…errrr, Kaneki, my angsty son… you’re highly entertaining and I love the way you lie to yourself, but we already agreed about that back when Itori said an exactly similar lie in ch148:
In fact the whole ch144 never implied that you did this to “save everyone”, I mean…
so, at least, admit it to yourself.
You didn’t become a murderer to save the ghoul kind, because that, at least, you would be able to justify to yourself as acting as the OEK, for the sake of the rebellion or for “the greater good” where ghouls are concerned.
But no, no, you became a murderer mainly for the sake of one person (two if you count the baby), because you just didn’t want to lose the girl you love and your future family. So better acknowledge that as fast as you can before Rize throws the harsh truth to your face.
That’s not really what I wrote Anon. 🙂 I said that ch144 emphasized the idea that he did it mainly for the sake of his future family.
Of course, Kaneki doesn’t only care about Touka and his future kid: as you said he cares about Hina, Nishiki, Yomo, Tsukiyama, the Qs, Akira… However, Shuu did call him out before (see above, from ch128) for not exactly caring about the rebellion and overall the future of the ghoul kind because, well, it’s true.
Again, ch144 emphasized on the notion that he knew he would have to cross a line that he stayed away from until then (eating humans and then “becoming a murderer” when Dragoneki went on a rampage), all for the sake of “what was important” to him.
And as he himself said, “he’s always known [what’s important to him]”…
…that’s why I’m saying that there is no need for him to lie to himself now because “Rize” isn’t going to let him escape the fact that he “became a murderer”, not in ch144 by the way but a long time before.
I hope it makes more sense that way! Have a nice day :))
Power scaling basically went out the window when Urie defeated Roma, despite basically losing to Donato earlier in the exact same circumstances. Even though Roma’s technically a much much stronger ghoul.
You don’t need to reply to this with several reasons why Urie totally could have beaten Roma though and how it totally makes sense though because that’s not really the purpose.
This isn’t really a fighting manga where the power levels are meant to be cool. Every character that has sought strength as a part of their character arc has regretted it later. I think it’s important to remember that in those scenes the characters don’t accomplish what they wanted through physical strength. Urie’s goal wasn’t to defeat Roma, it was to save Kuroiwa, but Urie totally failed in that regard even after receiving a power up and while Kuroiwa was literally in his arms.
All Urie had to do was pay attention to his environment like Furuta warned him to and he failed in that regard.
Characters like Mutsuki, Urie and Kaneki who seek strength as a means of self improvement never succeed. That is kind of the point, Kaneki literally becomes the strongest ghoul in the whole of Tokyo and he still can’t accomplish his desire to protect everyone.
All of the problems we thought were holding Kaneki back before, his uncontrollable Kakuja, his suicidal nature holding him back, his lack of understanding on how to use the power of kagune, they’ve all been resolved at this point.Yet…
That’s why the next chapter went so far as to create a shonen tourmanet parody arc of this whole scene.
That is essentially the point of this whole scene Kaneki’s the strongest now so he should get what he wants and win, if that’s the conclusion you reach you’re reading the manga wrong. Yes, it would be nice if the power scaling was more consistent, but thematically it works to make the powers so ridiculous now because it makes a point that fighting itself is pointless.
The fact that no one side could handle the Dragon by their own is part of what establishes how pointless the fighting and trying to gain strength for the sake of protecting others on each side really was.
I think it’s also important to remember not only were Rize and Yamori strong but they were also people you did not want to be. What they did to get that power made them horrible people, but Kaneki failed to grasp that in the end because he only saw their power as a means of accomplishing what he wanted. In other words Kaneki needed to read more Medaka Box.
Yeah! In addition to those two instances, there was also ch 125 where he dropped the ‘-chan’ honorific… although I guess he was a bit preoccupied there
I don’t think it was a mistake or Ishida trying to foreshadow anything in particular, but rather a progression of Kaneki and Touka’s relationship that was bound to happen sooner or later. Generally, couples refer to each other by just their first name alone because it’s more intimate. Except for these 2 giant idiots of course 😂😂😂
Kaneki still uses the ‘-chan’ honorific with Touka. Touka still calls him by his last name.
