BTW, I forgot to mention that earlier during the week, but @linkspooky and I discussed the idea that the Clowns might still have a little agent inside the CCG who is leaking info and thus responsible for their perfect timing in the latest chapter!
And since Furuta is not in the CCG anymore in the current arc, it means it’s most likely someone else (a character we know?) who’s been leaking these info.
We’ve had another hint before about an unknown little spy during ch143 of TG actually, when Itori said…
because Furuta was there in the same scene, so the way she explained it to the rest of the gang makes me think that she possibly got this information from another person who had their way into the CCG.
Same for the Auction arc, since Uta didn’t bother hiding to Mutsuki that he knew the details of the operation:
even if this time the info could have also come from Furuta.
So who could this agent be, if they’re real of course (and if we know them)?
I also considered Ito Kuramoto because… well, he’s pretty irrelevant so far amongst all the other recurring investigators so maybe Sensei has something planned with him + he kinda has a fox face and that generally means the character is cunning/sly xD
Someone from Suzuya’s personal squad? Hanbee and Nakarai aside, the others two are like Kuramoto, pretty irrelevant despite being recurring characters…
That’s all I’ve got. Maybe the explanation to the impeccable timing is entirely different and there is no spy, but…
…I’m really trying not to underestimate Itori’s information network. xD
While talking with acchan we came up with the possibility that the spy among the CCG might actually be an unwitting one.
Remember, there was somebody else present at the meeting besides Kimi, Touka, Nishiki and Hideyoshi. Kaneki was there as well, and the attack started the moment the he suggested he go to find the source of the poison.
Kaneki himself might be the informant for the clowns, though entirely unaware of it.
Remember we still don’t know the full explanation of what happened in V14, and when Hide and Kaneki were on the rooftop talking abot it and confirming that Kaneki was indeed the one who scarred Hide’s face, it would have been the perfect time to finally elaborate on that whole scene…
Unless… there was something we are still not meant to know about it. Both Nikki and Shar @kingkishou and @mawjaw respectively have put forward a theory for awhile that during V14, there’s something suspicious about the empty eye underneath Kaneki’s eyepatch. [1,2].
Basically the theory goes, before Kaneki has his eye gauged out by Arima, we’re shown an eyepatch covering one of his eyes and his mask missing. Then the eyepatch is removed and the eye is already gaged out and looks like an empty socket before Arima even struck there.
However, afterwards suspiciously Uta is shown holding an eye while musing about the fate of Kaneki.
If that’s indeed Kaneki’s eye that he’s holding, removed by Uta himself that would put Uta present at the scene, as a third party besides both Kaneki and Hide.
Before I go on, here’s what we do know about V14.
Hide found Kaneki and either brought him too or found him inside of the sewers and told him to flee through V14.
Hide knew ahead of time somehow that Arima would be there waiting for him.
Hide told Kaneki that he would have to “prove his worth” to Arima.
Hide offered himself for Kaneki to eat up to replenish himself. Kaneki was indeed the person who ate Hide and scarred him.
However there are still several missing pieces that we do not know, and really cannot solve with just inference and occam’s razor.
We still do not know:
Who saved Hide when he was lying in the sewers half dead with half of his face eaten off.
Who gave Kaneki the eyepatch that covers half of his face.
Also, who took Kaneki’s mask after that point. As he was still wearing it after the fight with Amon, and is shown still wearing it when crawling around in pain before Hide found him.
Considering the fact that Hide lived, therefore it’s logical to infer that there was a third party. We also now have an explanation for who sent Kaneki the book, but not who sent him his mask back.
I mean, presumably it was Uta.
We don’t know exactly though his reason for sending it. Unless it was bait for Kaneki to return to his shop. However, if Uta knew that Kaneki was missing his mask becase Uta was the one who removed it from him due to him being the third party in the sewer than the reasons behind the two presents would click together.
Uta as a third party, removed Kaneki’s eyeball, either saved or facilitated the saving of Hide, and then placed a microphone behind Kaneki’s eyeball, or some similiar device to the one on Hajime Hazuki’s tongue in order to further track him as the main character in the clown’s play or for some other weird Uta related reason.
