#i also have a lot to say about furuta and how his feelings for her corrupted over time

[rehide]

just barely started my reread but. i think one of simultaneously both the most interesting and devastating aspects of rize, whose entire character is about her stolen autonomy, is that we never really get to know her outside of other characters perceptions of her. we know her through kaneki's brief meeting with her and his once hallucinated version of her, through furuta's idealized memories of her in the garden and the twisted perception he has of her now, through tsukiyamas run-ins with her, briefly through shachi's ideas he got of her as she was growing up, but we still rarely get to hear from her. and despite this, she's still overwhelmingly present in the narrative, though more as a concept than anything. we do briefly get that scene in re where she talks to kaneki about the garden, but it still cycles back around to what he has to accomplish going forward. a lot of the information we know about her comes from the people fighting so hard to control her and take the autonomy her entire arc is about in the first place. just something i've been thinking about. how we know rize is so overwhelmingly present in the narrative but the people who she's tried to escape from her entire life are primarily who we've learnt about her from.

[linkspooky]

Hey. Long time follower here. Your metas, your discussions of "bad victims", your nuanced view of heroes and victims, your favoritism towards "losers"...not only did you heavily influence my own writing and my own favorites in different medias (I'm entirely blaming you for me being a Makima stan) but you helped through an extremely dark time in my life. I don't think that you just made me a better writer, you also sort of saved my life. I'll always be grateful for that.

There's something I want to ask. You answered to another ask that you don't regret reading MHA because focusing on what doesn't work about it made your writing stronger. Do you feel the same about Homestuck? Or about the more disappointing parts of Tokyo Ghoul (and, while we're being candid here, Avatar?).

Thank you for your compliments they're very encouraging to read.

At this point this blog is becoming the bad victim lovers support group where we all hug each other and cry over how MHA is treating all of its bad victims.

HOMESTUCK: Honestly, my main problem with Homestuck is that ACT 6 was so long and uneventful full of characters not doing anything that by the end of it the only character I was invested in was Vriska. ACT 6 also did go out of it's way to kill my enthusiasm for everything I liked in ACT 5, especially John Vriska. I've never seen a comic throw out all of its previous development that the audience was invested in and like everything that was foreshadowed - oh wait My Hero Academia. Unfortunately Vriska is an all-time-fave so I still write Homestuck Fanfic about her to this day. I used to like think the finale of Homestuck was one big "meh" but after years to reflect upon it, I do like Vriska's arc ending on a final note of Terezi searching for her in the void, possibly forever, and the ambiguity of whether they'll reunite.

TOKYO GHOUL: I remember being mad about Kaneki getting a happy ending that he didn't earn. Kaneki was a character that really frustrated me for a long time, but I came to realize that if you like remove Kaneki from his group of codependent enablers he's actually a really interesting character when he's alone. So he's a character I love to explore in fic, even if I disliked what they did with him in canon. Also, Tokyo Ghoul killed off its biggest victims Furuta and Rize in a really cruel way, but it didn't kill off every single victim so it just disappoints me instead of making me sick to my stomach like MHA does.

ATLA: I actually think the Avatar the Last Airbender ending is fine. Which like, isn't saying much because I think the Season 1 finale and Season 2 finales are some of the best things ever put to television. The worst sin that the ending does is number one lack of foreshadowing in earlier in the season and number two rushed plot points. Aang not wanting to kill the Fire Lord makes sense. I think the reason a lot of people criticize this and call it an ass pull is that it's not even BROUGHT UP until the finale. Vash the Stampede is pacifist and one of my favorite characters, but it's established from episode 1 that Vash is constantly up against people who want to kill him and he either has to run away or find a way to fight back nonlethally. Azula's insanity and mental instability could have been a thing, but it's not foreshadowed at all so all it ends up doing is conveniently nerf Azula for Zuko, and also being ableist. The worst problem is while there are epic fights it doesn't feel like an ending, because everyone's character arcs are 3/4ths of the way through. ESPECIALLY ZUKO's. Like people say Zuko is acting out of character in the comics, but I think Zuko is the only person in character in the comics because that's how Zuko without a proper end to his character arc would act. It really feels like they had plans for a fourth season that they didn't get, and their solution was to cram an entire season worth of development in everything post the eclipse on season 3. The fact that Azula is left as such a hanging thread is like proof of that, and the fact that Azula's last shot in the series is just her crying and screaming with like no follow up afterwards is something I've been bitter about for fourteen years.

I could write an entire post about how Zuko's redemption arc is unfinished though. It's like the same problem as Catra. I like both characters and I'm glad they got redeemed but they crammed in the entire redemption arc into 1/2 of the last season and that simply wasn't enough time.

[captain-astors]

Can you do 6, 19, 20 for furuta x ui and 18, 20,36 for arieto (if you don't mind)?

I don't mind at all! Sorry for the wait,

Furuui

6. How do they make up/apologize after an argument?

Barely. On Koori's end just getting to throw his side of the story out is enough typically, but the annoying part is that Furuta tends to agree. Regardless of how sincere that is, it feels like a taunt, especially when this guy has said about 6 sincere sentences in the entirety of his weird little existence. But yeah, unfortunately he's just fine with allowing himself to be torn down if it helps get past the issue faster. He's usually the cause for disagreement anyways.

19. Do they wear each other’s clothes/jewelry?

Furuta would if he could, but while Koori is by no means frail he is canonically a twig of a man and any of his clothing that actually fits well, would not fit whatsoever for Furuta. His silly oversized coats are on the table though, even if Koori is quick to snatch them back as soon as he notices.

Koori lives in enough of a daze that he subconsciously grabs something of Furuta's on the way out of their office sometimes. He doesn't like that they're Furuta's, but he also doesn't care enough to return them until the opportunity offers itself.

20. How do they comfort each other when one of them is upset? Is this method of comfort effective?

They give each other something to do, distraction is the name of the game and whether that's slaughter, holding each other, a pointless discussion, or just something to chew on is irrelevant. It works. Will they still be thinking about it deep in the night and tearing themselves up over it? Yes. Have they been doing that their entire lives anyways? Yes.

Arieto (Disclaimer I don't understand either of their characters very well)

18. How do they care for each other when one of them is wounded/sick?

Arima's very stoic and respectful about it, giving Eto plenty of space to recover (and also because he's not really sure what to say because he knows she doesn't like being perceived as vulnerable.) Eto on the other hand is going to get him back on his feet with all the enthusiasm and affection necessary. They're both very practical about it.

20. How do they comfort each other when one of them is upset? Is this method of comfort effective?

Eto often prefers time by herself when bothered, but Arima's the exception. Just sitting around each other often makes her feel better, sometimes with a book or other token of good will. Eto tries to help him take his mind off whatever it is, to varying degrees of efficiency. He's very caught up in his own head as a byproduct of being very accustomed to not talking about anything.

36. How do they feel about having kids? Are they in agreement?

"A biological impossibility, but it's a nice thought." As for adoption... Arima likes the thought of being a father but he's not great at the emotional side of things, nor does he love the thought of being dead before the kid even reaches adulthood. Eto doesn't like the attachment of it, and her own parents have left her with a lot of very strong opinions about raising children.

[liannelara-dracula]

Anon asked: So to make tg alive again, can I request hcs for all boys to their s/o fl!rting with them?😏

Hi Love,

Sorry, this has taken forever but here it is.

-Liannelara

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Prompt

Requests are open

Rules

Warning:

*certain words have been censored for Tumblr guidelines.

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Kaneki:

He likes it, I mean deep down we know that Shiro Kaneki is a per.v and sensual guy so he's all for it.

Ken likes it when you call him by his first name and loves it most if you whisper in his ear.

It's also what he does to you.

Might blush tho if it's at the beginning of the relationship but after that, this man has no shame.

"Why don't you wear that bodysuit that I bought you?" He'd whisper in your ear.

"Who says I'm not wearing it?" You'd grin before k!ssing him on the l!ps.

Hide:

He's a big-time fl!rt so he thinks that your approach is cute.

Like Hide is not even phased by it tbh.

He'd honestly make you regret that you bothered fl!rting with him bc he just tops it.

Literally like you'll say something a little fl!rty and he'll answer with something that is just out of bounds, lol.

"You look good today." You'd giggle seeing him dressed up.

"Thanks, you look like a whole damn snack tho."

You almost choked "Hide!"

Ayato:

He is a per.v but does blush sometimes.

No joke tho if you fl!rt tho he's not letting you live it down.

That's just facts.

He won't be shy about it tho when you say things to him.

He likes it and is interested in where it will lead.

"You don't have any shame."

"Well, you're my audience, it's only natural for you to watch." You'd sm*rk.

Yomo:

He's blushing all the way.

He doesn't fl!rt, but he is a per.v when he wants to be.

Might be confused as to why you're acting the way you are.

But if you provoke him enough he'll act on it.

"You wanna have some fun, Ren? I know a few ways."

"Hmm, what'd you have in mind?"

Uta:

Fl!rts right back.

Like no questions asked.

His fl!rting is much worse.

He makes sure it is.

And honestly even tho he's your bf he's always fl!rting with you bc he's playful like that.

"Uta, you're my boyfriend there's no point in asking me out on a date."

"You could always change your mind one day, Y/n . . . Unless you just want to skip to s*x, cheeky girl."

Furuta:

Big-time fl!rt and creep tbh, so you fl!rting with him is nothing.

That's probably how your dating started you were at a bar and so was he and you looked mysterious to him and so he kinda just wanted to see what you were like.

You were probably a bit of a brat to him which made him even more interested. He approached you and you fl!rted with him bc you figured he was just a fling.

Seeing this, he really wanted to freak you. And on top of it, he was being the biggest fl!rt ever and trying to swindle you.

And it worked.

Like don't get me wrong he likes when a girl has a bit of a dirty mind but his favorite thing is going beyond that and surprising her with his k!nks.

You also like to tea$e which he responds back with something to make you blush and feel hot and bothered.

"You have fun with your co-workers but not with me."

"Aww, princess, does that upset you?" He'd sm!rk coming up behind you, sneaking his hand up your skirt to feel your cr*tch.

"Does this make up for it?" He'd chuckle feeling your wetness.

Takizawa (ghoul):

He doesn't fl!rt a lot tbh, he does tea$e and joke with you though.

really likes it when you're a brat about it too.

And he gets really playful with you.

As for you tho I don't think you directly fl!rt, you do it more with tone and your eyes.

He loves it most when you talk sweetly but want something.

"Then could you do it for me, please baby?" You'd smile before k!ssing him on the Iips.

"Only because you're asking so nicely." He'd grin before k!ssing you.

You are usually the more playful one and he's kinda dull with his affection not that he doesn't do it or he's shy, he just a little cold.

So you're usually making the jokes or whatever and then he gets in it.

If you tea$e him by sitting on his lap tho, you're going to pay for that.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

˗ˏˋ 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠 ˎˊ˗ ©𝟐𝟎𝟏𝟔~Present

[1plus1kiyoomi]

Chapter 15: 6AM Talks

[prev] [next]

[masterlist] [kia’s slambook]

warnings: mentions of sex and kinda suggestive

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sakusa stares at your sleeping figure, the sunlight giving you a nice morning glow. His finger traces the features of your face, his heart melting. Your half naked body on his. Your skin burning against his. You’re his.

