Talk:Tooru Mutsuki/@comment-29827930-20160908145426/@comment-25047329-20160908185805

Ishida mentioned once in an interview that he thinks that parents get in the way, which indirectly explains why TG has a lot of dead parents/parental figures. Those sort of characters are at most plot devices. The measures Ishida goes through to keep authoritative relatives out of the spotlight happens to work with this kind of story since he can either kill them off relentlessly, make them abusive/neglectful, or both and no one would bat an eye. If Kaneki's past comes across as strange, it could just be chalked up to Kaneki himself and his hangups. e.g. Kaneki tried to convince himself he wasn't lonely not having a father as long as he had his books, but his relationship with Arima (and to a lesser extent, Yoshimura) says otherwise.