Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 61: The ENT

ISHIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Impression

WHAT.

ARIMA IS PART OF V?

Holy shit. I feel like I’m getting too old for this. He must be part of V, right? If he’s giving Furuta a message from them, it would make sense if he’s also within their ranks. His strength also means he definitely qualifies, since V has been hinted to have extremely powerful members (with Yoshimura having been a ‘cleaner’ for them). Furuta must be part of V too. It felt like Arima was speaking to him as a fellow colleague in V instead of as his superior in the CCG. And do they know that Haise is no longer Haise? What does this mean for everything Arima has been doing with regards to Haise? Did he reform his identity and put him in the CCG on V’s orders? Is it possible that they’re linked to the reason he’s so ridiculously strong? Do they have anything to do with the Sunlit Garden? Or with the ‘parent organization’ that was formed to deal with the first One-Eyed King that appeared? That one single panel at the end has opened up an incredible number of possibilities with where the story might head in the future, not least of all a whole new realm of possible antagonists who might be able to match Kaneki in strength. Eto is definitely not the final boss. She might not even remain an antagonist for too much longer, given that V are not likely to be Kaneki’s friends and Eto seems to want to get rid of them. I know some people thought V was just an unexplained entity that were used to help us understand Yoshimura’s past a bit better, but this shows that they really are the real deal.

Furuta must be part of V, too. He seems to have ties to every faction, and it’s now even more confusing as to which one he’s genuinely aligning himself with, if any. I have a feeling that V are taking notice of Kaneki now that he’s been designated as the One-Eyed King by Eto. I don’t think it means anything more than a title that Eto is handing out – but the way Eto’s denial of it being her coincided with several frames of Kaneki definitely means something. It sounds more like Eto is ‘looking for a king’ that she can get to lead Aogiri against V, and has finally found a suitable candidate: it’s like she’s saying ‘I won’t be your leader, but this guy will’. In the interim, Eto did play the role of the One-Eyed King, but she wasn’t the true king – instead, it’s the second king Kaneki. He doesn’t seem too excited by the prospect of leading Aogiri though, given how he reacted to Eto six months ago. For now, I’m a little worried as to why his hand still seems to be horribly deformed and kagune-like, even though he’s regrown way worse injuries than a lost hand before. Is this some sort of new fashion?

As a very vocal Hinami supporter, which I’m sure you know I am, I feel obliged to point out that Kaneki seems to be paying close attention to his calendar there. And in one of the documents near the bottom left, there seems to be what looks like a diagram of Cochlea and its inner structure. Hinami, your onii-chan’s coming for you!

Eto has also revealed herself to the rest of Aogiri. I haven’t found myself to be much of an Eto fan as of late, but I have to admit that Ishida sure drew some wonderful Etos this chapter. All of Aogiri (including Miza and Ayato, it seems) must have been shocked to learn that the strange kid with the bandages turned out to be a hot girl who’s also Aogiri’s founder. I’m certain her references to the ‘twisted birdcage’ refer to V, given their goal of maintaining equilibriums in the shadows and interfering when necessary to keep the current state of things as they are. The bigger question is why she wants to destroy them, as well as whether she even has the power to. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Kanou turned out to be part of V as well, now that we know they accept humans (or whatever Arima is) into their ranks. At any rate, it’s now clear that the fundamental conflict in this story goes beyond having Aogiri as a primary antagonist, and we’re potentially seeing something on a much wider scale in the works.

Takizawa seems to have found Hachikawa and Mutsuki. As ever, he really doesn’t seem to give a flying fuck about his old colleagues in the CCG, because here he’s reacting similarly to how he reacted when he saw Akira at the end of the auction arc – he said hi, and left. I do hope they manage to escape though, because the two of them have literally walked in on the entire Aogiri and their entire war potential all in one place. Eto is even unmasked, and I don’t think she’d be too happy with the CCG getting away with the info that she’s actually Takatsuki Sen (assuming she doesn’t know Kaneki and Furuta have trashed her house).

I think that’s pretty much the meat of the chapter. There was some stuff about the new Qs, but it didn’t seem to substantially add any more to what my impression of them was when they were first introduced – which was that their very existence counts as a death flag for them, and that I really didn’t care much for them either way. Especially Shao, since her parallels to Hairu extend beyond her being a semen demon as she’s also from the Sunlit Garden and possesses similar talent. She’ll die. Higemaru is just like that jobber Ui. He’ll die. The younger Aura might survive, I don’t know. They’ll have to really work to make me care for them, and we’re probably about to leave the CCG anyway.

Also, Matsuri needs to eat a bag of dicks.