But in all seriousness, Kaneki did promise to talk with Touka after the Lab Raid, and I get the feeling this is going to happen in Chapter 120, with 118 and 119 dealing with events in the CCG and Akiramon. Why 120? Well, we just had a parallel to the original series’ Kanou’s Lab arc, and a second Anteiku raid has been set up with Takeomi – what major moment between Kaneki and Touka happened between those two arcs in the first manga?
The confrontation on the bridge in Chapter 120. So mark the 8th April on your calendars, everyone.
Now that they’re both roughly in the same place on the Ghoul/Human spectrum, effective communication between the two of them is looking more and more likely. Kaneki has never been a very open person – Hide was about the only person he opened up to, and that stopped completely when he became a Ghoul. But that’s a trait he and Touka share. She hated for people to see her insecurities and weaknesses, so she covered it up with aggression in an overt display of strength.
But given how they’ve both matured, I think this conversation will go very differently from the last one. The Amon/Touka conversation we had last chapter hints through Amon at the reason for Kaneki’s own reluctance to talk, but when the talk happens he might be finally convinced to open up about all of the fear, guilt and self-doubt he’s been harbouring. As for Touka, she’ll talk about being left behind by Arata and Ayato and express her will to fight alongside him instead of being protected all the time. Romantic or not, (and given all the sudden canonisations of ships in the latest arc, I’m actually pretty confident in the former), Kaneki and Touka will leave the encounter closer and with clearer consciences. The last encounter ended dramatically with a fight – to mirror that, I think this time around we might get a hug at the very least.
But themes and characters aside, how does this tie into the main plot? Because in the upcoming CCG raid on :re, Touka will be placed in severe danger. Kaneki failed to save the old manager, but will he be able to save the new one? Having finally reached a mutual understanding with her, just like he did with Yoshimura by hearing his story, the stakes will be all the higher. Kaneki and Touka themselves make a nice little parallel for Kuzen and Ukina too – a ghoul and a human who met at a coffee shop and became entangled in each other’s worlds.
The raid on :re will be a delicious opportunity for tragedy for Ishida, and that art with Touka in funereal clothes with Kaneki’s mask leaves me more than a little wary for our main’s safety. However, I see :re as Kaneki being given a chance by the author to do his story again, and to make sure that it’s not a tragedy this time around – a :rewrite, if you will. He’s already made a lot of mistakes on the way but I think we ought to have faith, as Touka did, that he will always be able to return to Anteiku.
Touka to Kaneki in ch104: Look, can we please talk when you get back????
Kaneki: Err, don’t wanna because the prospect scares me but sure?
Also Kaneki in ch118: man, I’m so dead inside and to the rest of the world that I’ll keep on pretending not to remember I have to have a talk with Touka-chan.
Touka:…………
*meanwhile*
Amon to Touka in ch117: I’m so scared when I think about talking to Akira. It’s been 4 years, so much has changed, I’m a one eyed ghoul now and she used to hate ghouls. Also, I’m unstable and I was raised by a crazy russian priest who forced me to kill other human children for him to eat because he was a ghoul. I even almost hurt Seidou and Yasuhisa because the CCG experimented on me recently. What should I do? I’m such a sinner, I can’t go see her, she’ll never forgive me, oh dear God please help me…
Touka: I definitely think you should go tho’. And don’t forget to bring a gift, it’ll make things easier.
Um, I don’t think the last chapter was a confirmation that Akiramon is endgame though?
The talk with Touka certainly made Amon’s feelings clear (which was necessary since we hardly ever got any real hint about possible romantic feelings towards Akira in :Re before)…
…just like ch115 made Seidou’s feelings clear….
But Akira might have her word to say about her own feelings, don’t you think? 😉 And the last time she brought it up, she said…
So for now, since she protected Seidou during the Rushima arc out of pure feelings alone, it’s still Seiakiramon that goes for me. :3
As I was saying, making Amon’s feelings clear when it comes to romantic subtones in his relationship with Akira was important because Seidou’s feelings were made clear in a similar way two chapters ago. So there still is a balance between the two relationships, for now neither prevails and Akira’s feelings don’t seem to favor any in particular. For now at least (obviously it could change later, we’ll see).
