The more I think about OC’s low self-esteem, the more it makes me sad
We know from Lizzy’s words in ch14 that Madam Red’s favourite was RC.
And in ch13, when Sebastian asks OC why he didn’t shoot Madam Red, he answers…
“I felt Madam Red would not be able to kill Ciel, her kin.”
YenPress translated the line as “she would not be able to kill me”, but in the original Japanese version, OC says “she would not be able to kill Ciel” and refers to “Ciel” in third person. Clearly, he is not referring to himself, but to RC in this scene.
OC knew that RC was Madam Red’s favourite. Therefore, he believes that the only reason why she hesitated to kill him is that she believed he was “Ciel”, the nephew she loved best. And this is incredibly sad because it sounds as if OC is saying:
“Madam Red couldn’t kill me because she believed I’m “Ciel”, her favourite. Had she known that I am not “Ciel” but the twin, she might have killed me”.
Someone give this poor baby a big hug…! ; _ ;
Bonus:
The truly sad thing about all this is that the real reason why Madam Red couldn’t kill her nephew was that he reminded her too much of Rachel. She had a love/hate relationship to her sister and at the very crucial moment her love for her sister outweighed the hatred for her, and that’s why she hesitated.
So OC’s assumption that she hesitated only because it’s her “favourite” nephew is wrong.
But yeah, of course, there’s no one to clear up the misunderstanding and OC continues to have an extremely low self-esteem… *sobs*
((( We don’t know for sure whether Madam Red knew OC’s true identity – I strongly believe she didn’t – but either way, the problem is that OC himself believed that Madam Red believed he was RC. )))
It took me 3 days to translate this monster of an interview (~3.5k word count lol), but it’s finally done! My hands need a break after typing for so long…
Thank you to the interviewer Kashima Yui for asking some really great questions, and BuzzFeed JP for making this interview happen. I really enjoyed seeing Ishida and Takahashi banter back and forth, you can really tell that they’re great friends, and I’m happy to have witnessed a sliver of their relationship.
Also, I’m far from perfect, so if I’ve made a mistake or mistranslated something, please let me know.
Edit: Fixed a line from Takahashi saying, “You did it,” to “He did it.”
i got gk in chinese so i decided to put together & translate the inner cover content for anyone who’s interested in having this reference of ainu clothing because they’re apparently not present in english translations
This chapter is everything I had been waiting for and more, seriously. There are a couple of things that stood out to me while reading the raw and I want to note them down before I forget (and to compare once the official English version is released)! Just in case, here’s my rudimentary translation of their scenes in case anyone’s a bit lost with my commentary.
(Spoiler images inside! Don’t read if you don’t want to spoil yourself!)
MY HABIT OF LOOKING RANDOM CRAP UP FINALLY PAID OFF YOU GUYS I AM LAUGHING SO HARD
okay so in the Blue Exorcist movie this spooky chant shows up a bunch of times in the background of stuff, and it sounded vaguely sutra-ish to me, and Blue Exorcist uses a lot of excerpts of real religious texts, so I figured I’d look for the lyrics and see what I could see
whose author has looked up the lyrics for us and found them to be
ニ・カズ・シオ・ハ・チュウ・エイ・ウ・ジョ (ni kazu shio ha chuu ei u jo) ニ・フオハ・ゲン・デン・ノ・イ・タイ・ケ (ni fuoha gen den no i tai ke) エン・キン・ナイ・カン (en kin nai kan) シン・キ・エイ・サツ (shin ki ei satsu) イ・ナ・ラ・ケ・ハ・キ・セ・ノ・エ・マ (i na ra ke ha ki se no e ma)
which, as this wonderful person points out, is NOT SANSKRIT OR CHINESE OR ANYTHING JUST JAPANESE SPELLED BACKWARDS / ANAGRAMMED A BIT
AND THE JAPANESE IT SPELLS BACKWARDS IS AS FOLLOWS:
上映中はお静かに (jouei-chuu wa oshizuka ni) 携帯の電源はオフに (keitai no dengen wa ofu ni) 館内禁煙 (kannai kin’en) 撮影禁止 (satsuei kinshi) 前の席はけらない (mae no seki wa keranai)
AKA
Please be quiet during the film Turn your cell phone off No smoking in the theater No photography allowed Don’t kick the seat in front of you
I WILL NEVER STOP LAUGHING WE LIVE IN SUCH A FANTASTIC WORLD
I didn’t forget and I know, and there’s even a scanlation all done already, but there is something I want sorted out first before posting it, so I apologize for putting you through the wait like this. A summary is the least I can do for the time being, especially seeing there are two very curious details in this chapter that certainly have to be addressed. Spoiler alert.
