Whoooo okay, let's break this chapter down.
First off, I really don't like mangastream taking over Tokyo Ghoul, not just because it's mangastream, but they've been having this recent trend of poaching other series, like Shokugeki no Soma and even Assassination Classroom, and I don't want that to continue. And now the scan quality is somehow even WORSE. Imperial Scans never exactly had the best scan quality, but now mangastream doesn't even seem like they're trying, just look at the first page, did they get sand in their photocopier or what?
When will Twisted Hel Scans save me? :cwy:
First off, Eto is pretty crazy here, I don't feel that she'll be upset by Kaneki coming back yet, she seems to have gotten over being beaten by Arima enough to jest about it.
Then we cut to Ui. I think Tokyo Ghou; :re's problem of way too many characters crops up here again. Ui gets some kind of character development, we see that he was playing some drinking game with Hairu. And now he feels sad for her death. It's only a few pages, but I feel there's no need to do more character based stuff. On the other hand, this does add more to the grey morality, death and killing have it's consequences, no matter who.
By right, I believe that I should be caring less about Ui, and more about Shirazu being eaten by Noro, which the latter now looks like Eto quite a bit. But Shirazu's ah, plight, is wrapped and sorted under Haise's despair, so it becomes more and Haise than Shirazu himself.
About Kaneki and his mom. The chapter is slated to be officially released on the world day for prevention of child abuse, so it's entirely possible that Ishida made it up on the spot to be a dick. This complicates the message about Kaneki and his mom, but let's assume that this keeps in line with the series' themes as a whole.
So what do we know about Kaneki's mom? I believe that we've seen her about 3 times right now. The 1st is when Kaneki remembers his mother in Yamori's torture chamber, the 2nd is when he was almost killed by Arima, and the 3rd is this very chapter.
What did we learn from the 1st? We know that Kaneki's mother was a hardworking woman, who did all the chores and was nice to everyone. She taught Kaneki how to read, cooked for him, and taught him that he should deny his feelings so that others around him wouldn't be hurt. However her kindness was her undoing as she overworked herself to provide for both her sister and her own family.
Meaning: This flashback was meant for Kaneki to learnt that his mothers philosophy was flawed. If you keep hurting yourself, you'd never be able care for those around you. You can't have your cake and eat it too.
It's hard to explain, but "eating" is one of the major themes of Tokyo Ghoul. I could go on and on about this.
What did we learn from the 2nd? Kaneki thinks back and realizes that he's no different from his mother. His mother didn't want to lose anyone, so she overwork herself so she wouldn't be lonely anymore. Likewise, Kaneki didn't want to be lonely, she her overworked himself to save everyone in Anteiku. This ties into Kaneki's own tragedy.
What did we learn from the 3rd? We know that Kaneki's mother would hit Kaneki sometimes, seemingly because he asked for something. Well, we know that they were poor, so Kaneki's mom was probably 'disciplining' him for asking for what they don't have. It's not unusual. It might have been only a one-off thing, that didn't happen very often. Presumably Kaneki learnt not to ask for anything, and the trauma was buried and forgotten. So after she died, Kaneki had an idealized version of his mother in his head.
But really though I'm wondering where the series is going to end off with, head towards. Now, post-TG we can the overall plot workings and structure, but I have no idea where this is all going right now. How is Ishida going to wrap this up? So far Ishida seems content with torturing Kaneki over and over again, but it's got to end somewhere, right?