Hey Anon 🙂 Yeah Arima really is a mystery, is he not? ^^
Hmm, before I answer, here’s what we know about the Sunlit Garden and V:
“V” is made of ghouls (Yoshimura’s example and he did say V was a ghoul organization) and the Kaiko guy also probably went through the Garden according to Furuta (ch63)
Human children are raised (Hairu, and that Chinese Qs whose name I can’t manage to remember correctly)
Ghoul children are raised (Rize, she had two kakugans so she was, as far as we know, a full-fledged ghoul, she might have been the only one or not)
And there is Furuta, whose daddy is probably Washuu Yoshitoki and who was revealed to be a OEG in the last chapters (lol, but we knew since the last arc already)
On the subject of Furuta though, I don’t know if V knows he’s a OEG actually (otherwise why wait until he was the last survivor against Eto to use his trump cards, even if he doesn’t like fighting?), and maybe he became one because of Kanou since he’s been working with him for a long time… Honestly I don’t know for sure but it’s possible at this point.
Here’s the thing though, despite these characters we know all coming from the Garden, it seems not all of them belong to V (example of Hairu who could have been from V but she was a human + she would have known about Furuta’s strength then and it didn’t seem to be the case).
Then about our mysterious Arima:
we know he’s a part of V
he’s a strong ally of the Washuus and he’s the best of the CCG
he’s been hinted at being a OEG and possibly the OEK because of his right eye always being shadowed (though since recently it could be just because of his eye condition) and a few other hints in TG.
he might have gone through the Sunlit Garden himself, because of Hairu’s memory and because of that tiny flashback…
(the person with him could be Washuu Tsuneyoshi by the way)
Considering Kanou’s words:
I’m thinking that “forced hybridization” is exactly what V (and the Washuus) are doing in the Sunlit Garden and Arima could also be a result of that, simply because we know OEGs/hybrids are stronger than full-fledged ghouls and normal humans, and that could also be how Kanou got the idea to create his own OEGs in order to break free from “the twisted cage”.
So yeah, Arima could be a OEG (and maybe even the OEK) if V are really creating them through forced hybridization, though personally, considering the important number of OEG characters in the story (including the Qs), I’m hoping Arima is rather an artificially enhanced being which would explain his strength (and in that case, V truly don’t know about Furuta being a OEG thanks to Kanou). He’s definitely supposed to be the CCG and V’s greatest weapon in any case, and so his job is to kill ghouls if he’s asked.
Honestly at this point, I’m rooting for the two theories (OEG!Arima + artificially enhanced human!Arima). 🙂
I’m pretty sure we have tons of things to learn about Arima, Furuta, Rize and what happened to them in the Sunlit Garden actually, because I doubt the “twisted cage” is just about the alliance between V and the Washuus honestly.
First there is the Garden but also the whole “forced hybridization” concept and I believe maybe the Washuus are hiding something else as an old ghoul-hunting Clan/bloodline of warriors.
We know they were one powerful Clan out of many and yet it seems the other clans all disappeared (except maybe for two characters/families for whom I’m hoping they will realize what’s going on if that’s the case), so maybe, while V took the power over the ghoul side of the world, the Washuus eliminated the other Clans in order to ally with V and have the full power over the human side of the world.
It’s just a theory at this point, but in any case I’m thinking Arima is the result of many experiments of hybridization and probably experiments on the Washuu bloodline too (though the idea that he could be a descendant of that strong OEG 100 years ago is also nice, albeit a bit cliché for me) and he is definitely an artificially enhanced being, if not a OEG like Furuta, created to work for V and the Washuus.