We are given several hints that there’s something behind one of Sasaki’s eyes that is giving him chronic pain. Specifically a pain in the back of his eyes.
In a recent color illustration, Kaneki is also shown as bleeding from that exact same eye which has caused people including myself to speculate he might need to rip out his human eye at some point rather than his ghoul one as a symbol of accepting his ghoul side.
Anyway, that’s all food for thought. Here’s my takeaway from what acchan put forward. There’s a microphone behind Kaneki’s eye still and Uta’s the one who put it there because he’s sneaky the clown.
@linkspooky THANK YOU! I had forgotten to mention this precisely but this is indeed another possibility (and I just love the sewer theory, because it also gives an agenda to Hide, as I explained in one link I added above)!
Hi Anon and thanks for reading! 🙂 Well, it’s because Kuramoto is rather recurring as an investigator and yet he has 0 arc or development (unlike Ui, Takeomi or even Kiyoko) that I’m suspecting him. I mean it’s Ishida-sensei we’re talking about here and he even gave him several birthday arts, so I simply think there could be more to his character. xD
As for Hide, well, you said it, there is indeed something about his outfit in that childhood’s play to be remembered since Ganbo (a Clown) had a very similar makeup. I proposed other ideas in the link I added above, so please check them out because there is more than one I’m suspecting a link between Hide and the Clowns!
Just to precise though, Hide possibly having a few interests in common with the Clowns doesn’t mean that they’re 100% agreeing on everything or that he’s a villain (since not all the Clowns are villains in the first place, in my opinion). I mean, this is just a theoretical example, but since Hide motivated Kaneki to go find a cure in the latest chapter, if he’s actually the person who informed the Clowns, you could see this as him making sure that the Clowns would act up precisely so that Kaneki would get moving.
Anyway, it’s all theoretical and I also really like the idea that Spooky-chan proposed just above 😀 so this should give us plenty to think about until we can see which explanation it is. 🙂
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts! Have a nice weekend Anon :3
…OKAY, you sound like you want the whole thing Anon, so I and @linkspooky will deliver. 😉
For the record though, let me just say I really enjoy Hide’s character (and I think his friendship with Kaneki is 200% genuine) but I can’t stand fans who make it sound like he’s only about Kaneki. Taking away a character’s agency when he was given so many warning signs of playing a bigger game is just the worst you can do as a fan, because Hide is way more compelling as someone who has other goals besides just Kaneki (and besides Kaneki himself really doesn’t need people revolving just around him, be it Touka, Hide, Tsukiyama or anyone else).
Anyway, “am I suspecting Hide”? Why, yes I am. I even gave a link above to a recap post about why I think there might be a link between him and the Clowns + Spooky-chan just wrote above too why there might be a strong link with Uta. If you need more to consider that Hide possibly has an agenda though, then how about the latest crack theory thought up by @linkspooky?
It’s about ch31.5 and Kaneki’s two gifts for Christmas. We know that Hide definitely is the one behind the book (:Re ch164) and Uta the one behind the mask (:Re ch36). The remaining question is who, out of them both, sent the two items since they arrived at the same time?
One could think it’s Uta, but…
…he denied it. Obviously Uta is not above lying (he’s a troll for a reason), but @linkspooky pointed out to me that Uta literally said that he “intended [the mask] as a present for a regular customer” precisely as we get a panel focusing on the headphones he was listening to and…
guess who is often associated with headphones?
Besides, didn’t people point out that Hide’s wound totally has a similarity to Kaneki’s very first mask? Which means that Kaneki’s first mask would be ideal to cover Hide’s wound:
So @linkspooky’s latest idea is that Uta actually sent Kaneki’s old mask to Hide as a present and he’s the one who then sent both the mask and the book to Kaneki for Christmas, which would mean that 1) Uta didn’t lie in ch36 and 2) Hide and Uta totally have a link in that case (and as I also proposed a while ago, maybe Hide even was the one Uta was playing chess with in ch38).
You can add this to the sewer theory that Spooky-chan explained just above, as well as my own recap post that’s proposing a few other ideas of the same ilk.
Finally, if you or anyone else still don’t think that a link between Hide and the Clowns is likely at all, then how about some early foreshadowing instead?
