Hi Anon, thanks for reading! Haha, do you mean when he was the Witch’s servant?
More than being dressed as a Clown, it’s the little resemblance to Ganbo, a Clown from the auction arc, that always struck me:
The whole “Witch’s servant” is why I’m not considering that Hide is completely on his own actually, especially since he would have needed help escaping the Washuus for years anyway. The question that remains though is “who is the witch”, since this play was always a good indicator of TG’s plot.
For a long time, Eto was thought to be the one who had this role and I agree that it’s a good possibility (I mean, Scarecrow went to Rushima probably not undetected, there is the book that was sent to Haise in ch31.5 that could come from either Hide or Eto), but I could never dismiss the idea that it might also be someone else, since we don’t know for sure, hence this kind of theories.
The gist of it all is that Hide probably doesn’t really belong to a group in particular: it’s possible that he associated himself with different characters (like the “witch”) or organizations throughout the story just to reach his goals, just like Kanou did.
Hi! Ohhh, I had forgotten about that, thanks Anon, but actually I’m not surprised at all that Hide plays Go (I’m not sure that Matsuri playing shogi is related to any of this though, since he’s less mysterious than Hide, but it does attest to his intelligence too). :))
Of course, there is literally 0 hint that Hide and Uta ever played chess…
…but considering @kingkishou‘s theory about what happened in the sewers before V14 being way more significant than we could have initially thought, I’m not trusting either Hide nor Uta, because they’re way too shady and mysterious as of right now.
And even if somehow it turns out that Hide and Uta were playing chess together (if just because Kaneki’s mask and Eto’s book were sent at the same time in ch31.5, which could allude to Hide and Uta having a few plans in common), it doesn’t even automatically mean that Hide belongs with the Clowns.
Speaking of “recruitment” now (even if again, Hide might not be a Clown at all), Spooky-chan likes to say that I play a lot with clown conspiracy theories but…
by now, there is a possibility that Uta is the Nagaraj (or has a strong connection to him) and Furuta said something about the Nagaraj “sharing his life force”…
so I wonder if several blond kids with apparently no parent but a connection to the 24th ward might not be a hint to some kind of link, as I proposed here.
So maybe Hide comes from the 24th ward
(as in, maybe all those blond kids were somehow born from the Nagaraj’s kakuja which would be what Furuta meant, even if I have no real idea as to how it’d be possible) and it’s not that he was recruited, but rather that maybe, like Roma, Itori mentored him for a while when he escaped the 24th ward (which would explain why he knows how to collect and use information).
After all, I always wondered about that scene…
…because, aside from Donato in Cochlea, all the other Clowns (including Furuta) were listening to her answering “what happened to Kaneki”, so who provided that information about the CCG in the first place? I mean it’s not like Hide wasn’t by Marude’s side until the Anteiku raid arc.
It’s just a theory though, nothing confirmed at all and maybe I’m just reading wayyy too much into it, so please take it all with a grain of salt. :3
Have a nice weekend Anon!
Hi! I never mind anyone sharing their thoughts Anon. :))
However, even if there are definitely more chances for you to be right than me, I can’t be sure for the moment, because the 24th ward was destroyed after Dragoneki appeared. So even if Touka and co most likely stayed around where their old base was, how would
Hide
have found them since he wasn’t a part of the operation?
And even going with your idea and assuming that Dragoneki hadn’t annihilated almost everyone down there to protect Touka (since we know a part of Juuzou’s men escaped)…
…are you sure that Hide would have asked anyone about where exactly the operation took place, when everyone was panicking and no one back at the CCG seemed to have known about his plan to contact ghouls?
That’s why I’m just not sure, even if you might be right and anyway, it’s also true that Hide could have simply guessed on his own that Touka and co would have been somewhere close to where the old 24th ward used to be. :))
…and that’s why I don’t think he’s on his own, whether it is with Eto and/or one/several Clowns and/or other characters that he shares or shared a plan.
Thanks for your insight though, I really appreciate it! 🙂 Have a nice weekend :3
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!
excuse me, I know it’s nothing new, but I still love this.
