Talk:Ken Kaneki/@comment-50.134.230.63-20140927210426/@comment-205.206.176.243-20140930013202


 * Spoilers for entire manga***

Your theory is incorrect because it is strongly implied that Kaneki was turned into Arima's newest quinque, hence the shot of the black suitcase and the confirmed erasure of Kaneki. The black suitcase being, well, Kaneki himself.

The reason why Kaneki is most affirmatively dead is also the very essence of what Tokyo Ghoul is about in the first place. It is how you must eat to survive/protect/prevent/etc, but because Kaneki refused to take sides and refused to "eat" (eat being a metaphorical and literal term, to take advantage of or hurt people in order to survive with everything intact and as a ghoul to eat humans to order to gain the sustenance needed to live) his life played out as a tragedy (as said in the manga as foreshadowing) and therefore he died the most tragic death. Especially since he first lived as someone who refused to "eat" for his sake (be the one being hurt instead of the one who hurts) but after his conversation with Rize during the Aogiri Arc, which I consider one of the most prolific turning points of the series, he realized he needed to "eat" so those who cared about him can rest easy, in some sense. Disappointedly, he turns into an antihero archetype who cares nothing more than to protect who he cares about, and after his confrontation with Touka during the late period of the manga, he loses sight of what he's "eating" for when his hero role is nothing but a ruse when in actuality he is simply afraid of being alone.

There are a lot of points in the manga that accentuates how thoughtful Tokyo Ghoul is with its story. Like how Kaneki tries furiously to understand both sides of the coin to unite ghouls and humans symbiotically, but in the end dying because he didn't "eat" enough. This might tie in with the fact that he has Rize's kagune, and because she is most famously the Binge Eater, Kaneki himself must binge eat on humana to supplement the energy he uses to fight. Which means he actually lacks in a lot of physical strength during his fights, implying Kaneki is just that strong. Also figuratively, he was doubtful and could not choose between sides during multiple A or B situations throughout the manga, and chose the easy way out despite the negative consequences.

The aspect of also believing ghouls should exist despite being a threat to humanity brings a lot of critical thinking to the process of understanding Tokyo Ghoul, as throughout the series you are always questioning (or at least, what Ishida intends to provoke in you) whether or not who's wrong: the humans, or the ghouls. In the end, it is blatantly confirmed that neither side is wrong, it is just the world that is simply wrong, as each page in chapter 143 (last one, obviously) presents a tragic situation, in which Uta was betraying everyone, Suzuya lost the one person he cared about, Amon dies, Dr.Kanou is still alive, Touka is left blindingly faithful to Kaneki's revival, Tsukiyama loses someone he would consider his friend, and so on and so forth. In the end, I suppose reading this manga in its most truest context would be a psychological one (I say this because I assume many people have long since labeled this an action manga), as the experience of reading this was intended to be thought provoking and critical of the world today and the contexts of how and why we "eat" to survive, the ghouls themselves a metaphor of "eating" just to ride Ishida's point home. (And in a samesy kind of way, Attack on Titan is technically the same psychological concept, except loads more political and conspiracy based rather than figurative and philosophical.)

Case in point: A sequel would ruin the manga's deliberate message, but there is a spin off manga Ishida is doing called Tokyo Ghoul Jack (I think??? lmao) which focuses on Arima's past, so if you want more TG content, you can always go read that.