It’s an interesting bit of irony to me that this whole fight between Amon and Donato was built up as such a heroic moment for the alliance. After all, Amon was able to find Donato in the first place because historic enemies like Fueguchi and Akira were able to work together to pinpoint him.
Then we lead into Amon finally heroically charging in to settle his grudge against his foster father which has been building the entire manga. His entrance even parallels the heroic entrance that Amon made to save Akira from Seidou.
I’m partial to SeiAki, I’ve always loved the “arguing like an old married couple” trope. I love how Seidou’s envy of her is mixed in with his attraction and, as 115 suggested, romantic feelings for her. The way they’re constantly torn between fighting alongside each other and fighting against each other is really something to watch; which reached its ultimate culmination on Rushima, where he almost killed her only to later choose to risk his life to save her. And Akira’s hidden care for him is also very moving when she lets it show.
But I find it works just as well as an unrequited love – or rather, an unrequited romantic interest, because Akira said herself that she loves both Takizawa and Amon. This is a very angsty ship so the unrequited suits it well. I just hope to see them fight unreservedly on the same side in the future, not fighting amongst themselves or directly against each other. But all that said, I still approve of Akiramon, especially because of all the Touken parallels.
@dreamofcentipedes I hope you don’t mind, but OMG I absolutely agree with you and I just wanted to add, because I see too many people “forgetting” about this ever since ch121, that Akira never indeed to this day made any difference between her feelings for Amon and Takizawa, so it’s not like either ship currently prevails over one another.
Akira may have left with Amon in ch121, but Takizawa had already left first in ch118 and, again, Akira’s feelings never did anything but put the guys on the same level:
Of course, she apparently kissed Amon in ch121 and so she might indeed end up with him, but both Akira and Amon are currently stuck in their character development, which is something that only Seidou can help them with and which means the Seiakiramon dynamic isn’t set in stone at all.
As for Seidou, as you explained in your other post, he needs to confront them again because he’s totally running away from them out of a wrong assumption of still “not deserving to be by their side”, which is yet another argument as to why the whole dynamic is in for more significant developments.
I wouldn’t say that polyamory is more likely as an ending for this dynamic when ch121 did seem to give an advantage (so to speak) to Akiramon, but my point is that Akira’s character has always been Defined by keeping a lot bottled up inside (see Gori’s words in ch143 before she finally starts crying), which means that she’s bound to address her feelings for the two men again (either to finally discriminate between them or to end with both).
Again, I hope you don’t mind my two cents :3 Great post!
Hi Anon, aww so sorry for the delay, but since the new chapter was near when you sent your ask, I wanted to see what would come up first, just in case. :3 So:
Clowns
As showed with the newest chapter, they’re supposed to be stalling for time, even if we don’t know why exactly for now.
I personally don’t worry about them, because Nico, Itori and Uta at least were foreshadowed (in my opinion) to watch the series coming to an end and share one last laugh about it, thanks to ch128…
…without mentioning the fact that these 3 aren’t exactly true villains or antagonists amongst the Clowns’ gang (compared to Roma, Donato and Furuta) because they almost always made up for a nasty joke of theirs with an advice or favor, at least when it comes to Kaneki himself.
In other words, they should be fine compared to Donato or Furuta who might end up following Roma’s example before the end of the series, since the three of them definitely were strongly depicted as villains/antagonists.
Besides, Nico, Itori and Uta were shown to have an agenda that isn’t solely about the Clowns or Furuta’s plan (the friendship with Yomo for Itori and Uta, Itori saying that Nico only cared about finding a boyfriend and Nico helping Kaneki’s side with the great wheel act…), which is yet another argument about them enjoying this “play” but not actively supporting one side in particular.
I’d love to expand, but I’m unstoppable on the subject + you asked about other characters so I’ll just end it there. xD
Takizawa
Gosh, another topic and character I love to ramble about, so to make this simple there again, let’s just say that Donato’s return is vouching for a confrontation between him and Amon and this is what, I hope, will lead to Takizawa’s return.
The initial issue is that Amon, as the OEG he is now, is unable to face Donato and immediately win an upcoming confrontation, because he’s held back by too many aspects of his past he never learnt to address correctly. So the only way for him to win against Donato who’s a strong ghoul would be to accept the OEG that he was forced to become and fight using his whole strength instead of trying to remain as human as possible.