Basically, Akira’s entire character arc has been her emotional repression. We see this summarized pretty effectively at the end of Tokyo Ghoul.
In Tokyo Ghoul though, the idea is merely brought up not concluded upon because the manga is a tragedy and therefore ends with a significant amount of characters failing to change in time and therefore losing. Re: further deconstructs Akira’s issues though. If you’ll notice, every time that Akira represses her emotions she’s talking about her father.
It’s even confirmed by other characters, that Akira talks about her father a whole lot.
It’s not until the confrontation with Seidou though that we see a clear line drawn between Akira’s emotional repression and her father. Akira gets angry when a fellow student credits her achievements to her parents. For a long time Akira has been famous in the bureau for being a pure bred investigator but this is the first time we see how she feels about it.
In this same scene it’s Takizawa who looks at AKira. Unlike everybody else though, Takizawa compets with Akira herself, rather than AKira the product of two investigators. Which is why Akira looks at Takizawa with fondness even though he’s obviously grumbly once more about their one sided rivalry. Even if Takizawa was competing, he was competing with her, not with her parents. It’s the only relationship where somebody looks at her and sees her, and not her parents.
Remember this is also the flashback in which Akira is justifying her sudden need to rush at and protect Takizawa. This is the reason which she can’t bear to watch him die. Akira protects Takizawa, to protect herself, or rather to protect the person who sees her for herself. The same way in which much earlier Takizawa killed Houji, but still spared Akira, because Akira was the person who he most wanted to look at him.
Then we reach the point at which Akira explains why she did what she did. She makes special mention of her father, once again in the context of repressing her own emotions.
Akira’s father is what made her repress her emotions, because Akira was raised with the expectation of becoming a ghoul investigator by her father. We never really find out if this is what Akira ever wanted to or not, but it’s an expectation she chafes under. She doesn’t like being regarded as the offspring of two investigators, a natural born investigator. She doesn’t like when people look at her parents rather than her. However, her father was a major source of love in her life, so Akira ends up often trying to repress her emotions and go along with it.
This is the end result though, she can’t. She can’t repress her emotions. The person who saw her ended up bringing out Akira’s true self, her absolute worst her coldness that told Takizawa to die, and her absolute best her selflessness that made her jump in front of the person she stayed attached to for all of those three years, but with the absolute worst timing so Akira comes out in a jumble.
The ultimate goal of Akira’s character arc should be escaping her father’s shadow. As she says it quite clearly to Takizawa, no matter how much she tries to pour herself into her work she can’t. However, Akira soon loses consciousness after this. She’s not able to properly come to terms with these newly discovered feelings, not only that but the person who brought them out of her disappears.
Not only that, but the only other person around left to her is Amon, who similiarly worships and refuses to let go of Mado in any way.
Akira wants to be seen as herself, but Amon from the start has always projected onto her as Mado’s daughter. It’s the way he’s introduced to her.
Even this moment where they’re bonding, Amon immediately compares her to her father.
The bonding moment they have while drinking, both this scene and the push ups scene are entirely about Amon’s grief for her father.
Even their first and last conversation in the manga, takes place in front of Mado’s grave.
Considering that Amon’s idealization of Mado has not diminished at all, even on a subconscious level.
I can’t imagine it’s likely that Amon would be the one to look at Akira and see Akira, rather than Mado’s daughter. Even the Akira he remembers when Touka asks him if he ever missed her, is making the exact same pose she made when she introduced herself as Mado’s daughter.
So we see Touka being the first person to budge Mado’s image in Akira’s mind, by making the suggestion that Akira herself might have been in denial all along. That her father, and also therefore herself did not have to be a ghoul investigator.
What Akira describes as feeling is emptiness, but I can’t believe it’s that. Considering that Akira’s entire arc has been about emotional repression, and the confusing situation she was thrown in, it’s much more likely that Akira not knowing how to feel any more has decided to repress her emotions entirely. She even says so herself in the same chapter she describes her emotions as welling up inside of her.
That her substitute for feeling her own emotions, for making her own decisions has always been to cling to others.
She describes her ideals from back then as not really things she believed in, but rather clinging to the frills of justice.