Just see it like that, starting from the Rushima arc:
Seidou -> attacks Akira
Amon -> protects Akira
Amon -> also wants to go back with Seidou and Kurona + helps Seidou
Akira -> protects Seidou from Mutsuki
Seidou -> gets Akira away from the island and the CCG
also Seidou -> goes to the lab to bring the medicine back + bring Amon home
Ishida -> make Seidou’s feelings clear in ch115
Also Ishida -> make Amon’s feelings as well in ch117.
TL;DR both men admitted clealy to their feelings but Akira has yet to explain with words how she feels about them => the balance between our trio still holds.
Please don’t use the shortcut “Amon is more of a knight in shining armor because he didn’t lose himself, even after what Aogiri did to him, so Akira is obviously gonna end up with him”, especially not since Seidou proved recently that he was a great man too. 🙂
Wah, sorry Anon, no offense really xD but you can’t exactly compare the feelings of someone who says…
And of someone who goes
Touka isn’t exactly expecting anything from Kaneki, no matter how she feels about him, she just wants him to go back to what “home” is for him and it doesn’t even have to be :Re…
Meanwhile Mutsuki developed an unhealthy obsession, which might not have a lot to do with love even if they call it like that themselves (please read this post ), but they’re completely dependent on Haise’s presence and mostly they used to want Haise to belong to them only.
So I’m not judging or commenting on those feelings for these two characters, however I don’t find them to be comparative at all, sorry Anon.
As for Arata and Kaneki “being similar”, I think you’re misunderstanding something: Kaneki is said to be similar to Arata, not because of the physical appearance but because of their similar behavior, as Ayato said himself:
And honestly, if you’re looking for someone who looks like Arata, that person is Ayato, as it is very discernible when you look at any moment of :Re (which is natural since he’s Arata’s son). 🙂
I can’t disagree with you that many readers did make a parallel between Kaneki and Arata, even just from a physical point of view, but that’s mostly because…
…whenever we saw Arata and Hikari in the manga, Touka herself was always associated/compared to her mom, and as such many fans tend to see some kind of link between the couples Arata & Hikari and Kaneki & Touka.
So, I’m sorry Anon, besides my personal opinion that maybe the parallels between Arata/Hikari and Kaneki/Touka could be made on purpose by Ishida-sensei, I think it’s too easy to just dismiss Touka’s possible feelings by calling it a father complex, when her relationship to Kaneki went and will still go through many developments.
Finally, I’m sorry to completely disagree with you yet again, but not only have I and several other bloggers talked about Touka’s punch several times before (please check her tag) but in any case, the punch was only once in :Re + it is in no way related to…
this, so I hope that a glance is enough to understand why this scene and the punch scene are completely different.
I am definitely looking for a Aura & Mutsuki vs Kaneki & Touka conflict personally though 😀 because it can only bring interesting development to all of them and I’m 100% here for this! When it comes to comparing Mutsuki’s feelings and Touka’s however, I don’t think it’s very useful seeing as they’re completely the opposite of one another.
So I disagree Anon 🙂 but that’s just my opinion so you don’t have to agree with me either. I hope maybe it helps though. Have a nice day/evening Anon!
Thanks! Touka’s acceptance of her situation and the way she is using that acceptance to look for alternate solutions is in line with the concept of Buddhist mindfulness/sati. Now, this isn’t mindfulness as it is often seen in Western interpretations, but an actual lifestyle practice (that is often recommended in therapy for trauma and abuse).
The concept itself is a little hard to describe. It’s one of the 7 factors of enlightenment. It comes along with the abandonment of hatred, greed, and delusion. It acknowledges that everything is impermanent and that you will be dissatisfied with many things. Mindfulness is supposed to encompass seeing the reality of things and accepting them.