However, the second issue is that he’s unfortunately currently unable to do that, because he doesn’t hold ghouls in the same regard as humans and that’s why he’ll probably need to be saved by Seidou, because Seidou…
…is the one who accepted his fate as a powerful OEG.
Of course, the whole point is not to have Seidou win against Donato for Amon’s sake, because it’s something Amon needs to do by himself, but saving Amon is also important for Seidou’s own development, as Amon and Akira are the two people who matter the most to him and he believes…
The whole narrative where Seidou is concerned always was “being able to become a hero”. It’s something he expressed many times (namely through the wish to be seen and valorized by Akira)…
before recently giving up on it:
…which is precisely why it might finally happen.
To quote @hamliet who definitely has a better way with words than me: “Akira and Amon have not been heroes–they’ve needed rescuing from Takizawa, who saved both of them, because he is the hero in their story, as he always wanted to be. He just hasn’t realized it yet”. [x]
I better stop there once more, because I could ramble for 5 hours since Seidou is one of my absolute favorite characters and I will definitely scream when he shows up again (btw, I kept on mentioning Amon, but Takizawa will probably have the same role towards Akira’s own need of acknowledgement towards her dead parents’ actions).
Kurona (and Shinohara)
Tricky girl, but her dynamics with Amon and mainly Juuzou aren’t completely written out and finished in my opinion, so I’m expecting more of her in one way of another, even if I don’t exactly know how yet.
Generally, I think that if Juuzou really was foreshadowed to become a ghoul before the end, then maybe she’s going to be the one who helps him adjust to his new life, since she went through the same thing a few years ago.
And actually, same when it comes to mourning someone you love: Kurona had a hard time learning how to do without her twin sister who was a very important person to her and Juuzou…
is not there yet when it comes to Shinohara. ://
So I’d say that what’s left of Kurona’s development is linked to Juuzou, just like what’s left of Juuzou’s is also linked to Shinohara.
Hanbee basically confirmed that Shinohara was dead in ch128 and, even if I know some people are expecting him to come back as a zombie or something else, I honestly think the whole point of Shinohara in :Re is to lead Juuzou to the realization that…
…
he’ll have to let go eventually (I literally cried as I wrote this, I mean I love the narrative between Juuzou and Shinohara so much and it’s one reason ch143 of TG was so harsh on me). ;_;
I’m not entirely sure for this part, so take with a grain of salt, okay?
V (Kaiko)
Finally, about them…
We still don’t know what they’re about and what they’re up to, if Furuta is just using them to discard or destroy them later or if they’re really allies, but I’d still call them the big bad regardless of how they’re supposedly currently following Furuta’s every order, because that’s what they were foreshadowed to be.
More is coming, hopefully, so mostly I’d love new hints to refresh all the theories about them. :3
Whew, there you go! Thank you so much for the nice words and for reading ❤
I’m sorry that I ended up rambling and that it got long but I hope it answers your question! Have a nice day Anon and sorry again for the delay :33
Yes, he does! I addressed that in my answer. It’s another parallel between Kaneki and Amon and Akira–they all think of themselves as better than. I’m going to quote this meta I wrote on Kaneki and apply it to Amon and Akira with some adaptations:
Kaneki absolutely loathes himself. He sets up seemingly hypocritical
boundaries like “killing ghouls fine, killing humans no, but I’m the
ghoul king” because it’s literally the only way he can live with
himself. It’s a maladaptive coping mechanism. He does not believe he’s
worth love if he isn’t good enough, if he isn’t kind enough…
Amon sets up this “I’m a ghoul investigator and so are you Takizawa!” boundary in order to save Takizawa, even though they are both ghouls and they are both murderers at this point so there is no logic in that argument. But it’s how he lives with himself. Being a ghoul investigator was probably his way of paying back what happened with Donato as a child, of him atoning for it really–but he can’t.
Amon cannot forgive himself. And furthermore he cannot face himself. He’s fighting with the other humans and didn’t tell them he was a ghoul even though that might have actually helped convince the CCG to work with ghouls. He doesn’t want to accept his ghoul nature for the same reason Kaneki has a hard time accepting it: because to admit that he has been turned into the creature responsible for his trauma as a child, known only for killing (though that’s inaccurate) is terrifying for him. He does not want to be Donato 2.0, and by running from becoming Donato 2.0 by becoming a ghoul investigator, he teamed up with Mado (aka Donato 2.0) and became Donato 3.0. It’s tragically ironic.
