Talk:Re: Chapter 126/@comment-190.153.81.210-20170528054745/@comment-25047329-20170529221016

^Ishida has been wanting Touka and Kaneki to be an item since before they were even formally "Touka" and "Kaneki". Their prototypes started off as Kani and Hiroto in Ishida's previous work "The Penisman". It evolved a lot since then and actually has a pretty interesting history. In the main work Kani and Hiroto were both male characters with almost a ten year age gap and had more of a sibling-like relationship. Ishida then made a spin-off, "The Peniswoman", where most of the characters were gender-bent and had some other differences here and there. Kani's female design later became Touka's design in the second half of TG and Hiroto was bumped up a few years and his older design went to white-haired Kaneki. Hiroto was in love with Kani, but the feelings were one-sided because Kani was in love with someone else. And she was gay. Ishida liked their dynamic so much that he revamped their characters for TG. The romantic aspect was their since "The Penisman" days, but was inevitably played straight for a more serious work. Whether or not one read their relationship as a potentially romantic one from early on I think is more of an issue of perspective and cultural differences. The cues that might resonate with a Japanese audience may not resonate with foreigners (e.g. there's a lot of weight placed on names and how people can address each other). If an issue could be read into their development, then perhaps it could be interpreted that the origins of these characters had some effect. I mean, they did start out as surrogate brothers, then a one-sided gag relationship, then a couple. Maybe there was an unconscious effect since these characters have a complicated history? I have seen people say they felt that Kaneki and Touka's relationship felt more like a sibling one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