Hi Anon! I’d be careful when it comes to shipping in the SnK world actually. Without mentioning the discourse and ship wars in the fandom (I’m pretty sure I’m exposing myself by answering you actually), Sensei showed that killing a lot of his characters was totally his thing, which makes it hard to hope for canon romance.
Anyway, I always rooted for Springles but if you’re caught up with SnK, well, you know it’s not happening.
Ymir/Historia always was a pairing I considered to be more or less canon even though Ymir is already dead and Historia has been put in rather… complicated situation with the latest chapter. Even though they will never end up together in the flesh, I tend to think that their feelings for each other are real.
I know there are other popular pairings like Reiner/Bertholdt,Armin/Annie,
Levi/Erwin
but first of all Bert and Erwin are dead so :// and, while I don’t mind these pairings, I kind of doubt that Sensei will ever truly give any of these dynamics a romantic subtone.
My appreciation of Levi/Erwin legally forces me to look at the Zevi pairing critically (especially since I don’t trust Zeke at all) and I’m not sure I will ever want to swim in these waters tbh. Zeke/Yelena is interesting (to me) though, especially from her (almost fanatical?) point of view.
More seriously, Ymir/Historia aside, I think the only pairing that has a slight chance of ever being addressed in canon is obviously EreMika, not that I have high hopes for both of them to survive the ending or that Sensei will give the fans what they want in the first place.
To delve a little more into the subject of Eremika though, first of all I stare deeply at anyone who would read my answer and consider that I should be tried for supporting “incest”.
Let’s get real, folks:
they aren’t blood related, period. So you may or not like the pairing, that’s your right and I don’t mind either way, but using fallacious arguments never makes any point and that’s just sad (Mikasa, play ‘Vogel im Kafig’).
Otherwise, the reason that I think Eremika might eventually get its shot at being given canon romantic subtones is that we’re already halfway there, because Mikasa’s feelings aren’t really a secret to anybody, except to Eren himself.
There again, some fans might be tempted to quote Mikasa blushing and saying that “Eren is just like family”, but you don’t try and kiss your family when you think you’re about to die (ch50), just saying. xD
So it’s not really a question of whether he might even reciprocate her feelings or not when he hardly realizes what everyone else has known for ages.
I know that some fans who don’t like Eremika tend to vouch that Eren is not interested in her in that way, but personally and considering the narrative so far I think it’s way too soon to tell. His reaction to her words in ch50 was clearly not dismissal, on the contrary for me, which is why I think that aging them both can only be a good thing if we’re ever going to address the subject.
Look at the Marley arc, okay Sensei did say that Eren was under the influence of other people’s memories when he caught on Falco’s crush about Gabi, but the same influence could help him realize about Mikasa’s own feelings for him for all we know. That or she’s bound to try and tell him again anyway.
That was from the characters’ point of view. Narratively speaking now, I also think that Eremika makes a lot of sense for different reasons that @aspoonofsugar already explained in this very well-written post!
TL;DR while Ymir and Historia will sadly never come to be together I personally consider them canon, but otherwise the pairing most likely to get canon should be Eremika in my opinion.
Things between Casca and Guts really took a huge step forward after Guts left her and everyone else behind for a while to follow his own goal, which coincidentally led to a series of unfortunate events for their band of mercenaries. And it’s after Casca confronted him on the subject that they ended up realizing their mutual feelings.
I mean, do you see the little parallel there with what Eren’s latest shenanigans? So maybe Isayama-sensei is targeting a similar approach, which is to say that as long as Mikasa doesn’t really confront Eren about leaving everyone and her behind, he can’t possibly address her feelings for him again.
Anyway, the difference between Guts and Eren is that Guts (also being 19 at the time) was
never
dense about love, he just didn’t think Casca could love him back until that moment where they let it all out.
It’s just to share the idea. It may not happen like that, heck it may even not happen at all, but I felt like mentioning it just in case! Enjoy Anon!
aka hamliet’s ramblings about what the point of all the romance is in the manga
*before my inbox explodes, the title is facetious, please don’t send me hate*
I like ships. A lot. Usually I view them as fun for a series but only a few, if any, are like, central to the plot/themes. But in TG the romance is actually extremely relevant to the series’ themes, and despite the common assumption that TG isn’t a romance manga, it… kind of is in a lot of respects, because TG is about life, and what makes life worth it is connection, and all kinds of connections–family, friendship, and romance. (I might do other metas on the family and friendships in TG and how they convey certain themes too, just as powerfully as the romances, but this meta is specifically about romantic dynamics.)
