Hello Anon! So I went back to check and you’re right, there is always a ghoul shown in those chapters. 🙂
For the kakuja panel, I think it’s simply supposed to illustrate what a Kakuja is like, but I believe many people are convinced that the character represented was Arata, since it does look like a Koukaku.
For ch40 and ch128, I’m not sure that they’re the same person. I always thought Yoshimura was thinking about Eto in the discussion of ch40 and it looks like her dress. As for ch128, they were discussing the previous OEK and they’re expecting him or her to be alive, so that was probably his/her shadow! Some people mentioned that the shadow of :Re ch128 looked to have the same parted hair as Yoshitoki/Furuta, implying that maybe the previous OEK has a link to the Washuu family originally.
So I don’t think they were the same person, but in ch40 and ch128 they can be taken as direct examples for characters that Ishida had (ch40)/has (:Re ch128) yet to expand on.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Anon and have a nice day! 🙂
Hello Anon 🙂 I’m doing okay, thank you! I hope you are too. ^^
Thanks for the question too, because it’s one of the points I was hoping to solve when I decided to reread the series. I’m not completely through :Re yet, so I’ll reblog my answer and edit it if I were to change my mind, but right now here’s how I see things:
Does advanced aging applies to rare cases (naturally born OEGs) like Eto?
I think the answer is no and I have several reasons to think so. First of all, the reason Eto is a rare case is that most children who are a mix of a ghoul/human union generally turn out like Arima and the children from the Sunlit Garden…
so she’s rare because she’s literally a half ghoul, and as result I think that’s why she can apparently eat human food (daifuku, apple…) and why she probably has…
…the telomerase enzyme that can increase the length of the telomeres, like full bred ghouls.
Second thing, as you said, seeing her kakuja, she very probably cannibalized quite a lot over the years, so even if she was threatened by advanced aging, she might have found a way to slow it thanks to cannibalizing. That being said, I stay on my initial explanation that, as a literal “half ghoul”, she is the perfect example of a being that is half human (so who can eat human food) and half ghoul (so who has the telomerase enzyme).
Finally…
It seems that Kaneki’s side believes that the previous OEG (the one who took ghouls to the 24th ward) might still be alive, despite probably being over 100 years old. So since this OEG was a rare case like Eto (despite us not knowing whether the mom was a human or a ghoul) and since Nishiki seems to vouch for him maybe being alive (when Nishiki is the one who explained about advanced aging to Kaneki), I’d say that it’s one more hint that natural OEGs have that telomerase enzyme and thus age at a normal speed.
Btw, the idea that the previous OEG might have been Noro [x] [x] doesn’t contradict this theory.
TL;DR the reason that Eto said…
…is probably because she’s been fighting in order to change the world for 13 years already and that definitely is a long time. Besides, this happened just before she went to surrender, so the plan to turn Kaneki into the next OEK was already well launched and she probably had her doubts about maybe making it alive.
Or maybe she was simply slightly depressed, because Kaneki becoming the OEK meant that Arima would die. So all in all, not many reasons to feel joyful about the plan moving on, when both she and Arima had a very likely chance not to see the outcome of what they hoped and worked for all these years.
If not, why couldn’t she become the OEK herself?
In my opinion, the two questions are in fact not so linked, despite what we could think initially. Anyway, to sum up I think your answer here is a mix of raw strength and ideation.
The previous OEK was Arima and Arima was definitely stronger than Eto…
but the other issue here is what they both represented to their respective sides through their strength: Arima was the knight of the CCG, the ultimate ghoul killer, while Eto was the hope of the ghoul kind, so the strongest between them (Arima) was basically making his/her side the prevailing one in this conflict (so the CCG/the human kind was winning until recently).
That’s why the OEK that was supposed to bring changes to the world had to be someone stronger than Arima, in order to give hope and some chances to the losing side so far that was the ghoul kind, and this person couldn’t be Eto because she wasn’t stronger than Arima. Besides, Arima was only the exterior of what’s locking the world in a twisted bird cage (V’s equilibrium), so that’s probably why Arima and Eto wanted someone who was really stronger than both of them for the job.
