While staring at Lizzy’s blood in Bravat’s cup, I was positive there had to be some shape, some clue, in the swirls.
There are so many clues hidden in the background, so this seemed like an obvious place to insert such a clue. Of course, it might be too obvious, but I still looked. The first thing I saw looked to me like a woman, in ¾ profile, with her hair piled high on her hair. There are some swirls about her, which might be random curls or just so that the image itself, which is comprised of blood, wouldn’t look to solid.
When talking about this with into–the–abyss, she saw a flower branching off, and I definitely could see that as well. (I tried to highlight the area, but I might be off.) Looking at various covers and images, Yana does use flowers quite a bit, so that’s a possibility.
So, is it a woman, a flower, a woman with a flower, something else, or absolutely nothing at all? I suppose that we can only wait and see.
I love the little details you find in Black Butler. Here’s something interesting I noticed in the Chapter 110 spoilers:
Bravat says something to Lizzy about the star Canopus, which by some accounts, is in the constellation Argo Navis. (That constellation was broken up into three smaller constellations, and Canopus is now in Carina.)
Anyway, Argo Navis represented the ship of Jason and the Argonauts, and Canopus was its helmsman. The part that’s relevant to Black Butler, and Lizzy and Ciel in particular, is that Canopus was loved by a beautiful Egyptian prophetess, but never returned her love. On his return from the Trojan War, he later bitten by a snake and died, and Menaleus built a monument to him.
Interesting….
Also, Canopus was an ancient Egyptian city where Osiris, the god of the dead, was worshiped under the form of a human-headed vessel. That’s where the name “canopic jar” comes from. Those are jars used for the mummification process.
It’s interesting that there’s an Egyptian theme again. In the Campania arc the company who was said to have bought the technology to “revive the dead” was called “Osiris”. And Ryan said that they were developing a new drug:
All these overjoyed people who are visiting the meetings at the Sphere Music Hall could be influenced by a drug as has been discussed before. So maybe that’s the drug Ryan was speaking of.
Also, could this mean that Undertaker is involved in this?
Arcana has been mentioned several times in Tokyo Ghoul before, whether it was just a mere reference such as Tsukiyama calling Hori Chie “Like Aracan 0 – the Fool” because she does as she pleases without concern, or hidden numbers in the panels drawn within blood. However, the influence of Tarot stretches far beyond that. The entire basic plot structure of Tokyo Ghoul can be summarized with a concept called ‘The Fool’s Journey’ the same way Star Wars can be summarized with Joseph Campbell’s ‘The Hero’s Journey’.
If Kaneki is following the path of the fool’s journey, based upon where he is now it could be used to predict future events.
The Fool’s Journey is the interpretation of all the major arcana’s in order, starting with the fool (a card of beginnings) and ending in The World (a card of fulfillment).
We begin with the Fool (0), a card of beginnings.The Fool stands for each of us as we begin our journey of life. He is a fool because only a simple soul has the innocent faith to undertake such a journey with all its hazards and pain.
Editor K: Have you read the September issue of the monthly GFantasy magazine that was released on the 18th? It comes with a Kuroshitsuji special chapter (38 pages), which focuses on the ‘demon 6′, the top 6 characters for whom you voted in the popularity poll!
Editor K: Since the characters who appear in this chapter were chosen based on the results of the popularity poll, the relationships [between some of these characters] are rather distant. We therefore agreed that this chapter is going to be a happy interlude chapter that ignores the usual setting [as well as the characters’ past and their (canon) relationships]. However, not only did Yana-san manage to maintain their respective (canon) relationships, she also included anticipatory hints regarding the main plot, drew a gorgeous double-page spread as well as action scenes. It seems to have been a very troublesome chapter, I’ve never seen her so exhausted before and she almost even missed the deadline. Nevertheless, it’s a comedy-centric chapter, so please enjoy it!
