Or the calm before the storm.
Impression
We dealt with the aftermath of the raid on Cochlea this episode! In terms of plot progression, almost nothing happened apart from the CCG’s declaration that they will start an operation to hunt down the One-Eyed Owl, which they have now correctly confirmed leads Aogiri Tree. The way they confirmed it was slightly off-track though, as the two recent appearances it made were in fact that of two different Owls, although I don’t think Amon and Akira were present when it was Yoshimura who appeared. In a sense, it’s all a bit disappointing, as I was expecting the plot to diverge more than it has – especially with the premature appearance of Owl last episode when it saved Kaneki and Ayato from capture and perhaps death. We seem to still be going down the same path as the manga, except for the fact that Kaneki is in Aogiri – which has changed less than I would have liked it to have, given how fundamental that sort of choice was meant to be. All we got from Kaneki this week was the hint that he is in fact not in control of his kakuja at all, even outside of battle. I can’t remember whether this was the case in the manga as well, but this now means that he’s in a perpetually unstable state, which needs to change if he’s going to be interacting with… well, anyone.
What this episode primarily was, therefore, was a dose of character development for the CCG that is of questionable significance given the short time limits this adaptation has. I mean, it was nice to see adapted, and I loved how they kept the push-up scene in, but I would have liked them to have focused on, say, Amon wondering about the implications of humans turning into ghouls – and whether that was of any relevance to Kaneki, which it in fact was. Though one powerful scene I was glad they did include was Juuzou’s past, and all the horrors that he had to endure that broke him into the person he is today. It doesn’t change how twisted he is, and it doesn’t make me forgive him for what he did to Kuro and Shiro, but it explains a hell of a lot behind his strength and his behaviour. As a human kept and tortured by Big Madame, it’s actually more surprising that he ended up getting stronger instead of quickly breaking – I don’t quite understand the system of ‘good-boy points’ he was subjected to, and honestly I’m not sure I want to understand. Living as a Scrapper and indiscriminately killing humans does explain his apathy towards life and lack of morality, as well as his… strange mannerisms. Juuzou is slowly changing though, and Shinohara is partially to thank for that.
While it was okay to begin with, I’m now not sure how I feel about the short scenes we keep getting of Anteiku and Touka. All they seem to show is that nothing much has changed back in the 20th ward, although it’s true that there’s now a new waitress at Anteiku. I do not like Roma, and I strongly believe that Hinami should stop being so nice to her.
Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 16
[SPOILER START]
It feels strange to be talking about Juuzou in √A, right before talking about him again in :re. Because they’re like two completely different people now – Juuzou really grew up during the time-skip, and we already saw signs of that during his apology to Shinohara’s wife at the end of the original manga. And presumably he’s much stronger now as well, having been promoted to Associate Special Class somewhere along the way. I didn’t initially realize he was the ‘girl’ next to Mutsuki, but it does look like it’s him – and it makes sense, as they’ll be the ones infiltrating first. Mutsuki still looks incredibly nervous – it’s an expression the old Kaneki would make, although I might be saying that because of the eye patch. At any rate, the Quinx are all supposed to represent different personality aspects of ‘Kaneki’ anyway.
Touka looks so dignified these days, although I keep feeling so sad whenever she appears. I’m sure she’s thinking about a lot of things, and because we’re now following the CCG we get hardly any time to explore the ghoul side and what they’re up to. If she’s visiting a human hospital, it’s gotta be a human she’s visiting – and no way is it Shinohara. The boring route would be to say that she’s visiting Yoriko, and the exciting route would be that she’s visiting a severely injured Hide in Kaneki’s place, in the state he was found after Kaneki did whatever he did to him. But anyway, the auction is finally starting!
crossdressing intensifies
[SPOILER END]