hello there! i was discussing the recent events of the manga with my friend and he was saying that ishida has wasted his time, seeing the hyped awesome villain Eto fall against Furuta, when she could handle her own vs Arima himself, and then apparently disappeared ever since without a trace, supposedly dead, in addition to Arima dying for Kaneki's sake and the result is Kaneki completely destroyed vs Juuzo and Hanabe, which is imo really underwhelming and ridiculous even if he hasn't eaten...1
..2 and then Furuta becoming this all powerful villain out of no where feels kinda silly as well, and kaneki’s fail in winning his fight just felt very underwhelming for his character, do you think Furuta being this op villain really is fine and kaneki just easily getting crushed isnt gonna make us slowly dislike the manga? (and yes its ishida’s story after all but im just discussing) wouldnt be a there another route for the story to take other than this ?
This is an opinion question anon, but I’ll try to give you a meta answer as this really isn’t an opinion blog.
I know a lot of the fights don’t make total sense in terms of shonen power levels, and I understand why that can be frustrating. I know a lot of people call shonen stupid but I actually like shonen, like shonen fights, and like the way mangas devise power levels and have to cleverly plan out fights. The fighting in Tokyo Ghoul is definitely a let down at times, I can think of the Urie and Roma fight for sure as a conclusion that made so little sense I was unsatisfied with it.
However, as I’ve discussed previously in this meta here, fighting and power levels aren’t that important [x]. In fact Furuta himself as a character is not that strong, except for his one offscreen victory against Eto. We saw him even parody the shonen notion of gaining strength and a power up at the last moment only to totally fail in that fight.
So, rather than viewing Furuta as a character whose somehow all smart or all powerful, it might be better for you to view Furuta in a narrative sense. I’ve made this meta in the past as well, but Furuta seems to have taken over as the narrator [x].
In a meta sense what that means is Furuta is always the one setting the scenarios in these situations. Furuta acts, and everybody else reacts to him. However, Furuta retains control because he’s always the one plotting the scenario. He is the author, and the others are characters.
As we’ve noted several times, the current scenario basically follows this. Not only that, but the video that Furuta broadcasted to everybody was basically once again him narrating to them what is happening and what the current scenario is.
Reporter, Media, Script, Playwright, Casting, Last Boss these are all terms that describe narrative. When Furuta won so to speak, the words “Game Over” along with a glitching effect appeared on the screen. We’re meant to read Furuta not only as a character existing within the world and restricted by its rules, but also a character in a narrative sense.
Then the question is why exactly is Furuta able to seize control of the narrative even though he’s a character who came from relatively nowhere? This answer too is tied to the idea of narrative, and narrative foiling. The reason is simple, Furuta is the main villain because Kaneki is the main character.
The two of them are near perfect inversions of each other. Remember that word you used to describe Furuta, that he came out of nowhere and became the most powerful ghoul in the manga?
That is quite literally exactly what happened to Kaneki. He’s not the chosen one, he’s just some poor unfortanate soul who got ghoulified and happened to have body suited for it. Three years later despite having nothing at all to do with the conflict he’s now completely at the center of it, with all of the ghouls literally moving for Kaneki’s sake alone.
Whereas Furuta’s backstory places him at the exact center of the conflict. He was born into this, he’s been plotting this his whole life. He’s even far more connected to Rize, who was the woman who brought tragedy upon Kaneki, than Kaneki ever really was.
In this story of Washuu and fighting V, in a traditional narrative Furuta who was born at the center of it all, who destroyed the Washuu, who plotted his revenge for his whole life would be a more traditional main character.
However, we follow Kaneki instead and our perspective is centered on him. Therefore we, much like Kaneki, view Furuta as having come from nowhere, and therefore having no discernible motivations.
However, Furuta is Kaneki, and Kaneki is Furuta. The reason that the final antagonist is Kaneki’s greatest foil is because Kaneki greatest enemy is ultimately himself.
Kaneki’s own choices, his limited viewpoint of the world are often what end up damning him again in again in tragic circumstances. Kaneki will not conquer tragedy until he conquers himself and looks at himself honestly so to speak. In the same way, he won’t conquer Furuta until he accepts Furuta, his shadow.
That’s why what brought about Kaneki’s sudden downfall had more to do with Kaneki than Furuta really. The reason Kaneki was weak was because he starved himself and refused to take care of his body. The reason he lost so easily is because he got overconfident and charged in against Juuzou entirely on his own.
Furuta overcoming Kaneki didn’t come about by Furuta being a brillaint omniscient mastermind. He simply had to know what Kaneki’s weaknesses were and account for that. Furuta knows Kaneki so well because Furuta is, ultimately, Kaneki, the narrative embodiment of all of his flaws.
It’s Kaneki himself however who took a complex situation and narrowed it down to two really predictable choices. It’s Kaneki whose thinking is almost entirely reactionary, where Furuta will often have two or three plans going at once so he can adjust.
Kaneki’s thinking is linear. He sees something and then tries to decide between one or two options, he even describes himself as being on railroad tracks. It’s as black and white as you can get.
Kaneki’s always had extremely black and white ways of viewing things.
Furuta himself always blurs the lines between things. His thinking is lateral, he’ll often float two or three plans. You can tell there were several options to entrap Kaneki, he might not have even initially planned to rely entirely on the 24th ward raid.
He also had back up plans. He promoted Mutsuki himself and Mutsuki devised their own plan to entrap Kaneki. He was also the one who made a public anouncement, and he probably was aware that Hajime was being sent down to the 24th ward.
Kaneki wasn’t just trapped in one plan, he was in the midst of several but decided to narrow it all down to a binary choice. Either attack or retreat. He was, clearly and obviously outgambitted and the manga does a good job of explaining how Furuta won in practical terms without relying on just him being the villain or being super smart or something.
Ultimately though, what sabotaged Kaneki is Kaneki. He wasn’t taken the role of king seriously. It didn’t need to be Furuta who took him down, Kaneki was doing a good job of sabotaging himself.
Narratively though, as Furuta is Kaneki, the embodiment of his urge to die, his entitlement towards others, his need to have everything revolve around him, all of the worst parts in one package having Furuta be the final boss is in a way a way for Kaneki symbolically to confront his own flaws and overcome them, or at least accept them.
