How pitiful…
Impression
What has Haise done to his hair?! It reminds me of Touka. I do hope this is just for the promotion ceremony and not something more permanent. A year has passed, and Haise is now a year older – and maybe a year closer to assimilating himself with Kaneki, too. For some reason, the vision of Kaneki is no longer as young as he once was, and now seems a lot more threatening than he was back at the auction. Was it all merely a false sense of security? Now he’s talking about not being able to coexist and him being similar to a caterpillar fungus that’s slowly taking over Haise the moth. It’s interesting that the end result in that analogy is ‘vegetation’, which is something different to both the fungus and the moth – it hints that if Kaneki succeeds, he won’t be the old Kaneki he once was, but will also have a bit of ‘Haise’ and his experiences in him. But at any rate, Haise is remembering more and more. He has visions of Mado, who he shouldn’t be able to picture at all, as well as a younger, glasses-wearing Touka from the time they infiltrated the CCG. And of course, there’s the ‘sharp pain gouging out the back of his eyes’. Hmm, I wonder why he’s feeling that sort of pain, right Special-Class Arima?
The main thrust of the chapter was a promotion ceremony – pretty much everyone who made a notable contribution to the auction got a promotion. Urie got the Osmanthus Award and a promotion to Rank 1, but is still incredibly salty over how Kuroiwa Takeomi is the only one people are talking about. It’s kind of amusing that he still hasn’t changed even after all that’s gone on: he thinks, ‘why the fuck are you touching me?’ when Kuroiwa Sr. pats him on the shoulder. Juuzou’s promotion to Special-Class is well-deserved, but why was Washuu Matsuri also given a promotion? He didn’t do anything! I mean, he coordinated it all and stuff, but in terms of danger his life was nowhere near as threatened as the rest of the entire CCG. And he was the one who made Haise suffer and left him to fight Takizawa on his own. Similarly, it’s nice that Mutsuki jumped two ranks to Rank 1, but will it help him in the long-run? Presumably you have to take on more dangerous tasks, and more is expected of you in terms of combat ability – neither of which Mutsuki seems to be prepared for. I was under the assumption that ranking changes should take things like skill into account, too.
Haise is now First-Class like Amon, and Akira has been promoted to Associate Special-Class. I found the hug between them really cute! I think one of the greatest losses Haise will sustain as a result of reverting into Kaneki is his relationship with Akira. It’s now a little strained though, since Haise has decided to keep Hinami instead of killing her and making a quinque out of her as Akira presumably wants. The reason for her father’s death is reading books in Cochlea, and she can’t do anything about it. I didn’t even know ownership rights had an expiration date – but it must be conflicting for Haise. If he still is Haise, I don’t think he’s willing to go against the CCG and protect Hinami just because she saved her life – he has to remember more, first. At the moment, he still refers to her as ‘Yotsume’ and ‘Fueguchi’ instead of ‘Hinami-chan’ or something. At least she’s relatively safe.
Now, with Tsukiyama on the horizon, it’s pretty much confirmed that :re will be mirroring the original Tokyo Ghoul. This next arc will involve Tsukiyama, and if he ever comes into direct contact with Haise, I’m sure the resulting confrontation will be interesting – regardless of how Haise might have changed, the Gourmet can identify him by smell. I have no idea what’s up with him, but he’s gone from not having an appetite to wanting to eat anything at all, so we’re taking baby steps at least. I know there are theories saying Tsukiyama now has a kakuja, but I’m pretty sure it’s just some sheets or the canopy of his bed covering his face. I mean, you can’t even use your normal kagune if you haven’t eaten anything. How is he supposed to use a kakuja in the condition he’s in?