Then we have Amon and Akira’s solution to this emptiness.
Say what you will about whether or not you think this moment is growth, but immediately afterwards we have this. Their next canon scene in the manga, Akira who got so close to finally escaping the lens of comparing herself to her father once again, immediately drops her father’s name in conversation.
In an arc about escaping from her father’s shadow and learning to see things through her own eyes, Akira who literally had to take a near fatal blow for Seidou and almost die before she could realize that it was impossible for her to pour her emotions away and live to her father’s standards, is once again… doing exactly that.
That is what her statement in regards to her father meant. Akira’s been pouring herself into a mould for so long she’s completely forgotten how to be herself, and when she tries too, she’s so repressed she feels empty inside. In that case it’s easier for her to cling to others then actually to try living and thinking as herself again. So even though her father is the source of all of this emptiness, she ends up back with him again because that’s easier than trying to find out who she is.
From a freudian angle the only thing that would truly free Akira was killing her father, but he’s already dead so we’ll see how that works out. It’s also important to mention that Seidou Takizawa, who has the most emotional clarity of the trio has already killed his father twice over, both with his literal father and Houji.
While everyone was debating about Hide, I completely missed Ogura having a “personal interest” in Kanou and being all “it does me no credit, but I snooped around for info on him and his life”, which, coupled with Ogura’s open admiration of Kanou back at uni makes one think. (Specifically it makes one think someone had a school crush).
Surprisingly, Amon’s words to Hide about the impeccable timing of his return weren’t sarcastic as I’d assumed. Figures. Amon probably doesn’t know what sarcasm is. Meanwhile Hide knows what sarcasm is, and his phrase sounds more like, “Aw, ‘cause I looove him!” (he’s saying that in an intentionally cutesy/girlish/childish way, which doesn’t diminish the sentiment… but doesn’t sound like a serious confession either. I’m back to thinking that was a deflection. Not necessarily untrue… but not the reason Amon asked for).
For the anon who asked if Itori said anything interesting: “we’ll pretend to be Clowns, as usual” may also be read as “we’ll act the fool, as usual”. I totally read her saying “you’ve become more ladylike” as a dig at Touka being pregnant, since “becoming” in that context implies doing something, and Touka is still a tomboy, so the only traditionally feminine thing she’s done is get married and pregnant.
Might be bit bummer to know Itori would let Yomo die if Uta didn’t decide to stop him but I don’t find it disappointing as it isn’t surprising in least.
Short verions: They might be unholy trinity but Yomo is Uta’s friend and she is friend with Yomo trough Uta because Itori has always been Uta’s friend.
This is not to be taken wrong way though. Not saying Itori and Yomo don’t have any sort of friendship between two without Uta, but they wouldn’t even be friends if it wasn’t for Uta as Itori was with Uta since always and it was Uta who befriended Yomo so it is quite clear how did Itori and Yomo ended up being friends as well.
Take real life situation for example. Lets say you have a friend, one with who you hang out with and know. Then your friend introduces you to their friend and you two also become friends because of common friend you share but at end of day you still end up being friends of each other’s friend.
Again not to be taken wrong way as you can end up being far better friends with your friend’s friend then friend you two got in common but if we look at how Yomo and Itori end up hanging out at all …
xD Then is it surprising that it was Uta who decided to save his friend and Itori decided to tag along because of it.
From everything we saw in manga and even this omake when it comes to this trio, Yomo never seeks Itori nor does she him. If they end up hanging out at all is because they both seek or are with same person when they bump into each other. Uta.
Their relationship sums up in:
Yomo – little brother everyone plays prank on. (being Yomo is suffering)
Itori – annoying older sister that loves teasing little brother most. (again being Yomo is suffering)
Uta – babysitter that needs to babysit these two when they’re together. (being Uta is suffering as well)
Itori and Yomo are long-term friends that have history but they both have bigger connection with Uta then each other since he is reason how they ended up befriending and how they end up hanging out with each other.
Which is why relationship between Itori and Uta is one I’m interested in most. We know how did he and Yomo became friends and we can conclude how did Itori and Yomo ended up being friends as well from it.