There you go, I hope I didn’t ramble too much and that it answered your questions. 🙂
Thanks for passing by Anon and have a nice day! ^_^
Ok so on my Fourth time reading through the latest chapter I noticed something strange about Furuta’s gestures other than him just being his natural Furuta self, the gestures had reminded me of something I had seen before. And I’m sure many others have seen,
the three wise monkeys
See no evil
Speak no evil
Hear no evil
In the latest chapter Furuta actually does all three gestures to see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. I understood that the origin of the three wise monkeys is Japan so I was sure it wasn’t a coincidence. At first I had a hard time determining what it could all mean outside of it’s literally meaning so I had a talk with @therabbitoracle and @smol-kitten-furuta to discuss in hopes of getting a better understanding.
Just as there is disagreement about the origin of the phrase, there are differing explanations of the meaning of “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
In Buddhist tradition, the tenets of the proverb are about not dwelling on evil thoughts.
In the Western world both the proverb and the image are often used to refer to a lack of moral responsibility on the part of people who refuse to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way or feigning ignorance.
It may also signify a code of silence in gangs, or organized crime.
I believe this was a good explaination for why Ishida would make Furuta make these gestures especially the part about lack of moral responsibility, refuses to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way and feigning ignorance. This is something we see Furuta do A LOT. You could say it’s a major part of his characterization but he displays all these traits in the latest chapter back to back.
lack of moral responsibility.
(Setting back and letting Eto kill off all the V members)
Refuses to acknowledge impropriety.
(The last remaining V member begs him to fight he choices to run away instead)
Looking the other way and feigning ignorance (need I explain).
And another interesting part is the Buddhist traditional meaning of it not dwelling on bad thoughts.
(And yet is seems Furuta struggles with that this chapter with some of his strange lines.)
(When he thinks why am I always alone while running.)
When he complains about having to fight.
It is strange but those scenes did not feel like the Furuta we are use to. Through all his acting and clowning these parts felt somewhat genuine (which made me feel a little uneasy.He sounds like a small child or something.)
And then lastly his word to Eto vs his actual thoughts “let’s solve this peacefully.”
vs. “let’s slaughter them like animals”
Everything he’s doing strongly resonates with the three wise monkeys. He fits the western definition perfectly but when it comes to the Buddhist teaching Furuta tries to have this mindset with his “Shake off the past and dash.” gimmick. But can not help but to dwell on it every now and again. I think the fight with Eto might’ve made some things re-emerge especially being told to fight by members of V.
Still it was a nice reference for Ishida to throw in since everything the three wise monkeys stands for connects well with Furuta actions this chapter.
Shortly before Saturday, I compiled a list of new theories regarding those above mentioned points, with the suggestions and theories of wildnymeria and nessidy. Enjoy!
In chapter 75 again, all V members displayed in this panel lack hair and their eyes are never seen either.
Kaiko resembles them in those aspects as well.
Additionally, in chapter 96 “Going Underground” Kaneki and his group encounter a failed experiment of Kanou’s. His own kagune was devouring him.
Not only do those V members resememble that particular experiment, but pretty every experiment Kanou worked on, with the exception that V members have more self-control and self-consciouss than them. Notably some do have some hair left, but even those are starting to fall off their head.
Their physical resemblence is not the only reason why I mention that, though, but first things first.
In the same chapter, Kanou talks with Kaneki about the hidden reality, which we know now is V. Interestingly, when Kanou is talking about them, a drawing of containers gets a considerable amount of focus.
And thanks to Furuta’s flashback in chapter 66, we know that Sunlit Garden also serves as a breeding facility.
With that being said, I want to drift a bit away from this theory and focus on important characters. In order to back up my my claim, let’s review Kanou, Chigyou and… “thad doctor.” (I have no idea what his name is, I apologise)
Akira mentions in chapter one that the Quinx, mere experiments, were created in order to surpass the “Death God of the CCG.” She also points out that Aogiri obtained a lot of power in those three years and if we take into account how many investigators the CCG lost in those years, the only solution “they” saw was producing empowered investigators with relation to ghouls, in this case quinques. This is rather a pecluiar situation as the CCG, which ideology consists of the superiority of man, uses parts, in this case, kagunes of ghouls, in order to achieve a higher success rate in regards to annihilating them. People like the Hirako squad, but also Ui and Marude, were quite baffeled by this concept and rightfully so.
