You’re laughing now Anon, but what if I told you that every mask of Uta so far apparently meant something, huh? You still sure you wanna call his mask something it’s not? :p
More seriously though, I’m extremely curious about the fact it seems to be an half-mask…
…especially since he always wore full masks in the past.
Also when it comes to the pattern on it, I’d say it’s a cross, which is 200% relevant when you see the latest chapter and the fact that Uta, like Donato, have been associated with this pattern before (Donato => kagune, Uta => tattoo).
What it means exactly I don’t know, but just like his previous masks, there is most likely a precise reason he chose to wear this one:
his very first mask without eyes (flashback of TG vol 12 or TG ch143) was probably about his nickname by the CCG: “No face”
his mask when facing Juuzou in the Clowns’ raid arc was probably about being No Face again, but it also was literally a target, which is “funny” when Juuzou uses knives as favorite weapon (it was like Uta was saying “please hit here on my face so I can transform into Shinohara and trick you”).
So the half mask and, mostly, the cross pattern are probably meaningful in some aspects but personally I haven’t figured out how exactly yet. 🙂
Okay so people want to know what the fuck this new “Owl” is so I’ll explain as much as I can from my own perspective.
First of all, there primarily three characters who people are speculating the identity of this Owl to be, so let’s go through those first.
1) Eto Yoshimura
The most obvious choice, as this Owl bears by far the most resemblance to Eto, even down to the finest details such as how Eto always leaps (and crashes) into the action out of nowhere, clad in her massive Owl kakuja.
This Owl kakuja is also of comparable size to Eto’s own kakuja although the form appears much different this time around. The form that this Owl kakuja takes specifically mirrors the same appearance which Amon’s kakuja took after breaking out of containment, who also has the same kakuhou.
The last and most obvious point is that the body of the host is wrapped in bandages, and needless to say the only character who has worn bandages is Eto. The only part that throws me off about this Owl is that you can see unusual instruments attached to its back, which is something we haven’t seen before.
I personally believe this Owl is 99% most likely Eto’s corpse who is now ironically being used in the same way that she once used Noro.
2) Karren Von Rosewald
Another popular choice with many reasons behind it. One of the first reasoning’s is the inclusion of the chapter 165 illustration that Ishida drew specifically for Shuu. So this led people to believing either that this Owl has a connection to Shuu in some way, or that Ishida simply loves drawing Shuu all the damn time (which is just as likely as evidence would show).
Another big reason is that we never did find out what happened to Karren’s body after her corpse was obtained by the CCG, and I do think it’s very likely that Karren has been kept for further possible use. We also know that Karren has been experimented on by Eto as well through the usage of the Owl kagune, so it’s not impossible that this Owl kakuja could indeed be Karren.
I personally don’t believe that this Owl is Karren mostly because it feels like an extremely forced red herring which wouldn’t hold much purpose. Seeing that the host has had their head removed also means that nobody has any way of identifying her either.
3) Hairu Ihei
The least likely among the three in my opinion however there are fair reasons for why this Owl could be Hairu as well. The main reasoning behind this speculation is that the readers have already been set up with the foreshadowing that Hairu is going to be resurrected, and most likely with the Owl kakuhou according to Hairu’s birthday illustration.
The thing is, the only character that Hairu has ties to in the current story is Ui, and Ui literally had an image of Hairu in his head before he was about to take on this Owl. Seeing that this Owl has no head, there would be no way for Ui to identify the host, so I personally don’t see the narrative value in this Owl being Hairu.
I think if Hairu were to be resurrected then it would be more effective if it was executed a different way rather than this. Besides, Hairu has bigger boobs than the girl we saw inside the Owl.
Feel free to comment your own opinions on this matter, whether you agree or disagree.
Extra detail that I think is worth considering, and adds some impact to the theory of it being Hairu:
Old confirmed that in the Japanese version, the Owl is attempting to say something that resembles “Koori”. That strongly indicates a connection to the last person on the Suspect list, since Hairu is the only one that calls him by his given name.
There’s a good chance this Owl is a product of Lab 4, where Kanou continued his experiments. That have would give him multiple potential sources for an Owl kakuhou, since Amon was being experimented on there and he may have had access to left-over Yoshimura or even Eto herself. And it was also where Hairu was being stored, from what Furuta showed Ui.
So we saw everybody band together in an epic feat of teamwork, the question is why exactly did it not work in bringing owl 2.0 down?
