Talk:Touka Kirishima/@comment-24.74.64.155-20160610072618/@comment-10733658-20160610073756

Yeah, she's presented with a lot of the "Love Interest" tropes and presentation. But whether the two of them will actually ever get together is questionable at best. But Ishida does present her as the primary female lead, and draws her with Kaneki a lot. But it falls into that ambiguous space where two characters haven't gotten together or even openly expressed their feelings, but have a lot of cues that read as romantic within a Japanese context.

For example, there's an omake where Touka explicitly goes to Nishiki for romantic advice. She asks him what kinds of gifts he would get for Kimi (after Kaneki gives her the keychain), and then gets angry at him when he states that a keychain is something he'd get for someone he didn't care about.

There's also the parallel in Amon buying a keychain for Akira, the same way that Kaneki gives Touka one.

In general, the Japanese are a lot more understated and subtle in their expressions of romance in comparison to other cultures. Little gestures or even sitting together can be considered romantic, as they generally do not engage in public displays of affection. Presenting a gift to someone of the opposite sex is generally going to be considered romantic, and drawing them seated together/leaning against each other/ect, that generally communicates potential romance.

But I don't know whether Ishida would even have them get together in the long run, as things are kind of up in the air.