Throghout the course of months, the CCG made further blood tests for suitable participants as well and choose Hsiao, Aura and Touma in the end.
If we consider that V focuses on creating the strongest soldiers, it could be very well be that the CCG served as a transation or expansion of experiments that V concentrates on . After all, the Washuus are with a high probability the puppets of V and Yoshitoki, Akira and Sasaki were the primary overseeres for that project.
Moreover, Chigyuu is an interesting case as well, although he might only play a small part in it. Nevertheless, Chigyou came up with the Quinx project but strangely we didn’t see him at all (at least I can’t remember it). But what is more interesting is that he worked for the GFG (Ghoulforschungsgesellschaft), a German research organisation.
Now, that we established that CCG and V are cooperating together in order to create empowered investigators with the help of mixing ghouls, it is rather peculiar that Kanou does a similar, if probably not the same, project as the CCG and possibly V.
Kuroiwa, mentioned this in chapter 108.
Physical resemblences aside, he could be very well be Adam Gehner, who along with Yoshiu Washuu, Tsuneyoshi’s father, was responsible for the invention of the quinque and worked in the GFG. Interestingly, the chapter they are the very first time mentioned in was called “Sheep and Master: Examination and Corpses.”
If we take a look at Kanou’s history one more time, it is mentioned that Kanou worked for the GFGa certain amount of time, just like Chigyou did. Both of them are revolutionaries in their field, with Chigyou inventing the quinx and Kanou producing artificial half-ghouls. I do not think it is a coincide, if at all.
Furthermore, let’s take a look at the Sphinx Company, lastly run by the late Yasuhisa Nanao.
To put it bluntly, the company bought liquid solutions mostly from foreign countries. And I am content that one country might very well be that of Germany.
What I am now going to write is due to nessidy’s suggestion and therefore the credit goes to her.
As stated by Eto, the CCG was the one who owned that property. But until now, there is no reason for the CCG to use those liquid solutions (the Quinx at that time didn’t exist either). That’s why there is a possibility that the buyer for those liquids was actually V, not the CCG. Considering the ambiguity in regards to their species, it could be also that V used those bottles for the bred children in order to enhance their prowess. And it would be unwise for V to be the official owner of it as it could be easily traced back to them.
Thanks to wildnymeria’s suggestion and thus the credit goes to her, if we also go back to Kanou again, and realise that he worked for the GFG as well as the CCG, it could be that he also he very well might have worked with V as well, which might explain why he has such an extensive knowledge of them and how they operate, although it might also be that V does operate similarly as the GFG. In fact, I would say that the GFG and V, as seeing that the Washuu’s and Gehners had close relations, work together closely.
One last point about the One-eyed ghoul issue. While this has the least back up for my claim, I will try to explain it nonethless. Many people assume that V holds a grudge against one-eyed ghouls as they disrupt the balance of the quilibrium, ghouls and humans. But thinking about it more thoroughly, I quite doubt that.
If we consider V’s breeding program, Arima’s, Furuta’s and in my opinion even Hairu’s ambiguity as a species, it could be very well that V tries to forcefully produce half ghouls themselves, and thanks to nessidy, those very liquid soltuions we were talking about earlier might have helped to mix more ghoul blood in. I would also dare to say that half ghouls are actually preferred as long as they are within the grasp of V.
With the large number of Ghouls that the CCG kills, one has to wonder what exactly the specifications are for deciding which ones get turned into a Quinque.
As a side note, it’s also important to mention is that Mado also suggested that better quinque apparently comes from ghouls who have activated their kagune, as opposed from those whose kagune is sealed.
However as mentioned Yamori was turned into a decent quinque even with his kagune gone (read: eaten by kaneki) so the quality of a quinque isn’t just down to the kagune being released. However this does mean that to make better quinque, Investigators like Mado actively try to rile their ghoul foes up to actually using their kagune.