Because this is definitely about the current arc + it says “controlled by magicians” right above and Hide…
…was strongly associated with being a magician from a long time ago already.
Anyway, you have to understand that I’m not calling Hide a villain. However, he’s an extremely cunning character about whom we know almost nothing and, most importantly, he was being a thorn in the Washuus’ back according to his own words, which means that strong allies (like the Clowns) could have been useful and thus I’m totally calling him out on having an agenda that isn’t revolving just around Kaneki.
TL;DR I totally suspect Hide of having a link with the Clowns (Uta and Itori specifically), just like I suspect him from possibly being the one who made sure that the Clowns would start shit up the moment they did so in the latest chapter (possibly because he’s a part of Itori’s info network), so that Kaneki would hurry up and leave to find a cure.
And if not him, then it’s Kaneki who doesn’t know that he has a microphone behind his right eye ever since V14. Or it’s Kuramoto.
As always though maybe I’m wrong, but frankly there isn’t a lot of things we know almost nothing about besides V, the Clowns and Hide in the plot, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all linked one way or another.
I hope it answers your question! Have a nice weekend Anon :))
Hi Anon, aww so sorry for the delay, but since the new chapter was near when you sent your ask, I wanted to see what would come up first, just in case. :3 So:
Clowns
As showed with the newest chapter, they’re supposed to be stalling for time, even if we don’t know why exactly for now.
I personally don’t worry about them, because Nico, Itori and Uta at least were foreshadowed (in my opinion) to watch the series coming to an end and share one last laugh about it, thanks to ch128…
…without mentioning the fact that these 3 aren’t exactly true villains or antagonists amongst the Clowns’ gang (compared to Roma, Donato and Furuta) because they almost always made up for a nasty joke of theirs with an advice or favor, at least when it comes to Kaneki himself.
In other words, they should be fine compared to Donato or Furuta who might end up following Roma’s example before the end of the series, since the three of them definitely were strongly depicted as villains/antagonists.
Besides, Nico, Itori and Uta were shown to have an agenda that isn’t solely about the Clowns or Furuta’s plan (the friendship with Yomo for Itori and Uta, Itori saying that Nico only cared about finding a boyfriend and Nico helping Kaneki’s side with the great wheel act…), which is yet another argument about them enjoying this “play” but not actively supporting one side in particular.
I’d love to expand, but I’m unstoppable on the subject + you asked about other characters so I’ll just end it there. xD
Takizawa
Gosh, another topic and character I love to ramble about, so to make this simple there again, let’s just say that Donato’s return is vouching for a confrontation between him and Amon and this is what, I hope, will lead to Takizawa’s return.
The initial issue is that Amon, as the OEG he is now, is unable to face Donato and immediately win an upcoming confrontation, because he’s held back by too many aspects of his past he never learnt to address correctly. So the only way for him to win against Donato who’s a strong ghoul would be to accept the OEG that he was forced to become and fight using his whole strength instead of trying to remain as human as possible.
However, the second issue is that he’s unfortunately currently unable to do that, because he doesn’t hold ghouls in the same regard as humans and that’s why he’ll probably need to be saved by Seidou, because Seidou…
…is the one who accepted his fate as a powerful OEG.
Of course, the whole point is not to have Seidou win against Donato for Amon’s sake, because it’s something Amon needs to do by himself, but saving Amon is also important for Seidou’s own development, as Amon and Akira are the two people who matter the most to him and he believes…
The whole narrative where Seidou is concerned always was “being able to become a hero”. It’s something he expressed many times (namely through the wish to be seen and valorized by Akira)…
before recently giving up on it:
…which is precisely why it might finally happen.
To quote @hamliet who definitely has a better way with words than me: “Akira and Amon have not been heroes–they’ve needed rescuing from Takizawa, who saved both of them, because he is the hero in their story, as he always wanted to be. He just hasn’t realized it yet”. [x]
I better stop there once more, because I could ramble for 5 hours since Seidou is one of my absolute favorite characters and I will definitely scream when he shows up again (btw, I kept on mentioning Amon, but Takizawa will probably have the same role towards Akira’s own need of acknowledgement towards her dead parents’ actions).