As for Akira, love has always been caught up in her father since her mother died when she was so young. And Mado always viewed himself as justified killing ghouls because of what happened to Akira’s mother. So therefore love for Akira has always been tied up in having a purpose to live, and that purpose has always been tied to killing ghouls. Without that hatred, as she herself says, she’s empty. Additionally, Akira is struggling with the same black and white worldview Kaneki sets up: if ghouls are the same as humans, then she and her father are murderers, and if they are murderers and their purpose for living was wrong, do they deserve to live at all? If her father was a sadistic child murderer, how can he also be a kind father to her? (Which he was, btw.) The answer is because it’s gray, it’s all gray, but Akira is struggling to accept this.
Amon and Akira are hurting children internally as well, just like Kaneki. But that doesn’t excuse what they are doing by pretending to be better, because pretending is never a path to self-actualization. Enter Donato. And Takizawa.
I mean, the whole thing is that Takizawa also has many issues of his own that he needs to solve, because he doesn’t see himself as deserving of much for example, despite being the only one of their little trio who actually moved on from the past and accepted his new condition (even if that meant making it his punishment at the same time by letting go of Akira and Amon).
It’s as you said @hamliet: Amon and Akira are struggling to let go of the past because they’re scared of what consequences and changes their awareness about the world’s situation will bring to them.
So I really think Takizawa is supposed to be the one (the hero) making them realize that moving on and acceptance are okay (and that it doesn’t make Amon anything remotely close to Donato or Akira the worst person ever), while they’ll reassure him that he still has a place to belong.
…was not ok, M has a serious problem with violence, yes, but it was
also symbolic that people meant to protect him (akira his superior, or
his mother) protecting his agressors instead (takizawa and his father) i
did find karmatic M attacking T bc it was T’s ambush that put M in
torso’s reach, that whole figth was levels of gray with A later
attacking M and the Qs, the fact that S just killed a whole squad is
never even touch after, yet it seams that Ak & A where given the
moral high ground…
… where given the moral high ground after that, after all M is the
monster, M attacked S and Ak, but so did S and houji, M is the one that
goes into a dark path after while Ak, A & S get to peace out the
story & come back as heros later, im not saying that attacking Ak
was good, it was wrong, but everyone there was wrong, and we see M admit
that he killed and that makes him a murderer, and it burdens him, yet
Ak is proud at how many ghouls she killed and using feguchi and that
just bothers me
I don’t hate you, don’t worry! And while I really
love Akira and Amon both as characters, I have similar frustrations with
them. (Amon especially because his arc is pretty pathetic in :re
whereas it was fantastic in TG.)
I mean, I think the moral
high ground examples you’re citing are more problems with the fandom
always wanting to demonize Mutsuki than with how the story presents
them. It wasn’t shocking to me that Mutsuki crushed Takizawa’s balls or
stabbed Akira. It was wrong, yes, but it also wasn’t technically illegal
according to the laws of the CCG (the laws are wrong though).
But
I would say that I disagree about how Akira and Amon are characterized afterwards.
Akira made the morally right (according to the story) decision when she
broke with the CCG to save Takizawa.
Of course that action is perceived
as good by the story. But since then, Akira and Amon have not been
heroes–they’ve needed rescuing from Takizawa, who saved both of them,
because he is the hero in their story, as he always wanted to be. He just hasn’t realized it yet. My guess is he’s going to have to save their asses from Donato pretty soon.
Also
Akira has not expressed pride in her actions since 120, though we have seen her express that her father wouldn’t be happy with her. She expressed a very conflicted
worldview at that point, because it was undeniable to her that ghouls
were not monsters after Hinami and the Aogiri kids, but to admit that
you’re a murderer–just like we’ve seen with Kaneki–is not easy to do.
Plus, if this happens as Akira says, her father’s legacy is tarnished
forever… which is what Touka told her to do, but Touka also needs to do this with Kaneki who is a parallel for Arata (admit that what he did was wrong).
It’s no coincidence this was said in a conversation between Touka and Akira because this is a way they still need to grow, both of them.
Yes, I am bothered that they just get to waltz
back into the story after abandoning Goat, because the right thing to do
is not to run away, it’s to create a better world and if you don’t know
what that looks like (see Akira and Amon’s emptiness talk in 121) you
figure it out.