He’s waking up next to year after more than 3 years of longing for this moment.

Your body tenses from Sakusa’s touch as you slowly wake up from your slumber. You move closer to him, your head lying on his muscular arm.

You have no idea (unless i post that extra smexy sexy chapter that has been in my drafts for more than 3 days now ha ha) how you ended up in this situation. You in his bed, clad in his shirt and your underwear. Your hair is in a messy bun, which he tied for you before you fell asleep. You were talking about that Furuta Saki, who he was apparently sleeping with for a year and a half, but he swore he didn’t feelings for. He also promised you that he stopped talking to her even before he found out about you and Kia.

“I told you no touching. Now look at us,” you hiss, but snuggle closer to him. The vibrations from his chest when he chuckles sends a shiver down your spine. You know that once he speaks it’s over for you. You’ve always been weak for his morning voice.

“Good morning,” he greets, his voice deeper than usual, as he ignores your words. He places a kiss on top of your head, his arm pulling you closer if that’s even possible. “Did you sleep well, angel?”

“Stop with that nickname,” you groan, embarrassed.

“Then what about ‘baby’?”

“I said stop...”

“Why? You seemed to like it last night, a lot actually.”

“Omi, I just want to say fuck you.”

“You already did and you were pretty good at it.”

You push your body up, sitting up. You playfully hit his chest with your hand and he just laughs. He swiftly takes your hand off his chest and gently tugs you down.

Sakusa crashes his lips with yours, gentle but eager. As much as you want to pull away, you can’t. It’s like a spell had already been casted on you since who knows when. You hate that you can’t get enough of him.

“It’s almost 6AM. You have to jog and I have to wake Kia up,” you tell him before a moan leaves your mouth. His lips are on your neck, nibbling and sucking on your skin.

“Let Kia sleep in. She’s tired from yesterday’s trip,” he replies to you, his lips still attached to your expose skin. He flips you over, so he’s hovering on top you. “Plus, this is a good exercise.”

Sakusa goes back to kissing you, his tongue grazing over your lower lips for entrance. You allow him and you can taste his mouth. You hate to admit it, but you love it when he’s aggressive like this.

Your thoughts cloud your mind even more when you feel his hands groping ang cupping in sensitive parts of your body. You let out a sinful moan and he groans in satisfaction, loving the sounds you’re making.

He’s on his way to going down on you but softs knocks are heard from the door. He quickly pushes his body off you and get the door. You pull his comforter over your bare chest, his shirt already discarded somewhere in his room.

“Kia, you’re awake,” Kiyoomi says, picking his daughter up. Her hand is holding onto her blanket while the other is rubbing her eye. She spots you on the bed leaning on the headboard and you smile at her awkwardly.

“Good morning, baby,” you greet her, reaching your hands out to her, but making sure the covers doesn’t fall off your body.

Kiyoomi puts Kia on the bed and she crawls her way to you. “Good morning, mama.” She kisses you on your lips, then hugs you. Kiyoomi lies down beside the two of you, his head leaning on your shoulder.

“I wanna sleep here, too,” she pouts with her eyebrows furrowed, playing with Kiyoomi’s curls.

“Wanna sleep here tonight?” Kiyoomi asks her and she smiles in agreement. “Okay, you and your mama can sleep here tonight.”

The three of you stay like that for a few more minutes. Kia is talking about her boyfriends which Kiyoomi hates hearing. You just giggle at his reaction, your fingers tangle in his locks to calm him down.

Kiyoomi feels grateful. He has the two people he loves in his arms and he wouldn’t trade it to anything. He wants to keep this moment in repeat. But he can’t do that so he’ll just treasure it in his heart.

Kiyoomi’s alarm buzzes, a notification that he has to jog popping in his screen. He sighs in disappointment, not wanting to leave the bed. You see the look of sadness in his face so an idea pops in your mind.

“Do you want to bring Kia with you? You can just pit her in her carrier bag while you run.” Kia’s eyes burn in excitement from your idea. Kiyoomi can’t say no to her if she looks so thrilled about spending with him.

“Let’s get changed?” Kiyoomi asks her and she jumps off of you to go to his arms. “How about you?”

He looks at you and you answer, “I’ll make breakfast.” He kisses your forehead then proceed to changing his and Kia’s clothes.

You’re already in the kitchen, back in his shirt and his boxers when they go out Kia’s room. They’re wearing track suits and you can’t help but squeal. You take a picture of them before they head out of the house.

Kiyoomi secures the straps of the carrier, making sure Kia doesn’t fall. He makes Kia face outwards, so she can see the scenario and feel less of his sweat. He puts on his mask and he makes Kia wear a hat.

Kiyoomi starts jogging, slower than usual. He’s afraid that Kia might feel uncomfortable from his pace. He takes a look at her from time to time, making sure she’s enjoying. They pass by a wide flower field, so Kiyoomi stops, seeing Kia’s eyes glimmer at the sight of flowers.

“Wanna go down?” Kia nods at his question. They go down the path that leads to the flower field, Kia tightly holding onto Kiyoomi’s hand.

“It’s so pretty!” Kia exclaims, letting go of Kiyoomi to run to a bush of hydrangea. She examines the flowers seriously, touching it out of curiosity. She giggles as water droplets fall from the flowers.

Kiyoomi watches her, a smile hidden under his mask. Suddenly a wave of fear washes over him.

‘She’s growing up fast.’

He takes his phone and calls her. “Smile!” He tells her. She places her chin on the palm of her hands, doing a flower cup pose. He takes pictures, Kia changing poses from time to time. Kiyoomi’s smile grows wider. How is his daughter so adorable?

“Let’s take selfie together!” Kia requests. He walks to her then squats to be the same height as her. He pulls his mask down, showing off a smile. Kia squishes her cheek with his, grinning widely. He takes multiple snaps, making sure he has multiple of copies of the moment.

They continue to walk around then Kia sees a flower stall. She pulls him to the small stall, pointing at a bouquet of flowers. “For mama!” She points to a bouquet of pink hydrangeas with white roses.

They buy the bouquet the decide to end their stroll. Kiyoomi sends their photo to you before they head back to your house.

You receive the message from Kiyoomi. The picture sending bringing a smile to your face. They’re the best father-daughter pair out there, and no one can change your mind. Unless...

You hear a knock on the door, your train of thoughts interrupted. “Did Omi leave his key?” You wonder as you walk to the front door. You open it without checking the monitor.

“Babe!” A woman cheers then deadpans as she sees you. “Who are you?”

“Who are you?” You reply, raising an eyebrow. She pushes you off the way and enters the house abruptly.

“Where’s Kiyoomi?” She asks shamelessly, going inside the houses. She checks the surroundings and see baby items. She turns and eyes you up and down. “Answer me. Where’s Kiyoomi?”

“I won’t answer any of your questions because you’re trespassing,” you reply to her, folding your arms on your chest. “Who are you? Answer before I call the cops.”

“Furuta Saki. Kiyoomi’s girlfriend,” she answers as she flops on the couch. “I didn’t know he was nice enough to let his maid bring her child along with her.”

“Excuse me?” You raise an eyebrow, your patience running thin.

“Aren’t you his helper?” She pushes, crossing her legs. Before you could even say anything you hear the front door’s knob click.

“Mama! Look what Kyo and I got for you!” You hear Kia shouts, her tiny footsteps heard from the whole house.

“Kiyoomi?” Saki calls, her pitch higher than that it was when she was talking to you.

Before Kia can even reach the living room where you and Saki are, Kiyoomi catches the girl. He puts her inside her room, sitting her on the bed. He takes his mask off, putting it on her bedside table. “Stay here, okay? Don’t come out until I tell you to.” Kiyoomi orders before closing the door of the room.

Kia sits there, the bouquet of flowers still in her hand. Who was the other woman’s voice? Her mama doesn’t sound like that.

“What are you doing here?” Kiyoomi asks Saki, unamused.

“I’m visiting you, baby!” Saki latches on Kiyoomi but he dodges her. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?! You’re clearly trespassing in my house!” Kiyoomi raises his voice, but not loud enough for Kia to hear.

“I’m your girlfriend! Did you forget?!” Saki exclaims. “You were fucking me in your bed two months ago.”

You laugh, catching their attention. Sakusa stiffens, scared of you reaction. Saki looks at you in disbelief. “Shut up! You aren’t part of this conversation.”

“Sweetie, he might have been fucking you two months ago but he’s fucking me now. So read the room and head out before I drag you out myself.” You smile at her sweetly. Sakusa is shocked of your blunt words. He’s gotten to seeing you all sweet, motherly and loving that he forgot how you used to be so direct before.

“No way! You’re dumping me for a bitch with a child?!” Saki complains, pointing at you.

“Saki, stop it. Just get out of my house before I call the cops on you,” Sakusa sighs, keeping his cool since Kia is just in the other room.

“What?!” Saki gasps.

“You don’t understand what he said? Are you dumb or are you stupid? Girl, choose a struggle,” you tell her. She is about to pull on your hair but Sakusa stops her with his loud voice.

“I said get out!” Sakusa shouts, pointing at the hallway.

“But Omi! What about us?”

“I told you that nothing special was happening between us and that I’m only sleeping with you for my needs, you agreed with it. What us are you talking about now?” Sakusa bluntly states, a look of despair in Saki’s face very much visible.

“But I made you feel good right? Better than she can!” She jumps on Sakusa. He pushes her off but she continues on throwing herself to him like an obsessed fan.

“Mama...” Kia calls. Your heads whip to her direction and she is standing at the end of the hallway, watching the commotion go down. Kiyoomi gulps while you come to her. Saki glares at her before looking at Kiyoomi again.

“The child’s not even that cute! We can make even cuter babies together!” Saki sounds like she’s pleading.

You try to take Kia into your arms but she steps away from you. The little girl heads to Kiyoomi, then extends her arms up. He pushes Saki off of him and carries Kia into his arm. “Why’d you go out?”

“You said get out,” Kia replies innocently. She thought Kiyoomi was talking about her when he shouted get out.

Kiyoomi kisses her forehead, a slight smile on his face. “Let’s go back in your room, okay?” Kia nods, then puts her chin on his neck, arms wrapped around his neck.

Kiyoomi turns his back on Saki, taking a leave. She attempts to grab on him and but you pull her by her hair. Saki manages to shout, “Kiyoomi! You’re really choosing her for her kid?!”

Kia lifts her head off his shoulder, giving her an empty look. Then, she smiles at her. A sweet one.

“Lady, please get out of our house. Papa hates germs.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Facts:

Roses are related to apples, raspberries, cherries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears and almonds.

Tulip bulbs can be substituted for onions in a recipe.

Flowering nicotiana is related to tobacco, from which cigarettes are made.

In Asia, giving someone pink hydrangeas symbolizes that you are the beat to their heart.