Mado could also tell from sight that Touka’s kagune was of a high enough quality for quinque modification:
He’s either basing this on physical appearance or her strength which he noted during their fight, if indeed RC/kakuhou quality produces stronger ghouls.
Then there are also the knives that Juuzuo and Mutsuki use, which aren’t kept in a quinque case. It’s likely that these are made purely out of the quinque steel, not a kakuhou. Like the Q-bullets!
While I am definitely not the first one who wonders about that, I started to scratch the little information we have of the Washuus and the first king and came up with some theories. I also have two theories who the next One-eyed king might be. Please keep in mind that it is just speculation with little evidence. Very long post under the cut.
What we know about the One-eyed king is that he appeared apporximately 100 years ago. He was also the founder of Aogiri tree. And what do we know about the Washuu lineage? They have hunted ghouls since over 100 years ago. In the manga it was stated that the ealier Washuus invented quite efficient and modern methods to exterminate ghouls. This may have been very much true and all, but how come that the Washuus started to gain power when the One-eyed king appeared?
Possibly as the leader of the Washuus was the very One-eyed ghoul we are speaking of, which could explain why they were so efficient and why the government
enlisted them in the founding of the Counter Ghoul Institution a government agency that would manage and pursue Ghouls.
If we take a closer look we can see a male adult whose eyes are hidden due to his hat. We also see a scar under his left eye. But what interests me more is what he has on his neck. To me it looks like chains. Why would they put a chain across his neck on their own family member? Normally putting a chain on someone indicates that he is a slave or an animal (yes, some people unfortunately still do that them).
Given how most mothers in TG is either manipulative or abusive, I wonder how will Ishida reveal Ukina true motive.
Was it a coincidence that she met Yoshimura years ago?
Was it true love that she had with Yoshimura and devotion in teaching him?
Was it a miracle of half ghoul baby that she didn’t intend?
Ishida never reveals her face so I wonder what is fishy here.
T-thanks Ishida…
Like mother like daughter, manipulative women.
ALWAYS, ALWAYS BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR IN THIS FANDOM
*i am cries* It’s interesting to see how her understanding of her absent parents has evolved over the years though.
pssssst Eto – maybe if you didn’t keep your father unconscious in a TANK he could tell you how sorry he was and how much he loved you.
But it’s like @oneeyedkingeto said [x]- she can’t actually be loved, right? She has to be right about how terrible the world is and how horrible people really are. Because if there was a possibility of love there all along, what has her life of fighting been for?
But…I’m not sold on the idea that Eto is right about this. Remember, she’s basing her opinion on this from her unique standpoint. She’s had a lifetime to construct her version of reality which we know, from past events, is not necessarily reliable nor accurate. She didn’t know her parents, and we’ve seen the judgments that she made about her father. But we already knew that Ukina was a reporter, and we already knew that she originally grew close to Kuzen to spy on him. We also know, at least from Kuzen’s perspective, that she grew to love him deeply, and that she risked her life to be with him, and to have Eto.
Eto’s view of her mother is inevitably colored by her experiences of the world, and the bitterness that has grown in her heart. Imagine that she found Ukina’s journal from before…before she fell in love, before she became pregnant…and assumed that her attitude never shifted. In reality, the sacrifices that Ukina made for Eto and Kuzen were incredible. Perhaps they were not sacrifices made from love…but if not, what were they made for? A story?
Either Ukina loved Kuzen and Eto, or she believed in something much greater than herself. I refuse to believe that Ukina was simply a “manipulative woman,” though if Eto’s rhetoric about changing the world is a true reflection of her motives, then perhaps they are alike. Either Ukina did what she did for her husband and daughter, or she did what she did for what she believed to be the betterment of all. But reducing either of them, the totality of their motives, their loves and their heartbreaks down to a simple act of manipulation is a gross misestimation of what these two women have accomplished, and most likely, what they will accomplish.