The second part of the answer is ideation: to be honest, while Eto and Arima had a common goal that was changing the world and breaking V’s equilibrium, I don’t think their reasons to do it were similar. In Eto’s case, she hated the world…
…and that’s why she created Aogiri in order to make it a world for ghouls instead.
Meanwhile, in Arima’s case, his reason was probably his fate as “a hybrid from the Sunlit Garden”. As a member of the CCG (pretending to be a normal human), he certainly had more of a place in the world than Eto or any ghoul did, but it was all in appearance since, as a hybrid, he was in fact condemned to be a pawn of V and kill ghouls until he were to die himself.
However, the real answer to breaking this twisted equilibrium is to make the world one of coexistence between ghouls and humans and only Kaneki so far was presented as the one capable to understand the two sides and bring them together…
So between that and him being stronger than both Arima and Eto by a small margin… that’s why he was chosen. Once a very strong and feared ghoul, then a respected investigator, he ended up as the OEK because he’s the only one who always belonged to the two sides of the world (without taking into account his own personal issues, for simplicity’s sake).
Not to ramble for much longer, but the reason not even Amon or Seidou (or Kurona) would have worked instead of Kaneki (despite Eto trying with Kanou’s experiments) is that, besides the strength differences,
none of them once pretended to belong to the two sides: Amon has trouble acknowledging that he is now half ghoul while Seidou decided to live as one, which is why only Kaneki could do in the end.
Sorry for this super long answer, I hope that it makes sense!
I’m still in the process of rereading TG but after the newest chapter I’m wondering if Eto really is the one who kept Noro “alive” all these years, as we all thought for a long time.
He was shown/said to eat a lot, always, and he’s from the 24th ward so many readers already suspected he could have a link to the previous OEG who took his kind underground + as a OEG himself it would make sense that he sheltered and protected Eto at her father’s demand.
Also, now that we know that eating/cannibalizing a lot helps ghouls with slowing down aging, at least when it comes to the physical appearance like Roma who’s 51 but looks like a teenager…
…maybe Noro used to eat a lot too because it was necessary to “keep young” and stay “alive” since as the previous OEG he would have been around 100 years old in the current timeline.
Him keeping a young appearance (at least) through eating a lot until he was killed could also explain why only a skull was left after his death.
TL;DR maybe Aogiri was the one who had the “underground king” with them, which makes sense, since they wanted to build a society for ghouls. Noro was the previous OEG/OEK, ruler of the 24th and the one that was referred to as the “Naagaraj” and, like Roma, he kept a young appearance for years despite being 100 years through eating/cannibalizing a lot, until he went all out against the Qs and only a skull was left as he died.
(Will edit if by rereading the series something is off with this theory. :))
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only. I do not own or originally created any contents in this novel. Tokyo Ghoul :re[quest] (東京喰種–トーキョーグール-:re[quest]) is written by Towada Shin (十和田シン), which based on Tokyo
Ghoul(東京喰種トーキョーグール) series, the creation of
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-1-
Hiding under other people’s wings forever, then you’ll end up achieve
nothing, and lose everything
So she raised up her courage, stepped into the shade of the Tree where
could never be shined by sunlight, for she hoped she herself would have enough
strength to help others.
Hello 🙂 They weren’t my metas at all but links towards @kingkishou’s. I totally agree that they are interesting and enjoyable though.
About Touka’s pregnancy, since it seems eating human food is useless, I do think she will have to take this matter to someone else and this someone else could be:
The Great wheel act => they have doctors and overall they want to help ghouls so who knows if they might not have a few ideas to try, yes. Besides, Kimi was a part of them and…
So since Nishiki himself seems well aware of the difference between humans and ghouls (see his explanation in :Re ch131), who knows if the Great Wheel act might not have a few clues that might be helpful for Touka’s pregnancy.
Kanou => just like with Akira, he’s the other possibility to the Great Wheel act since he also knows quite a lot about ghouls but to see them would mean Touka most likely willingly went to the CCG. It’s possible if we say that she actually intends on going to rescue Yoriko (despite not wanting Kaneki to be) or in case she’s captured and Kanou is interested by her pregnancy, but I think we all don’t want Kanou to get anywhere near Kaneki’s baby.
Itori => as this post explains, she seems very knowledgeable about hybrid pregnancies for a still unknown reason and I’m not sure the Clowns will manage to stay completely neutral for the rest of the story, so who knows if she might not know more on the subject than what she once told Kaneki.