Kurona (and Shinohara)
Tricky girl, but her dynamics with Amon and mainly Juuzou aren’t completely written out and finished in my opinion, so I’m expecting more of her in one way of another, even if I don’t exactly know how yet.
Generally, I think that if Juuzou really was foreshadowed to become a ghoul before the end, then maybe she’s going to be the one who helps him adjust to his new life, since she went through the same thing a few years ago.
And actually, same when it comes to mourning someone you love: Kurona had a hard time learning how to do without her twin sister who was a very important person to her and Juuzou…
is not there yet when it comes to Shinohara. ://
So I’d say that what’s left of Kurona’s development is linked to Juuzou, just like what’s left of Juuzou’s is also linked to Shinohara.
Hanbee basically confirmed that Shinohara was dead in ch128 and, even if I know some people are expecting him to come back as a zombie or something else, I honestly think the whole point of Shinohara in :Re is to lead Juuzou to the realization that…
…
he’ll have to let go eventually (I literally cried as I wrote this, I mean I love the narrative between Juuzou and Shinohara so much and it’s one reason ch143 of TG was so harsh on me). ;_;
I’m not entirely sure for this part, so take with a grain of salt, okay?
V (Kaiko)
Finally, about them…
We still don’t know what they’re about and what they’re up to, if Furuta is just using them to discard or destroy them later or if they’re really allies, but I’d still call them the big bad regardless of how they’re supposedly currently following Furuta’s every order, because that’s what they were foreshadowed to be.
More is coming, hopefully, so mostly I’d love new hints to refresh all the theories about them. :3
Whew, there you go! Thank you so much for the nice words and for reading ❤
I’m sorry that I ended up rambling and that it got long but I hope it answers your question! Have a nice day Anon and sorry again for the delay :33
I SAW HER I SAW HER! SHE’S SO BEAUTIFUL, I CAN’T RESIST HER…
I MEAN THEY’RE ALL BEAUTIFUL REALLY and they’re going to be the death of me soon I’m sure, haaaaaaaaaah! (Ayato sure is right after them in terms of being a very handsome boy too, but I mean, we see him more often)
As for Hide, nah, thanks to the newest omake, we now know that this gesture means he’s thinking intently about something. :)))
Hereeeeeeeeeee! I wonder what this new mask is about, especially because it’s the first half-face mask we see him wearing.
Hey, but if Shirazu is really coming back as a zombie or one of Dragon’s nuclei…
I think maybe this could turn out to be relevant????
Also, maybe it’s 200% meaningless but you guys remember Root A ep 8? It was the backstory of Yoshimura, about Ukina and Eto and V. Well, it turns out that the ending cards for this episode were
Ukina & Yoshimura carrying baby Eto (natural OEG)
Kaneki (artificial OEG)
Itori & Uta (and I’m wondering if that was on purpose or not since at least Uta might be a OEG).
(for real idk, it’s really just a post to let out all paranoid feelings)
yo i’m actually excited by kaneki and touka matching because in traditional chinese myth (like the oldest iteration) the phoenix (凤凰) is depicted in pairs, facing/mirroring each other – the fèng (凤) is the male bird, and huáng (凰) is the female bird. so what if there are two phoenixes?? both kaneki and touka??
also, traditionally the feathers of a chinese phoenix come in five colours, representing the five confucian virtues (i may be getting the colours wrong because i’m a Bad Chinese Person but here we go):
rén (仁) [black]: charity, humanity
[kuroneki????]
yì (義) [white]: justice, righteousness; can also be doing one’s best (in service of others), loyalty, consideration for others
[oek??]
zhī (知) [red]: knowledge; alternatively it could be zhì (智), wisdom.
[could this be the red of kagune? we are learning more and more about it + it gives the (former) human characters perspective/understanding]
[alternatively, the red of uta’s eyes?? man knows too fucking much]
xīn (心) [green]: lit. heart; faithfulness, true to oneself. could also be xìn (信), which is belief, or faith in someone else.
[since green is eto’s motif, could this be eto’s influence on both kaneki & popular ghoul ideology?? eto is the heart of aogiri and helps make kaneki the heart of goat]
lǐ (礼) [yellow]: lit. manners, correct behaviour. but it could represent a religious sacrifice; a ritual.