TG honestly has a lot of romance (like the whole story started with a date) and is basically Ishida’s “shoujo with corpses.” Each canon/likely to be canon ship is at its core driven by loneliness answered with empathy, and each ship allegorizes the story’s main themes and the importance of solving the ghoul/human conflict the same way: through an alliance based in empathy and self-reflection.
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! ^_^
Hi! Tbh, as I was explaining here I rather think it’s a possible hint that Uta might be someone important enough to Itori that she’d feel the need to be helpful. I mean, look, it’s not the first time she specifically gets involved because he is…
And so in the recent chapter…
it could be the same thing, even if I agree that it isn’t nice that she got to carry Yomo who must be heavy. xD Truth be told, I was wondering if maybe she ended up carrying him because Uta got exhausted after fighting Dragoneki to rescue Yomo or carrying him all the way up until Itori came to help him? I don’t know but maybe there is an actual reason she ended up being the one to carry Yomo.
Aside from that, I never wrote any theory about Itori and Touka just because of that one mole-on-breast thing that they share lol, rather I wrote about a possible parallel because…
Itori knows about hybrid pregnancies and thus might help Touka with making her own pregnancy viable, but even that is just a theory that might get confirmed or denied within the next chapters, I guess.
Thanks for passing by Anon and have a nice day!
LMAO but wait Anon, for real I didn’t mean to make it sound like that!
I mean, feel free to ship them if you want, but I feel (if that part wasn’t mistranslated) that Itori simply looks up to the one she refers to as her “king”…
…because of what he accomplished or represented, but that person could be the Nagaraj just like it could be Furuta, since Furuta was the “king” that the Clowns were helping recently, or someone else. So you see, in the first place we can’t even be sure that this person is Uta, so I definitely wasn’t vouching for Itori and Uta to have a thing between them.
Maybe she simply helped Uta and Yomo because they’ve been friends for a long time and that comment about “loving [her] king” is referring to someone entirely different (Furuta, Kaneki, someone from the past… again if it wasn’t mistranslated).
And besides, let’s say she actually had/has a crush on Uta (in the theory that he’s the Nagaraj and that she was talking about him), it doesn’t mean that he ever reciprocated her feelings anyway.
So my bad, I’m really fond of the theory that the Clowns are older than they look and that the Nagaraj is Uta, but it remains a rather cracky theory to this day and we can’t exactly be sure that it’s who Itori was talking about in that panel above.
I hope it makes more sense that way. Sorry for the confusion and have a nice day Anon!
Hi! Hm, it’s a little hard to explain because all the ships I have are generally fueled by canon content, so it’s not exactly a ship I’m serious about, but at the same time since I find there is some kind of ambiguity in canon (mostly because they’re still mysterious characters), I’ve considered it before. 🙂
grasp their dynamic. I mean, even when you’re friend with several people, you can like one friend more than the other for different reasons, right? That’s the kind of ambiguity I’m talking about here.
So overall, if I were to sum up my thoughts about them, I’d use this:
the three of them are definitely friends
but at the same time, only Uta and Itori are Clowns and have known each other longer
in :Re ch148, it seemed more like Uta went to save Yomo and Itori followed him, instead of the two of them both wanting to save Yomo.
unless Itori played it dismissively because she didn’t want Tsukiyama to think she cared about Yomo too, hard to say.
also this cover gives me weird vibes about an unresolved issue since Itori is in the middle of them and holding a funeral frame (who/what are they burying?), while the chapter introduced the concept of dead hybrid babies, so for all we know there could be more to it
Finally…
Itori was described to be pleasant and likable (despite her jokes giving Yomo a hard time) by both men so… who knows if there is just friendship or not. xD
TL;DR I don’t know if there is/might have been romantic feelings existing within their little trio or not, but if somehow Sensei reveals that there is or was, it wouldn’t bother me at all. :))
Sorry for making this complicated. If we could know more about Uta and Itori, it would probably easier to explain. xD Have a nice day Anon!