That’s about all the possibilities that I see for now.
As for Kaneki’s aging issue, well, as you read here, I think that it’s possible that Eto’s gift…
…might be one of the keys to Kaneki’s possible survival through the aging problem, so I’m not so sure the Great Wheel act will have any means to help more if Eto really is one of the keys.
The Great Wheel act is important because it’s the first (and for now only) human-based organization that’s supporting the ghoul kind and so they have a role to play if coexistence is really to happen. However, as we saw with Akira, they don’t have as many means as the CCG labs or Kanou hold and so I am doubting that they might really be able to help Kaneki and/or Touka.
Again please don’t forget that Touka’s pregnancy is peculiar because it’s the first hybrid pregnancy with a ghoul mama that we came across in the story. As a result, I wouldn’t be surprised if more significant biological reveals were linked to finding a way to make it viable.
That’s why I would love for Itori’s return a few chapters ago not to be random but rather synced with the reveal of Touka’s pregnancy (besides my obvious bias to see more of her since I like her character a lot).
I hope it answers your question, have a nice day Anon!
Hello Anon! Honestly, you’re right, we have an initial issue with people in the 24th ward starving, which makes it hard to eat it at all, be it ghoul or human meat.
Besides cannibalizing, he can try to stop fighting, but we saw with his… apparent choice to go rescue Yoriko that he doesn’t plan on doing that either.
So, Nishiki’s options might not be the most likely to have a positive effect, but I wouldn’t say that he’s doomed yet either. Please read these posts, by @kingkishou:
Something special about Eto/Yoshimura’s kagune: [x] [addition]
remember Eto’s “gift” to Kaneki (in the form of a new hand that “doesn’t regenerate properly”) after their fight in the Roze arc? I think it could be one of the keys.
I’m not ready to say that Kaneki is doomed and maybe I’m wrong to be a little optimistic, but in my opinion, it kind of kills the tragedy effect to announce wayyy in advance that the main character is going to die when there are still things that we don’t know, especially biologically speaking when it comes to V and the Washuu family.
It’s like Touka’s pregnancy: we know since TG ch134 that “it can’t work” and yet, we learnt since then of Eto and of the Sunlit Garden so… it could be a double feint and Ishida is revealing all of this, making us think there will be a positive twist and there won’t, but :Re was not described as a tragedy, unlike TG, which means that I still think solutions do exist. 🙂
Maybe Kaneki will find a way to cannibalize or maybe (just like for Touka’s pregnancy) the solution will be linked to what we don’t know yet. Hard to say at this point, but I’m really looking forward to it and in the meantime we have some quality metas about the different possibilities!
Sorry if it doesn’t help so much explained like that Anon. Please have a nice weekend. 🙂
I`ve been thinking about Eto`s revolution again, and if my idea about Eto wanting to eradicate the CCG/V/Washuu or what ever she sees as the warped root, is right. If that faction is destroyed and smashed to pieces, I guess it will solve some problems. Ghoul kind would not be hunted down by this special force anymore, and I guess they could come out of hiding. They would walk among the humans.
But what then, what happens after that? The simple removal of the faction will not solve the food problem, that has been raised again and again in different disccucssion here. Maybe CCG/V/Washuu acted as an mental cage that made people only reconsider the militaristic option when dealing problems with ghouls, so as they are taken care of maybe the mindset towards ghouls will change? Aiding ghouls was a severe crime, so if that goes away maybe people`s mindset will change?
But I think this still raises some problems even if that were the case. Now at the moment ghoul kind has been shunned to live underground. I wonder if that has made them bitter towards humans? So when the CCG/V/Wahsuu is crushed, I wonder how they will treat or react to the humans above ground, who sheered when Furuta was giving a speech on top of a pile of ghoul corpses? Also there is potentially a an even older civilization in the depths of the 24th ward, possibly harboring even older and stronger hatred towards the CCG and the rest of the humankind.
