The calm before the storm.
Impression
Looks like we’ll be going down that path after all – the raid on Anteiku was the final arc of the original manga, and it’ll be how √A will end as well. So much for an ‘original story’ helmed by Ishida – his involvement now seems like it was limited to deciding exactly how and how much the story would be redacted, and exactly how many more teasers to include about Eto and the One-Eyed Owl to not make it too surprising when it’s explicitly revealed. The answers to questions being: a lot, and not many. Well, there’ll be some exciting scenes coming up if they’re going down this route, although I will admit it’s disappointing to learn that this was all subject to what was essentially false advertising.
Happily enough, they included the Kuzen back-story! To the sceptical, it’s made clear the notion that the One-Eyed Owl has been a role played by two different ghouls – Yoshimura and his child. Yoshimura isn’t actually a hybrid, but it’s not surprising that he would try to divert some of the hate off the real Owl towards him, out of a desire to protect baby Eto. The recurring symbolism of the unused teacups will now finally make sense as well, in that the pink cup is stored at the back of the cupboard for the now-deceased Ukina, who was surprisingly accepting of Kuzen. What they didn’t explicitly mention was that ‘nourishment’ for the baby essentially meant that Ukina had to cannibalize her own kind (i.e. eat human corpses) in order to ensure that the baby survived. And another omission was that the organization Kuzen joined wasn’t actually Aogiri, although I can see why they wouldn’t want to bother introducing another faction that’ll hardly play a role in the upcoming Anteiku raid. The parallels to the very silent Kaneki include the notion that he’s not fitting in Aogiri at all – though it’s not like we’d ever think otherwise, given that we see nothing of his time there.
They also never said this outright, but I found it very sad that Anteiku was full to capacity during its very last day of service – because I have a feeling that all of its customers were doves. They had enough people tailing each of the staff members at Anteiku, anyway. And Yoshimura and Yomo are deliberately hiding the truth from Touka and Hinami, who think that they’re just away temporarily for ‘renovations’. Yeah, it’s not temporary – they’re going into hiding so they don’t get stuck in the crossfire when the hoard of investigators storm Anteiku. Yoshimura, Koma and Irimi are staying to the bitter end, and I’m looking forward to watching their first proper fight scenes animated. One of the anime-original scenes that did touch me was that short moment between Yoshimura and Shinohara, who isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary despite his correct suspicions that the same old man serving him coffee was the kakuja ghoul attacking him at Aogiri. It was a surprisingly civil conversation, and I can hardly tell what the both of them were thinking – I just hope that the good coffee and hospitality were enough to make Shinohara understand that all ghouls aren’t just mindless and evil. It still does piss me off that Eto sold them out though, because Yoshimura was last seen as a ghoul in the 11th Ward with Aogiri. There’s no way they would have tracked him down all the way to the 20th without the assistance she gave.
Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 18
[SPOILER START]
YES! JUUZOU, MY BOY!
Finally! I’ve been waiting for this ever since :re started! At last, someone has managed to inflict an injury on that traitorous little shit Uta. Let’s hope he managed to take out at least one of his eyes or something, then maybe he’ll learn how it felt to be Haise when Arima skewered him. There was actually a neat bit of foreshadowing in the ending illustrations of the episode, with Uta fitting Kaneki’s old mask over a skull (a skull being how the One-Eyed King has been depicted so far) and a still of Kaneki with his hair colour all over the place. The back half is coloured black with white streaks (this being Kaneki) while the front half is white with black streaks (this being Haise). Anyway, sadly it was Juuzou and not Haise who did the damage, but the most important thing is that it’s been done. Presumably this means that the auction will be called off now that the ghouls are aware that there are doves amongst them – exactly how everyone will move is uncertain, but I’m pretty sure there will be a few choice encounters that may very well bring out the Kaneki in Haise. Big Madame and Juuzou will meet for sure, and Mutsuki may be the catalyst to bring Tsukiyama out of his depression, which I think is what Kanae is hoping for. Kanae managed to buy him, right? He’s mistaken in the sense that Mutsuki is merely a Quinx and not an actual one-eyed ghoul, but I’m sure the Tsukiyama family have lots of money to spare.
[SPOILER END]