Reminder that the next chapter will be ‘Halfway’.
Impression
You know things are getting really bad when Ishida himself explicitly titles a chapter ‘Hope and Suffering’. With hope being a gateway to further suffering, of course. Somehow it feels like we’ve been sucked into a Kirishima family arc and are approaching its climax – it started off as a Saving Private Hinami arc and is now about how Arima is perhaps the one sole cause of all the suffering that Touka, Ayato and Yomo have experienced in their lives. Imagine how comfy and friendly Touka-chan would be if Hikari never died. Arata would never have gotten a full kakuja and gotten himself imprisoned. Ayato would never have joined Aogiri (interestingly, it looks like Arata and Ayato attempted the exact same thing when the things they wanted to protected got threatened – that is, to seek power from dubious origins). It’s also a little odd to see that the Kirishimas lived as if they were humans. (it reminded me of that scene where Arata gets up and goes out after reading stories to Touka and Ayato in bed but never comes back). I get that Hikari and Arata probably changed their previous reckless lifestyle for the sake of their children, but I’m not sure what they were trying to achieve by having Touka and Ayato live a peaceful human life. It’s one thing blending into society, but they’re still ghouls in the end. It’s something Kaneki knows best. There’s only so much they’ll be able to do to detach Touka and Ayato from a bloodstained ghoul lifestyle, and they can’t protect them forever. Even Anteiku failed to be a lasting safe haven in the end.
I would also have been happier knowing that it wasn’t a young Arima who killed Hikari. I know Arima is basically the epitome of perfection at this point, but it would be nice to have seen him having some trouble (as minor as it might be) fighting a ghoul other than Minami at some point in his career. I can’t remember whether they ever gave Hikari or Narukami a rating, but she must have been something like S to SS-rate. What’s more important is that the lightning produced by Narukami is apparently not a unique function of the quinque, but was something that originated from Hikari – all this time it’s been explained off as RC cell-infused lightning that could harm ghouls, with the RC cells coming from Hikari’s kakuhou. But now Yomo has somehow suddenly produced lightning bolts from his ukaku when ukaku ghouls have never been shown to have capability beyond forming and manipulating shards or hardening them for melee. Does this make Yomo the ‘Thunder Rabbit’? Or will it be a future power-up for Ayato?
Speaking of Ayato, at this point his suffering train could either slow to a halt or crash and burn. Kaneki is here, which means that Hinami is with him and thus Ayato won’t have to keep trying. Kaneki probably thinks it’s a great way to die in style for him to urge everyone else to run towards the exit while he stays behind in order to stall Arima. On the the other hand, we’re nearing Chapter 72, which was the ‘Halfway’ point of the last manga and the start of the 103 bones half-killing that Kaneki put Ayato through. Will Ayato be fully killed this time, with 206 bones broken? Or will they all head deeper into Cochlea and find a half-killed Arata? Will this be the halfway point of :re?
Eagerly awaiting the next chapter.
Well this chapter pretty much killed any chances of Arata making a surprise appearance. I thought Ishida was going out of his way not to bring him up so he could make a surprise appearance, but him showing up in a flashback, and getting his story fleshed out despite not being present strongly indicates otherwise.
We don’t really have enough information about the lightning attack to really make any serious guesses; it could be any number of things at this point. Unless Ishida elaborates, there’s not really much point in speculating.
I still think he could show up at the drainage channel, be it dead or alive. There are so many Kirishimas conveniently in Cochlea that it’d be a waste to not have them find Arata after all this time. It does feel like he doesn’t have much of a role left in the story now that the flashbacks have revealed his background.
As for the lightning, I doubt we’ll get to see it again. Narukami looks broken in Chapter 72.