Talk:Touka Kirishima/@comment-2.89.235.182-20150811191211/@comment-25047329-20150811193016

A lot of characters have an effect on Kaneki in different ways and each often times represent something different to him. To Kaneki, Rize is his ghoul side. The temptation of power and negative change. She brings about forced change that takes him further and futher away from his humanity, thus, she keeps putting the mask back on.

Hide is the opposite. He grounds Kaneki to his humanity and accepts him as he is, no matter what. Hide is the only real human friend Kaneki had and remnant of his former life before he became a ghoul, so reminds him of what once was and what still is. Since childhood, Hide has had a habit of grabbing Kaneki from behind and putting his hands on his shoulders, even when he's dying. The second pair of hands wrap around from behind and touch his shoulders while taking off the mask.

I go for the second pair of hands being Hide's personally. It's not that Touka isn't important to him, but the two pairs of arms in the Root A opening are symbolically "fighting" to make Kaneki more ghoul or human. Touka doesn't really have an attatchment to Kaneki's human side.