But how did Itori and Uta end up together in first place? Especially because Itori might be far older then she looks and she might have connections to Underground King. So what is even deal between two? Is thing I’m far more interested in.
I really do love that Ishida is driving home the point that Kaneki’s big fatal flaw was that he wanted people to care about him and yet he was incapable of seeing how much everyone loves him already ;;.
I feel like people tends to forget how powerful touken is. Sit down there is nothing but true tea and facts in this post.
[ touken arguments debunked : A post ]
1. They had a full chapter dedicated for them to make love. Yes a full 17 pages chapter just them kissing/touching/stripping each others clothes etc… , it never happened before and it won’t happen again. + it was consensual sex no r*ape and all that crap that was spreading around back then.
2. she gave him her parents wedding ring that is to her a very precious item she own and means so much to her, and he said he will think of her every time he looks at it (While being genuinely happy) + he wears it every time he goes out outside the base so most likely he is wearing it right now and going to play a major role soon.
3. She is pregnant of his baby and doing all her best to keep the baby alive. Yes she is poisoning her body by eating human food for a baby she know her body probably won’t even except it because she loves him and want to have a family with him. Not because she a secret agent who trying to take advantage of him.. like yall need to chill with conspiracy theories lmao.
4. One of Kaneki’s reason to care about the future of the ghouls is ( Touka ) because he wants to be able to live with her in peace when all of this is over. Hence this is all before he finds out about the pregnancy so for all “ he is only with her because she is trapping him with the baby so he could not leave her “ people can suck it. Okay moving on.
5. Remember when he ran 52 km/hr ( A true scientific fact provided by our father Ishida himself btw ) when he thought her health was not okay because of the pregnancy? MHHM Yes I do.
6. They both have chosen each other and their baby over going and risking their life to save yoriko cause they know they might die if they went to do so. Which made some people really pressed at that time lol. Like how dare them chose themselves for once unbelievable horrible people.
Right after that he said that he is HAPPY and he asked her to marry him by his own will and not at gun point like some are trying to makes it look like.
Like homeboy can’t make a decision on his own like he is not grown up adult or whatsoever. And yes two people marry each other because they love each other and want to spend their life together for the those who might not have heard of the concept of marriage before. ANYWAY moving on.
~
8. Probably the strongest touken moment in the whole manga and deepest proof of their love is the iconic “ bite markes “ this stuff right here is for Life. It won’t fade away even if they died it’s a proof of their love FOREVER.
* inserts Cardi B’ forever gif*
9. Yes he said “ I love her “ *Inserts Micheal Jackson’s I love this song gif* // and he wasn’t under a spell or anything of that sort btw.
~
10. He was so excited to tell Shuu and Yomo about their goul marriage and genuinely happy. Also he was proud of it like a precious child. + * live and protect her* yes live on with her as his wife and raising their baby together.
~
11. They had a wedding ceremony planned by Shuu of the characters that deeply loves Kaneki ( romantically) and understand that his happiness is with touka and accepted cause he is a grown man. Omg a wild concept!! + promised her to bring her cake so except to see that in the future, it might sounds silly but Ishida never puts random dialogue just because he want to fill up panels. So yeah after all of this over he going to live with his wife wow unbelievable!
12. She is his weakness btw. And something important to him that he wants to protect.
13. In his darkest moments when he thought that he was going to die the idea of not seeing her again made him go inside ( oh wow he don’t love her that much ) + he want to be with her and pick a name for their child.
14. I just want to say that Touka is a strong powerful character that trying her best while she is pregnant to protect the baby and she still manged to fight and is going to play a major role in the upcoming events.
+ she is so worried about her husband who turned into a monster but won’t sit or run away ( which she didn’t do btw this whole arc ) she will do something to save him.
– – – – – – – – – –
In the end of this post I know there are so many characters that love Kaneki romantically/or not ( Shuu ) which we already know how feels about his relationship with Touka ( planned their wedding). ( Hide ) which Kaneki’s happiness means everything to him so he will understand that Kaneki is in love and married to Touka and will not be a home wrecker like some of you are making him looks like + he is a sweet sunshine boy. Also,( Mutsuki ).