Here the monk remains contemplating the body as body, resolute, aware and mindful, having put aside worldly desire and sadness; he remains contemplating feelings as feelings; he remains contemplating mental states as mental states; he remains contemplating mental objects as mental objects, resolute, aware and mindful, having put aside worldly desire and sadness; This is called right mindfulness.
Essentially, Touka’s anger in the past has been fuelled by striving against a system much larger than herself. She fights it and fights it and it just keeps crushing her. She’s a force to be reckoned with, but the things she was pushing against and how she was pushing against it was an immovable object.
Mindfulness is acknowledging that failure. Killing investigators doesn’t give ghouls power. It doesn’t bring back the dead. It couldn’t keep her loved ones safe.
Mindfulness is NOT giving up, though. It is Touka realizing she cannot change the world alone. It is her recognizing that things won’t change right now. It is her finding a path towards change without losing herself.
Touka’s anxiety about losing people is all-encompassing. She KNOWS this, she verbalizes this, and she also knows that people leave. People die. Her fears will be realized. In response, instead of pushing them away or trying to protect them against their will, she’s set up a waypoint. They will leave her, but she’s made a place for them to come back to. They will leave her, but she will accept them in the meantime. They will leave her, but she will go after them when they need her.
Her passive behaviour isn’t really entirely passive. It’s letting go of toxic anger. It’s letting go of how unfair the system is and finding ways in which she can fight it without sacrificing other values. It’s a mindfulness approach.
I hope this explanation made sense. The Satipatthana Sutta is a good resource is my summary was too confusing.
I’m sure she was just surprised because she woke up to an unknown ghoul when the last thing she saw was Amon and Takizawa fighting against the Qs, so that gotta be disturbing. xD
That’s Akira though, that’s just the way she is! Remember when she found Amon doing push-ups on her balcony? xD
It’s a similar expression, I bet she takes them after Maris Stella xDDDDD
Hey Anon 🙂 Haha, sorry though, but if that’s about this post that I reblogged, I just agree about Touka wishing for Kaneki to have a home without expecting anything in return from him 🙂
Because that was really a beautiful moment with meaningful words.
So I’m sorry but you will have to ask the OP about the Christian overtures and Buddhist ideologies :3
I’m still yelling about this chapter!? It’s obvious how much Touka loves Kaneki (platonic, romantic, whatever) and it’s the sweetest thing! There’s no trope I love more than a person loving someone else with no expectation of anything in return! Touka just wants Kaneki to have a home! She just wanted to see him while he was gone to be sure he was alright! aidoiewjoiefoifoihfor!!!!!!!
Touka’s been taught time and again that people don’t come home. She’s been taught that people leave her. She’s been shown by the whole world that all of her relationships will eventually come to end. She fought that FOR YEARS by isolating herself, by pushing people away pre-emptively, or by taking out any threats that entered the scene. The fact that she’s grown to accept this as a reality is amazing!
By accept I don’t even mean “oh no woe is me everyone leaves” but rather Touka simply…facing it when it comes. Allowing for the possibility without it dragging her down. Enjoying what she has while she has it.
Though Ishida has a lot of Christian overtures in his work while talking about martyrdom and saviours and evil incarnate, all the true lessons in his work, all the lessons learned by the people who are stable, are Buddhist ideologies. It’s a really cool contrast and all the Kirishimas embody it.
I think that’s the sweetest thing about Ayahina? That it started with these their connection through Touka that eventually grew into something so much bigger? Hinami wanting to make him happy because she thought she was a burden to him, Ayato being genuinely worried about her and disobeying Aogiri just to go and save, Hinami turning to him out of all people when she’s down and upset– all of these have nothing to do with Touka. Which is what I think chapter 117 was showing? Like it doesn’t better that Hinami has Touka back. At that moment, Ayato’s the person she’s the most comfortable with which is why she brings him all the way to an Aogiri base to talk. Like you can see this as a romantic or platonic pairing, idc, but you can’t deny how precious these two are when they’re together. So pure and lovely. I love them.
midnight-in-town 