That was depressing.
Impression
This has been one of Tokyo Ghoul √A’s better episodes, but it’s also one of its most depressing to date – and being a manga reader, I can tell you that it’s going to get even more depressing from here onwards, forever. I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, and even if I haven’t I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, but the human and ghoul worlds are not black-and-white. The ghouls are the protagonists (and even that’s debatable) but they’re not the ‘good’ guys. At the same time, no way in hell can you say the CCG are the ‘good’ guys, either. Instead, morality in Tokyo Ghoul is a blurry grey at best, and I think it’s never been as clear as it has been in this episode.
From the viewpoint of someone who’s watching the episode without any context, it basically looks like the CCG’s ganging up on the ghouls – especially the fight with Yoshimura. Shinohara and the rest of them were practically bullying him with numbers, adding a couple more people whenever they started to feel they were at risk – Yoshimura inevitably ended up succumbing to repeated wounds after exhausting himself from blocking their attacks, and collapsed in what was a very heartfelt scene. I felt really sorry for both Koma and Irimi too, for similar reasons. Now, I’m not saying they’re innocent – they’ve killed countless people themselves. But when it’s portrayed like this I can’t help but sympathise with the ghouls over the humans – because the ghouls are the ones who are showing very human-like thoughts and showing human-like emotions. Compare that to the faceless, helmeted CCG in uniform outfits. The clincher is of course that moment where that Special-Class decides to gun down Irimi along with an innocent civilian lady who probably slept through the evacuation alarms. Special-Class Hirako is disgusted, and rightly so – the laughable irony is that poor Irimi, a ghoul, takes the hit for the civilian in order to protect her life.
I’m very much looking forward to what will be a fateful clash between a saner Kaneki and Amon, who probably wants to talk to him as much as he wants to fight him. It was a great fight in the manga, and I’m actually glad they’ve decided to go down this path, as they seem to be sticking to it quite faithfully. Maybe they ended up backing out of an anime-original plot after initial criticism – because from an overall perspective of the season (given that it’s nearly over) it looks like they dipped their toes in the water before hurriedly withdrawing. Oh well. There are still new scenes of Hide and an escaped Touka though, so that’s all still up in the air. A manga-faithful finish would mean that there’s scope to move on to an adaptation of :re a few years in the future, so there’s that.
Given all that I’ve said about the CCG being bastards, I do feel a bit sorry for them now that Eto-chan has come out to play. They definitely animated her second kakuja form brilliantly, and I’m glad a bit of budget has been saved for that. Hopefully this carries on to the end of the series.
Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 20
[SPOILER START]
Holy mother of…
Takizawa. What have they done to you?!
The irony of it all is that it parallels last week’s episode, in which Takizawa was absolutely terrified of dying. Of course, in the manga he ended up being captured by Aogiri, and it looks like many fan predictions have indeed come true. For the captured doves like Takizawa and Amon, they have harvested Yoshimura’s kakuhou and created Owls out of people like Takizawa. Eto really is ‘making’ more Owls. This all raises some interesting questions about Amon, because this all but confirms that he has become a one-eyed ghoul as well. He is incredibly strong mentally though, and given that there are two questions that arise: how far has he fallen, and does he have Yoshimura’s kakuja as well?
Why Takizawa looks like a post-torture Kaneki I have no idea -maybe Naki’s picked up some awful habits during the timeskip- but they’ve put him through a lot of pain, and most likely conditioned him to work for Aogiri. I can’t believe in the anime last week we saw him at home writing his last will and testament for his mother. Fucking hell.
Meanwhile, Haise has a fighting style like Arima, but isn’t using his kagune yet. That will probably have to wait until he as a fateful encounter with someone at the auction. It probably won’t be Kanae though, who turned out to be weak as hell. So much for being Tsukiyama’s servant.
Also, Akira’s become very sexy. The mindfuck will come when she’s reunited with a Takizawa who will be after her head. Feels incoming! And I just hope Hinami doesn’t run into her, because it was painful seeing that her quinque was named ‘Fueguchi’. The suffering is real.
I think after the anime is over, I might continue writing about :re with some full posts. It’s so interesting!
[SPOILER END]
I… am actually glad that I left Anteiku myself for the past 3 weeks. Coming back and just watching this “Owl Arc” all at once was much better than one-by-one, if only because ending it off with Eto rather than what the other 2 episodes offered was immensely satisfying. I was also reminded of how much I love that Kaneki Quinque-disabling fighting style! I just have an attraction to fighting that doesn’t result in killing ^__^ It was nice that Irimi took his rescuing better in the anime than the manga!
[spoiler] Hmm, now I have to wonder and fear what seeing ‘Fueguchi’ in action will do to Haise. That was a REALLY bad memory for him and if Hinami is there at the same time that he sees it, oh boy. I really want Hinami to break it or steal it though, perhaps using her onii-chan’s Quinque-only targeting. All spectacular possibilities aside, I seriously just want it gone. Nothing has disgusted me more in Tokyo Ghoul than Mado’s treatment of Hinami’s mother and the little one herself. Now this Quinque can join the club.
I also really hope Eto and Yoshimura are able to be a family again. I know that just this episode we were reminded of Kaneki’s mission to save Eto, but that just makes me want Yoshimura to get to be a father to all his children again, Eto included! I wonder if making more Owls is her twisted idea of having a family, hmm.
We still don’t know about Ayato and Touka’s father. Speaking of unknowns, while I’m sure who Touka was visiting in the hospital will be revealed eventually… Floppy? I don’t think we were told who Floppy is just as yet. [/spoiler]
They spent some time letting things brew up gradually, so if you waited a couple of weeks then you’d have gotten it all at once!
[spoiler] I wonder if it’s something Haise would even react to – the latest chapter tells us that Akira spent a year mastering it, and presumably Haise would have come across it at least once during that period. He didn’t react to Touka or Yomo at all either, so I’m not sure what it was with Nishiki that set him off. Maybe the name ‘Kaneki’? It would be horrible if Hinami came across it though, and now that she’s grown up I think she might be willing and able to do more than just break it, especially if she somehow finds out that Akira is Mado’s daughter.
Yes, ‘making a family’ sounds like a very Eto-like thing to want. Not sure how she could benefit from turning them psychotic, but hey it’s Eto. As for Arata, I remember Itori or another one of the Clowns saying that the CCG have decided to clear Cochlea of all prisoners, but I can see Arata being too useful for them to pointlessly kill off. If we see more Arata Protos during this battle, then he’s definitely alive. [/spoiler]
Might give this one a look.
You might want to read the manga, and just dip into this to watch your favourite scenes animated. The plot is a lot less compressed that way, and this season actually misses out an entire arc in the manga.