White roses can also symbolize a new beginning and everlasting love

[prev] [next]

Taglist:  @elianetsantana aoi-turtle ptv-hades  aquzairus a-applepi  justoneofthefangirlsarianna-r13 morenabambinii chaelysian loser-keiji mxngy ne-kuroon1fangirlsblog d-efend missalicebaskervillemarvelousbakugou @agaashesmilktea​ bonkyandloki kimi09 ntimacy @mkazuyuh  ushi-please minty-mangos-world @dearest-kiyoomi​ yeehawslap  onlyshinji  obsessedwhxre

[hamliet]

How would you have fixed Tokyo Ghoul (Re)'s ending?

I started answering this with a lot of trepidation and ended answering it extremely enthusiastically. I had a ton of fun writing this. Thank you. 

I would have extended the manga by a few more volumes, and started from chapter 147, which is where I felt things went really off the rails. 

I would have had the basic structure stay the same for a bit, but with a few changes. Kanou would not have committed suicide. Touka’s conversation with Shuu and Nishiki, as well as her conversation with Hide, Akira, and Amon, would have been painful, in which Touka expressed to Akira that she was struggling with her earlier words about how even if her father/someone she loves did something wrong, she would still tell them they were wrong. Akira and Touka bond for real, and Akira is able to help Touka declare, boldly, that Kaneki is worth saving (which Touka believes, but she is scared). Hinami listens, but doesn’t join in on the conversation.

Hide leads Akira and Amon to the CCG, along with Hirako and Yusa. Amon reveals that he is part ghoul, endangering himself, and Akira tells them that if they don’t work with ghouls, they have no chance. Most of the CCG refuses. Saiko, on the other hand, joins Akira, Amon, and Hide as they break away. Hsiao goes with her. Urie is alone and feels lost. 

Saiko, Hsiao, Akira, Amon, Hide et al meet with the ghouls and agree to use the chaos to help search for Kaneki’s body (probably also found via the ring). Touka wants to go, but because she is pregnant, she chooses not to, telling Ayato, Hinami, and Shuu to bring Kaneki back to her. Touka is then left to take care of the kids from underground. 

Since Touka is vulnerable, Mutsuki would appear then to challenge Touka. They fight, and Urie, who has been dealing with the desertion of Saiko and Hsiao, finally goes to find the ghouls. Higemaru joins him. They stumble upon the Mutsutou fight and have a similar confrontation to canon–except it ends with Touka being told to leave by Urie, but returning to tell Mutsuki she understands being abandoned, but hurting others isn’t going to help. Urie comforts Mutsuki in the same way Mucchan once comforted him. Ends with a Mutsurie hug with Mama Touka. 

Kanou shows up, having found where Goat is hiding from tailing Kurona, who came back not knowing where else to go. He overhears that Touka is pregnant and gets greedy. Kimi appears and stops Kanou, giving everyone enough time to escape. She takes the ghouls to the CCG with Mutsuki, Aura, and Urie’s help; Yoriko decides to be brave and refuses to allow anyone to hurt them, which means both Mutsuki and Touka. Takeomi would, of course, protect his wife. 

Meanwhile, Ayato, Nishiki, Shuu, et al are searching for Kaneki. Shuu gets increasingly distraught at the destruction Kaneki has wreaked and remembers Karren. Amon is the one who digs Kaneki up, but with help from Takizawa, who returns the cross, and Hakatori. They bring Kaneki to the CCG as well. Nishiki and Kimi reunite. 

At the CCG, Hsiao has had Enough and she tells everyone at the CCG the truth of what happens in the Sunlit Garden. Aura, who went along with Mutsuki but is still nursing a grudge against ghouls, is particularly challenged by this, and Ui is angry and upset. Touka is terrified for Kaneki, and she and Hide talk, as do she and Yoriko in which she worries that Yoriko will blame her, but Yoriko doesn’t. Kaneki has the Torii Gate scene and wakes up, much like canon, and speaks to Hide, who is quiet and unwilling to be forthcoming. Kaneki goes for a walk with the Quinx and finds that people are turning into ghouls, again like canon. Saiko has a similar reaction to canon. 

The kids from underground are the ones who work out a plan to get to dragon!Rize with Kaneki, as he is immune like in canon. Meanwhile, everyone unites to fight V, who appear with Eto-Owl like in canon. Yusa is told to stay behind by Hirako because he’s a kid, and he and Touka stay with an ailing Saiko.

While fighting, Ui encounters a resurrected Hairu, Tsukiyama a resurrected Karren, Arima for Akira, etc. The Quinx encounter revived Shirazu, and it’s traumatic for everyone. Shuu’s father is killed by zombie Karren. Kaneki and Ayato penetrate deeper into the underground with the kids. They’re attacked by clones, and Kaneki protects the underground kids, thereby partially earning his redemption. Meanwhile, Yoriko begins to turn into a ghoul. 

V reveals again that they’ve been eating the corpses of investigators. Akira is using Fueguchi as her quinque and regrets it when she sees Hinami’s face, and they both realize that this is what V wants: to destroy their tenuous alliance.  Akira hesitates using Fueguchi, and Takizawa saves her from the attack she left herself vulnerable to. Kurona appears, telling Takizawa they have to stop Kanou, who shows up with a barely-alive Hajime. Amon is horrified by what’s happened to Hajime and angry at Kaneki, before remembering that he has been willing to do similar things to Hinami. Donato and the clowns appear, and Amon fights Donato in a rage, until he remembers what Akira said earlier about good and bad being a part of parents, and Touka’s words about loving someone yet hating their actions. He tells Donato he loved him. Donato saves Amon from a V agent even though it costs him his own life.

Yomo and Uta fight much like in canon, with the same metaphorical imagery, and Yomo and Uta end it by coming to a genuine understanding and empathy even if they don’t see eye to eye. Kurona, Hakatori, and Takizawa fight Kanou while Amon takes Hajime to safety with Kimi, who redeems herself by helping saving Hajime, and Nishiki helps her. Akira saves Takizawa. Juuzou, terrified by whatever Kanou might have done to Shinohara, stops Kanou in the end, saving Kurona… only to begin to turn into a ghoul himself. His squad stay with him. 

Kaneki finds Furuta. Ayato falls behind again like in canon. Kaneki and Furuta fight. Kaneki says something along the lines of how his life isn’t stylish, how he’s done terrible things and even has the blood of children on him, but he has a child on the way, a child with his blood too, and that he is alive, and he is not going to waste this life no matter how long or short it might be. Furuta reveals again that he wants everything, imagining a good life with Rize. He is defeated, but not killed, and asks if he, who has done so much evil and is dying anyways, has anything good to offer the world. Kaneki thinks of Touka and tells Furuta if he has someone he loves, he does. They then proceed to the Sunlit Garden. 

Touka is terrified for Yoriko and works with Takeomi and Hide to venture into the lab for some kind of cure… where she finds Arata and Yoshimura. Distraught by her two father figures and hearing reports of Eto attacking people out there, she vows to do better for her child, and she and Hide free both Arata and Yoshimura… who recognize them and, without life support, don’t have long to live. Yoshimura leaves with Hide; Arata and Touka have a difficult conversation.

Rize is located in the Sunlit Garden. Kaneki and Rize fight, with the easy answer being killing everyone in the Sunlit Garden–including Rize, but also the children. He refuses. Shirazu and Urie have a particularly brutal fight, in which Urie’s insecurity issues come out and he starts to go kakuja again. Mutsuki kicks his ass and Urie tells Mutsuki that he loves him, and Mutsuki tells Urie he doesn’t need to earn his care, and realizes that all of what Urie has said is because he loves him but sucks at expressing it. They kiss. Meanwhile, Ayato’s fight is not going well, but just when it looks like all is lost, someone else saves him: Arata! Led there by Hinami, who found him with Touka and went to save him. Ayato and Hinami kiss. 

Seeing Kaneki fighting to help save the kids angers Furuta, who shouts at him about hurting the Oggai, remembers his own sins towards children and those against him as a child, and in the end, he gives the last bit he has to give Rize back her consciousness, to heal her (yes she eats part of him). She remembers who she is while he is still alive, and he tells her she has to live, and he makes Kaneki promise to let her live. He dies thinking that, in those moments at least, he lived, and that perhaps if he had been able to think better, he could have lived all along. Kaneki realizes that it doesn’t matter if you have someone you love: either way, your life is valuable. Scarred lives are beautiful, too, and he thinks of Hide. 

Rize getting her consciousness back wakes up all the other puppets of Kanou’s. Yoshimura ventures to the battlefield, led by Hide, and finds Eto, whom Hide had been working for. Yoshimura helps Eto turn on and kill Kaiko before they both die, at peace with one another. Ui assures Hairu that she is loved, kissing her before she dies in his arms. Karren recognizes Shuu and tells him she’s sorry for what happened to his father, but Shuu is the one who apologizes to her. Arima sees Hirako again and apologizes to him and to Ui. Shirazu is able to say a proper goodbye to Mutsuki and Urie, and asks for them to say goodbye to Saiko and Haru. The resurrected die. 

Kaneki gives Rize his shirt to cover her, and they lead the children of the Sunlit Garden out into the light, encountering Ayato and Hinami and leading them (as children) out of the dark too. 

Epilogue: Shikorae is tracked down post-battle, as is canon, but while he thinks of himself as an eldritch horror abomination, Kimi and the rest are able to help him, so that he is able to return to being Rio. Akira gives Hinami Fueguchi to bury. 

Touka gives birth to Ichika, Shinohara wakes up and accepts Juuzou even as a ghoul, the large mass of humanity who are now ghouls provoke change so that the gov’t and CCG are actively working on treatment plans with Kimi leading them. Yoriko is accepted as a ghoul as well.

Edits for clarity: Urie tells Mutsuki he loves him at their first fight; Mutsuki decides to love Urie in the fight with Shirazu. Touka accepting Yoriko as a ghoul and that it’s not something for her to feel terribly about is part of Touka accepting herself as a ghoul. 

Other edits: Oh, and Furuta? Maybe leave it ambiguous as to whether he died or asked Kaneki to let him escape. 

[elmaxlys]

Roleswap Donut Family

Human Donato - ghoul Amon. Justice loving and fatherly Donato - sadistic Amon.

It starts pretty normal, Donato takes this little boy in his orphanage, his name is Koutarou and he’s nice and likes playing with the other kids and the dog.

However, after a few months, some of the children disappear and so everyone start suspecting there’s a ghoul somewhere and the suspicion goes to Donato, who doesn’t have much to do to prove he’s absolutely and completely human.

One day, as he’s doing an evening patrol, checking if everything is locked, he stumbles upon Koutarou killing and eating one of his siblings. Donato is extremely surprised and shocked but in the end Koutarou is his little baby so he offers to help him so that it becomes less obvious. Slowly, people start thinking the ghoul moved places or died because with Donato helping, no one notices anything.

However the CCG somehow hears about is and comes to the orphanage, destroy everything and Koutarou fights the investigators, kills a lot of them and is almost killed himself. However the CCG doesn’t kill him. Why? Because turns out his parents - now dead - were some big deal ghouls and Koutarou has some precious informations about their organization and about the 24th ward. So they take him to Cochlea.

There, he only talks a little about the real info he has a does a lot of guessing for other cases - much like Donato did in canon. In fact, Donato raised his boy well and he developed a lot of skills, especially in analysis and stuff. However Koutarou doesn’t know shit about what his parents did so he just pretends he does and stuff but never say anything clear so everyone thinks he’s a cryptic bastard when he’s just some kid who doesn’t know anything but doesn’t want to die.