Ishida, plz show me Hide’s super heavily scarred up face. Plz acknowledge in-text that his sacrifice was a bad choice and that he could’ve gone for other solutions, but ultimately always chooses to martyr himself like Kaneki. Show me the warped figure he truly is.
As sweet and genuine as Hide’s feelings are, and make no mistake I still think they are. The manga so far has been deliberately deconstructing the notion of self sacrifice, martyrdom, and self blame that Hide is walking around with burdened so on his shoulders with little self awareness.
Hide’s sacrifice as well intentioned as it was, did not even produce the result it intended. It did not show Kaneki that his life was worth saving at all, in fact the moment he remembered it he immediately tried to kill himself again in another even more elaborate scenario than Anteiku.
Hide never really could have saved Kaneki from his own suicidal nature, or from Anteiku even if he acted sooner, or acted in a different way, because the only person who can save Kaneki is Kaneki. This is confirmed in the narrative itself. The Hide he imagined up wasn’t Hide at all, it was Kaneki’s voice inside of his head taking the form of Hide, because he wanted somebody to tell him to live. However, the voice itself was always his own.
Kaneki was never talking to Rize when he found the resolve to fight Yamori, that was his own strength. At the same time, Kaneki was never talking to Hide when he found the will to live again. That was his own will and desire.
So tragically, as is often the fashion in which things proceed Hide’s sacrifice went by the same way of Kaneki’s sacrifice in trying to save the manager and Anteiku in the Anteiku raid. It accomplished nothing, saved no one, and only hurt him further. This is not to devalue the intention behind Hide’s deed, after all his acceptance of Kaneki at his lowest point is true selflessness. However, this is the reality of the situation. Hide sacrificed so much, and then devoted what little of him survived three years after the fact to Kaneki, and it changed nothing. Kaneki still turned into a giant worm and ate the whole city.
Which is why Hide’s attitude here is more troubling to me, than I think a lot of people are giving it credit for. That three years after the fact, after losing half of his face, that Hide thinks Kaneki is still his responsibility, that it’s something he should have done rather than Kaneki to prevent all of this. It comes from a place of love of course, but if it’s not healthy for Kaneki to martyr himself for the sake of the people he loves, then it’s not healthy for Hide either.
Oddly enough, it seems in Kaneki’s absence Hide has begun to mirror him a little bit. He didn’t tell Kaneki of his name or even his existence, and tried to fix everything from the shadows. This time it was Hide cutting Kaneki off rather than the other way around. He also takes personal blame for not protecting Kaneki in the right way, and letting things get to this point. It’s a bit interesting knowing their dnyamic, and knowing the same behaviors frustrated Hide a long time ago.
We see that behavior repeating in other characters though. Touka after knowing what it was like to be abandoned by Kaneki and disappear without a word cannot bring herself to confront Yoriko in any way and instead cuts her off to protect her. Nishiki hasn’t even mentioned Kimi once after breaking up with her, and he’s willing to hunt down both Torso, and Kanou for seemingly some connection to her, but can’t even talk about her around his closest friends in a private sealed off room.
Anyway this isn’t anything new to Hide, and it’s very thematic but I thought it was worth commenting on all the same. As for what Amon said, yes, I think his priorities since the “Last Sanctuary” speech have changed from Justice for the Whole world, to “I want my friends to still be alive.”
His smile here is likely because, he recognized that despite the fact that they were still fighting on opposite sides, Kaneki and him came to fight for the same reasons.
That can be both good and bad. It means that Amon might have learned a small something as to why ghouls fight for each other, that they were too fighting for people that were precious to him.
At the same time it kind of reassures Amon and Kaneki’s whole worldview of only choosing to focus on personal relationships and turning a blind eye to everybody else. Amon who was supposed to be the force which kept Kaneki in check and in balance, fails to confront him at this point and as a result they both leave the conversation without really changing.
Despite the fact that it’s been built up the entire manga that this conversation was meant to change both of their viewpoints of the world. You know Ishida and his love of anticlimaxes though.
midnight-in-town 