Talk:Kaneki Ken/@comment-95.49.237.215-20151210202819/@comment-25047329-20151210211722

^^I...sort of agree with that.

Romance does exist within the series, it's just that it's only taken up like, 10% of the entire plot. Looking closely at the romantic relationships or potential romantic relationships, the majority of them don't end well or are in shambles. TG is loaded with things like dead parents at worst and only one dead parent at best. Off the top of my head, I think the least tragic official pairing (of notable characters/relationships) is Nishiki x Kimi, but we don't know where they stand now or what happened to Kimi herself.

The idea that attaining a romantic relationship is one of the pinnacles of happiness is so prevalent that I think it's all too often forgotten who exactly is writing this series. Every super relevant relationship the protagonists attain is often built up to cause the maximum amount of pain later. Which isn't to say that there's no chance of happy and healthy end game romances, but expecting all rainbows and butterflies is probably a...not so good idea.

TL;DR TG has romance, but Ishida being Ishida, rather than romance being an indefinite life improvement, it more often than not is used to increase suffering. Potential couples are more worrying than anything imo.