It’s probably something as simple as the characters really haven’t grown enough to earn this vicotry. Which is what necessitates the clown shake down in the first place.
Here, let me demonstrate with a breakdown of Kaika vs Yusa, the only real character vs character interaction rather than character vs giant monster that we get in the fight.
First, he calls the two remaining members of Zero Squad Arima’s lapdogs. Not only that but Sheep that he herded himself. That’s a rather thinly veiled and obvious Jesus metaphor.
Remember, Arima Kishou died for our sins. Ishida likes to remind us of it approximately every five chapters that Arima Kishou is indeed dead.
Arima is so universally mourned by everyone it’s almost enough to make you forget that he was a morally ambiguous character to begin with. It’s almost like his death has wiped the slate clean on him.
As I’ve said before though, Tg: Re would never glorify suicide like that. Lately, we’ve been witnessing a slow deconstruction on Arima’s sacrifice. Including the facts that Take clearly does not know entirely what the big picture is, that he relies on Arima’s words too much, and the fact that Zero Squad has been whittled down to its last two remaining members.
Arima’s sacrifice of his own life to make Kaneki the strongest of all ghouls was destroyed when the CCG simply replaced him with Juuzou. Arima’s choice to leave behind the zero squad with Kaneki to protect him, results in two of them dying in an almost direct result of his choice not to tell Ui to avoid confrontation.
Take holds information to himself, and isn’t really super clear anymore on what Arima’s goals were to begin with. So, to summarize the story itself is still framing Arima’s choice to sacrifice himself ambiguously. As in there were some good things, and some bad things about that choice. However, the characters themselves still view Arima in exactly that light.
Yomo even brings up this exact same notion to Take. That Arima did a lot of bad things and hurt a lot of people, even if he was doing it for good ends ultimately those wounds go away, and Take basically says it doesn’t matter because Arima is dead now. He brushes off the opportunity to think critically about Arima, because no matter what he concludes it won’t change the fact that Arima is still dead. However, it does matter for the sake of the living.
Take, while still acknowledging that Arima is dead is still working tirelessly to earn his praise and following the orders of a dead man.
So much so, he fails to grasp entirely what Arima’s purpose in leaving Take the zero squad should have been. Even after losing two members in a pointless sacrifice, Take does not realize he should stop bringing Yusa onto battlefields with him and forcing the child soldier raised from birth to fight, to fight more.
Kaiko takes both Takeomi and Kuramoto out of the fight easily, but from a character perspective it’s clear why. Neither Kuramoto nor Takeomi have grown. Takeomi simply walks straight back into being a CCG officer, not even acknowledging what happened to his father and mourning him, and Kuramoto does not even try to resolve his conflict with Take, simply choosing to make a bunch of passive aggressive comments.
Remember, Kuramoto truly made himself vulernable for a moment when Take left. However, as usual he’s back to just making sly comments behind his fox face.
Kuramoto wanted to believe in him, that he had reasons to do what he was doing. His sense of betrayal came not from Take’s actions, but the fact that Take chose not to talk to him about it beforehand, and Take really hasn’t changed anything in that regard, so Kuramoto simply slinky behind his mask once more.
Then, to the meat of the fight. Kaiko’s not just mocking Yusa here, he’s mocking the pedestal that Arima is put upon by the zero squad. Which is why Kaiko chooses these specific reminders. Arima was a child soldier, just like Yusa, presumably just like Kaiko as well.
Then the juiciest moment of the chapter, while dangling a blade at Yusa’s neck he mutters, “Am I like Arima, yet?”
He’s not making the comparison between Yusa and Arima anymore, but rather Yusa and himself. Kaiko raised child soldiers obediently as a part of V, but so did Arima as well. Not only that, he did the exact same thing to Sasaki. Literally, every flashback we see of Arima presents him as being a cruel and ruthless teacher, even if he was one with good intentions.
So, what Kaiko is taunting Yusa about is that by drawing out the fight to test his strength, by holding a blade at his throat, really he’s acting exactly like Arima as well. “Am I like Arima, yet?” He’s challenging Yusa’s perfect image of Arima.
However, Yusa really does fail to respond to that in the fight way. Take just sinks once again into calling that name an honor. He adopts his perfect image of Arima that he’s using to fight for once more. Literally what Take should be saying to counteract that is “You’re not Arima, you’re you Yusa…” but Take can’t really grasp that, because Take himself keeps dragging Yusa into combat because that’s what Arima told him to do.