[you know who’s yellow and a sacrifice? lmao hide]
i’m probably reading too much into this because who knows how relevant chinese mythology is to tg, but yo it kind of fits. phoenixes are actually the oldest sign of chinese imperial power; the chinese emperor’s called huáng dì (皇帝), which is obviously a reference to phoenix (just look at the two characters lmao). the dragon did not come to embody chinese imperial power until the yuan dynasty, a dynasty that was created by invaders, the mongols.
also i’m hoping that the phoenix imagery is going to come to mean that kaneki (& also touka if the fèng huáng is really two parts) is nearing the end of his evolution as a leader. unlike the dragon, which is sometimes a malicious and unknowable force, the phoenix is always a sign of virtue, light, and righteousness. it is said that a phoenix will only manifest in a ruler without darkness or corruption (zhèng zhì qīng míng, 政治清明). exciting. maybe this is when goat will finally come into its own
addendum: dragons in chinese myth can fly, but they are primarily gods of the sea (usually when they ascend to the sky, they cause storms/typhoons, so still watery shit)
do you know who’s watery
also worth noting is the chinese trope character the xiǎo lóng nü (小龙女, ‘little dragon girl’) or lóng ér (龙儿, ‘dragon child’), who is known to be beautiful beyond usual comprehension/imagination, white as snow (REMEMBER THE WHITE HAIR GUYS), powerful so don’t underestimate her!! and cold and indifferent (MY ICE QUEEN <3).
she is a trained master in martial arts (looking at you shachi, father of the entire century), and reportedly will marry/give her power to anyone who manages to defeat her (ha good luck dying trying, folks). in one iteration of the story she ends up falling in love and marrying yáng guò (杨过), whose name literally means ‘mistake’ because his mother regretted having him with his father. he later gets the courtesy name gǎi zhī (改之, ‘to correct’). both he and xiǎo lóng nü in this story grow up as orphans, relying on one another to survive, and thus their relationship is seen as somewhat incestuous.
So I wanted to speak of TG + I didn’t want to study + we’ve seen her less than even Hide and Kimi in :Re at this point + I’m sure she’s hiding something big, so here’s a collection of all her shady moments (I think it amounts to every time we saw her but ehhhhh I’m intrigued by her for a reason).
her introduction
Speak up Yomo my boy, what do you mean by “kind”? Her persona or literally her species?
Add that to Roma who’s 51 years and whom she referred to as her “protégée” in :Re ch128 + Nico who called her “an old friend” in TG ch89 and I think it’s definitely possible that she’s older than she looks.
Finally, what’s up with that cover, did she/they bury someone or something?
“It’s not alcohol”
um, okay sure but what is it then and why is she constantly shown drinking it and offering it to Kaneki? Products from Sphynx?
Also by any chance, do you happen to have a second kakugan or…?
(this part is why I 100% agree with @hamliet that it would be cool if all the foreshadowing about Uta was at least partially debunked by Sensei in her favor, even if after ch151 and what we saw of the One Eyed Washuu, it’s hard to believe, I know)
Genuine advice or…?
Once upon a time, Yomo said:
but still, the woman seemed serious enough sometimes…
Symbolism
Like her mask that’s probably hinting at something about her kagune, her kakuhou type or how powerful she is…
I wonder how many people are in this network. We know Roma was one, since she was her protégée, but there are probably a few other people and specifically
I wonder who’s the person who had this info from the CCG. Could be Furuta but he was there in the same scene, so the way she said it makes me think that she got this information from another person who had their way into the CCG (Hide?).
Probably-not-so-random other tidbits
Great as in “famous” or???
No matter which translation you choose, this also seems fishy as hell and I’m pretty sure that she might be speaking regarding her own “king” (i.e one of the two OEGs before Eto in the timeline), especially considering that the only times we’ve seen her get out of her own way to help was mostly when Uta was getting involved (getting Yomo out of the 24th ward, Uta’s flashback in vol12).
Only the Aogiri arc is an exception in which she helped Anteiku with getting Kaneki back (through providing info), although I guess that, since Uta also decided to go because he wanted to see what Kaneki became, maybe she only helped Anteiku because he was going.
midnight-in-town 