Perhaps Ukina started the work of bringing down V. Perhaps, when she died at the hands of her husband, she had no idea that her blood would flow through the veins of the one who finished that work.
i’ve stayed away from the Iyo looks like Furuta thing so far but
why is it so complicated? I’m genuinely confused by these crack theories.
There are several possibilities that don’t require Iyo to be way older than she seems/is implied to be, or women giving birth when they’re 10, or weird father and son marrying the same person strangeness.
Iyo is very likely tied to V in some shape or form. It’s likely her family is another family with ties to V. There’s no doubt that more than just the Washuu clan benefits from V’s control over everything.
There’s also the fact that Iyo and the Yasuhisa’s mother look vaguely similar.
If the Washuu clan has been giving breeding stock to V for one or more generations, whose to say Iyo’s family hasn’t been doing the same thing?
Or maybe the Washuu family and Iyo’s family are closely related already. It isn’t like close-kin marriage in noble/wealthy families hasn’t already been explored in the manga *cough* Tsukiyama Family *cough*.
I think it’s much more likely that Iyo looks like Furuta because she’s already his cousin or something because weird rich people inbreeding than her being his mother…
Or we could go the other direction with the crack theories. There’s always the theory that Iyo is Furuta. Because he needs more identities.
Or sometimes two characters illustrated by the same artist look similar.
Who knows anymore, honestly.
My secret crack theory for which there is less than zero evidence is that Iyo is Itori, just because I miss Itori and we haven’t seen or heard from her since Matsuri’s been back from Germany. Plus that’d be hilarious.
My secret crack theory for which there is less than zero evidence is that Iyo is Itori, just because I miss Itori and we haven’t seen or heard from her since Matsuri’s been back from Germany. Plus that’d be hilarious.
(I know we talked about this like two hours ago but this is too glorious not to reblog, and besides I SO AGREE)
Well, I know many people theorized about Arima, Kaneki and their eyes already (honestly guys, all the posts I read were spot on from my point of view) but I just wanted to see if I could propose an explanation as to why these two haveeye problems in the first place, by maybe establishing a particular relation between these and strength. 🙂
Thus this post will be about Eto, the OEK, ghouls and OEGs, artificial vs natural beings, through a small comparison between four of the strongest characters of TG.
Spoilers up to :Re ch68, and sorry in advance for this long post.
First example to look at is Arima of course:
He is one of the strongest (if not the absolute strongest) of all the characters introduced so far by Ishida-sensei and as, @neropet pointed out in this post, his vision is such that he has to rely on his other senses when he’s fighting (as illustrated with the last chapter and Ayato trying to beat him).
We barely know a thing about Arima in the first place (more on the OEK theory in the last part of the post), except for his huge strength and now a wrong something with his eyes, but this gets interesting when we compare him to Kaneki (most natural comparison ever, I know, but there was something bothering me since the beginning of the current arc about Kaneki’s eyes).
First random comment about Kaneki’s eyes go to Tatara in TG vol6:
And until fairly recently, I thought it probably didn’t matter so much but then Eto in :Re said…
Honestly… I would have casted it to the side, thinking this didn’t mean much more than irony except that…
that was reminding me of Tatara’s words that I still remembered because they didn’t make sense
and it’s also a direct contradiction to Kaneki’s new look with the glasses
Bear with me, I know this might sound dumb, but you generally start to wear glasses when there is something wrong going on with your eyes, not the other way around and, Eto’s possible joke aside, Kaneki wearing glasses since the beginning of this arc is something I just can’t get my head around for some reason.
We all remember V14 I’m sure, and how Arima pierced his eyes, but Haise was only wearing glasses once in a while…
…because as a OEG, his regenerative abilities were working enough to heal his eyes after V14 (he had no need for glasses during the transition Kaneki -> Haise at Cochlea three years ago either). …Until, the beginning of the current arc when Kaneki started to wear glasses constantly that is.