So what I am getting at with this is that when you remove the powerful faction that was the CCG, yes you indeed solve the problem that you erase an organization that was very oppressive towards ghouls, making their life very hard, almost impossible. But, even thou how evil and how much of Washuu`s plaything the CCG is/was, I think it still acted as an safeguard of sorts to protect humans from ghoul attacks. If that safeguard is removed, and humanity is left to deal with a ghoul mass that possibly has very negative feelings towards it`s cousin, I am terrified of what it means. I think it might be the return of this age:
“I mean, that was back when almost every ghoul ate well enough to use their kagune…”
As a human, that sounds pretty terrifying to me. What if there are more ghouls like Rize, who don´t seem to care about balance? If the aftermath of the possibly downfall of the CCG is not dealt with correctly, I fear that it might the beginning of the tyranny of ghouls.
Hello! And that is a nice question, because I’d really love to have any mention of Kasuka again, no matter the circumstances.
That being said…
…No I don’t think that Kasuka is still alive, unfortunately although maybe parts of her body were left somewhere near /in that city even if it’s been a long time since she was killed and eaten.
Might I use the occasion of your message to say that…
…I’m not so sure that this is Eto anymore, if just because Eto is basically around the same age as Akira (correct me if I’m wrong but she’s 27 when Akira is 26 or something like that) and Akira was a young girl when her mother died. This One Eye doesn’t look like a child, so I’m wondering if Kasuka’s killer isn’t…
“the one eyed bastard that lives here”, especially since Eto thought back on the days she fought against Kuroiwa, Arima… but not when she fought against Kasuka, which is another hint in my opinion that Kasuka’s killer isn’t Eto, contrarily to what Akira and maybe her father (and us readers) always thought.
So, I’m sorry Anon, I don’t think Kasuka is still alive, even if it would be very nice to hear about her again, but here have a little theory about Kasuka’s killer instead. :3
I hope it answers your question, have a nice weekend!
Eto is roughly 2-3 years older than Akira. The one who killed Kasuka is most certainly Eto when you take into account that she was already a SSS rated gang leader at 14 years old. Also take into account that the one-eyed ghoul in this flashback clearly has the classic Owl kagune which at the time belonged only to Eto and her father.
Keep in mind that Eto killed Mikito Urie in the same brutal fashion but never recalled the events of this killing either.
I’m well aware that Eto started to lead people and her rebellion at the age of 13/14 and that she was quite powerful, but again Akira was very young (below 10) I believe when her mom died (again, correct me if that’s not the case), which is why I’m suspicious of the one eye in the flashbacks really being a young teen Eto (maybe not even 13 at the time), when Eto is also a small person in height.
You’re right about Eto not remembering about every killing of hers though, and about the Kagune being typically that of the Owl’s (which is why everyone always thought it was Eto in the first place), but I still have this nagging (and probably off the mark) little doubt, since the attack took place “deep” within the 24th ward and Eto might have been younger than 13/14 when Kasuka died.
At this point you’re more likely to be right so again, thanks for the addition, but I’ll still keep it as a crack theory xD
Hello Anon, thank you for correcting me! You’re right, I went to check and it happened “ten years ago” in TG, which would have been when Akira was around 11 years old 🙂
So that would have made Eto 13 or 14, which could make her Kasuka’s killer!
Hello! And that is a nice question, because I’d really love to have any mention of Kasuka again, no matter the circumstances.
That being said…
…No I don’t think that Kasuka is still alive, unfortunately although maybe parts of her body were left somewhere near /in that city even if it’s been a long time since she was killed and eaten.
Might I use the occasion of your message to say that…
…I’m not so sure that this is Eto anymore, if just because Eto is basically around the same age as Akira (correct me if I’m wrong but she’s 27 when Akira is 26 or something like that) and Akira was a young girl when her mother died. This One Eye doesn’t look like a child, so I’m wondering if Kasuka’s killer isn’t…
“the one eyed bastard that lives here”, especially since Eto thought back on the days she fought against Kuroiwa, Arima… but not when she fought against Kasuka, which is another hint in my opinion that Kasuka’s killer isn’t Eto, contrarily to what Akira and maybe her father (and us readers) always thought.
So, I’m sorry Anon, I don’t think Kasuka is still alive, even if it would be very nice to hear about her again, but here have a little theory about Kasuka’s killer instead. :3
I hope it answers your question, have a nice weekend!
although maybe parts of her body were left somewhere near /in that city even if it’s been a long time since she was killed and eaten.
midnight-in-town 