Talk:Hideyoshi Nagachika/@comment-26306690-20151105012013/@comment-25047329-20151105014942

About his status? I personally don't think he's dead because he's too mysterious and intelligent. Kaneki having eaten him is a popular theory, but some stuff just doesn't add up. Like, there would be evidence if Kaneki killed Hide since he still can't eat a whole body at once and the CCG has him marked as MIA as opposed to KIA. They did have the underground areas blocked because they knew ghouls passed through there, so had people at the ready and there the clean up afterwards.

Thematically, he's still relevant because he's Kaneki's best friend and like :re and the CCG, he's another "home" for Kaneki; the third option that kind of gets forgotten about. He's also a character that plays into Kaneki's issue with making choices, which will probably come into play later. Hide and his relationship to Kaneki, despite being his best friend is largely unexplored still and that also has to be touched on.

And most importantly...how else is Ishida going to make Kaneki suffer the most? By killing him off and making Kaneki think he ate him? Ppfffttt, that's like, entry level suffering, Ishida can do better than that. No, Ishida has to make Kaneki think he has hope but keep it at arms length then rip it away. Hide was Kaneki's only remnant of his human life and will probably be a crucial figure as Sasaki tries to piece his past together. Hide's existence would be proof of Kaneki's humanity to Sasaki, there's gotta be more torture besides "I ate my best friend", lol. Besides, the "I ate someone a care about" shtick already belongs to Seidou and Sasaki thinks he killed Amon and there's a whole subplot revolving around that. I'm half expecting something terrible to have happened to Hide that doesn't involve him being dead. Hide can suffer more too.