Seeing that, I personally couldn’t help but wonder “why now and not after V14?” especially since even more recently we had this…
which reminded a lot of people of ch31…
with what happens to be what Arima saw upon arriving where Haise was during the auction arc (which kind of enforces the comparison to Kaneki even more with the whole Black & White CCG reapers duo).
So basically, I tried to think of why Kaneki would suddenly need to wear glasses since the beginning of this arc (because I doubt this was to purposely look like Arima but in black) and this leads us to the last arc and his fight against Eto.
(The intro is over, I swear, haha)
This directly relates to what I was saying about strength being maybe linked to the eye problems, since Kaneki and Arima are a part of the strongest characters in TG.
Anyway, be it because his memory was back or for another reason, Kaneki managed to defeat Eto, something we never saw anyone else doing before…
… and I’m pretty sure it was no easy task to do, asking for a considerable amount of strength throughout the fight.
I’m aware Eto kissed his eye and I’m also aware he has a funny hand and Kagune since fighting her, but my theory would be that by going all out on Eto, Kaneki’s strength started to damage his eyes in return, which led him to have to wear glasses constantly after his fight against Eto (otherwise his eyes throb and he doesn’t see much, as we could notice in :Re ch68).
And the same can be applied to Arima: he has been working for the CCG for a long long time and his strength is famous, so maybe by overusing it to do his job and face countless opponents, his sight ended up diminishing greatly (despite the glasses in his case), forcing him to rely on his other senses instead.
Logicallyspeaking, it works for those two (as in, the use of their huge strength can explain eventual damages to other parts of the body; there is a cause and consequences) but I still tried to look for other examples outside of them, and namely I remembered Uta.
Why him?
Because there is no denying he is written a certain way to make the readers believe he is particularly strong, even amongst ghouls
we don’t know much about him as a character (mysterious like Arima) even though he is pretty significant to the story, which could mean some answers will be due later
he has some weird fixation about eyes (if anything he certainly likes to eat them)
his eyes are always on Kakugan mode
See, that’s the thing about Uta: he’s so mysterious that it’s hard to do anything but take wild guesses most of the time, however maybe this time it could be a little different. After all, he already was very strong as a teenager and also had his Kakugans always on when he barely knew Yomo…
…which is already ten/eleven years before :Re’s current timeline.
I’m pretty sure there is an explanation for the Kakugans (@sans-san once gave me the link of a theory on Reddit considering maybe Uta could be blind which is why he always uses his Kakugans and frankly why not?), just like for the Kagune he never uses, but still he’s another character who is said to be stronger than his peers and who has something weird going on with his eyes.
It’s hard to say whether his case is similar to Arima’s and Kaneki’s (if anything because Uta is a full-fledged ghoul as far as we know unlike the other 2), but I just wanted to point him out, in case it’s to be useful at some point later when more answers are out.
Finally, one word about Eto as well as the rest of the theory: she’s a very strong character obviously and she wears glasses from time to time…
…even if that’s not always and probably mostly related to when she works on her books, but there is actually a major difference between Eto, Kaneki and Arima which could explain why, in her case, the huge strength doesn’t necessarily have as much consequences on her sight.
I’m sure you guys are aware of this little theory indicating that Arima might be the OEK Eto asked Kaneki to kill, but we also know that Arima has been deeply involved with V, the Washuus and the Garden for years, making me think that if Arima is indeed the OEK, he would be an artificial creation, just like Kaneki but unlike Eto.
This point might make more sense if I add Kanou into this -> we know Kanou was on the CCG’s side for years, that he found out about V and decided to create his own OEGs in order to break free from “the twisted cage” which is the alliance between the Washuus and the V organization, but the question is how did he get the idea to create OEGs? What made him think it was possible?
