coromoor:

midnight-in-town:

Hello! But Anon, the story isn’t over yet, is it? 😉 Touka’s character development is not over anyway and there are a few aspects that need to be addressed where she’s concerned. It’s like saying that ch125 solved every issues between Kaneki and Touka, that just isn’t true: Touka, like Kaneki, still has to grow.

Please refer to the following posts to understand what I mean:

• Thoughts on Kirishima Arata and Touka’s emotional repression by @linkspooky
• About Touka’s fatality in regards to the world and the rebellion

Have a nice day Anon!

I hope you don’t mind me barging in and adding my thoughts to this! Because like you, I too disagree with that idea. The arcs where Tsukiyama, Nishiki and Hinami had the bulk of their character development were never solely dedicated to their characters alone. And that’s not to detract from their importance at all because their respective focuses were all beautiful progression for them! But in this series with so many characters, they all end up sharing arcs and spotlight. We get small bread crumbs of development for various characters across multiple arcs until it’s their time to shine. For me it’s kind of become a staple of Ishida’s writing- his way of switching back and forth between dual perspectives to develop different characters all at once and build them up for a split-focus climax of an arc. 

Although the Mado/Fueguchi/Rabbit arc was set into motion by Hinami’s Mother’s death, that arc had just as much focus and importance for Touka as it did for Hina- it was not solely for Hinami’s character. What happened with Mado triggered into motion Touka’s path for the rest of the series, where we saw her slowly retreating from the vengeful Rabbit persona. 

Although I’d agree and say the Church scene mostly focused on Nishiki- we also got important insight into Kimi and Touka’s characters too. The same way in the Aogiri arc Kaneki and Touka shared the major character development. Touka got 2 entire backstory chapters with literally nothing else besides her perspective, which put both Ayato and herself in the spotlight. 

Karren’s character arc was a HUGE presence during the Tsukiyama family raid and the events leading up to it, even though fandom generally uses the umbrella term ‘Shuu’s arc’ to describe that era for ease. The Showdown between Eto and Kaneki, was also a major point where we cut away from Shuu to focus on Eto’s manipulation and Kaneki’s awakening. Shirazu and Hairu’s death in that arc were also just as important for putting the Quinx and Ui on their current paths. 

You see what I mean?

And like you pointed out Acchan, we’re still halfway through this arc too. Currently the plot in :re has a major focus on Touka and her relationships- namely with Kaneki and Yoriko. The whole pregnancy plot is mostly tied to themes surrounding Touka and most of it has been shown through the lens of her perspective. Although we stalled the main plot for… *coughs* chapter 125 *coughs* Touka and Kaneki’s relationship, once we picked back up, that has pushed forward the plot with Mutsuki and his relentless pursuance of them from :re down to the 24th Ward as the Squad Leader of the Oggai. The other side of the story with the CCG is being driven by the consequences of Touka and Yoriko’s relationship, with Yoriko’s incoming execution setting into motion development for a whole panel of other characters- it’s the whole reason Urie confronted Furuta in the first place. 

I guess this probably all could have been summed up in one sentence; she doesn’t have her own arc because no characters do :”D

@coromoor No apologies are needed :)) because your thoughts are literally what I should have detailed in the first place (and I actually kinda did in my tags lmao because tbh I am bit restless these days). 

Anyway, I agree and it’s something I have noticed lately: people complaining about Ishida’s decisions towards certain characters, about “their lack of continued development” or “bad writing” when from the beginning Ishida never gave a personal development arc to a character alone, because many of his characters will finish their development when the story is to end.

You gave many good examples (that I also addressed in my tags) and I could add Akira’s situation in ch120/121 as my own example, because I know for a fact that a lot of people were disappointed that she left “as if she didn’t learn anything from confronting Touka and Hinami” when she did. 
However, expecting Akira to be ready to do a 180° turn over in her characterization just because she acknowledged one flaw is senseless and everything that I am personally against in writing. 

No character development has to be settled from the moment a character realizes that they were wrong, especially not when Ishida writes his characters realistically: that means that a character development isn’t reduced to a character understanding a flaw and immediately striving to become “better” and so, in Akira’s example, her character development simply reached another level in ch120/121 but it’s a start, not an end or a stagnation.

Ishida has always associated his characters’ development to their dynamics with others and to the plot itself, it’s what I call a multidynamic, and that’s why I like TG (and Ishida’s writing) so much.
In the most recent chapter, people complained about Roma’s character being useless because Urie defeated her even though she brought answers to the plot through living and dying, people complained about Urie’s development making no sense when it’s not over yet and he just lost another comrade, which is a regular pattern in his characterization…

Reading TG means having to be patient because Ishida never settled anything on the first try, and the best example of that is Kaneki’s character himself. I’d love to think that after 26+ volumes people would have grown accustomed to Ishida’s style but apparently not.

TL;DR I agree. :))