It reminds me of this shoujo j-drama I’ve watched. The main couple have known each other for years from high school and when they eventually get married, the girl still calls her husband “LastName-kun” out of years of habit and because she’s too embarrassed to say his first name.
It’s Touka and Kaneki’s first relationship so they’re both still finding their feet in all this, and with Touka getting flustered all the time over intimacy she would definitely be embarrassed saying ‘Ken’. To me, Kaneki’s little ‘Toukachan’ is super endearing so I would actually be sad to see it go completely, but Touka calling him ‘Ken’ for the first time is sure to be a big cheesy cute moment and I can’t wait 😈
I love how they’re on the same wavelength but that’s making me wonder if somehow that means they talked about the pregnancy and the baby more than that one time where Touka told him in ch131, which is really something I’d like to know.
I’m going to be honest here…
Before ch144 came around, I was wondering if Kaneki’s reaction to Touka’s pregnancy (even if Nishiki told him first) was truly happiness for two reasons:
just before in the chapter, we’re told that he doesn’t have long left to live, or so he thinks, so I thought it would be logical for him to be sad about having a kid when he’s not going to be around it for long
the panel shows both Touka’s and Kaneki’s backs when he says “I’m happy” and she asks him “really?”, so I was wondering if maybe he wasn’t touching his chin (with his left hand), which is why Ishida doesn’t show us the front view (and since Touka knows about that lying habit of his…).
However, the wedding, Kaneki saying he’ll bring her human food from now on in ch132 and then that moment of ch144, when he talked about “his and Touka’s child”, convinced me that his sad look in ch130 had to do with him thinking that he might not live long enough to raise his and Touka’s child, but that nonetheless he’s definitely happy about it.
So back to ch149, the fact that Touka mentions that she wants him to name the baby because “she’s bad at Japanese” really makes me wonder if both of them agreeing on that
is a hint that they spoke about the baby, aside from that time in ch131, and that Touka knows he’s really happy about her pregnancy
or if it’s a hint of the contrary and Touka’s happy face and words is only her pretending in front of everyone.
Just saying, but Touka very probably has a self confidence that is really low…
due to abandonment issues and internalizing her feelings way too much these last few years for that to be healthy (I actually think she might have self-loathing issues due to it all, which is why we haven’t read any inner thought of hers in :Re yet), so TL;DR I’m hoping she’s not putting on a brave front in the newest chapter and saying something because she thinks everyone is expecting her to.
I hope that she knows that her husband truly is happy about her pregnancy and that he’ll behe is already delighted when he thinks about choosing the best name for their baby.
The last page of chapter 144 titled ‘a’, has some curiosities:
First of all, the ’ah’ written in hiragana, which are linked to the title of the chapter, form a number 60 in the japanese version.
If we add 60 to the chapter number, we will get as a result 204, which knowing that two extra chapters have been published until today, would make 206 in total.
144+60 = 204 204+2 = 206
This could be related with the famous theory that :re will have 206 chapters and in turn with the final sentence “farewell to end, hello to the end”.
Furuta’s plan, which he described in ch 100 as if it were a movie, was finished in chapter 143, as Furuta affirmed and the final sentence indicated.
Referring the words “farewell to end” to this fact, and on the contrary “hello to end” pointing out to the true end of :re, which may or may not suppose the end of the series.
As a final note and more as a comment, in the lower right side of the image, there are a series of black marks which form a perpendicular surface to the buildings, and whose appearance sometimes resembles japanese kanjis.
Therefore, these are some curiosities present in the last page of chapter 144, which could be hinting the end of :re.
Oh! There’s an older theory that there would be 206 chapters in :re because the first chapter was titled “Bone”. There’s 206 bones in the human body.
Way back in chapter 18 of tg, right after Ryouko’s murder and Touka first sought to avenge Hinami’s mother by herself, we were treated to a conversation between Kaneki and Touka.
The talk left a lasting impression, playing an important part in their lives, and is something they both recall years later.
