Let the hate flow through you, Ayato-kun…
Impression
Holy shit, this season is uncensored! I can’t believe this!
It’s time to rejoice, because Tokyo Ghoul √A… is getting Sasarious.
If you didn’t get that, don’t Google it. You’re better off not knowing. But anyway, as a manga reader I’m very excited for this season of Tokyo Ghoul, contrary to what you might expect – yes, there are many good scenes that will perhaps never be animated now, but many new possibilities have opened up and this new storyline can take full advantage of it, even more so because the original mangaka Ishida is involved. It’s also good because often, I tend to lean towards comparison if I’m familiar with the original work, which is why I wasn’t very fond of the original season and the way it accelerated through the plot like a rabbit on crack. Now that it’s accepted it’ll diverge from the manga fully, they can stop being pansies and charge ahead with a new story that will keep every fan excited, regardless of how familiar they are with the series. For manga readers like myself in particular, we will be discovering more about characters that were never given much exposition at all, like Eto or the Pierrot. Seriously, if there’s more Eto and the stuff about her is counted as canon given Ishida’s involvement, I could not be happier. New OP is the shit, though.
The main divergence happened during the middle of the fight between Kaneki and Ayato, after Ayato had just finished beating the living crap out of poor, precious Touka for her pacifistic ideals ;_; Tragic hero Kaneki is here supposed to declare that, while he will not kill Ayato as he is Touka’s brother, he will instead half-kill him. Kaneki then proceeds to destroy Ayato, breaking all 103 of the bones on one side of his body while naming them one by one, as Ayato screams and curses underneath him. Probably freshly burnt into his head by Yamori, come of think of it. Well, that never happens – instead, an earthquake cuts the entire Aogiri raid short, forcing the CCG to retreat. This is where we start to go fully anime-original, as we’re not done with the Aogiri stuff in the manga at all by this point – this is where it all changes. We still got a fight between the mysterious One-Eyed Owl and the CCG, but it seemed a bit more lackluster than what I remember. Watching Shinohara and Kuroiwa using their Arata Protos was pretty cool though, especially after the burden of using a kakuja as a quinque started kicking in. And at the same time, it was a very sad quinque to watch in action. This has not been a good episode for Touka.
It’s not all that surprising to learn that Kaneki isn’t going back to Anteiku – after god knows how many days of extended torture, you’d think that his motives would change alongside his outlook on life. And of course, he’s come to terms with his hallucination of Rize. Instead, the true surprise is what he’s going to do instead of rejoining Anteiku – because joining Aogiri was the exact opposite of the plans he had in the manga. These guys captured him, beat him and tortured him. If I’ve got any concern, it’d be this – exactly what is Kaneki planning to do? No way is he joining them for real, right? Originally he made an anti-Aogiri group with Tsukiyama, Hinami and Banjou, and worked specifically to oppose Aogiri and their plans – yet now he’s joining them? The only upside I can see so far is that he’ll be far more involved with Eto than he’s ever supposed to be, and we can get answers to a lot of things that way. Also, Pierrot! Definitely can’t overlook the appearance of these motherfuckers this early in the story. If there were no scenes with Eto and the Pierrot, I would have been far more worried about the direction this is season is taking.
At any rate, I’m fairly willing to trust Ishida for now. With short appearances by Kuro and Shiro, as well as the man behind them, you know he’ll be getting some interesting characters involved in whatever plot he’s cooking up. No idea how good it’ll be, or if there’s any canon basis to it (in terms of characters like the Pierrot, not the setting or Kaneki) but it looks like fun. And it’ll tide me over until the next chapter of re:. Ishida really is a bastard though, putting Touka through all that. Being best girl is suffering ;_;
Possibility of Watching: Guaranteed
Possibility of Blogging: Very High
Tokyo Ghoul re: Chapter 11/12 [12 Raws]
This is a short section I’m planning to include with each post in which I talk about the latest chapters of re:. Having individual posts for manga chapters isn’t something I’d like to do, given that they’d all be very short – not to mention there’s no precedent for that on this blog. Still, I’d like to mention re: for fellow manga readers, especially as there’s some exciting stuff happening. All paragraphs will be spoiler marked as relevant, and made invisible just in case – so if you don’t want to read it, just don’t highlight over it.
[SPOILER START]
Haise: You guys… we will all become girls.
