privately discussing with people who are rational over such subjects or on sites that are not Tumblr, but publicly on here I always use ‘they’ for all of them.

Honestly, I fear that’s the only way to avoid people yelling at you for notions they think they understand and that also avoids getting hate if you want to speak about those characters (though I believe I saw once or twice people receiving hateful comments even when using the “they” pronoun).

TL;DR Anon: I’m sorry but I won’t give you my personal opinion because I might get attacked by one side or another of the two fandoms if I do lol

(”u should use he/she u trans/cisphobic person”)

and I’m not really fond of that. 🙂

I think you should keep on addressing the characters the way you feel you should and if someone is dumb enough to try correcting you, either ignore them or block them, because there is really no need to try and argue over this matter for fictional characters, not when there are people IRL who would really need the same support because of their choices.

Sorry, I don’t know if this helped or not but as you said those conflicts are irrelevant, so please just don’t get yourself thrown into them :3

Have a nice day Anon 🙂

Hey Anon 🙂 (decided to post it in the end, because A+ input ;))

As I said before I agree on basically all your points 🙂 though I wouldn’t compare the Okama type to anything considering this is so… Japanese, if you know what I mean.
It is indeed very foolish to try and decide on one pronoun for the Okama type, considering it’s such a peculiar thing of the Japanese culture. Quoting a very good post on the matter:

[quote] Okama is always derogatory, except when a person reclaims it to describe himself (like Nico does in Tokyo Ghoul). So while okamaused by the LGBT community means “effeminate gay man”, as an insult (meaning, when used by the general public) it means “tranny”.
Okama are men; they may or may not crossdress, they may or may not use make-up, they use stylized female speech and female gestures, but they don’t identify as women. I mean, going back to Tokyo Ghoul, you can call Nico “girl”, just as some gay men call each other “girl”, but if you seriously call him a woman or transgender, you’d be insulting him and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. [/quote]

The thing is, you can go and try to explain to people raising their voices about characters like Grell and Nico that it is indeed misinterpreting a different culture but people won’t listen if they don’t want to.

¯_(ツ)_/¯
That’s why, as I said above, I just avoid people speaking of things they think they understand when we have a different battle to fight IRL with people who aren’t Okamas and who would really need the same support.

I never was attacked by any of those ignorant fools, not yet at least haha, but still thank you for taking the time to write all this as it is something important and that no one should ever forget: “no fictional character in this world should be fought over to the point where someone gets hurt”.

Thank you again for your words Anon, I wish you a nice day. 🙂