One of the thing you read more often in meta analysis about Tokyo Ghoul is the comparison between the original manga and :re, how the two parallel and how the two differ.
Where do they differ most? In the outcomes. We find out late in :re that Irimi and Koma survived, that Kaneki's sacrifice at the end of the Anteiku arc wasn't useless, and this and other things ignited the main comparison between Tokyo Ghoul and :re: that the first is about loss, while the second about hope. The very concept of it is "hopeful":
re as in "reply" in emails "re:", return, answer, which can be exemplified as in the final answer Kaneki finds to live on, not for others but for himself first
re as in "return", symbolising Kaneki's returning home - and many other characters
Re, finally, as in Re, which in many languages, including my mother-tongue and I'm terribly ashamed for never anticipating the connection, means King. And a king is someone who leads, someone who protects, someone who shields. Again, an hopeful figure.
Many other hopeful or not strictly tragic events lead us to believe that the good would be the main thee and the turnout of :re in general. For example, the parallel with events in the previous manga that have a positive conclusion in :re, as when Kaneki fights Arima, but this time, he's sure he's doing something effective, and this time, he wins, h goes back with Touka and the others and all the other lovely things happen. His love for Touka becomes his reason to live. And when he goes back to save them, his attitude is entirely different from when in Anteiku:
He's confident in his abilities. He's confident in the outcome. He isn't fighting to "die with style" like when against Eto or "to save someone he loves" like when he fought Arima the second time. He's not fighting to save ghouls, or Touka and their unborn child. He's fighting to save them and for he himself to survive by their side. The difference is small but fundamental. He's fighting for his own happiness, and his happiness comprehends the people he loves to stay alive, but song with him.
This is a huge change for Kaneki. Most of the manga he fights for someone else to live on or, at times, for revenge, anger. Now finally there's a positive message.
So naturally Ishida tears it apart.
Jokes aside, I think the point of the manga is beyond Kaneki and beyond the singular characters. True, the very incipit of the makes things very clear:
"If you were to write a story with me in the lead it would certainly be a tragedy."
Tragedy & Ken Kaneki are the focal points of re - to be fair, sensei had warned us. But the point is not him, it's the story: the incipit suggests that it's a tragedy specifically from Kaneki's point of view.
"The sky above a tragedy is clear blue."
The world is wrong because it doesn't care about the tragedy of individuals?
That while a tragedy occurs, it's just another day for someone else?
That the story of Tokyo Ghoul is a tragedy specifically from Kaneki's POV, but for someone else - Furuta maybe - it's a clear blue sky?
Quite possibly all of these and many others. But one thing I'm confident about is that Kaneki's is and isn't the protagonist.
When we learn about Eto and Arima's plan, we fundamentally learn of a story that started way before Kaneki was attacked by his too-good-to-be-human date. We learn through Furuta that he's just incidentally gotten caught in something bigger than him, and that his role as "king" was prepared way before it was even clear t would be him. He's a chess piece, in short. A role.
The role, the issue of handing over a torch is fundamental in Tokyo Ghoul, more or less explicitly, more or less intentionally and symbolically. A few examples:
Touka picking up Kuzen's old broken cup and then opening :re
Urie picking up Sasaki's role as leader
Juuzo picking up Arima's aura
Takizawa holding on to Amon's cross pendant and symbolically to his will
Amon picking up Maris Stella and so symbolically Akira's heart - sorry couldn't resist
Kaneki picking up the One Eyed King crown
Just in general, people changing leadership positions
Just in general, people who step in to protect in place of those who died
This continuous changing of sides confirms it.
Kaneki is human, then ghoul, then sides with Ghouls, then sides with humans as a Ghoul, then sides with Ghouls again.
Urie and Saiko are humans who get ghoulish and indirectly side with ghouls. Amon becomes a ghoul and sides with humans, then with ghouls, then it's unclear. Takizawa and Kurona have similar stories. The 0 squad - rest in peace - are humans but not really who side with Ghouls. Nishino sides with ghouls then again with humans. And I'm just randomly citing those I remember.
All of this shows that yes, the story is a psychological manga about Kaneki's psyche, but it's also, from an impartial point of view, th story of two fighting factions and their good, bad and neutral individuals. The story is that of Kaneki and of ghouls, that's why, even if Kaneki dies, the story doesn't end, simply because the story of ghouls started long before Kaneki's story. Just like Arima passed him the torch he can, indirectly, pass it on to someone else.
I'm not, again, saying Kaneki surely will die - especially because I was heavily insulted the last time I suggested he could. But people who think he'll survive 100% certainly are frankly delusional. It's in shounens that the protagonists always survive, and this is not a shounen.
What I'm suggesting is that someone who like him switched sides could take up what he did so far. Kaneki losing against Suzuya and Hanbee is not a plot-hole because it was heavily anticipated.
He pushed himself too far and can't regenerate properly anymore, Nishiki explained it just a few chapters ago. He insisted on doing everything by himself - to be fair, it's not like he had much of a choice - and just like Furuta predicted, he tripped.
Despite everything and all I just said p, I'm pretty confident Kaneki will live. Touka as well. There's still to many players in the game for the final outcome to be decided just yet: Urie, Saiko, the Quinx, the rebellious CCG, Amon, Akira, Takizawa, Kurona, Tsukiyama, Hori, Nishiki, his ex girlfriend who now conveniently works with Kanou... and oh, who am I forgetting?
Nagachika Hideyoshi. If he didn't come back from the dead to turn this situation upside down, I'm eating my hat. If Kaneki's loss is due to his solitary fighting, than maybe the answer is the help he gets from all of these people and the one person who noticed this about him for the first time. Would make this suffering - his or ours? - more than worth it.
Still, I'm thinking someone else should take up his torch, at least for now. If I had to choose, it'd be Urie. They have had similar experiences: have known loss, care for others, sacrifice, remorse, failed to save people and finally took up a role - Urie as squad leader, Kaneki as king - they didn't believe in for themselves, but for others. Urie has now lowest point: he's got very few things left to lose. And this is why he's fitting to lead someone else's crusade, or found his own. Actually, he already has, backing Saiko and helping The Kuroiwas. And has lost confidence in their own fight for a while. If Touka is Kaneki's motivation, Mutsuki failed to be Urie:
She's turned vicious and violent, so that, even if it was her who reached out to him before anyone else,
She's also the farthest from him now.
While Touka was in the beginning hostile to Kaneki but in the end reached out to him and saved him.
Things are tragic, that's no mistake:
Unless I'm gravely mistaken, Naki isn't coming back like Irimi and Koma did - and am I not sueing Ishida for this. People died. That's already a tragedy. But many others may still turn things upside down because, unlike at the end of the first manga, Kaneki isn't alone, though he fought alone. And so his loss isn't final.
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