From Victorian era through to modern times, the British police doesn’t carry guns (though afaik Northern Ireland does) because apparently they think that “no gun should be pointed at citizens”. This is awesome. Hence, in Kuroshitsuji, too, Abberline as well as the other officers don’t carry guns. On the other hand, the Watchdog who is supposed to do things that the police can’t, shoots without hesitation. –Toboso
Lately, I regret that I didn’t elaborate more on the struggles of Abberline and the police, as well as the outrageous behaviour of the Queen’s watchdog [when it comes to investigation]. The reason why Commissioner Randall despises the Phantomhives so much is that he can’t stand their arrogance, acting as though they are above the law (though it’s for the sake of the early solution of the crime). –Toboso
As was the case with JTR arc and Blue Sect arc, it must be really frustrating to the police how – while they are investigating legally and peacefully – the Phantomhives catch the criminal by using immoral methods and firing the gun like mad… –Toboso
Basically, Ciel is only called upon either when the case has already claimed a lot of victims or when there are still too many uncertainties that the police can’t start investigating. That’s why the Phantomhives aren’t welcomed [by the police]. If I was called “incompetent” by some cheater who comes late and doesn’t even follow the rules at all, I’d punch him. But unlike me, Randall and Abberline act like proper adults [when they meet OC at a crime scene]… –Toboso
Bonus: if anyone’s interested, here’s a bbc article on this issue
Please let me know if there are any mistakes. You can read the article that I translated from here.
Also please note, I’ve only seen pictures of the first page, but I’m 99% sure there’s another page based on the content from the interview excerpt that wasn’t included, and the lack of closing statement from Ishida. So I (and my pounding headache) would appreciate it if people didn’t jump to conclusions like they did for his afterword last time…
I’ll shut up now. Thanks and hope you enjoy~
(btw if anyone has the rest of the interview, please send me a message)
Please let me know if there are any mistakes. You can read the original article here. Also, this is just a part of the full interview, so if anyone can provide me with the full interview when it is released I’d be more than happy to translate it.
Author Ishida Sui speaks for the first time about the conclusion of Tokyo Ghoul
The popular manga “Tokyo Ghoul”, depicting the battle between humans and the species that devours humans, has finished serialization after seven years. Over 37 million copies have been sold cumulatively. The author, Ishida Sui, has chosen to accept an interview with Yomiuri Shimbun. This is the first time Ishida has spoken in depth about his work through an interview with the media. Why did ghouls come to be? What kind of a person is Kaneki Ken? What are his thoughts on the final chapter that surprised fans? Details of the interview will be posted in the Yomiuri Shimbun morning paper on the 21st. An excerpt is shown below. (Culture – Kawadoko Yayoi)
“It’s like I’ve been dispossessed of an evil spirit now. During serialization it felt like I’d been taken over by a different person,” said Ishida. The interview was done over Skype. It appears that meetings with his editor are normally done over Skype.
“This happened recently, but one day I woke up in the morning and I had no clue on what I should do because there was no manuscript to work on,” Ishida said, laughing on the other side of the screen. Over the course of an hour and a half, he occasionally answered the enthusiastic questions of a reporter who was an avid fan of Tokyo Ghoul.
Where did you come up with the idea of ghouls, a species that can only survive by eating humans?
I thought about drawing villains who were part of a minority. It’d be too simple to have them be mere cutthroat murderers, so I thought it’d be interesting to have a species of them that live among humans.
Regarding the protagonist Kaneki, how did he come to have such a character?
At the time I liked shy protagonists with weak personalities, so I made him into a timid and inconspicuous character without putting too much thought into it. As a result, surrounding characters like Touka (the female ghoul) and Tsukiyama (the gourmet ghoul) distinctively stood out. Kaneki was a bit of a self-insert, so he was a difficult character to write until the end.
Ghouls are terrible monsters to humans, but they were written as an oppressed minority.
Maybe there’s some part of me that sympathizes with the minority. My parents moved around a lot and were Christians, so when I was a child I felt alienated being in a family that was slightly different from everyone else’s. I myself (just like Kaneki) feel like I am a part of both the majority and the minority.
I think that many readers were surprised by the happy ending in the last chapter. A girl was born between Kaneki and Touka, but it looked like Touka’s belly was big again…?
Yes, that’s right. It [the second child] was going to be a girl at first, but I think this time a boy would be nice.
There are many attractive human and ghoul characters, but is there a character you are particularly attached to?
Of course I want to say everyone, but appearance-wise it’s Hairu, the ghoul investigator. The girl with pink hair.
Huh? Didn’t you brutally kill her off?
Yes, that’s right. I regret killing her off, she was so cute too. It’s haunted me for a while.
There are many famous people who are fans of Tokyo Ghoul, such as the figure skater Hanyu Yuzuru.
Rather than focusing on having famous fans, I’m just happy to see that there are people who read it. To be honest, there are times when I wonder if there really are any people reading the series. So even receiving a letter from a child that says, “I’m reading Tokyo Ghoul,” makes me very happy.
midnight-in-town 
