Time has escaped me recently, so I’ve been behind on my reviews. I’ve compiled them into group reviews which still cover each episode separately. For these, the individual reviews will be shorter than usual and will focus more on what I thought about the episode and its developments than summary (hopefully)
- Episode 7: “Captivity”
The real reason to feel sorry is when one is hung up on revenge and can’t live their own life.
Contrary to all the other depictions of ghouls we’ve seen so far, the extraordinary kagune and the ability to stay alive despite heavy injuries, this episode gives a sense not only for ghouls’ helplessness when faced with Doves, but also the tragedy and unfairness of non-predatory ghouls being killed.
Last episode, we were shown Mrs. Fueguchi and Hinami’s touching relationship at the same time as Dr. Fueguchi’s death, with nobody being able to help him and all his efforts to protect his family slipping away as the Doves close in on Mrs. Fueguchi. This time, although Hinami is able to meet with Kaneki while running away in the streets, the pair only succeed in getting back to witnessing the scene of her death, unable to stop it. In a way, it made it all the more difficult that Hinami returned, since it highlighted how neither she nor anybody else in Anteiku could have prevented Mrs. Fueguchi’s death, let alone Kaneki who still can’t get the hang of the violence surrounding ghouls. Although we’ve seen random ghouls get offed by Mado and Amon during their investigation, it was especially hard to see Mrs. Fueguchi’s giving up and and being killed with a quinque of her husband’s kagune. Although from the beginning, it was obvious that Mrs. Fuegushi and Hinami were going to be tragic characters, the events of the previous episode solidified that Hinami was definitely going to be the only survivor in her family. Now, what this does for her character as a little girl who can’t hunt, we’ll have to wait to see.
But it’s Touka who reacts the strongest to her inability to prevent Mrs. Fueguchi’s death. She suggests taking revenge on the Doves, but Yoshimura prefers that Anteiku lay low and be careful, considering how strong the Doves as. So Touka takes matters into her own hands, dons her mask, and hunts down the Doves. In a way, Yoshimura proves how right he is when Touka is unable to defeat Mado, whose experience outmatches hers (even though she was supposedly super skilled in the past against Tsukiyama, who himself is considered strong). The only thing Touka succeeds in doing is senselessly killing Kusaba, a noncombatant “lowly” employee of the CCG who was waving all sorts of death flags by asking Amon about his past and admiring his sense of justice and work ethic.
In a way, this episode demonstrates the vicious cycle between the ghouls and Doves–Doves kill ghouls regardless of whether or not they’ve killed any people, and some ghouls indiscriminately kill humans whether for food, revenge, or sport. Obviously, this leads to a lot of strong feelings (understatement much?), such as Touka’s persistence in killing the Doves, Nakajima’s depression after the death of his friend, and Amon’s rekindled fervor for improving himself as a ghoul investigator to better protect humans. Kaneki seems to continue to be mostly passive in his role as a ghoul-human hybrid, except for giving his point of view to comfort the defeated Touka: he’s both a human and a ghoul so he can judge the fairness of the recent events with the perspective of both. He recognizes that the CCG isn’t exactly in the wrong and that Touka isn’t in the right, but that either way it’s painful when someone we know is killed.
The episode really rang out to me as a set-up episode. Of course, a lot of important things happened: Mrs. Fueguchi is killed, Touka directly confronts the Doves, Amon is more motivated; but I couldn’t help but feel, especially after the first few minutes, that nothing substantial to the plot was going to happen, that certain details had to be set up first before some real action/story could happen. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but at the same time, it made the episode more uninteresting than it could have been.
Notes:
- I wonder why Yoshimura would think to move Hinami to the 24th ward if it isn’t considered safe. Touka calls it a “cesspool” and says Hinami can’t survive there, so what benefits does the 24th ward have over the 20th besides that the Doves aren’t currently there?
- At least the epilogue scene is keeping it lighthearted. Since the episode ended in Uta coming to deliver Kaneki’s one-eyed mask, it gives us an alternate mask idea for him: a Buddha face. This definitely represents Kaneki pretty well…
- Episode 8: “Circular”
Is it okay to live?
I was a bit afraid that this would become a “Touka trying to get revenge” arc which, while I don’t dislike Touka as a character, would have been very unsatisfying. It was a good thing that this whole fight with Mado ended this episode, although I would have loved to get some backstory to his incredible conviction and experience, which obviously has something to do with the legendary one-eyed ghoul.
I was nervous that Hinami would mess everything up by endagering herself and then just sitting there terrified the whole fight, but she sure proved me wrong. Not only is Hinami moving towards understanding the harsh reality of ghouls and humans, but she finally shows us her kagune, which is a combination of her parents’. She really stood out, more than Kaneki, as the character that didn’t want to be a killer. She has every reason to seek vengeance and kill Mado, so it was really impactful for her to assert she couldn’t finish him off because she was just sad and lonely. Part of me hopes that she maintains this and doesn’t become a killer, but another part of me wants her to be an addition to the fighting strength of Anteiku, since it’s obvious they’re going to need it in the coming episodes.
