User blog:NephilimGear/The entire series and √a with certain sequel spoilers: Why do I feel it's the mangaka making a deep catharsis for his own sadnesses?

I am not saying that Sui Ishida is Kaneki. However, I do think he has seen or experienced either secondhand or firsthand some of the horrors that Ken did. I mean, this series despite some of its nihilistic components, feel as though an excerise in catharsis and empathy. I mean no one can really understand Ken without knowing that Ken is an everyman introvert who the brutalities of the world won't leave alone. The sort of psychopathy/neuroticisim the poor young man goes through is inescapably so rigorous that his entire biology/anatomy changes to the point of no return.

The "ghoul cannibalism" feels to be the antipathy or rather socipathic cannabalism many people do in the world. And Ken is infected by it via almost a sexual tryst, an analogy if not full similarity to an STD, an outbreak. Then his biology is reset by components from his attacker/his both would-be murderer and potential sexual abuser. Then he must completely change who is. Not to forget that horrific torture scene that make his wishes of nobility or self-sufficiency turn into monstrosities.

I am really saddened that we see such a good, decent human changed from his kindhearted self to a morose, avaricious demon. Though he does repent and try to change you can see by the end of √a that the damages had been done. You can see how he has lost the colour in his eyes and face. As though the world has raped him of all his connections and identity. I think the series is a reminder of the excesses of human cruelty and the poignance of even small shards of kindnesses.

I am glad  that the brutality was not really censored that Ken's torture was elaborately shown. That Ken was feeling helpless and senseless as to why he was being tortured and then he becomes stronger and takes out his torturer — only to transform into something more beastial; only a shadow of himself. I am happy to see a fall from grace. Because almost all decent human being would after such a horrible experience. But with both insane rage comes also PTSD but he never can really face it. The only thing he wants then is to become stronger so that he doesnt ever go through that again. Thus a monster made a killer, a poor soul became a killer after facing the inhumane and perverse.

In the end after Hide dies it feels Ken realises that there was no other thing to do but see Hide die. Hide dying is his old life dying. But it also a release. As we are shown Hide was the only one who knew Ken Kaneki. And his death in a way is a death of Ken Kaneki. Or, rather what Ken used to be. It is not a sad death per say it is also actually a liberation. It is true that the ghoul was a bother, an infection that festered but this grotesque thing made Ken face the anger and desolation in him; he didn't always want to be good natured but thought he couldnt risk being alone. Now, that Hide is gone he realises those characteristics were meaningless for if he had been honest about himself more maybe it wouldn't have come to this. And that honesty entailed saying to someone how his torture  made him feel less human or even less as a living being and more so less than an animal.

I think this is Ishida's way of saying that the death of a good person hardly materialises in body appearance but manifests as actions as the ghoul in Ken is an action operating on all the negatives he is being fed.

If we are meant to weep for how the cruelties of others damaged Ken then the mangaka did exactly that. In the end we are as lost and unhappy as Ken. For all his beauty feels exhausted by a world who did not understand aesthetics, kindness or the empathy of souls. Hide also symbolized conscious empathy his death meant that no matter what side they were fighting for they had lost the very essence of themselves; their souls.

Maybe, Ken now has to reclaim his soul, his humanity and his place as a suitable hybrid. Maybe he can now take the mantle and be the new reification of empathy for the warring sides.