Firstly I want to say yes, V is aware of Nimura’s half ghoul nature. Back in chapter 75 V members were comforting him when he had to puke. Sunlit Garden is also “subsidiary” of V, where Furuta grew up in, and if we take into account that they called him out with his first name “Nimura” then we can conclude that they don’t only know Furuta personally, but also know that he is indeed a OEG.
I also agree with your suggestion that Furuta has a strong dislike for V in particular. He did not only badmouth them after they died that is…
he also enjoyed the sight of their corpses.
At that point I have no doubt that Furuta holds a deep grudge for V, their ideology and its members. Interestingly, he insults his fellow collegues only after their death, which either hints at his cowardly nature (or lack of interest in engagement) or indicates Furuta’s possible fear for reprecussions. His training in Sunlit Garden is rather strict and as Kaiko stated in this panel and they were probably very strict and harsh towards those children (therefore “teaching you manners” could be interpreted differently as well).
So I think we can establish that he, no matter where his loyalties lie, works against V and seeks to annihilate it.
Thank you for pointing that out, because it might shed a different light on Furuta’s view on himself.
Even if I celebrate it, I can’t help it. I’m just a human being who doesn’t think of anything about the day they were born.
It seems that Furuta doesn’t really accept his ghoul nature or outright denies it to be precise. This is an interesting contrast to Eto, who embraces her ghoul side. Actually, what he says to Eto might parallel to what you just metioned.
He called her a “freak” and a “crazy bitch.” I might add that there is a possibility that he was referring to Eto’s current shape, but I also think he was also referring to her ghoul-nature. And while there might be slight differences in their physiology despite both of them being OEGs, they are possibly not that different from each other. As aforementioned, he also calls her mad, which I find a bit amusing as Furuta is quite mad himself (and I don’t mean it as an insult by the way) but also that ghouls often act “crazy” due to their impulses.
Furuta, until now, also refused to activate his kagune and used like every other investigator a quinque to dispose ghouls.This might also show that he is in denial towards his nature.
“Let’s solve this peacefully”/“Let’s solve this by unilateral murder”
His “human side” suggests a peaceful solution while his “ghoul side” looks foward to a bloodbath. Furuta can’t surpress his wild ghoul impulses anymore but wants to maintain the image of a regular human still, thus saying two contradictionary things.
So I agree, Furuta sees himself as a human and I get the feeling that he looks away whenever he retorts with… “ghoulish” behaviour. One example would be when he made the pate for Eto. While we don’t know if he was instructed to kill Shiono, he was certainly not instructed to compress him to a chop of meat and even cooking it like a professional chef and serve it to her french style (at least I can’t imagine it). And he had no qualms doing that, in fact he was quite proud of his masterpiece.
I will give people credit for pointing out that the environment he lived in didn’t really enable him to develop sensibility towards life and empathy, but then we also have the Ghoul Restaurant where he, and I want to emphasise that, regularly went there to see humans, not ghouls, but humans gettingbutchered.
So what does that mean now? After all, I still fully agree with you that he views himself as “human” or whatever he thinks a human really is. This is baseless specualtion but I think one part of Furuta, the subconsciouss part that is, cannot surpess the ghoulish urges he has. May it be partly due to his childhood experiences or may it be hereditary, Furuta is at best apathetic towards violence, at worst he is enjoying cruelty. And that he is enjoying cruelty towards humans (after all, I don’t think he ever needed to hunt himself, growing in such a catering environment and all) might tell us this:
He envies humans. Humans automatically gain a place in society, are, compared to ghouls, privileged in many ways like having a family or experiencing peaceful community life, have the advantage of moral “purity” (they are not forced to feed on other living beings), being able to climb up the ladder, freedom of decision and are, compared to ghouls, the more “peaceful” and balanced beings as they don’t need to commit murder in order to survive. Deep down Furuta is probably aware that he has not a strong relation to humans (biology wise), and a part of him takes advantage of this fact and letting his deepest urges out. I think he is also quite bitter that he wasn’t given a normal life like it’s portrayed in mangas, movies, tv shows and even comedy shows. They all deal with daily issues that regular people have to deal with and Furuta might often feel overwhelmed by this, which is why he went to that Restaurant in the first place. Because now their life is as misareable as his, all their hopes, dreams, event ties to their loved ones is cut off and all they are and will be is food. Their very existence is reduced to a meal, which hasn’t any feelings, any place or any future, they are just a junk of meat.
Additionally, one part of Furuta might be even angry that his idolisation of humans doesn’t match reality. Humans are probably not the kindest, not the wisest, not the most priveleged or even the most happy ones.
It is like coming to a foreign country you always wanted to go only to realise that isn’t the way you wanted it to be and therefore starting to suffer from “Weltschmerz” and I think Furuta has a lot of Weltschmerz in him. Despite all this, he possibly didn’t abandon his childish image of humans and its connection to aspects like family and belonging and that is why he can’t help but to resent ghouls much more. The song “Donna Donna” might give us his view on ghouls as well.
On a wagon bound for market There’s a calf with a mournful eye High above him there’s a swallow Winging swiftly through the sky
Calves are easily bound and slaughtered Never knowing the reason why Why can’t you have wings to fly with Like the swallow you’ve learned to fly? How the winds are laughing They laugh with all their might Love and laugh the whole day through And half the summer’s night
He is the wind but so is he the calf, bound to being slauthered and all he can do is laugh at this situation he has no control over since his birth. If we take those lines literal “
Why can’t you have wings to fly with like the swallow you’ve learned to fly?
“ this almost sounds like he is blaming the calf (ghoul) for not being a bird (human) and there is a lot of guilt, anger, and moreover self-hate involved with it. So Furuta is conflicted as he knows he can’t be a human but also resents his ghoul nature, so in all this confusion all he can do is answer with contractionary actions because that is what he is: a mere contraction. But it might be possible that he also has a tiny part left in him that realises that he slaughters his own kind on a regular basis.
I think that is all I can say about that, I apologise anon. Thanks for the question though.
midnight-in-town 