What bothered me the most about this episode was that the whole time I was watching, I felt like I had missed something. Amon had a bandage over his right eye, and no matter how many times I reviewed his fight from episode 7, his eye didn’t get injured*, nor was it bandaged or in need of bandaging when he was training at the end of last episode. Although Touka accepted Kaneki’s help last episode, she was cold to him again when he offered his help at the start of this one. Another thing that seemed dramatic just for the hell of it was the fact that, despite saying he was in a rush and didn’t have time for Kaneki, he monologued and continued fighting Kaneki even after Kaneki got knocked out. Amon could have easily outran Kaneki and provided backup for Mado. I think I personally would have liked a fight between Touka and Amon more since they both had a strong grip on the helpless feeling of having friends be killed for no good reason. I didn’t really think that Kaneki’s persistence in stopping Amon and trying not to kill him in the end was very convincing for the argument that ghouls and humans should learn more about each other.
The episode ends in a nice wrap-up way for Hinami’s arc and could have segwayed really well into an arc about Amon maybe indiscriminately exploring ghouls and understanding them. Alas, Mado’s death has probably undone some of Kaneki’s attempt to get the idea across, and I was left pretty unsure if the cycle of Doves and ghouls killing each other would continue or lessen with this episode.
*I saw a picture of a manga page where Amon is training and his eye was injured, so it happens in canon. But why this injury was omitted in episode 7 but his bandage shown in episode 8, I don’t understand.
Notes:
- How does a quinque even work? If kagune are a sort-of muscle in a ghoul, then how does putting it on a handle keep it working? Why does the whole thing evaporate when it gets broken?
- When Kaneki talked with Rize’s voice mixed in, did Yomo hear it too or was it all in his head? It really interests me how much Rize affects Kaneki physically besides him inheriting her kagune and smell.
- The epilogue was kinda weird… It’s disconcerting to imagine that Mado can continue to fight ghouls in the afterlife, even as a joke. At least we know Hinami’s parents are safe and together.
- Episode 9: “Birdcage”
Things are just about back to normal. It actually feels that way.
I guess it was appropriate that, since last episode wrapped up one arc, this episode would set up for the next one. At the ninth episode, though, I was really nervous at how a proper story would be told with only a few episodes left. It made me doubly worried when we started meeting loads of new characters: more CCG investigators, mysterious ghouls, and even some unknowns. We meet a seemingly airheaded nineeten-year-old with lots of stitches when he pickpockets Kaneki, but have no idea if he’s a ghoul or not. We get a lot of mentions of a possible war because of the organized ghoul movement in the 11th ward hunting CCG investigators, and some of those ghouls are shown near the close of the episode. And of course, everyone’s looking for Rize.
Although I didn’t hate it, I wasn’t quite sure why we were shown some of Amon and Mado’s past. This episode gives us a flashback to show Amon’s first days as signed to CCG home office and his start with Mado long ago. Their first case working together is interesting, and we get to see old crazy Mado basically school Amon about investigative instincts, preparedness for fighting, and how sixty-eight year old lady ghouls exist and can commit serial murders. But what this has to do with the upcoming plot set up by the rest of the episode, besides that they had to establish that Mado and Amon had a good relationship, I don’t know.
We have Touka looking pensive because “everyone at least has a family” and we get some of her childhood with her younger brother and father. This seems to be just a connection to why she was so unsettled when she saw Mado’s wedding ring, but it becomes important when, first, we see Mado’s (probably) daughter and, second, Touka’s younger brother Ayato pops up in the end among the ghouls looking for Rize.
Rize continues to be the most interesting character so far. Her mysterious persona is further emphasized by the fact that even the well-informed Itori claims she doesn’t really know Rize all too well. Rize coming from unknown origins really spells trouble since we don’t know if all these ghouls looking for her are her allies or enemied (except for Yamori, who definitely hates her).
Notes:
- It shouldn’t be a big deal, but Amon’s shorter haircut doesn’t look right. It isn’t because he looks better with slightly longer hair in general. From an art standpoint, it aesthetically doesn’t look like hair should be on his head in that way. His eyebrows look wrong too…
- Speaking of bad haircuts, what’s with Shinohara’s hair???
- Also, the inconsistencies in the drawings/animations were a bit more obvious this episode.
- Hinami’s finding and taking care of an injured bird was a great step for her healing process. Loss isn’t something people can really get over, but for someone who has to struggle to live and really watch her back, she can’t just lay around sad forever. Being able to rescue something dying and help it live can give Hinami a lot of hope again.
- It was a bit hard to tell if the “Devil Ape” business was really supposed to be threatening or funny. Either way, I don’t know if the unnamed other employees of Anteiku matter to the story at this point.
- Hide demonstrates how in-tune he really is to the ghoul world. Despite not giving away that he knows Kaneki is a half-ghoul, Hide does a really great job of observing from the sidelines and making a lot of correct conclusions about the situation in the 20th ward. While he’s obviously on Kaneki’s side, it’s hard to tell what Hide’s role will be in the overall plot… It scared me a lot, though, when Yamori and another ghoul walked right past Hide, though. Will he be directly involved again this time?
Always Sometimes Never 