But then again, what they did is not much worse than what
Touka and Kaneki did, because they also made no effort to find out what
that might look like as recent chapters have bluntly stated to us.
Akira thought Kaneki killed Arima too because he lied to her about that,
so she probably had a hard time coming to terms with that (and yet Hinami was forced to hug it out with her, so ughhhhh there’s definitely hypocrisy there). I’m not saying it’s right.
I’m saying it’s understandable.
Along those lines, Akira
and Amon foil Kaneki in that aspect: always seeing themselves as better
than, because that’s how they cope with what they’ve done. It’s a coping
mechanism as much as Kaneki’s brokenness is a coping mechanism. It’s
their way of feeling as if they deserve to live, because to live they
need a purpose, and their purpose for Akira was taught to be being liker
her father, and for Amon atoning for what he helped Donato do. Except
Akira does not want to be like her father, not deep down, and Amon
cannot atone for that because a) he was a kid and shouldn’t be faulted
for it, and b) you can’t bring back the dead.
Now as a
ghoul, Amon can’t see himself as morally superior, though he tries.
Hence why he can’t actually accomplish anything–not saving Takizawa,
not saving Kurona. He refuses to acknowledge that he’s been made into a
representation of what he’s always been: a murderer, and just like
Donato (and Mado) a child murderer. He’s not better than Takizawa. (This is why I think Hajime is very
important to Amon’s arc.) Until he accepts this, he’s stagnating. At least
currently he and Akira are trying to help ghouls, but like, they can’t
really help them from a moral high ground that is built on sand because
they don’t actually have a moral high ground.
Since Kaneki’s recently made progress, I really think Amon and Akira are next on the docket to get that revelation. I also believe Akira will have to give Fueguchi back to Hinami and apologize. At least. She better. And Amon better apologize as well.
Akira and Amon have not been heroes–they’ve needed rescuing from Takizawa, who saved both of them, because he is the hero in their story, as he always wanted to be. He just hasn’t realized it yet. My guess is he’s going to have to save their asses from Donato pretty soon.
There’s been a previous comparison made between the Saiko, Urie and Mutuski confrontation and the Akira, Amon and Seidou confrontation. While the situations are not exactly the same (they don’t have to be for the sake of parallels) there are several things in common.
The aggressor is an individual who after becoming a victim of torture has their hair turn white and suffers from severe dissociation.
The defenders and in both cases, the ones attempting to rescue the victim are also people who have for a long time neglected any cronfrontation at all with the victim and let them stew until it boiled over, and they ended up with the worst possible time for a confrontation.
However, the most important point of comparison between them for me is this. The two confrontations end on opposite notes, the message Seidou is told is this:
While the message Mutsuki is told is this:
The exact implications for the resolutions and final messages of both fights lead reflect some interesting ideas in both parties and can probably lead us towards some predictions on where exactly Mutuski’s arc will go next. So let’s head there under the cut.
Btw guys, it’s not because I say I find Seiaki to have a slightly more fulfilling development in :Re so far that you can send me ship-biased asks about wanting Amon to die so that the ship can be canon.
Seriously, grow up.
Me liking a ship, canon or not, will never be about erasing “competition” for that ship, especially when I’m a huge supporter of Seiakiramon in the first place.
*prays to God the moon arc’s almost complete* (I really think it is.)
I
think Takizawa’s role is becoming the hero he always wanted to be, and
already is as Kurona even says, but doesn’t see himself as. If something
happens to Amon and/or Akira (I feel like it’s more likely to be Amon
though, considering Amon’s very direct Kaneki parallels and the fact
that he’s learned no more than Kaneki has), he might have that chance. If Kaneki’s denial and
refusal to take personal responsibility turned him into a monster,
Amon’s going to hopefully face the same kind of oops I fucked up
reality check… probably connected to his massive RC counts, because
those have to be leading somewhere. Which would provide a good
opportunity for Takizawa to save his friend again, but instead of
running away this time, he might face his friends and return the cross,
this time helping Amon rediscover his desire to live.
Takizawa also has unfinished business with Akira that likely ties
into how Akira really wants to be seen as who she is, but never really
has been, and Takizawa does see Akira standing on her own merits, and
always has.
midnight-in-town 