Yana: Hello, this is Toboso, the loser manga artist. Drawing the ‘demon 6′ chapter was so hard that I haven’t fully recovered from exhaustion yet. In terms of art skills, it was the most demanding chapter of all times (because of the characters’ faces)! I think everyone can enjoy reading it since it’s a one-shot fun story with all the popular characters. [This month’s magazine] also includes an interview with the musical actors, so please [read it]! (*◜ω◝*)
Yana: I swear to the devil that the selection of the characters was based on a fair popularity poll ranking, but I can sense Druitt’s extraordinary persistence and power because he actually managed to rank 16th. Also, I’m so glad that the snakes ranked 46th. If they hadn’t, Snake would have been mute all the time, even though he ranked 7th [and made it into the special chapter]. Miracles do indeed happen…
Yana: Since Sebastian legitimately took the first place, I thought I should draw him in the most flamboyant way of all times as a celebration [for his achievement], so I and my assistants tried our best. As a result, when editor K received the final draft (of the special chapter), he said to us “You guys are idiots, aren’t you?” Thank you so much, [your sly remark] is a *huge honour for us… [*internet slang you use when someone says harsh things to you or treats you a bit sadistically.]
Editor K: The GFantasy September issue with the Kuroshitsuji special chapter “Demon 6″ is now on sale. The “flamboyant Sebastian” Yana-san is talking about is the double-page spread allowing you to look down at the city of London, which is an extremely time-consuming and troublesome composition. To be honest, you could read the story smoothly even without these two pages. (lol) However, I think it’s hilarious that she put so much effort into these two [story-wise unnecessary] pages!
I’ve been remembering one of my favorite cielizzy moments and I just, love this otp so much that I have to ramble.
I mean, on one hand we have Ciel who wants to keep Lizzie safe always, at all costs. What hits me the most about this is just how far Ciel is willing to go to do so. He has basically dedicated his life to carry out his revenge, that is his north; yet he has never hesitated to jump in the way of danger for her. Whether it be to save her from a bear or to shield her from a rush of water, whenever Lizzy is in immediate danger Ciel reacts instinctively, and (as far as we know) he doesn’t even spare a thought to Sebastian saving him in turn.
In those moments IMO he isn’t thinking that he can afford to shield her because Sebastian will certainly save their necks in the brink of time (as I’ve seen some suggest); he is simply acting because:
And I could go on and on about that forever, but another thing that has always stood out to me is that Ciel’s desire to protect Lizzy goes beyond keeping her physically unharmed. I feel he wants to keep her innocent, carefree and pure, too; he doesn’t want her to delve into his damaged world and neither does he want her to worry about him.
First reading :re chapter 46, I was a little confused why so many ghouls were willing to sacrifice their lives for the Tsukiyama family. I mean, I understand that they were all extremely loyal to the Tsukiyama’s but to such an extent that they would die for them? It didn’t sit right with me at first.
I couldn’t fathom how all the household staff could possibly wait quietly out the back when they knew the doves were coming:
You can bet your sweet bippy that if I was in that situation, I wouldn’t have surrendered myself no matter how much I loved my Master and their family. All that would have been left of me is a dust trail after I hightailed it out of there.
Then on top of that we see the Tsukiyama’s business partners and their employees putting their lives on the line to fight off the CCG and give Shuu time to escape:
They say they’re ‘returning their kindness with our lives’. I know if my boss asked me to go on a suicide mission to repay a favour, I would be handing in my resignation letter and getting the hell out of there
immediately.
But then that got me thinking. Why would they all feel such strong loyalty to the point that they would happily give up their lives? Why is it so important that the Tsukiyama family continues?
One of the main over-arching themes of the series is the struggle ghoul’s face trying to fit into the human world. We’ve seen many times with characters like Kaneki, Touka and Nishiki how difficult this is; having to eat human food in public, keep their human friends and lovers at a distance to protect them, failing in this and inadvertently dragging them into the ghoul world too. But so far, these have all been very isolated events with only a few characters being affected; Kaneki & Hide, Touka & Yoriko, Nishiki & Kimi (of course this doesn’t count Kuzen & Ukina seeing as their relationship birthed the series’ biggest antagonist).
