He’s back.
Impression
Is it wrong that I’m already starting to miss Haise? A part of me is really loving the new Kaneki (it’s time to call him Kaneki again, and not Haise) but on the other hand, his brutality and ruthlessness feels really unsettling. It doesn’t help that his hair is blacker than it’s ever been since his pre-Aogiri days, and yet the Kaneki we see now is nothing like who he was at the start of the story. Yes, I’ve read the theories about him being red-haired because of his skull being split open, and I think they’re all absolutely ridiculous. I accept that there may be some dried blood in his hair, but it’s not going to make him a redhead all of a sudden. Most importantly, red is an awful hair colour for Kaneki. And if you think Ishida tweeting some poems counts as foreshadowing, then the original art he posted of Rize some time ago should have meant an appearance for Rize on top of Lunatic Eclipse by now. I still miss Rize, every chapter. Maybe one day.
How much does Kaneki remember? And more importantly, will his current state last? The last thing we want is for him to get knocked out and wake up as Haise. He recognizes Tsukiyama, at least, and we now know that he has known about Eto being the One-Eyed King for a long time now. But his actions don’t quite match up with how we’d expect Kaneki to react to them both, even though he’s lucid – he’s stabbed Tsukiyama for some reason (hopefully to keep him out of the battle, but we don’t know that for sure) and he’s out to kill Eto despite his promise to Yoshimura. I mean, he is admittedly very angry, and if anything his anger is clouding his mind a great deal at the moment – his beatdown of Kanae was fucking savage. Will Kanae ever be the same again? You could feel the sheer force he used to stab the metal pipe through poor Kanae’s eye, no doubt an effective weak spot he learned first-hand from Arima – and of course, he’s gotten his revenge for the arm and has gifted one of Kanae’s to Eto. I think Eto looks pleased – Eto doesn’t really seem to care about Kanae now that she’s achieved her objective. I now understand why she went to all the trouble of breaking her to turn her into an effective killing machine, even though Kanae was already about to attack Haise out of jealousy – because Kanae wasn’t strong enough. I have no idea why Eto didn’t attack Haise herself, but her objective was to wake him up using Kanae. So when he was still Haise, Eto came down and told Kanae to keep going – but when he woke up as Kaneki and trashed Kanae, Eto lost all interest in her. Are we going to see Eto vs Kaneki? She keeps talking about who’s stronger between Kaneki and Arima, so I do wonder if she’s out to test his strength or something.
If Kaneki manages to subdue or escape Eto, and that’s a big if, the next issue is what the hell he’s going to do about the CCG. He will probably want to do something about Hinami, but beyond that it’s hard to say how he’d react to the Quinx or people like Akira or Arima. There will be some who will start noticing the change, so hopefully he just gets as many of his friends out from Cochlea as he can before ditching CCG.
Speaking of the Quinx, is Noro kill? If he’s talking (for the first time, too) about seeing Eto on the other side, I guess he really is. It was also odd that he seemed to express some sort of affection for Eto, despite the implication that she was his torturer.Urie has moved up yet another rung on the ladder of character development – it seems like every time the Quinx are in a life-threatening situation, his good side seems to emerge. Noro felt like a stronger opponent than he ended up being, although that may just be me overestimating the power levels of the Qs. All the other chapters featuring Noro had him portrayed as an insta-regen monster, and all of a sudden Shirazu and Urie manage to deal with him after exerting themselves. Feels a bit weird.
On a ‘happier’ note… have you seen THIS? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxvYMHKyEKk) I don’t watch many AMVs or MADs, but I’m glad I came across this one. It almost seems as though it was released when it was partially due to what chapter 53 setup. It’s certainly a welcome trip down memory lane after these past two chapters.
P.S. The link is to the original creator’s post so you won’t have to look for them
I haven’t seen that one, it’s pretty cool! I was wondering how far it’d get given its posting date, and it looks like they went up the auction. It will definitely be a trip down memory lane very soon, if not already as you say. If Kaneki returning really is as big a turning point as they’re implying, then maybe it’s already time to shelve the ‘Haise arc’ of :re in the way pre and post-Aogiri Kanekis were distinguished. Imagine if we get a full-page watercolour of Saiko thinking ‘I know he will return to CCG’.
There’s a fun fan video which has the ever-glorious Kekkai Sensen ED redrawn with characters from Tokyo Ghoul. It had its Youtube version muted due to copyright, but if you have a Niconico account it’s here:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm27084724
It’s surprisingly well-made, and it was lots of fun guessing who would appear when. Here’s one for :re x Kagerou Project:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm26821316
And one for :re x Kuroshitsugi:
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm25805376
My, my, my! Those were great. All great! I’ve actually not watched the other 2 anime below Kekkai Sensen, though, I know they’re both renowned in their own positive ways. Nonetheless, those were all highly enjoyable recommendations.
