Tokyo Ghoul Discussion

I’ve finally caught up on Tokyo Ghoul: Re and now I’m rereading both TG and TGrE. Being obsessed witht the series again makes me want to write analyses though. What especially sparked it was reaading a friend’s analysis of Kaneki’s character that I felt like completely missed the point, and was possibly influenced by how they feel like they relate to Kaneki so much. There are many many spoilers beneath the read more.

So, at the time of this discussion, i’ve read up to chapter 58. Kaneki has finally recovered his memories in entirety, and at the end of the chapter, abandons the Quinx and becomes known as “the black reaper”. Now, my friend said that this chapter reveals Kaneki’s true personality: a selfish and overall apathetic person who will do anything to have someone love him, and he has decided to make people love him by achieving fame within the CCG. He is willing to sacrifice even his dearest friends to achieve this end (e.g. throwing Tsukiyama off the roof, abandoning the Quinx when they need guidance after the death of Shirazu).

First off, I will admit my  own bias by stating that Kaneki is one of my favorite characters, and so is Tsukiyama. I don’t want to think the absolute worst of them because of the fondness I feel for them. However, objectively, I do know that they both have plenty of faults and have committed more than their share of sins. Now, here’s my take on the story so far.

I want to address Tsukiyama’s treatment first, because, well, I love him and Kaneki’s friendship and I feel this scene was completely misunderstood. The significance of them *truly* being reunited on a rooftop does not escape me, but that’s a different discussion. I think that in recovering his memories, Kaneki realized he was unable to kill someone he used to call a friend straight out, but he absolutely did not want Tsukiyama to be sent to Cochlea because of how Shuu had reacted to it a few chapters previously. So, he pushed Tsukiyama off the roof to at least give him a chance to survive. As Chie Hori said, “If he really wanted to, he could’ve just killed you.” Now, of course he did survive due to the sacrifice of Karren. Whether Kaneki intended this or not, it’s hard to say. We do know that Kaneki is a very cunning and strategic person, with absolutely no love for Karren and plenty for Tsukiyama, but I think it would be hard to predict Karren’s actions when she was so obviously unstable, thanks to Eto. I just don’t see enough evidence to prove either way. I think in the end it just comes down to how you want to see it.

Next, I want to address what I consider the fourth iteration of Kaneki, The Black Reaper. Above I discussed one interpretation of him. The true Kaneki, revealed, as it were. Now, I don’t disagree, entirely. I think the black reaper is a fusion of all the Kanekis we’ve seen before. As far as we know, he has all the memories, all the skills, all the fury of his past personas. But, in the end, I still think that he isn’t presenting his genuine self to the world. We haven’t seen much yet, obviously. However, he pushed his friend off a roof, abandoned the Quinx, and became known as a merciless and untouchable ghoul investigator. In a way, this mirrors the transformation he went through in the first Tokyo Ghoul, after the Aogiri Tree Arc. His hair changes, his friends change, his M.O. changes entirely. That Kaneki had made a resolution to become strong and live in the ghoul world, at the cost of the relationships he had gained so far. In :Re, I would argue he did the same thing in the human world, for reasons yet unknown.

But how is this in any way related to finding love, as my friend claims? In fact, I would argue that he is instead giving up love to protect those he loves. He alienated and abandoned the Quinx, who literally call him mother. Why would a selfish, family-love seeking person do that? I don’t think he is a selfish, amoral, love-seeking person, but instead intensely focused on a yet-unknown goal (if i had to guess i would probably say killing the one-eyed king, but im hoping that it includes finding hide ;3c)

im tired of rambling! that’s all i had to say. I just wanted to write it out instead of it annoyingly floating around my head