I think in this chapter, we’re starting to be shown the true extent of the underground ghoul communities who blend into human society.
The Tsukiyama’s are an aristocratic family and have probably held significant influence even among human society for a long time. And during this period, they’ve built up a conglomerate empire made up of a huge number of ghouls.
We see just how many ghouls rely on connections to the Tsukiyama family in chapter 46 (even Shuu is surprised how many there are):
And this is only 3 businesses. I’m sure there are other ghoul-run companies in the Tsukiyama empire. Think how many ghouls must work for the Tsukiyama’s and their business associates; how many of them are given a job, a steady income, a safe work environment where they don’t need to hide heir true nature, a community to which they belong. They can get a job without having a clean family register and they don’t need to worry about work asking for blood tests. We saw how Nishiki’s sister went to work, interacted with humans and how this eventually led to her being outed to the CCG. I’m sure this is a major fear for many other ghouls trying to get a human job to blend in.
Judging by Mirumo’s temperament and desire to live as a human ‘gentleman’, I’m guessing most of the ghouls that work under him would have similar desires and are generally ‘good’ people. I’m not sure if you can exactly call people that buy humans at auctions and watch their dinner be maimed to death in a Colosseum style fight ‘good’ but I guess that’s going by a human’s sense of morality and not all of them would be involved in this- it seems Aogiri gets most of the psychopathic ones. They probably all have families that they need to support, people they want to protect. And I think that is why the Tsukiyama family is important enough to die for; they’ve most likely given a LOT of ghouls a chance to live a pleasant, comfortable, safe life as close to human as possible. The Tsukiyama’s are like Anteiku, just on a much larger scale.
With the end of the Tsukiyama family’s position in human society, there will most likely be HUGE consequences for the ghoul world. How many ghouls will be displaced? I think we’ve all sensed that the endgame of the Tokyo Ghoul series will be humans and ghouls living together, and I know I’ve been waiting for the turning point where we see a balance shift between the two worlds. It’s been foreshadowed that Kaneki/Sasaki and Amon/Floppy will most likely have something to do with this. But what if the fall of the Tsukiyama family is the catalyst of all this? There will be a lot of ghouls left without a place to go who will be looking to find a safe haven again. If Shuu survives, he will be the new master of the Tsukiyama family. He’s already had wonderful character development where he’s finally begun taking responsibility and showing he cares for his friends, family and subordinates. And even though that failed, perhaps all of this is going to show that Shuu and his family’s connections will be important in helping rebuild in the aftermath of this arc. Even if they have lost their influence in human society, the Tsukiyama’s will maintain some of their power with the ghouls who they have helped over the years. It would be a powerful asset to have.
It seems like the series is almost at it’s tipping point, especially with Haise actively seeking information on Kaneki. A big part of this may depend on the fate of the Tsukiyama family.
If they can survive, it might end up that they will join forces with the group that tries to build peace between ghouls and humans (so far it seems like this will be Kaneki/Sasaki, Amon, :re, maybe some of the Quinx and now perhaps Shuu if he survives this arc + the Tsukiyama associates). But this idea might just be fueled by my thirst for a combo-team of Anteiku, Kaneki’s Ward 6 group, Floppy and the Quinx all working/fighting together *slips Ishida $10 with a note saying ‘make it happen’ attached*.
On the other hand, if we see the end of the Tsukiyama line for good, it might signify the collapse of the underground ghoul world that wishes to live as humans. Who knows what the consequences of this will be.
Either way, it seems like everyone under the Tsukiyama’s knows the importance of this battle’s outcome and is willing to fight to the death to protect it. They need Shuu to survive this to ensure that the power and connections of the Tsukiyama family continues. It just breaks my heart to think how many ghouls are going to have their lives changed forever after this.
midnight-in-town 