I enjoyed them more than I expected to despite having to watch them on Youtube with lower quality (read:once again too lazy to make a Niconico… nii account)! I even came across a :re x Kekkai Sensen OP video! I think… Kagerou Project won it for me overall.
(After writing all that I actually managed to find a workaround thanks to nicogachan :3)
Now. Vantage. Let’s get serious…
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING EVEN SUGGESTING SUCH PAINFUL IMAGERY?!
IT’S BRILLIANT BUT… dammit… no… ;_; Kaneki will likely drag Haise, Kuroneki and Shironeki out of the CCG with him, but I don’t want to see Saiko in such pain.
Nico Nico Nii to you too!
The Kekkai Sensen one was very fitting with the range of characters it featured. Eto replacing White for her foot crushing the white flower was amazing. And Rize and Tsukiyama evilly plotting stuff (replacing Aligura and the other crazy dude I think) was pretty good too. And of course the final character cast montage.
Kagepro felt slightly weird to me, but I did like Arima standing in the field of flowers and the adult Hinami at the end. My favourite overall is probably the one you sent (the CCG extermination database at the start was perfect) or Kekkai Sensen. Now all we have to do is wait until MADs and fan OP/EDs start appearing for the Rose arc!
I wonder if Kaneki leaving (I wrote ‘Haise’ initially, then realised this was now wrong, and backspaced to replace it with ‘Kaneki’) will leave as big a hole in the CCG as you think – beyond the Qs and maybe Akira, who’s going to miss him? Hairu is dead. Ui would celebrate if he left. Arima doesn’t even have feelings. Maybe Juuzou?
I still have to watched that insane idol anime someday… I can’t resist it indefinitely.
I agree wholeheartedly that it was brilliant to have Eto in place of white and it had all the more punch given that from what we know they’re practically complete opposites. The range of characters able to be brought it is definitely the strength of any Kekkai Sensen ED crossover.
The one I initially sent (Re:START) is definitely at the top for me objectively. I was just comparing the 3 you gifted me, but I think that objectively I might put Kekkai Sensen alongside Re:START if any. Subjectively I liked Kagerou Projects the most because it had a darker side to it that contrasts nicely with the fairly energetic and hopeful tones. Kuroshitsugi was almost entirely dramatic or dark and Kekkai Sensen was almost entirely energy and hype (which to be fair is the point after all).
Back to the truly important matters:
I wasn’t even considering the CCG as a whole, which is a little shameful. I was honestly only thinking about Saiko and not wanting her to feel like Touka did at the end of Tokyo Ghoul.
That said I do think the entirety of the squad would miss Haise. Saiko, Mutsuki and Shirazu were all openly fond of and looked up to him. I think Saiko and Shirazu would be the most likely to feel an unfillable void. However, Saiko might find comfort as the squad would have to bond better now that they’re down a person and their strongest at that.
I’d say that could be possible if Mutsuki and Ui are pushed to bond in their friendship, thus helping the latter come to do so with the rest of the squad. At the very least I think Ui would have to spend time mentoring Mutsuki, while Shirazu tends to Saiko now that Haise isn’t around to pick them up (in Saiko’s case literally out of bed at times).
After a while… it might actually be Ui and Shirazu who are left with the greatest voids.
For Ui’s part he might celebrate not having to compete with Haise in his head anymore, but that lack of competition might leave him feeling empty. Sure there’s Shirazu as the squad leader, but he’s more focused on leading than being the absolute strongest and most decorated. At the same time Ui isn’t heartless and might not be able to say “It was his choice to leave” (if he keeps the split personality in mind) or even “It’s not my life” for too long, since Haise as Kaneki would be in real danger from the CCG.
Shirazu. Oh poor Shirazu. He’ll not only have to have the weight of his younger sister on his shoulders, but now he’ll really have to carry the wait of the squad with Haise gone. At the very least we know he’s managed to handle internal struggles rather well twice now, both in coming to terms with being a leader and finally using the Quinque adapted from Nutcracker… doesn’t mean this latest one won’t break him in half for a while (even if he can regenerate it all).
Juuzou would likely even feel sad over having to fight him again, but he might only fight to suppress him, believing Kaneki can turn around like Juuzou himself did despite what Madame’s torture turned him into.
Akira… she may very well be met with equal parts terror and relief. On one hand she knows Kaneki isn’t a mere killer, but he did end up causing Amon to go missing. Now if Amon as he is now actually teams up with Kaneki and she comes to be aware of that, well, she might be relieved once she realizes they’re working against the Tree, but before then and even afterwards, terrified for the man she loved as well as the child she cared for and what might become of them ;_;