Well, if Arima is the OEK, then he’s supposedly on V/the CCG’s side since he’s been fighting with them for years (even if *cough cough* he’s probably the one who allowed Eto join the fight during the Anteiku raid arc *cough cough* ch138) and in that case, Kanou would have known about him and thought he needed to create someone as strong as Arima to bring him and so, by extent, V down.
What I mean is that if Arima is an artificially enhanced being
by V/the CCG
(OEG or not, though I’m thinking he might not be exactly a OEG otherwise his coworkers would have noticed), he could be the reason Kanou decided to create his own OEGs to break free from the “twisted birdcage”.
In that case, the difference between Eto, Arima and Kaneki is as follow: Eto is for now the only naturally born OEG and as a result, things might be different for her on a few biological points. After all, we already were more or less told that she can eat regular human food (like apples), when other OEGs like Kaneki can’t, so in her case her strength would be all natural, like her body, which could be why there isn’t as much damage when she goes all out in fights (because her body can handle it since it’s all natural for her).
-> For Kaneki and Arima however, if we theorize that both were artificially enhanced (Kaneki by Rize’s kakuhou which turned him into a OEG, while it’s still mysterious for Arima), maybe that’s why the huge, non-natural strength that they got can do damage on their bodies when over-used (and in their cases, it’s all on the eyes).
There I’m almost done, so I hope it makes sense so far? 🙂
When it comes to the link with Uta though, honestly I’m not completely sure yet and besides, for all we know he might not be entirely natural either (he did say to Yomo he didn’t know how he got that strong after all, see the panel above). With Ishida, we never know lol, that’s why Uta is only a point to keep in mind for now until we get more info.
To end this post, I just wanted to point out that Eto and Kanek’s respective Kakuja forms include more eyes…
So, random observation or important one? Well, that’s all food for thoughts right now, haha (maybe that could be a hint to Uta’s example if Uta also has a Kakuja form though).
There I’m done for now. 🙂 If you read all this, then you’re a hero, and I hope it makes sense!
Feel free to leave your thoughts or to ask anything. 🙂
Just some thoughts on Souta and Furuta’s Trump Cards. With last chapter, the mystery of why Souta’s Trump Card was separate to the rest of the Clowns has been cleared up. We’d all guessed that Souta was working with V but I think it was still a little bit of a surprise (for me at least) that his loyalties to Pierrot was completely non-existent.
There’s the obvious clues that we’d all figured out were important:
Pierrot were depicted on the 8 of each suit
Souta/Furuta was an outsider in the Pierrot Trump Cards, being designated a 5
♥
(5 = V in Roman Numerals)
The background of both the 5
♥
card and Joker card also gave clues that his loyalties lay with V all along. Souta within the bird cage, Furuta’s with the birds- he is one of the birds in the ‘bird cage’ on the world that V and the CCG is keeping in check.
Despite this, he is clearly aware of this world order and actively helps maintain it.
But then there’s also something suspicious with Souta’s hands going on. The obvious one was his left hand making a V which combined with the bird cage showed his association with the V organisation. But the right hand is harder to make out but it’s too unnatural looking to be insignificant. I just have no idea in what way (if anyone has any ideas about this, please add on!)
One possibility is that it’s a C and with the G on his mask and some careful choices in shadowing, it creates “CCG” hinting that they were working together to maintain the ‘bird cage’ on the world.
C is also the Roman Numeral for 100, a number connected to the OEK from 100 years ago
the C and V together in Roman Numerals makes 105 which I have absolutely no idea what significance 105 would have but according to my friend Wikipedia, 105 is a triangular number
It could also be a U, meaning Souta is just trying to warn us of the dangers of UV rays and being sun smart. Slip, slop, slap kids.
Lastly, if Furuta was a part of V, and his 5
♥ cards represents that… does this mean the other 5′s are also a part of V? There’s one 5 in particular that is especially suspicious…. I’ll put it under the cut just in case you don’t want potential spoilers for that character
midnight-in-town 