Donato joins the CCG because they explained to him what Koutarou’s parents were up to and he wants to stop that. The more he gets involved with CCG, the more brainwashed by them he is. Soon, he only has “Death to all ghouls” in his head when, a few years prior, he wouldn’t have dreamed of killing anyone.

He soon becomes a very valuable investigator and is paired with Mado. They become the badass old men everyone fears but also admires somehow. Donato loves Akira to bits and he kinda becomes part of the family.

Buuut after Koutarou grew up in Cochlea and Donato became much older, current canon events start to happen and Marude needs Donato and Koutarou’s minds to think together so they can get an idea because alone they don’t manage.

So Donato gets to Cochlea with Akira bc Mado (Kureo) just died and Koutarou keeps annoying Donato, both talking about Mado very badly and also making comments about how he replaced him with a little girl and stuff and he’s feeling offended and also she looks yummy, etc etc

---

Donato almost dies fighting Tatara but is used for experiment by Dr Kanou and gets a kakuhou and becomes a ghoul. He is.... not happy about it. He does eat the food and stuff but he quickly manages to escape because he has brains and the fire power to do so. So he gets out and meets Kurona. He adopts her. They both start cannibalizing.

---

On Rusihma, he saves Akira but also most of Houji’s squad. He kills Seidou. Kuro and Donato don’t quite join Goat. They don’t care much.

Meanwhile, Amon escapes from Cochlea. During the escape, he meets Uta, thinks he’s cool and joins the Clowns. They kill a bunch of people, they meet with Souta, then find Eto but since Amon is so young and inexperienced they have to find a way to keep her as a weapon so they take her for Kanou to experiment on. They kill all the Washuu because that’s what one does.

Koutarou becomes good friends with Shiko and Roma. Later, when Urie and Iwaccho come to see Souta, he’s there with them. They kill the both of them and also Marude and Matsuri when they come to help.

Dragon happens.

It ends up with a Koutarou VS Donato & Kurona. It’s a draw. Donato and Koutarou have a realization and Donato basically says “Oh hey Kuro, that’s your brother, now. Please get along. What if we went and helped Souta? I could adopt him too” because ultimately he just wants to help lost children.

So they go there, kill Kaneki, then Ayato when he comes to rescue his brother in law. Furuta is badly injured but Nico patches him up. He lives, gets adopted by a loving dad and then continues his sovereignty over Tokyo and the CCG. He saves everyone from the nucleus kids, takes Kanou’s data, saves everyone and reconstruct Tokyo.

Donato and his kids live happily ever after in a Tokyo governed by the three most intelligent men in the city (Donato, Souta and Koutarou).

[thefandomsurfer]

Top 10 favorite TG/RE characters? I dont think ive seen a sorta list other than really liking Suzuya. haha.

I’ve actually done a top 20 one for Tokyo ghoul before! However...It changes all the time so its probably a good thing you’re asking me this! Chances are if I get asked this question again in the next month it will all be changed around lol.

 Also I love explaining why I love characters and stuff so Im actually happy to be doing this.

Heres some honorable mentions because there is a chance that if theirs a next time for this-They will be in it because I love them that much:

(Some one I previously didnt care for but now after rereading it like)Furuta-

Ui-

Rize:

Tsukiyama-

Kaneki-

Uta-

Eto Yoshimura(Oof I love her why isnt she in the top 10 wtf me-):

Now onto the list!!

10. Karren von Rosewald

I really...really feel for this character. I dont think shes trans-So I will be using female pronouns and her real name. Karren is someone that I at first had a hard time liking-She was hurting another character I liked after all-But as her arc went on and her character got more fleshed out-I started to like her more and more. Her desire to be loved and just seen by Tsukiyama pulled at my heartstrings and made but just want to hug her. I will forever wish we saw more of her.

9. Hairu Ihei

I really liked her-Even in the very beginning. She was cute and had a funny personality that meshed well with Ui. And then the more intriguing side came out of her-The sorta sadistic and badass side. Hairu was fun to watch fight and I really loved her quinque. And her want to be seen by Arima-It was very similar to Karrens want to be loved-Although not as fleshed out. Over all I wish I had seen her more, especially with Ui because that would have been great and she would probably be higher!

8. Amon Koutarou

Amons someone weve seen since the beginning. He was someone who was really into justice and killing ghouls because that was justice was to him.  However after he was taken and turnt into something he hated most his veiws changed and with that my feelings did-I’ll be honest he was sorta...boring at first. I laughed at his ‘push ups for the dirty minded’ and I also rooted for him and Akira-However there was just something...Missing. And then his return came and that something that was missing was put their. An extra layer and a change of heart! And because of this and his actions in Re: He made it on this list. 

7. Kurona Yasuhisa

I have a soft spot for twins in general-So me loving her was almost decided right off the bat. Her stone cold sass and love she carried for her sister-It made me love her a lot in the first series. And in the second when shes driven by revenge and anger I still loved her and continued to do so. I think her little relationship with Kaneki, Seidou, and Ayato was really cute to! I would have loved to see more as it was both really amusing to watch as well as fun to see the fight scenes with them. Her sass carried onto her later form-maybe to a even greater extent tbh however her character grew to move passed vengeance and even admit jealousy. I just grew to love her even more as time went on.

6. Seidou Takizawa

I wasnt fond of him at first. He was mean to Akira, Annoying to Juuzou, and just overall...bland. So normal and trying to one up other characters then getting bitter because he couldnt. But you see...After rereading the story I realized that he was supposed to be normal. A completely normal guy who never did anything he wasnt supposed to. And thats why when he got taken with Amon and he broke and turned into something completely different it made such a huge impact on the viewers. It was because of how normal he was that his return was so...great. And after that I really, really loved him. Everytime he was on screen and grew I craved for more. And his relationship with Akira and Amon, as well as later on with Kaneki and his little group that teamed up was so interesting and fun to watch. Although it could be just as heartbreaking as fun when it comes to Akira and Amon.

 5. Saiko Yonebayashi

Saiko wasnt someone I liked at first tbh. She was kinda annoying and I wondered why she was their in the first place but then...She developed and got so, so much better. And before I even knew it I realized I was falling in love with her throughout the whole series. Her compassion and want to do the right thing, the actual right thing, made me love her so much. And her love for Urie and Mutsuki-Ow my heart. She was funny and loving and made me smile almost everytime I saw her. And her backstory, although definitely not the saddest in the series, was still enough to make me understand her and pity her. And Something else I loved about her was the fact that it didnt define her. A lot of the other characters got stuck in the past-She didnt. She moved on. And I loved that about her so much.

4. Akira Mado

Akira~Oh geez do I love her. Someone who, in my opinion, is very underrated in the fandom. Shes so wonderfully written as a dominate female character in the show. She is feminine looking wearing skirts, dresses, heels, and having long hair and unlike most shows this doesnt stop her. She is one of the best investigators, rising in rank above a lot of the male ones. Akira has a sharp tongue when need be as well and doesnt take anyones shit. But despite this she inst just strong. Her emotional side is very vulnerable. She cries and makes choices that make her second guess herself. And her journy to forgive Touka and starting to care about Ghouls and their safty-It all made me love her even more. And thats not even getting to the topic of her relationships with Amon, Haise and Seido haha

3. Touka Kirishima

Touka is a wonderfully done character. Her development from a girl who was very angry and hurt to a woman who was understanding but still willing to fight for the people she loves was done great in my opinion. She had to grow into something else then a hateful ghoul and she did. I always loved her. I thought she was a very strong woman that still had depth to her. Her relationship with Ayato and Hinami being the first things that I started to love about her. And when everything started to crumbling for her she mourned but then she got right back up again. She started another Cafe and then she met Haise and got her life on track again. She fought when she had to and protected who she needed to. And overall my love for her grew more and more powerful as the manga went on.

2. Mutsuki Tooru

Now, Once again, I know this character is hated. Like excessively. However I...always loved him. Yes him. Unlike Karren I believe Mutsuki is trans so I will be using male pronouns. Mutsuki in the beginning was just so damn relatable to me. Having Anxiety, being more on the shy side but wanting to do the best you can. That was just...me. I really loved him for that reason and with that came the cuteness he brought. I thought he was really adorable. But then he changed. And the broken parts came out. I...felt so, so bad for him. And Mutsuki is also one of the most interesting characters to me. For me to analyze and watch his actions. And I understood why Mutsuki is the way he is. He was abandoned and hurt, Confused and broken. I felt things for Mutsuki on a different level then I did for almost any other character in the show. And thats why I love him so much.

1. Juuzou Suzuya

Is it really a surprise who my top spot is? Juuzou, My boy. My love. My hope. He is...My favorite character, maybe of all time, for so many reasons. Hes smart, and strong, and so very interesting. His growth into someone who is more intuned to others emotions was so very great to see. He has a squad now and some of my favorite things about him was his relationship with them and their respect and love for him. And juuzou is just so very cute but is also a complete badass. Something I love about him as well is his ability to say such...profound things in such a abstract way. And his love for Shinohara...now dont get me started. I could go on, and on about why I love him. But I’ll save you the trouble haha.

And there you have it!! My New Top 10! It was super fun doing this btw so thanks for that. ^^

Now Im going to go cry over how much I love these characters T.T

[kenkamishiro]

zakki:re translations, Part 3, Vol. 6-9

In which Ishida passive-aggressively-albeit-jokingly rags on Goubaru-kun and reflects on his artistic choices.

The zakki:re and interview translations take a lot of time and effort, so if you enjoyed it please leave a like or reblog. Thank you!

If you would like to start from the beginning, please click here.

Associate Special Class. A protagonist whose hair changes colours a lot.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 4~5, Opening colour page

The cover of :re volume 6. Furuta and an apple. Regarding its contents, this volume was a turning point that slightly changed the course of the story up to volume 5 of :re. Shirazu died in the line of duty, and Haise was dyed in black… I drew the story about a staff member (Goubaru-kun), which was unusual content for a volume omake. During my serialization, I went from Fukuoka to Tokyo every year for the Shueisha New Year’s party. On the first day of the party I’d talk to the other authors, and on the second day it became a tradition to hang out with the staff members. I was looking forward to it as one of the biggest events of the year since I didn’t have much opportunity to play while writing my series, but because of Goubaru-kun...I mean, thanks to him, it ended up becoming a field trip to the hospital for half a day. So as revenge...I mean as gratitude, I drew about it in the manga in the form of an omake. My series has come to an end, but because Goubaru-kun was next to me...I mean, thanks to him, it also became an event where I got to witness my true character. It was his fault that I really learned a lot about myself. Thank you.

2016, Volume 6, Cover

[T/N: You can read said omake here.]

