So, this post is a really long time in the making. A lot of my recent hiatus has been fine tuning my thoughts for this post. Consider this my final meta for Tokyo Ghoul if you would. This is something I’ve wanted to write about for awhile, because the vast majority of the fandom seems to be a misconception among the fandom about Furuta and Kaneki’s foiling, that Kaneki in fact has nothing in common with Furuta and is a hero to his villain. That the only shared aspect between them is loneliness and that Furuta is just an example of what Kaneki would be without loved ones around him.
However, as the 101 title page suggests the characters are actually deeply connected and intertwined to the point that when they become too close it can be difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. All of Kaneki’s unhealthy habits, perceptions, flaws are mirrored in Furuta, but in Furuta’s case they are framed and made much more clear. It’s only by acknowledging how much Kaneki and Furuta are alike you can see the whole of Kaneki’s character, the good and the bad. With a close and analytical reading you can pick out all these connections which is what I’m going to do below.
I talked about this, briefly, via an ask on my old account and then immediately deleted it. At the time, I just wasn’t in the mood to bring up and fan what was rapidly becoming a big sore spot for many in the fandom. I disagree with the idea that she’s become a “”reduced”” character for many reasons, but I think one of the major contributing factors to what upset people might just be because in 300+ chapters, some little bits and pieces of Touka’s character might’ve been missed or forgotten.
That being said, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that media doesn’t exist in a vacuum and I’m not striving to argue whether or not Touka’s character was treated well as much as I want to talk about her. She’s my favorite character, after all, and the primary reason I got into TG all those years ago.
So call this a Character Study, if you will.
TL;DR: Touka got exactly the ending she was striving for
Please let me know if there are any mistakes. You can read the article that I translated from here.
Also please note, I’ve only seen pictures of the first page, but I’m 99% sure there’s another page based on the content from the interview excerpt that wasn’t included, and the lack of closing statement from Ishida. So I (and my pounding headache) would appreciate it if people didn’t jump to conclusions like they did for his afterword last time…
I’ll shut up now. Thanks and hope you enjoy~
(btw if anyone has the rest of the interview, please send me a message)
Please let me know if there are any mistakes. You can read the original article here. Also, this is just a part of the full interview, so if anyone can provide me with the full interview when it is released I’d be more than happy to translate it.
Author Ishida Sui speaks for the first time about the conclusion of Tokyo Ghoul
The popular manga “Tokyo Ghoul”, depicting the battle between humans and the species that devours humans, has finished serialization after seven years. Over 37 million copies have been sold cumulatively. The author, Ishida Sui, has chosen to accept an interview with Yomiuri Shimbun. This is the first time Ishida has spoken in depth about his work through an interview with the media. Why did ghouls come to be? What kind of a person is Kaneki Ken? What are his thoughts on the final chapter that surprised fans? Details of the interview will be posted in the Yomiuri Shimbun morning paper on the 21st. An excerpt is shown below. (Culture – Kawadoko Yayoi)
“It’s like I’ve been dispossessed of an evil spirit now. During serialization it felt like I’d been taken over by a different person,” said Ishida. The interview was done over Skype. It appears that meetings with his editor are normally done over Skype.
“This happened recently, but one day I woke up in the morning and I had no clue on what I should do because there was no manuscript to work on,” Ishida said, laughing on the other side of the screen. Over the course of an hour and a half, he occasionally answered the enthusiastic questions of a reporter who was an avid fan of Tokyo Ghoul.
Where did you come up with the idea of ghouls, a species that can only survive by eating humans?
I thought about drawing villains who were part of a minority. It’d be too simple to have them be mere cutthroat murderers, so I thought it’d be interesting to have a species of them that live among humans.
Regarding the protagonist Kaneki, how did he come to have such a character?
At the time I liked shy protagonists with weak personalities, so I made him into a timid and inconspicuous character without putting too much thought into it. As a result, surrounding characters like Touka (the female ghoul) and Tsukiyama (the gourmet ghoul) distinctively stood out. Kaneki was a bit of a self-insert, so he was a difficult character to write until the end.
Ghouls are terrible monsters to humans, but they were written as an oppressed minority.
Maybe there’s some part of me that sympathizes with the minority. My parents moved around a lot and were Christians, so when I was a child I felt alienated being in a family that was slightly different from everyone else’s. I myself (just like Kaneki) feel like I am a part of both the majority and the minority.
I think that many readers were surprised by the happy ending in the last chapter. A girl was born between Kaneki and Touka, but it looked like Touka’s belly was big again…?
Yes, that’s right. It [the second child] was going to be a girl at first, but I think this time a boy would be nice.
There are many attractive human and ghoul characters, but is there a character you are particularly attached to?
Of course I want to say everyone, but appearance-wise it’s Hairu, the ghoul investigator. The girl with pink hair.
Huh? Didn’t you brutally kill her off?
Yes, that’s right. I regret killing her off, she was so cute too. It’s haunted me for a while.
There are many famous people who are fans of Tokyo Ghoul, such as the figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru.
Rather than focusing on having famous fans, I’m just happy to see that there are people who read it. To be honest, there are times when I wonder if there really are any people reading the series. So even receiving a letter from a child that says, “I’m reading Tokyo Ghoul,” makes me very happy.
midnight-in-town 