Which is why Ui fails to think critically as well. As touching as his rememberance of Hairu and Arima is, and also even though he’s leagues above Shuu who refuses to remember even Matsumae and Karren’s name, we should remember that Ui was given the oppurtunity to tell the CCG the truth about Furuta, Arima and Arima’s legacy and he chose to lie instead.
Even though, Ui himself much earlier was the one who grasped the nuance of the situation, that people were allowing Furuta to take power, not just Furuta being the only bad egg in the CCG. Blaming it all on Furuta, is probably something that Ui did to protect both Take and Arima’s name, but utlimately it’s the wrong choice, and one that brings him farther away from the truth.
Which is likely the reason why Ui is still smoking as well. His smoking is a sign of his own personal emotional repression. After Take tells him at least part of the truth of why he left, Ui says he’s going to be smoking a lot more now. He really hasn’t come to terms with it, and probably won’t until he’s set up confront Hairu, which may come soon.
However, at the end of the day the characters have failed to grow which is why instead of banding together to heroically defeat Owl, they’re exposed to round two. The heroic blow that Yusa dealt Kaiko essentially meaning nothing as it stitches itself up right away, the owl exploding and killing more just like when it looks it might be detained.
As per the usual in Tokyo Ghoul these problems can’t be overcome with fighting and strength alone.
As for what will happen next, considering this is an owl kagune I wonder if it’s bait to lure Amon out. After this explosion there probably won’t be many ground investigators left that can match it.
Amon showing up to help his comrades (and “for peace!”) against Owl 2.0 would make a lot of sense, especially considering that the current situation is rather strongly reminiscing of what the CCG tried to do with him in ch114/115 (with another parallel once Seidou hopefully shows up).
it would be interesting to see Amon trying to face the one who’s possibly Eto and thus half the responsible party behind him becoming a OEG, something he still can’t fully accept to this day.
I was discussing this with @amonmahboi yesterday but actually, Donato having “fun” with someone who’s possibly Eto (other strong possibilities being Hairu and Karren) as payback for what happened to Amon between TG and :Re would be a very ironic development, especially if Amon indeed shows up to fight that Owl 2.0.
It would be like “I’m stuck in the past because of my horrible father figure and despite becoming a OEG, but here I am fighting for peace against a monster who’s threatening my comrades, not knowing that this monster is actually the result of my horrible father figure seeking revenge for what happened to me”.
It makes a good setting for Kaiko’s round two when round one seemed rather hopeless. At least to me. Oh well, just some thoughts. :3
for anyone who didn’t make the link (though I’m not sure we’ll still find Rize down there)!
Hmm, the cross on the decapitated body, and Donato`s appearance in the last chapter makes me think he is connected to this somehow. It`s a little bit hard to tell from the scans, but it almost looks like that the cross is fused into the body. Maybe it`s not an metallic object, maybe it`s something more organic like a kagune? I wonder if that piece could be from Donato´s kagune, and he is controlling the body trough it? It`s implied that he cloned himself and controlled the body from far away, so inserting a piece of his kagune into another body and assuming control is probably not that far fetched. Maybe it`s even easier to do when the head and the brains of the original body are missing?
Or maybe it means that this is a clone?
Or maybe this is just some cruel mocking and showcasing irony from the Clowns part about Eto´s fate. I am going to assume that this is Eto, but as was discussed last week other possibilities still exist. If that is Eto then her fate is rather ironic. In the past she was the person who manipulated and used others as her puppets. Tools to accomplish her wanted goals. Karren was nothing but a tool to Eto. A puppet which she forced to dance.
Now if the Clowns are controlling her, then Eto herself has become a puppet. With her head cut off, the symbol of rationality in my mind, maybe it symbolizes how the Clowns (or the folks who did this to her) have transformed Eto from an intelligent, cunning manipulator and a marvelous writer, into a irrational, screaming beast who has no sense of self or will of her own.
Eto also sewed Karren´s mouth and eyes shut, and now a similar fate has fallen upon her, an mask has been sewed onto to the kakuja body.
That the face was stitched was detail that was already observed, and speculated correctly by @midnight-in-town last week.
It`s possible that all of the ideas mentioned above aren´t correct.
midnight-in-town 