The cover of :re volume 7. Kaneki, to match with volume 7 of OG. The theme of this cover was, “Can I beat the strength of the OG volume 7’s art?” I drew this side-by-side with OG volume 7 Kaneki. When I look at it now, it’s lacking a certain kind of impact even though my drawing skills had improved a lot back then. At the time, I was heavily relying on the anatomy portion of my drawing skills, which was why I may have gone astray in various ways regarding the art’s intentions. In OG volume 7, I wasn’t led astray due to ignorance, but rather because I felt so energetic (and therefore also fragile). For :re volume 7, I get the impression that I was thinking about that in my head. It somehow gives off an air of trying to distract people with anatomy. Nevertheless, regarding the quality of the cover art I feel like I drew it to the best of my abilities in those days. I think it’d be interesting to look back at my other drawings and think about my mental state and the theme of the drawing for each one.

2016, Volume 7, Cover

Kaneki going for a walk #1 Named as “Kaneki going for a walk series” by Chika-neesan of L.S.D. who was asked to do the design for zakki:re. I’ll explain why in #2.

Movie adaptation - major decision It’d be better to call it a “major decision” rather than just a “decision”. The movie had all kinds of stuff too.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 30, Opening colour page

Uh, what was this for again? I know it was a cover for a YJ issue. Maybe I drew this illustration after I finished :re volume 7’s cover art? That one [volume 7 cover] took up too much of my strength, and this one [current illustration] makes me feel like I’m out of breath.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 30, Cover

[T/N: It was for the July 30, 2016 issue of Miracle Jump. Came with 4 other illustrations of Kaneki, including an alternate version of the illustration above, and the “Kaneki going for a walk #1″ illustration.]

The blurb sounds very cool. I also like the placement design.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 32, Centre colour illustration

[T/N: Blurb says, “I’ve only severed off one side of the scenery.]

I also like this design. Illustration-wise, this volume is of course, about Mucchan and Torso. I thought from the start that Torso would meet his end by becoming a torso (literally). I feel like my work doesn’t have many characters that smell of gender, but I can sense it from Mucchan, or rather I think it’s coiled around her. During my serialization, I always got the impression that she was very different from the other characters. I don’t really understand her well.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 42, Opening colour page

[T/N: Ishida refers to Mutsuki as 彼女 (kanojo = she/her) so I will refer to her as such unless he states otherwise.]

Volume 8 of :re. I like how this Arima looks. It feels like the art in this volume was also right at the height of my anatomy phase, and it feels like very crisp. But gradually you begin thinking about something different.  In the wrong direction.

2016, Volume 8, Cover

My thoughts about the colour spread I splashed on bold colours for the spread, I wonder if it was because I didn’t have time or something, I remember I was saved by L.S.D.’s design. I was bombarded by the obsessive idea of, “Do I always have to draw so much?” Because Jump authors’ colour spreads always have lots of characters on them, their colouring is meticulous, and they look splendid. In contrast to that, my spread gives off the feeling that I didn’t have time or any motivation. It’s not that I’m not motivated, it might just be that I’m not good at drawing a lot of characters at once. Sometimes I end up wondering if the concept of “One character only!” might be more powerful.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 50, Opening colour page

100 stickers The illustration of the stickers from the appendix of YJ magazine. There are a hundred of them. I wondered about how much the price of a sticker would cost, so I went to Incube (a general store) in Tenjin, Fukuoka, and bought a pack of clover stickers (30-40 pieces) and one gorilla sticker (why). Both cost around 300 yen, about the same price as Young Jump, so I thought, “Wouldn’t it be a good deal if reading a manga also came with stickers!?” Such a good deal. It was nice seeing readers use them to stick on top of a letter every once in a while.

Weekly Young Jump 2016, Issue no. 50, Special appendix

[T/N: Tenjin is the downtown area of Fukuoka. Also, these stickers were released with the YJ issue to celebrate the 100th chapter of :re. Ishida made comments about each one of the stickers in volume 9, if you want to read them go here and here.]

Cover of :re volume 9.

Transitioning from from full digital to half-digital From this point on, the idea of "How can I finish my manuscript quickly?" greatly occupied my mind. I think it was around this time that work for another series (the game) came in. If I remember correctly. I had been drawing fully digital this entire time, but for this volume I experimented by interweaving digital with analog. We live in an era crazy about speed. However, because I couldn't control the screen anymore, I had a rough time drawing this volume. I used a G pen to draw the characters. The line drawings were uploaded with the scanner, and I finished the final touches digitally. Since it doesn't take a lot of time to write the storyboard, during this period I could finish the manuscript in 2.5 days, and set aside 4 days for other work. Thinking about the manga now, it would've been better if I'd spent my extra time focusing on it, but back then I thought doing this would be the best. This volume is the only volume where the characters were entirely drawn in analog. Since then, it has changed to drawing in analog for quick things, and for things that need to be drawn with more skill, drawing it first in analog before going to digital.

2016, Volume 9, Cover

The Last Things There are a lot of arms entwined around Kaneki, such as Eto and Dragon Kaneki's arms.

2016, Volume 9, Cover sleeve

[T/N: The illustration above isn’t the full version, but the only one I could find. It was also used as the cover art for österreich’s song uploaded on SoundCloud, titled “Saigo no koto” or “The Last Things”.]

previous || next

[kaibutsushidousha]

Hey there, I’m sorry for being a bother but I would like to shorten my request for you. I was able to find good images of half the cast and make proper ocrs of them. Therefore I only need translations for the following 4 girls: Akane; Chiaki; Ibuki and Peko.

Thanks, that’s a lot more reasonable than asking for 10 characters at once. 

By the way, by OCR you mean optical character recognition, like you’re intending to use it with a machine translation? Because I don’t think you would get any good results of out of those.

Anyways, here are the translations.

Owari Likes:

Prepackaged Orzotto: A meal of pearl barley and rice. Owari finds it perfectly convenient since you can eat it straight out of the microwave.

Hardtack of Hope: Emergency rations with Kibougamine Academy’s logo on the tin. Its crunchyness and flavor earned it tons of closet fans aside from just Owari.

Spy Spike:  A spike that you can wield with swiftness and agility, just like a real spy. Also known as “Spy-Spi”. Always bring those to your epic battles.

Owari Dislikes:

Millenium Prize Problems: A collection of complex math problems. The million dollars prize is tempting, but Owari is too averse to studying to even know where to start.

Nanami Likes:

Tips & Tips 2nd Edition: A book that has hints and codes for every game ever released. A must-have for any true gaming fanatic. It’s thick enough to be used as a murder weapon.

 Note: This “ It’s thick enough to be used as a murder weapon.” line is written in the cover of every Danganronpa artbook.

Power Gauntlet: A glove-shaped game controller, or rather a relic of the ancient times. Nanami is dying to know how its unique controls feel like.

Nitro Racer: A toy driving simulator. Heart-pounding on a level the creators of the racing game genre couldn’t even dream of.

Nanami Dislikes:

Girl with the Bear Hairpin: A portrait of a famous gyaru. Nanami hates its exuding aura of despair.

Mioda Likes:

2.5D Headphones: Headphones that provides an audio that’s both three-dimensional and two-dimensional. This isn’t for amateurs. Even Mioda, picky about sound as she is, says it’s good.

Desperation: A collection of famous songs by the famous singer/songwriter Tatsuro Furuta. Mioda agrees with his practices of always ad-libbing song lyrics.

Absolute Tuning Fork: An enormous tuning fork, with the power to destroy everything with its resonance. In a pinch, you can also hang your laundry from it. 

Mioda Disikes:

Message In a Bottle: A bottle with a letter inside. Mioda doesn’t seem to understand the spirit of adventure that there is in never who will recieve the letter or when.

Peko Likes:

Antique Doll: A doll made mostly of porcelain (the “skin“ parts are porcelain). Its exquisite craftsmanship and beautiful clothing made Pekoyama a fan.

Gold Coated Sheath: A fukuro shinai decorated with a beautiful gold design on its “blade”. It’s not good for combat, but just looking at it makes her heart skip a beat.

Secret Wind Sword Book: The choreography script for sword fight scene. Critics praised that it was like the sword was singing. An item all martial artists would fall in love with.

Note: I’m using localization names for these presents but a more accurate take on this one would be “Secret Sword Scroll - Maizono Sayaka”.

Peko Disikes:

Iguana Daughter:  An iguana native to Jabberwock Island. A gift most girls wouldn’t like, nothing specific to Pekoyama.

[donnerpartyofone]

21 Questions

Tagged by @getoutofmyhouse who had oddly similar answers to mine

Nickname: only the one I use here, that I gave myself--Claire Donner, which has to do with my famous love of cannibalism. Claire is my real first name, though.

Zodiac: I am so very cuspy. I was born at about a quarter to midnight on April 20, so I tend to relate to, and feel insulted by, the suppositions about Aries and Taurus equally. I’m one of those jerks who will tell you astrology is a bunch of hoo ha...and then drone on with my Many Esoteric Ideas about it, so I’ll just stop myself right here.

Height: 5’ nuthin is what I prefer to say...because saying I’m 5 and 3/4′ sounds a little like saying I’m 10 and a half years old.

Amount of sleep: It’s all fucked up. Until I got into my 30s I could, and would prefer to, sleep endlessly. Now I go to bed around 10 (depression), get up around 5 or 6 (being old), and for extra fun, I’ve developed this insomnia that often keeps me up from about 2am-5am. I try make the most of it by getting up, getting high, watching a movie or two, writing...basically just having a secret private day by myself. I’d really rather go back to just sleeping constantly though.

Last movie I saw: I saw GRETA in theaters tonight, which was ok. I guess I thought any Neil Jordan film would be headier than this, but watching Isabel Huppert just running around acting like an absolute maniac is a rare treat! My last video experience was RAW, which I put on to bother my husband right when we got home from the theater. (I think he liked it more than I originally did, to my surprise)

Last thing I googled: The correct spelling of Sylvia Likens’ last name. I’m obsessed with this type of crime where a group of people (usually a family and/or some of their friends and neighbors) fall into some kind of shared hysteria where they protractedly torture to death an acquaintance for no particular reason. Some times there’s an element of mystery as to why the victim didn’t leave while they were still able to, which suggests to me that the murdered person was just as much a victim of the groupthink as the perpetrators. Other example victims include Suzanne Capper, Vera Jo Reigle, and I think to some degree Sophie Lionnet, James Bulger, and Junko Furuta. (Also a crime they briefly discuss in the book Lords of Chaos, where several people murder a friend in their trailer, but I can’t remember it specifically enough to look up the names--the other last thing i tried to google) I keep thinking there should be a psychiatric and/or legal term for this kind of crime, but I’ve never heard one, so let me know if you got one!

Favorite musician: I have trouble with questions that involve ranking anything, so I’ll just say that right now I’m listening to a lot of old White Zombie. I didn’t know anything about their origins as an East Village noise band, and I’m fascinated by the stories about how apocalyptically miserable it was to be in that group. I’m increasingly obsessed with people who work their asses off doing something they barely even enjoy, for what must be borderline spiritual reasons.

Song stuck in my head: Nothing right this second, for which I am very grateful. There’s something awful in my brain that causes me to wake up with some maddening, babyish tune stuck in my head more often than not. It is most frequently the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme. This is literally killing me.

Other blogs: @anhed-nia, which started as a dumping ground for long posts about mental illness, and turned into almost only movie writing. at some point there was just so much movie shit that i started to feel awkward about posting anything personal there again. i also got @getoffyrass which is a group blog, and a repository for images that make great drawing references. everyone is encouraged to post their drawings, too, although it is seldom used. i still like having it around, for when i have time to draw. my “real” drawing blog is @neveratendermoment but i don’t draw often enough anymore...