Quinx: …
Haise you joker. I’ve always thought that Nutcracker would just be Rize with a new fetish, but if she’s an A-rank with a bikaku then I guess not. It’d be cool if Rize appeared though, as she’s another one with a link to Haise that might trigger him in the way Nishiki did. Of course, that’s not happening with everyone – certainly not with Touka and Yomo, although I think both Haise and myself get many mixed feelings looking at the current Touka. At least he’s visiting her. I’m curious as to whether Tsukiyama will break out of his depression though, as well as to the identity of the ghoul Donato mentioned – the scan is too fuzzy for me to make out who it is. Could it be… a transformed Amon?!
[SPOILER END]
White hair Kaneki is hot. I’m just saying
I… I suppose so? All I’m reminded of is his suffering when I look at him. A happy ending this season would be nice.
Yeah I would prefer a happy ending after the end last season. And I guess the white hair does represent his suffering but I still think he looks hot with it.
I’m quite glad that the second season is an original to ensure a properly paced 12 episodes. I supposed Kaneki explained his reasoning when speaking with Ayato. He wants to gain influence within the Tree in order to protect what is dear to him. The 103 bones bit might be part of Kaneki’s attempt to outdo Ayato for the sake of that rank and influence. That, or they’ll bond so that all will be well once Touka gets her husband back and marries him 🙂
[spoiler]
SPOILER SECTION
It may very well be Amon who was standing there. The Tree does have that doctor now and he may have turned Amon into a Ghoul or even copied the CCG and made him a Quinx. As for Rize, well, I wonder what Yomo did with her now that the Manager has been captured. As for any triggering of memories, Nishio did outright say “Kaneki” so maybe Touka and Yomo would have to do that, too, to trigger anything? Either way, Kaneki’s resistance towards remembering is reducing.
[/spoiler]
Coming to think about it, I remember Kaneki saying something about wanting to kill the One-Eyed King in one of the PVs before this aired. Even if it’s ultimately to protect the guys at Anteiku, it’s still surprising that he even wants to have anything to do with them after what Yamori did to him. If we assume he’s not genuinely joining them, then the split is that in the manga, he’s trying to achieve his goals from the outside, while in this he’s working from within. At any rate I do hope we see 103 bones in its uncensored glory. Given his hostility, I don’t think it’ll be that easy for him to befriend Ayato…
Also for future reference it’s ‘spoiler’ and ‘/spoiler’ in square brackets around text you want to hide!
[spoiler]
If it’s Amon, then they’ve truly swapped roles now. I can’t wait to see his face when he meets ‘Rank 1 Sasaki’. Not sure what role Rize will play at all, I just hope she has one – she was on decent terms with Anteiku, but who knows what she thinks of Haise himself? The last time they met for real was at the start of the series, after all.
In the end, the biggest obstacle to Haise seems to be himself – he lied about being happy to Arima, but at the same time he’s scared of the memories that have been repressed. Though I’m happy he seemed to ‘react’ to Touka even if she’s playing dumb for now.
[/spoiler]
Mou! I feel like Fubuki—I know why I’m here, but I don’t know everything about what I’m doing. Thanks for taking care of that, Vantage 🙂
Kaneki matured a lot in the process of his torture. He mightn’t look at anyone in the Tree with as much contempt as he did Yamori, plus he even considered that Yamori was a victim as well. So under all that power and psychotic rage, our precious Kaneki is quite understanding. Indeed, it’ll be amazing to see the contrast between working from the outside and working on the inside, as well as seeing more of Eto! Either way, Sui Ishida is flexing his creative muscle here and I certainly hope he’s having more fun with this than any of his fans are!
[spoiler] I’d laugh if Haise’s penultimate case was to secure Rize again. Oh it would be quite the reunion and a hell of a wake up call if his memories were still repressed. Speaking of reunions… I’d really love for Touka to be the one to bring him back as she wanted him more than anyone! I’d really love if it was a passionate event, too, so that it’s not just Sasaki suffering from a full revelation, but also being comforted by Touka’s love for him <3
(Side note: I wonder if Touka is going to beat Kaneki up again, but this time for having joined the Tree.)
As for Amon, well, whether or not it is him that figure is holding some sort of weapon and it could very well be a quinque. It gives me hope that it is Amon because I think that any Ghoul who killed a Dove for one would've been worth mentioning as a danger to the new Quinx Squad. Amon would either have retained his weapon from the last fight with Kaneki or just steal a quinque without hurting the investigator. [/spoiler]