Hi Anon! You have my entire shipping list for all (or almost all) the series I ever reblogged here. 🙂
I’m not sure I understand the question though: do you want me to say which ships I like the most out of them all? Or generally why I ship what I ship?
By the way, it’s true I don’t particularly address novels and books I read on this blog, probably because the tags for these books are generally a bit dead on tumblr and because I have had less time to read books in general these last years, but anyway, I’m not sure I’ll be able to answer? :))
It’s a little hard to explain, but I tend to compartmentalize a lot in general, so it’s really hard for me to overlap different categories and give you an answer to a general question like that.
For example, I can totally tell you which ships or characters I like more in TG or Kuro respectively, however if you were to ask me to rank my favorite characters or ships between TG and Kuro (or other series), I would just answer “???”. xD
It’s for this reason that I’m not good at comparing two series together, because I compartmentalize the series by their respective aspects and I just can’t manage to find any element of comparison. Same if you ask me to take a character and to say what he would be like in another series’ settings, or to take two villains and say which one is “worst”. I just am no good at that…
So I’m sorry Anon I just can’t really answer this, but at least my lil shipping list should give you a part of the answer? In general, I like canon anyway, haha.
i just imagined you sitting down looking at that picture like “tell me your secrets” XD
I think you couldn’t be closer to the truth than with that sentence and actually, I think it also means that you caught on the fact that I definitely wasted hours looking at it. Every day.
Less cool now, isn’t it? xDD
Aah, I just can’t help it. I’ve been in Kuro for what… 6 years now or something close to that? But I was sold on the Claudia mystery ever since that scene…
and back then I was already dead convinced that she was Ciel’s grandma despite not
having the confirmation of ch85 yet + never having noticed at the time that Vincent’s predecessor was a woman (even though it was shown in ch15).
I have so many posts on my blog about her (even though we saw her shadow twice and a strange locket with her name on it hardly more), I have probably reblogged or commented almost every post that can be found in her tag and I’m probably annoying people because I can’t shut up on the subject (like right now), but I can’t help it.
The day we get to Claudia, I don’t know what will happen to me or my blog, but it’s probably going to be very intense. xD
Thanks for passing by Anon, I’m glad if you think this kind of observations is cool somehow! Have a nice weekend ^3^
Haha, well, I liked the idea of a thing between them but I didn’t ship them “seriously” until it was confirmed that she was really Ciel’s grandma in ch85. :))
However, even then, considering that the biggest reveal we had about UT’s character came with ch105
(since after the anime, everyone guessed he was probably a Shinigami in the manga too), because we learnt that Shinigamis used to be humans and that…
UT actually was hiding too many feelings inside, I did a 360° turn on my previous take with both his character and that ship.
It became much more tormented, passionate and desperate in my head (whether Claudia reciprocated his feelings or not, I mean), an interpretation I like better anyway and that fits the tone of the manga and UT’s character more too.
So you could say I reached another level in shipping these two after ch105 came out. :))
I hope it answers your question, have a nice day Anon. :))
Hi Anon! Sorry but I’m not sure what the issue (?) is?
Are you also a UT/Claudia shipper and the day it might become canon your heart will hurt because of happiness? Or is it the other way around, you can’t stand that ship and you will loathe the day it might become canon?
To each their own, no matter which it is though, Anon. 🙂
I like the ship myself, but I will always agree that right now it’s impossible to know for sure where Claudia was concerned. We have never seen her in canon, be it in a flashback or in any moment that implied anything about her character, so saying she might have loved UT is really theoretical.
However, I’m sorry in case you actually don’t like the ship, but I find that it’s rather likely that UT’s feelings for her were… real. Of course, there is nothing confirmed but I personally don’t have many doubt, namely because of the cover of ch54:
Buuuut there is still nothing confirmed, so you can definitely think otherwise. :))
In general, I think it’s totally fine to have ships you like and ships you don’t, but I disagree when some people’s only counter-argument is to say “there is no proof”. In the case of UT/Claudia, we don’t know what happened and if either were feeling anything like love, but there are hints that it could have been possible.
Anyway, nothing to rejoice or cry about for now, because it’s not about to be confirmed or denied anytime soon. 🙂 In my opinion, the next time we might even address this topic or get new hints about whether there was a thing or not will not be before the end of this arc at least.
midnight-in-town 