Do I get asks: i used to get tons! i really enjoy them, even the trolls to some degree. i must have seemed like more of a regular tumblr geek girl back in the day. also tumblr has just changed a lot since then. my blog was definitely a casualty of Best Stuff First, i think my follower count stopped dead forever right when that happened, and now that practically every single fucking thing on this entire site is either fandom shit or *discourse*, i really have nothing to offer tumblr anymore, anyway.

Blogs following: 1,057. 

Lucky numbers: 2! Also 5.

What I’m wearing: black wool long john pants from Chrome, and a white v neck teeshirt with the words BLACK MAYONNAISE on it in black Rocky Horror font. i live near the notoriously toxic Gowanus Canal, and “black mayonnaise” is the actual term used to describe what’s on the bottom of it, by the scientists who are trying to figure out what to do with it.

Dream trip: i am really excited by travel, it’s hard to pick. i’m hopefully making a dream trip soon though: my father’s mysterious finno-swedish family is from the åland islands, and my husband and i will be planning part of our honeymoon there, whenever that happens.

Dream Job: i think about this a lot, because the older i get, the more i object to the entire concept of having to work to live. i’m into the whole universal basic income thing. i’m at this point where i can barely stand to think about capitalism in any way--like i think about how the need for money is so mortally serious that there’s a lot of physical stuff in the world that only exists because someone was scared of starving, tons of useless products and packaging and factory byproducts and all kinds of fucking straight up garbage that was only invented due to the lethality of poorness. i would rather be left totally alone forever if possible. however, if i HAD to do something and i COULD do anything, it would probably be film criticism. this fantasy takes place in a world where people care so much about what i have to say that i can make a career, not only out of movie writing, but out of only writing about the specific movies i want to write about, referring to nothing other than my personal reactions.

Favorite food: i wish the answer weren’t just “cheese”, but it probably is. also mushrooms. anything cinnamon. i’m a pretty adventurous eater though. the most important thing for me is a variety of flavors and textures.

Languages: english. i took several years of italian in junior high-high school, and did nothing with it. i taught myself to read french pretty fluently, but i would fold right up if someone tried to speak to me. i learned a bunch of swedish on duolingo, shoulda kept it up. i’ll get back to it! i really regret never learning spanish though, so i’m easily torn on what to do with my time.

Play any instruments: clarinet in junior high/high school, also alto sax which i did not enjoy at all, a little guitar. i bought a used electric bass last year that i have really been enjoying, but i feel a lot of guilt around not playing enough. so much of it is just strength training. that’s probably what i like about it, though. also i got a lot of electronic music software and midi controllers and stuff...and then i realized that it could take me months to sort through the thousands of samples i have to program this stuff, and i only got so far into it before i started to get discouraged. i need to get back to it, it’s ridiculous to let that stuff lie around. this is a rare example of me wishing i knew someone local to play with, who could speed me along on how everything works.

Favorite songs: another one of these impossible questions! anybody who is even reading this can probably guess the answers from the handful of music posts i reblog over and over and over. the other night i got all hyperactive and forced my husband to drop everything and listen to “buffalo stance” by nene cherry, which i never ever get sick of. real top contenders for favorite song might be “Stand By the Jamms” by the klf, and this recording, which has gotten me through many difficult hours:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8k1HsF3EvY

https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/sunray-sonic-boom-music-for-the-dreamachine-cd/STRAWB.003CD.html

Random fact: i’m sure i’m missing out on something really funny and cool, but for now it’s just the well-known fact that i read palms.

Describe yourself as aesthetic thing: man, how do i answer this without being totally pretentious? maybe nobody can! i’m coming up with something really hard to describe but it will be worth it. the other day i watched this insane, completely unnecessary movie about lorca and salvador dali (played by robert pattinson) as gay lovers. there’s a scene in it where lorca does that “pick a hand” thing to dali, and dali picks an empty hand. of course, they’re both poor students who couldn’t be buying any gifts, so they do this obnoxious pantomime where dali pretends lorca actually gave him something--but then it turns out that lorca really DOES have something. he opens his other hand and gives dali...SOMETHING. i don’t know what! they make such a big deal out of it, but what the hell? you see it for a second in this closeup, but it’s shot from like, behind and slightly underneath, and it is just unrecognizable. it’s sort of an orange blob? it’s probably meant to be a sculpture. but, i love the idea of doing the “pick a hand” thing to somebody, and the other person is just like...hey wait a minute, what the fuck even IS this?? 

it reminded me of one of the most amazing things anyone ever did at my school, bard college. this genius art student who I WISH I COULD NAME TO CREDIT HER did her senior project as this like...made up product. i saw them at the senior show, hanging off a spinner rack, like you’d see next to the register in the drug store. they were called Toilet Buddies. they were these plastic, brightly colored objects that looked like toys, but they didn’t have a familiar earthly shape, and because of the title, it was IMPOSSIBLE to imagine what to do with them. so, she gets the lipstick cam from the film department, and shoots this video of herself sneaking some Toilet Buddies into Walmart. then she takes them to the register and BUYS THEM--the baffled cashier looks for them for a while, and eventually just rings them up as a general grocery or something. then in part 2, the artist TAKES THEM BACK TO THE STORE WITH THE RECEIPT AND GETS A REFUND.

so anyway, i see myself as like a fake product--something that looks just familiar enough to exit, and that appears to have a designated purpose, but it’s just kind of cheap and foreign and it becomes nightmarish to try to imagine what to do with it. 

I don’t know if anyone i know will want to do this, but i tag @negativepleasure @moviesludge @former-contender @dimestoreman @thefuzzydave @darkarfs @theoddsideofme @blueruins ...um, i don’t really know who would enjoy this. the ultimate would be @garbagenacht

[aspoonofsugar]

Many people, myself included think that Eto is more noble than the majority of characters in Tokyo Ghoul despite being a bad person herself. Unlike many other characters who kill for fun (i.e. Roma, Rize, Shuu Tsukiyama in part one) she at least has a dream which can be considered to be noble. Despite all the bad things she has done she still wants a better and more peaceful society for both kinds, if it wasn't or her we wouldn't have the happy ending. So what do you think is she a psycho or not

Hello anon!

Okay, I am a little rusty when it comes to TG, so my answer will mostly use what I remember of the series and will of course incorporate my feelings about it. All of this to say it might be influenced by me not really liking the second half of :re and that a reread may change my opinions about some things.

So, I think Eto is framed as a gray character.

It is true, like you said, that she wanted to change a society which victimized her and a lot of other ghouls and one could say that she accepted that she had to use violence in order to reach her objective. However, it is pretty obvious that most of the violence she displayed was completely uncalled for and totally unrelated to her objective.

For example she didn’t really need to torment Kuro and Shiro or to torture Karren in order to reach a better society for ghouls. Moreover, she had no problem at cannibalizing or at killing other ghouls. In short, it seems plausible that the violence she displayed wasn’t only a mean to an end, but also a symptom of some inner anger and hate she felt within and which she projected outside.

We have a pretty clear idea towards whom Eto felt this anger i.e. Yoshimura.

In short, Eto had a very noble dream, but she didn’t go at it in a completely selfless way and one could wonder how much this dream was born out of genuine compassion and sympathy for ghouls and how much of it was born out of spite for her father which prompted her to embrace a completely different philosophy from his.

Unluckily, the story didn’t explore the contradictions in Eto’s character and she, pretty much like Arima, is simply considered as the person who let Kaneki become OEK. After Cochlea nobody discusses her actions anymore neither to question them nor to recognize their importance. Personally, I think this was a disservice to Eto’s character. As a matter of fact, she had been set up to have her own arc and at the centre of said arc there was the relationship with her father which was supposed to find a proper conclusion being it negative or positive. However, in order for this conflict to be solved it was necessary (imo) to solve also the ideological conflict between Aogiri and Anteiku which was at the centre of the story of TG. Still, the OEK plot point solved this conflict in a pretty simplistic way by making the Anteiku ghouls converge into GOAT which is basically Aogiri’s legacy.

In short, yes, without Eto’s actions we wouldn’t have a happy ending exactly like we wouldn’t have a happy ending without Arima and Furuta both killing an incredibly high number of people. However, I personally would have liked to have the actions of all three these characters (and of other characters as well) addressed in a more in depth and more problematic way than the one we had in canon.

Thank you for the ask!

[linkspooky]

I know you usually don't analyze the quality of writing, I'm not really sure if this question even qualifies as such. So, if you don't mind me asking, what do you think could've been done better in regards to how TG turned out? Or rather what developments would you've liked to see unfold?

Okay, so once again not a commentary on the quality of the writing but I can talk about a few things I would have liked more answers to. This is going to be pertaining to stuff mostly that happened around the ending because that’s the freshest in my mind.

#1 Donato

What does this mean Donato? Literally, what does any of this mean. Do the leaders of the clowns shift? Were you the leader for some time until you were captured by the CCG? Who was the crown, was it the one eyed king? Were there two one eyed kings as some people theorize? Donato you seem to be the only one old enough here do you think you could explain it to us? 

Donato’s final speech for his motivations basically just boiled down to something that would not be out of place coming out of Komaeda Nagito’s mouth. “I needed to kill all those people in order to make hope and justice shine all the more!” It’s not that I needed to get into the head of the child eater, but if Ishida was going to make the choice to play this scene as sentimental instead of giving Donato an oppurtunity to rip Amon a new one he could have at least gone with a motivation that... made sense?

Basically the entire Amon and Donato scene is a missed oppurtunity. There was a chance for Seidou and Amon to work together again and for Seidou’s growth to be acknowledged. THere was a chance for Amon to actually have to acknowledge people like Hakatori that he’s made the victims of as well, in person and not just... saying that he totally acknowledges that he’s been screwing up the world too in a moment of tell don’t show. 

Amon’s final speech is also peppered with the hypocrisies that a just better written confrontation scene could have solved a lot. For example let’s look at this moment right here. 

“Most ghouls are regarded by humans as creatures to be feared” Amon says while recalling the image of a ghoul who was living peacefully until humans went out of their way to hunt him down, then torture him to the point of insanity and kill his brother right in front of him. “Donato Porpora is absolute evil” Amon says, in his big speech about how actually the world is more complicated than he originally thought it was. These two ideas contradict each other, if there are shades of gray then why is Donato still absolutely evil? Is it because he ate children because if that’s the case Amon doesn’t even mention once about the Oggai, or the CCG’s habit of training child soldiers, both of those things which were important to his arc in its conception. The only named Oggai character is Hajime Hazuki who is Amon’s whole reason for going after Fueguchi so hard to the point of grave robbery. 

Amon still also approaches the entire scene like he’s merely an observer of ghouls, and not that he’s one himself. All of these things were things that could have been resolved if Ishida used Donato in his original capacity. Just as a character who exists to tear things apart, and especially to do so because of his strange affection for Amon. Play for Amon’s mind and make him stronger so Amon can rise to be a true hero of justice because Amon in particular is Donato’s favorite character. If Donato was going to turn out to be a two dimmensional character anyway then Ishida should have just used him to his full capability. For example you don’t have Emperor Palpatine make an emotional speech when he dies, you have him manipulate the protagonist to move him into action and then he gets thrown down an elevator shaft in the end. 

