hinami used to believe this, she used to believe that it was hard to be happy and all she and everyone else can do is just live. but this is her right now,
she was smiling and laughing in all her scenes in this chapter. she found her happiness.
she isn’t just living for the sake of living or for the sake of others anymore. she used to dedicate everything she did for the sake of kaneki and touka as well. she got stronger for them, dirtied her hands for them and was willing to sacrificed her life for them. she lived simply to be of use to them, so that they can live on.
now she lives for herself. she’s still a kind ghoul who wants to help others, but she doesn’t do this by fighting and getting stronger. it’s not her thing. she teaches orphans to read and write, which are things she enjoys. and like. i don’t even have to talk about the shopping. she’s clearly having fun as well, living life for herself.
we didn’t get to see how she transitioned to this stage, but i feel like seeing kaneki and touka achieve their own happiness, knowing that she had nothing to blame herself for anymore probably helped her take the first step to moving on. being with ayato probably helped to her to take the next step towards her own happiness. hinami’s story began with tragedy, as did kaneki’s, touka’s, ayato’s, etc. but she managed to end it with love and happiness.
Starting by the easiest, yes, obviously she does (just like him) and there are so many hints that I don’t think it’s very necessary for me to expand on this. xD
It’s something they just haven’t told to each other out loud yet, but I think it might happen when the Dragoneki crisis finally is solved (or in order to solve it, we’ll know soon enough). :))
By the way, she has yet to call him Ken too, even though they’re married, but it’s a romantic development that will happen as well at some point!
Hinami
Not in my opinion! I think Hina loves both Touka and Kaneki immensely, but just not in a romantic way, and the whole point of ch142 was to focus on her being mistaken when thinking that she was not good enough to be by their side.
She felt responsible for triggering what she thinks was Kaneki changing when the case with her mother happened & she felt “jealous” of Touka (careful tho, the word used in Japanese has a positive connotation as explained here), because she was striving to become as strong and reliable as she sees Touka to be.
However, as explained in this great meta by @ayahinas, ch142 was just yet another stone used to build up to more character development for Hina, which is something that I, too, understood as leading towards a likely romantic relationship with Ayato.
There was never any romantic longing for Kaneki in Hina’s character for me, rather he’s her family (her onii-chan). 🙂
Eto
Nope, at least for me! If Eto ever held romantic feelings for anyone, I suspect it was probably Arima (even though Tatara was also longing for her ;_;) but I’m not an expert on this specific subject. x)
In my opinion,
Eto was like yet another “mother figure” for Kaneki, which is a role she took upon herself too and which is why she said:
because with Arima, she ended “giving birth” to the next OEK. So, nope!
Rize
Um, actually, Rize (as in the real girl, not the personification of Kaneki’s mind) probably doesn’t even remember who Kaneki is (I mean he was just this meal that ended up destroying her whole life),
so not at all.
Mutsuki
Against, it’s just my opinion, but yep I definitely think that Mucchan totally was obsessed and in love with Sasaki (not Kaneki though, just to precise, because it makes a notable difference since Sasaki is just one part of Kaneki).
I explained why I thought so before here and here, so please check these posts for more details!
Tsukiyama
It starts getting complicated. xD So to make things simple, let’s just say that I think it’s definitely possible that Tsukiyama felt something like romantic love for Kaneki at some point, but it’s not something that has to be as clear as day for everyone, including Tsukiyama himself.
Whether Tsukiyama ever felt romantic love for Kaneki or not though, for me, ever since he realized a while ago that these possible romantic feelings always were going to be unrequited, I think…
it changed in favor of a love that’s not romantic anymore.
Tsukiyama only acted possessive & jealous with Kaneki back when he considered him to be a top class meal. After that, it became genuine concern over bringing Haise back to who he used to be, because Tsukiyama realized that he really cared about Kaneki as a person…
but still, never once after the Anteiku raid arc did Tsukiyama show any animosity towards Kaneki getting closer to Touka (look at how happy he was to organize their wedding ceremony or how much he already loves their future baby), which is why I can understand people saying it doesn’t have to have been romantic.
Just like for Tsukiyama, I can understand why people have opposite takes on what Hide said to Amon…
…and I don’t mind whether Hide meant that his feelings are romantic or not.
The only thing bothering me (so to speak) is why we never had any clear hint of that (unlike with Touka, Mutsuki or even with Tsukiyama) before his words of ch148, if he meant for that confession to be taken in a romantic way, especially since he’s the one who’s known Kaneki for the longest time.
Obviously Hidekane fans won’t agree on that, but that’s why I can understand some people seeing Hide’s confession as being similar to Eto’s, except that Hide’s link to Kaneki is meaningful in a completely different way.
So I’m just undecided. On the one hand, the absence of previous hints makes me think it’s possibly platonic, but on the other hand, if it really is romantic, then I have no problem with that and I’m happy that Hide seems to be taking so well Kaneki falling in love with another person. :))
There you go, I hope it helps! Have a nice day Anon! ^_^
Yeah, it’s interesting! Saiko and Ayato seem like such opposite characters in so many ways: he’s intense, he’s angry, etc. Saiko is flippant and loving.