For Kaneki, he remembers it as the first time that Touka called him by his actual name.
For Touka, it was probably the first time someone outside of her family who was aware of her entire circumstances of being a ghoul verbally conveyed directly to her that they would be saddened if anything should happen to her.
But in addition to this, it’s a talk in which Touka brings up Kaneki’s reluctance to kill investigators:
And that is something that Kaneki, at the time, also acknowledges himself:
Which makes it all the more interesting with the contrasting parallel within the recent chapter.
Said contrast is summed up pretty well in the following panel:
His awareness of Furuta’s order to exterminate the group of fleeing ghouls led by his pregnant wife calls back to the initial reason why he first decided to learn how to wield his kagune:
While it isn’t Touka herself asking for him to kill the investigators (some of whom, admittedly, aren’t completely human anymore), he ends up doing so with her and protecting their future together on his mind thus forming a contradiction in relation to her earlier words – “you can’t, can you?”.
If she were to ask the same question in his current state, with the way he is eradicating the oggai (and anything in his path) without mercy, Kaneki’s answer would probably be something more along the lines of “I can and I will”.
I’m freaking out right now because of a real amazing thing I noticed about Kaneki this chapter, where he had an “illusionary” conversation between his multiple personas inside his mind.
Since the beginning of this series, we’ve encountered multiple moments where Kaneki breaks down. And in each moment he gets up using the help of the others, or by others’ will.
Starting with his first mental breakdown, where he gains the power by Rize’s influence created by his imagination.
Here was the born of the so suicidal persona of Kaneki, and I think there was no other of his personas that is worse than “Shironeki” except for “The black reaper”.
His motivation at this moment was nothing but to keep fighting and getting, stronger, in order to be stronger than his loved ones and protect them. He even pushed himself to work hard enough to the point where he lost the sight of his goal.
He lost his own humanity, he returned to the starting point, he still kept on getting himself hurt (emotionally and mentally) to protect the others.
Bad result of his conversation with Rize. Nothing actually exists for Kaneki to look forward in living!
Then once again, the born of a new persona was created by his illusions, “the black reaper”.
A bad influence was this child Kaneki iin here indeed, yet can not be blamed. The child who carried all of Kaneki’s memories and misery, his ghoul figure who didn’t want to be erased yet wanted to die in style. He wanted to give himself one last moment to be remembered as “a hero”.
Even a worse outcome from this conversation! Instead of finding something to live for, he found a reason to die in the name of achievement!
Then we have a new persona, the one who started to believe he there might be a reason to live for, the one who embraced the OEK title.
The very first positive conversation created by his imagination, and of course by Hids’s help! He didn’t give him an exact reason to live for, but at least pushed him forward to find one for himself.
And yet, Kaneki didn’t take Hide’s advice fully to himself, he mixed it up with others’ will once again. He becomes the one eyed king.
This is one of Kaneki’s complex flaws, he needs to be encouraged to take a step in his way. He needs a guide, someone to tell him that it is okay to wish, hope and try to take a step forward. And sometimes this flaw leads him to take actions he doesn’t want to do.
An amazing outcome truth be told! But still he needs improvements.
And last comes the conversation between all of these personas. Each one of them started (was born) based on a whole different reason from the other. Each one of them has his own desires, started with a goal to achieve which is completely unrelated to the other.
One wished for this outcome.
While the other was happy being Sasaki.
And all of them fought over their previous actions and decisions.
Until comes the ugly truth.
Their heavy silent moment.
This situation was built based on the actions of all of them. They might argue over who did this and why you’ve done that, but they agreed on this.
This is his first illusional conversation where he asks for something he desire for himself, not taking titles, dying or even fighting for someone else. This thing is for himself: “I want to see Touka”. Not Touka needs me, not I need to protect my loved ones. But “I want to”, he wants to.
And so, all of these personas come together. No pressure at all, no outside opinions. But by his own free will.
So this fight he is charging is for himself, this is the thing he wants for himself. Not for someone else’s sake, he isn’t searching for someone to think of him as a hero, but he wants to continue on living this life he just built!
midnight-in-town 