Imagine a confrontation scene where Amon is forced to face all the ugly things about his narrative he conveniently ignores. After facing them he overcomes them, but he actually has to face them, not just reappear after being offscreen for awhile and say he’s totally faced those things and come to those realizations. 

It would be using Donato better for his original pruppose as a character, rather than trying to make an emotional scene out of a character motivation that just doesn’t make sense. It would also make Amon’s long stagnation as a character before this make sense as well. Otherwise if the purpose was for Amon to just finish the manga with a big heroic speech about justice, and then defeating Donato by punching him after making his sword bigger why not write Amon actually pursuing justice and self reflecting before this point? The Amon that is written up until this point does not accept who he is, represses it absolutely, and avoids the main plot and confrontation as much as possible. He’s barely onscreen for one, and when he is onscreen he doesn’t make use of any of the information he’s been given before this point.It’s written like Amon is clinging to the vestiges of his past identity and unwilling to admit he was wrong or that he can move on, except then Amon just does and it’s fine. And that didn’t have to be that way, it’s not that everything preceeding it was bad writing but rather the set up does not match the eventual payoff we receive. The character who was written with an arc where he self reflected and grew was Seidou, however the character who was rewarded like they grew and changed in the end was Amon even though Amon is basically just the same character through all of Re:. 

Confronting Amon about literally any of this would have been a good move to alleviate a lot of this odd build up and pay off problems, but Donato doesn’t play it like a confrontation he just loses on purpose because of fondness for Amon. Which is fine but also, as I said before the emotions of the scene don’t make any sense at all, nor does Donato’s motivations he sounds like a Dangan Ronpa character so it’s a weird choice around. Not to mention Donato in the end answered none of the questions of his association with the clowns, the previous king, or clarified anything on the timeline which could have been a useful spot for that. 

#2 Ui’s Entire Subplot with the Garden

So the garden is an amazing world building idea, but it’s also something that should have been covered far more than it was in canon. The problem with introducing victims like the garden children into canon is that they kind of need their story to be told, just because their problems seem a lot more pressing than everybody else’s but that’s not really the case. The person who knows the most about the garden Furuta, as I jokingly said before we ever got more than a few pieces of his story got killed in a ditch by Kaneki because Kaneki doesn’t care that much about the garden. Which is... weird, because the garden should be a really big deal to anybody who hears about it. “There was human breeding going on, and these children are being forced to be child soldiers for life, and some of them are forcibly raped” you think would rouse most people with the ability to do so to an immediate call to action. If the ending of the story is a more empathic world like Ishida is trying to tell us it is, it’s weird that basically nobody cares about the garden of the children left behind in the garden after Furuta’s Washuu purge. 

Not only do we as an audience not get any more information on it in the sixty or so chapters after 101, but also it’s not revealed to any of the other characters besides Kaneki, even those with strong connections to the garden who it seemed like they were building up for a reveal towards, Ui,. We don’t know even what exactly and how much Take told Ui about what Arima’s plan was, and why he defected from the CCG because it’s a conversation that mostly took place offscreen except for a joke line of it that made it into an omake.

So we never get clarification on a bunch of key worldbuilding elements, all of thme having to do with the washuu and the garden, and also the garden children’s story really never gets told, or it’s only told tangentially to Kaneki’s story, and that in itself is a problem because the garden children are such huge victims it kind of necessitates the story be told. They are the literal bottom of the ladder, the lowest rung of society. 

It’s like “Why do people have a problem with Endeavor’s Redemption Arc in MHA?” and it’s not really the concept of an abuser getting a redemption arc in general, but rather that Endeavor’s perspective is being favored over his victim’s. Endeavor gets five times more screentime than Rei, his primary victim and we never see her chance of healing, or her chance to redeem herself as a mother to Shouto. Endeavor’s emotions and thoughts take precedent, but at the same time Endeavor’s not a victim to anything but his own bruised ego and hurt man feelings, so his story is a lot less narratively interesting to read. 

When you set up victims like this, it’s good to have their story be told. But we really only get to see them from an outsider’s point of view. Matsuri, one of the oppressors of the garden children gets a much happier ending than most garden children, and way more narrative coverage. And I’m not saying Ishida is bad for not telling the garden kid’s story, but rather that it’s such an interesting story it really should have been told rather than hinted at and it seemed so much like the last portion of the manga was building up towards that reveal and we just never got it. Only bits and pieces. Which makes me question why Ishida even introduced it in the first place if he was only ever going to leave it vague when it’s something that requires a lot more explanation than we were given. 

On that note what happened to Hairu’s head? Ishida at least told us her revival was impossible, but they had her head and body in preservation. Wouldn’t an Ui who had moved on make sure to at least recover the body and bury it?

Really it seems rather than Hairu was never going to be able to be revived to begin with, Ishida was building towards a revival and changed his mind at some point because a lot of ideas with Ui and Hairu’s plotline were pretty much dropped. What Okahira was referring to here was never explained, and also the kind of revival that Okahira himself experienced was never explained either even though they were given a brief mention in the epilogue. 

So yeah, the garden kids are kind of a big black spot. Especially since there are more garden kids being made into half ghouls by the CCG’s mad science (sorry the TSC) and nobody seems to see anything wrong with that. 

Especially since the TSC apparently made no effort to actually help the shortened lifespan of either of the garden kids until they stopped being effective soldiers. 

Just any kind of coverage on whether their lives are better or worse since the Washuu were purged, because it kind of just sounds like they’re being used exactly the same way the Washuu used them. 

[shslmahoushoujo]

Ok, so I said I wanted to talk about this episode of Tokyo Ghoul :RE, and boy do I have a LOT to say! So for starters, let’s talk about Ishida and his very, very messy plans for Tokyo Ghoul :RE and why I think this episode managed to make things work. Because I do think that the studio knowing the trajectory of the series helped out here a lot.

So let’s rewind a bit, to last week specifically. Tumblr user kenkamishiro was kind enough to translate the most recent interview with Ishida and Takahashi from Osterreich, and there’s one part that caught my interest specifically: Ishida and Takahashi talking about how Ishida originally planned to end the series in a “trainwreck”, which seems to fit the direction the series was going with volume 13. Naki, Tooru, and Aura would’ve died, Uta warning Yomo gives me the feeling that he wasn’t gonna make it out of that mess either, Furuta probably was either meant to die in 144 or to just leave the story having experienced a major failure of his plan in 146, and who knows how the rest would’ve gone. Ishida meant to end the story in December, which matches with 154, and if he wanted to just destroy everything and shock everyone, the setup was right there. But as we know, he changed his mind, and then basically turned what would have been the final volume into the beginning of a whole new final arc.

I’d also like to do a second rewind, one going back even further. To the Japanese release of volume 13, to be clear. Now this is a fun one, because up to this point, volume 9 had the worst reception in the entire series. But then came volume 13 and, well... Look at how that went.

That’s not the sign of an audience happy with the direction of the series. Ishida was aiming for the utterly nihilistic nightmare that frankly would’ve made for an unsatisfying ending, and people weren’t liking that much at all.

Now, keeping those details in mind, we get back to now, to episode 8 of the anime. Imagine you’re in charge of figuring out how to cover the rest of the series in 12 episodes, and you get to this point. Not only is this the worst received volume in the series by a long shot, but it also happens to feel incongruent with the story that follows after it because it was meant to set up a different ending. What do you do? Well, I think Mikasano figured out a pretty good way around things that kills both birds in one stone, while also preventing other problems that arose in the future due to the change of ending idea Ishida had (such as the controversial fakeout deaths).

So this episode does a lot of good by working on dealing with those issues. Sure, we miss the Furuta talk and most of the Kenference, but I get why. In the case of the Furuta talk, not only does the core of it get restated a few times as Kaneki’s journey comes to a close (the Rize talk chapters, Furuta’s rant in 174), but if you look at it was the leadup to the bad ending it was at the time, it was also the last significant interaction Furuta and Kaneki would’ve had. Same with the Kenference, I’d feel almost certain saying that’s the last time we’d see Kaneki in the series in the original plan. They’re meant to be the culmination of this accumulation of mistakes that led to the bad end. The anime, on the other hand, seems to be planning for their rematch near Dragon Rize to be their first meeting since Cochlea to have the contrast of “it will all be for naught” Kaneki from the beginning of the season and “it was all necessary” Kaneki that we get at the end.

It’s also a big part of what left a bad taste in some people’s mouths regarding Kaneki: He kept making mistake after mistake, squandered every opportunity he had at improving the situation of the ghouls, and then when the time came for him to become Dragon and kill lots of people, a lot of why it happened was on him. The anime makes it something far more out of his control, and even turns around his ideals from being something foolish that brought about doom for ghoulkind and might be one of the major catalysts for the ghoul/human alliance instead. Sure, 150 still falls into being too easy and something that should’ve had far more complications, but moments like Take’s talk to Ui about doing the right thing, or the Anteiku trio sparing the Suzuya squad despite having a clear opportunity to kill them should work wonders. Hell, if the Suzuya squad were to join the ghouls during the CCG walk-in, that’s a little bit of extra credibility that alliance could have.

We also got Tooru not getting electrocuted for sheer shock value (which was likely his death in the original plan), and instead witnessing Kaneki’s transformation into Dragon alongside Touka which I think will also be great for the fight on top of Dragon which will probably happen next episode. And we can also have Miza mentioning that Naki got separated for her in the chaos of Dragon’s emergence and have him presumed missing, which keeps the surprise of his appearance near the end while also making it clear he’s obviously not dead.

Beyond that, there’s just a lot about how this played out that makes me feel it fits better with the Dragon arc we got in the end. I’m not exactly sure if I can put my finger on what it is, but there’s just something that feels to me that says “yeah, this works with the rest”. I also can’t help but to wonder if they’ll change the fate of Shio and Rikai, but we’ll see.

Ultimately, the anime is doing some things I really like. I can see why people would have problems with how it went, but me? I’m here for it all the way until the end. Maybe with this little change in the route that still gets you back on the same main road, the way the experience closes off might just be more satisfying. At the very least, it feels like the series is not pulling an Ace Ventura and swerving off the road entirely and then taking the jungle and ruining the car to get to the destination. Time to see how this all pans out, see the series through all the way to the end.

[murasaki-murasame]

Episode 23 of :re continues to be a really solid adaptation, even if it’s of some very flawed material. And this final arc at least feels a bit less exhausting and overdone than it did in the manga, so that’s neat.

Anyway, detailed thoughts under the cut, and spoilers for the whole manga.

As I expected, this episode covers the first half of volume 16. Like, literally half of it. The volume is roughly 320 pages long, and this episode adapted the first 160 pages, lol. And as I also expected, it worked out just fine, pacing-wise. Barely anything actually got cut. A few scenes got made a bit more concise, and Takizawa didn’t watch Donato and Amon fight, but that’s about it.

At least in terms of the stuff specifically from this part of the manga alone. I think it’s worth noting that they bring Ayato back into the story in this episode, but they don’t really talk much about what he was up to, and it looks like they’re completely cutting out the detail of him bringing back some feral children that lived underground.