So Saiko is also a foil of Hinami, like Mutsuki is, in that both Hinami and Saiko are classified by kindness and love for others; however, Hinami suffers for that kindness and Saiko does not.
Probably this is part of Saiko’s human privilege. We’re first asked to compare them when Sasaki is getting wrecked by Takizawa. Saiko and Hinami both are horrified. Saiko is the one who could easily intervene given what we know of her kagune prowess, but she does not. She just watches. Hinami, despite knowing this was probably not going to end well for her–and it did not–and knowing Kaneki might be gone forever–chooses to intervene anyways. Also, during this Ayato in contrast is desperate to save Hinami but is told to return would be suicide. But he tries.
Saiko and Ayato therefore contrast with each other. Saiko loves people and saves them, but Ayato and Hinami are proactive in saving their loved ones, whereas Saiko is reactive. When we get further Hinami and Ayato development, it’d probably be during a Saiko focus, so we might get some interactions/them provoking Saiko to act more.
Fried chicken is in store for her. (I’m sorry, I’m sorry, every time I see that autocorrect I have to make a terrible joke.)
But Touka’s arc is definitely not over. To have an arc, one has to have flaws and struggle with them, which Touka does have them and does struggle with. It’s been remarkably consistent throughout :re, and I think it’s a very well written arc. I’ll fight anyone who says she’s useless or doesn’t have an arc.
I think you sum up where I expect her arc to take her quite well: she’ll have to come to terms with her father, reunite with Yoriko, and deal with Kaneki, and yes, I expect her to come to a situation soon wherein she needs to fight. All of these situations notably contain high emotional stakes for Touka. And the struggle we’ve seen from Touka in :re concerns her pain over losing loved ones. Touka loves deeply and unconditionally when she loves someone. It’s her greatest strength. But as a ghoul, she’s always had to live while losing, and she hasn’t yet asked why they need to lose at all in :re.
Touka expresses after chapter 120′s confrontation in the original TG that her hitting Kaneki is something she deeply regrets, and indicates that she likely blames herself for what would then happen in the Anteiku Raid:
But. We know that she suffered during this time too. She believes that it’s better for Kaneki to be without her, but love also speaks its needs, and Touka is not good at directly communicating her needs. Again, this is not a criticism–I’m not saying she should be better, and that this in any way makes her less of a good person. But instead of telling Kaneki he hurt her by staying away for so long, she slams his head into a counter. It’s HUMOR and is not portraying abuse and anyone who says that it is needs to take reading comprehension, but it actually does fit her character’s tendencies to avoid the larger issue.
An exception is when Touka does a great job in chapter 122 of articulating to Kaneki that she likes him. It’s a bit fumbling, but she wasn’t shy, and that’s a positive step for her character for sure.
And she chose her child over her friends. That’s good. That’s what no one else in the story has done so far, and that’s why even though I think it’s possible we might get a fakeout scare with the baby pretty soon (like Touka getting wounded in the abdomen), the baby is probably going to be fine. (I hope we don’t get that scare but if we do I’m not going to worry.) But at the same time, she knew Kaneki was following the same path he followed before the Anteiku Raid when he was torn about how to lead, and she didn’t confront him like last time–likely because she does not know her confrontation, for all its flaws of violence, actually worked. Like, Kaneki did decide to return, but it was too late because TG was a tragedy whereas :re is not. Imagine how a loving confrontation from Touka would go. Seriously, that’d be some good shit right there.
And since then, we’ve gotten a pattern with Touka. Basically, every time she might have to confront someone or something, someone steps in for her. I’m not criticizing her again, because I think her leaving others to fight is the right choice considering that she’s pregnant, and it is clearly not easy for her. But the fact that it’s repeated so frequently within such a short span of chapters is almost certainly deliberate, and Ishida is probably setting up this pattern to warn us of something coming.
Firstly, Yomo (family, he almost died), then the 0 Squad (children, 2 did die), Hinami (basically family, almost died), the Quinxes (Kaneki’s kids). It’s repeated four times in 20 chapters. The common thread in all these is that they’re related to children or family. Thus I’m predicting Touka is going to be forced to fight at some point for her child (family, a child)–for her child’s life, but also for a world in which her half-ghoul child will not be looked down upon for their nature. (I’m really starting to wonder if V is going to show up when she goes to dig him out.)
Keeping in mind the story’s themes, this is also significant because it’s basically telling Touka she cannot run away from the conflict (again why it might make narrative sense for V to show). Not even that she’s tried to necessarily, but let’s look at Yoshimura. He did much good in his life and Touka parallels him in :re, but he also utterly failed as a father and in the end believed people should pay for their sins and basically at Anteiku wanted to commit suicide to atone. He more or less maintained the status quo, but Touka–his parallel in :re–cannot do that. :re was burned down. And she can’t run from what her husband’s become (and she isn’t trying to because she loves him, and that’s good). But she’s probably going to have to face the dark outside forces that create the birdcage they all live in, which people have, thus far, largely ignored.
midnight-in-town 