I think I like this change a fair bit, even though I can tell it’s gonna annoy a lot of people. I always really disliked how Ishida handled the entire plot point of Ayato finding that underground city and the corpse of the old dragon, so I can certainly live with how the anime is removing a lot of the focus on it. The time spent setting it up in the manga just made it all the more disappointing when absolutely nothing of value came of it, so at least in the anime it’s upfront about how much of a background detail it is.

On the topic of things I didn’t like from around this part of the manga, I’m vaguely disappointed that the anime kept the stuff with Eto being brought back at the last minute, but I can’t really blame them for just being faithful to the manga. I still think that the anime is at it’s best when it’s actively going against the execution of the manga, and this is something where I think they could have easily just cut it out. I have a feeling it’s also going to be something where anime-only people wind up understandably assuming that the manga must SURELY have done more with this plot point, and taken even the SLIGHTEST effort to actually explain why the fuck it’s happening, but yeah no lol. The way that Ishida brought her back out of absolutely nowhere and then almost immediately kills her off was so awfully handled that most of the fandom genuinely hates it and wishes it never happened. There’s a lot of things where I’m in the minority for disliking some parts of the writing, but trust me when I say that nearly everyone hates what Ishida did with Eto here. I honestly still don’t fully grasp what he was even trying to achieve with this, other than him trying to bring the Owl back for the final arc just to . . . make some last-minute parallels to the end of the first series? Who even knows.

That’s actually my only real complaint about this episode, though. Everything else was very solid and well-executed. They didn’t really add anything or flesh anything out beyond what happened in the manga, but they just adapted what happened in the manga in a really solid, satisfying enough way.

I remember disliking how the Donato-Amon and Yomo-Uta fights were handled in the manga, but I think that was mostly a pacing issue. The manga devoted several chapters exclusively to those fight scenes, which just felt unnecessarily drawn-out. It feels a fair bit more natural in the anime, partly because both of those fights are a bit more concise than they were originally, and partly because I think the anime cuts between them a bit more than the manga did, which makes it feel less like you’re following one fight for a weirdly long time. I’d have to reread this part of the manga to remind myself exactly how I feel about it, but I also think that the resolution between Yomo and Uta felt more satisfying and less underwhelming than it did originally.

Also, I can’t really remember if an anime-only person would know about Amon’s history with Donato by this point. I never got around to watching Root A, so I genuinely have no idea if that season talked about their backstory. I know that it hasn’t come up in the :re anime, but even in the :re manga there’s barely any references to Amon’s childhood. So maybe that whole scene was something that wouldn’t work at all for anime-only people, but I can’t tell.

I still have a lot of complicated feelings about Amon’s entire place in :re’s story. It ultimately just feels really unnecessary, like he was mostly brought back just so he could wind up dating Akira and have a happy ending. There’s not really much that the story actually does in :re to substantially develop him or explore his character. On it’s own his whole confrontation with Donato is very nice and bittersweet, and it’s good to see him acknowledging that he’s a part of the warped world he lives in, and that he can’t avoid taking responsibility for that, but overall it feels particularly odd to have his big final moment as a character be focused on his relationship with Donato, given how little screen-time that plot point gets, especially in :re. It feels more logical for the story to focus on how conflict with Kaneki, but that whole thing just gets kinda . . . brushed under the rug in a really unsatisfying way.

I’ll at least say that the disappointing aspects of how Amon is handled as a character are much less obnoxious and jarring as they were in the manga, if only just because the anime has been covering like two thirds of :re in twelve episodes. It’s more reasonable for Amon to not have THAT much focus or development in a 24-episode anime than it was for his moments to be so few and far between across 180 chapters of a manga that ran for like three years. It’s still not the most satisfying thing ever, but at least people watching the anime didn’t have to spend literal YEARS watching basically nothing happen with his character, lol.

Oh right, I just remembered that V exists, and that I guess they’re another part of the episode I disliked. I mean, they’re involved with the whole Eto thing, but my reasons for disliking them are entirely separate. They’re another whole plot point that I think Ishida handled terribly, and there’s not much the anime can do to improve that. They’ve always just been this really lame, cliche shadow organization with murky goals, and nothing much ever gets done with them. I can’t blame any anime-only people for thinking that they’re really boring and under-utilized and unexplored, but the manga doesn’t do much more with them. To be blunt, the fact that I completely forgot about them right after the episode ended kinda says everything you need to know about how badly they’re handled even though they’re kind of sort of the Big Bads [tm] of the entire series, lmao.

I said before that this episode didn’t necessarily add anything new to what was originally in the manga, but after going back through my copy of volume 16 [I donated my English TG manga collection to my local library last week but I still own the last three volumes of :re in Japanese], it looks like that short scene with Mutsuki getting protected by Urie and Akira was anime-original. Which is a bit surprising since it was a fairly minor scene that didn’t impact much. I really liked it though. It’s just a neat detail to show Mutsuki’s friends and colleagues protecting him, and there’s something really bittersweet about how it comes across like he was willing to accept his fate and let himself be killed by the fake Owl, and was surprised to find himself being protected. It helps really hammer in the character growth and reconciliation that’s been going on with him and those around him lately, and it just works really nicely. It continues to be really interesting to me that almost all of the most major changes/cuts/additions in the anime thus far relate to Mutsuki’s character, and in general improving upon how Ishida handled him originally. I really appreciate it, but I’ve already talked about that a lot so I don’t need to go back over it.

Getting to the final part of the episode, the whole scene with Kaneki confronting Furuta wasn’t substantially different to the manga in how it plays out, and what sort of a note the episode ends on, but it’s interesting that the anime is portraying him in a more serious and genuinely threatening light, whereas this bit from the manga really played up his joke-y attitude. I think I prefer it this way, but it’s not the biggest change ever. In general I really like the note this episode ended on. I think the fact that they cut out one or two instances of Kaneki cracking his fingers previously in :re helped make this moment feel more important and surprising, so that’s cool.

Now that we’re halfway into the final volume of the manga, that just leaves the final half of it to adapt in the final episode, which should be totally fine. There’s a lot of scenes that can go by REALLY fast in the anime. Especially the epilogue, since a huge chunk of that can probably just be handled as a montage while the ending theme or whatever plays, rather than how we had to slog through so many pages of so many pointless narrative exposition boxes in the manga. Some of the final scenes between Kaneki, Furuta, and then Rize also felt almost comically drawn out in the manga, which always felt a bit weird given how rushed the overall ending felt, and how tight of a schedule Ishida was working on. You could really tell that he tried and failed to get the ending extended by an additional three chapters.

We don’t know what the final episode will be called yet, but they’ll probably have that sorta info up in the next day or two. I’m kinda excited to see what they call it, since the final episode of :re s1 ditched the naming scheme of the rest of the episode names to give it something more unique. So it’ll be neat to see what they do for the final episode.

I’m of course gonna hold back on giving my final thoughts on the :re anime until it all ends in the next episode, but I think we’re close enough to the end that my feelings on it won’t really change much, so I just wanna reiterate that I genuinely really love it, in spite of it’s flaws. I would have preferred something more . . . ‘transformative’, if that makes sense, but as an adaptation that takes the existing story and just tells it in a better way, I think the anime works surprisingly well. This final season in particular has been a big step up from the manga.

All in all I just have a lot of affection for it and what it’s been trying to achieve [especially with how they’ve done so much to improve the endless list of issues with how badly Ishida handled Mutsuki as a character], and I don’t think that goodwill could be tarnished at this point with just one episode left. I’ve jokingly said before that even though there’s more objectively good options, this is probably one of my favourite anime of this year, but I think I genuinely stand by that. There’s been some REALLY great stuff this year, even in terms of just stuff I’ve fully watched [like Devilman Crybaby, Revue Starlight, Planet With, etc etc], but I just feel really strongly about the :re anime. Also there’s some recency bias going on, lol. It’s been so long since I watched Devilman Crybaby. This year was a goddamn decade long.

[hamliet]

What role will Rize have in the manga since she's back, and is there any lore surrounding her character like other main characters in the cast

Hi! So Rize is Dragon, and the cause of the poison spreading through Tokyo and turning humans into ghouls. I say “cause” but know that she in fact probably had no part whatsoever in turning herself into Dragon--that was almost certainly all Furuta and V, considering they had her locked in a tank and mined over 100 times to create the Oggai and who knows what else. 

So there are two ways this could go: Rize is the final boss. Which is a great return to the first chapter of the story, how Rize was the first antagonist who started Kaneki’s journey. However, I feel like it’s uncomfortable to call Rize a boss because regardless of whatever agency she possesses now, she didn’t possess any (presumably) when she was turned into Dragon. 

Rize is likely to try to eat Furuta in chapter 176. (Furuta was properly introduced in :re at chapter 33, 33+143=176; Ishida is too extra not to try for that parallel in Furuta’s tragedy ending in 176.) It’s been foreshadowed too long not to happen.

However, Ishida often also subverts foreshadowing, so it is possible she may attempt to eat him but not succeed (via a Kaneki intervention most likely)--but if Furuta decides he does not want to live no matter what, and sticks to his narrative role of villain, he will die. If he sheds the narrative role as I believe Kaneki is going to ask him to do next chapter, he might live. 

How does this connect to Rize? Well, if Rize eats him, considering all Furuta’s done to her, it’s hard for us to fault her. However, we have to keep in mind that the story is likely not going to let Rize off the hook for that. Torso narratively deserved to die by Mutsuki’s hand, and Yamori deserved to be beaten by Kaneki, but both of those actions on behalf of Mutsuki and Kaneki signified drastic spirals for them. Should Rize eat Furuta, my hopes for her to be saved go way, way, way down, according to the narrative patterns of TG. 

We also have to keep in mind Shachi’s perspective on Rize. 

He said that she was beyond anyone’s control when he tried to save her, and she demonstrated this even long before she was captured by getting Shachi captured. If she truly is beyond control, killing Furuta is likely to increase her odds of a tragic end--I don’t think the story will portray her as a villain so much as a victim, but she’s likely to meet tragedy. Tragedies, keep in mind, are not stories wherein villains meet their comeuppance; they are stories in which someone’s tragic flaws lead to their downfall, as Rize’s flagrant disregard for anyone but herself drew the CCG to her and Shachi, and their punishment is more than they deserve. That’s an important part to note. If Rize dies, she won’t deserve it, but it might have to happen. It will be a tragedy. Of course, she could still be saved, but I think not killing Furuta would like, guarantee that Rize will be saved, killing him makes it less likely.

Yet Shachi is one of the few truly good parents we see in TG. In fact, he might be the only one who put his child first, no matter what she did to him, no matter what it cost him. So what I would like to see is for the narrative to reward Shachi by saving Rize. Should they do that, Banjou is still around--he’s about the only one I think who could care for Rize without exploiting her. 

Either way, I think Rize and Furuta’s tragedies--whether they live or die, because even if they live they’ve suffered a LOT--are going to emphasize the need to save the children of the Sunlit Garden. That’s a way to honor their lives and ensure they were not in vain, whether they live or die, because both Rize and Furuta were traumatized by that place.