Juuzou does now show empathy for humans and especially
his friends, but his empathy is dependent on orders, and that’s really
where he needs to grow. You’re right, he called medical for Hanbee but
this is what he said when they were about to face Kaneki:
And
he was still willing to fight his friend knowing it could cost him his
other friend just to keep the dream of seeing Shinohara alive.
I’m kind
of a broken record at this point, but Juuzou is all about Shinohara at
this point. Which is ironic because it was through Shinohara that he
learned to feel empathy for other humans (he always had the potential, I
agree with you there), but now his focus on Shinohara is inhibiting his ability to
grow in that empathy.
I ship him with Hanbee romantically. Suzuhan is adorable, and Hanbee definitely loves Juuzou even if his love may be platonic. BroTPs I ship Juuzou x everyone.
You’re right that Juuzou is not an emotional character. The only time we ever really see him show emotions is when he attacks that officer for calling him a girl in the first TG and when Shinohara is wounded. Emotional repression seems to be a theme of late in TG, and it generally will come rushing out.
It’s interesting Hanbee calls him out on this during this conversation. Now that Hanbee has most likely survived the fight, I hope he is able to help Juuzou deal with his pain after something probably happens with Shinohara.
I don’t think he’s focusing on helping humans though–he’s focusing on killing ghouls. Unlike, say, Ui, he doesn’t truly seem to believe ghouls are the embodiment of evil and need to be destroyed.
*cries at the thought of Hanbee dying* I know I’ve been predicting that but I also really like Hanbee’s relationship with Juuzou, so I hope he can, like, just be in a coma (again) or something and unlike Shinohara maybe he will survive said coma. I actually think not nearly as many people as we think are going to die by the end of TG (characters with arcs especially I think are more likely to live, but then again, Hanbee doesn’t really have an arc so *crosses fingers*) considering that the moral of the story is literally stated to be multiple times live, even if it’s not stylish, even if you can’t be happy.
I think Aura is already kind of a temporary member of Juuzou’s squad, but like, yes please, Nakarai, take over that mentorship role but leave the CCG to do it because there’s only so much growing either of them can do so long as their goals are still about killing ghouls. Saiko and Urie also need to get the hell out of the CCG, everyone please abandon this sinking ship.
I’d love to see Mutsuki and Hajime bonding, but I feel like it’s not quite time for that just yet. If Hajime survives this I do think we may very well get that, but not quite yet. The Quinx will probably have to come together to combat this Dragon thing first–though I still feel like they need to save each other first/grow first, so I’m not sure how this will play out, lol, maybe they will be separated after all? I’m also not certain Mutsuki knows Kaneki is Dragon. Hopefully the next chapter will give us some clues!
My son is going to show up with candied human flesh in his pockets to apologize to Kaneki and everything will be fine.
Kidding. But actually, I think the axe needs to fall on everyone in the CCG, including Juuzou, and soon (axe falling=/=them dying to be clear! I don’t think Juuzou will die). It’s funny, Furuta says this to Kaneki after his defeat at Juuzou’s hands:
However, he really might as well have said that to Juuzou as well. Juuzou’s learned nothing. I mean, he has learned to love others like Hanbee, Nakarai, and the other two in his squad, and Mutsuki. However, he also learned to love Kaneki, we can say pretty confidently, and that meant nothing in the end because he’s still clinging to Shinohara and was willing to brutally slaughter his own friend, the only one who never looked at him like he was disgusting, just because Furuta told him to.
It adds irony to the statement he makes to Big Madam here:
Essentially, this isn’t a declaration of freedom from Big Madam, but rather a declaration that he is still Rei. He is still a puppet; the master pulling the strings just switched from ghouls to ghoul-killers. Juuzou, on some level, even seems to recognize this:
Basically, Juuzou has no reason to fight ghouls. He really doesn’t hate them, unlike, say, Ui or Urie or even Mutsuki. He doesn’t see the difference between ghouls and humans; the only difference is that he’s been ordered to kill ghouls whereas he used to be ordered to kill humans.
Unfortunately for Juuzou, the one thing that caused some change in Juuzou beforehand was this:
His own reckless behavior led to Shinohara sacrificing himself for Juuzou. Juuzou’s calculated behavior here has resulted in Dragon and we don’t know what happened to his squad. It’s possible Dragon killed Tamaki and Mikage and/or Hanbee will die from his injuries in the fight (since he is the one who is closest to Juuzou, based on what we’ve seen), but I’m not even sure that would work entirely to get Juuzou to change his mind; they were both told to prepare their wills, he knew it was a possibility, and he decided to do what Furuta told him to anyways.
However, there is this:
Here Nakarai and Hanbee imply Shinohara is already dead and Juuzou doesn’t know. I do wonder if Furuta was hoping Dragon would revive Shinohara like he hoped to revive Hairu, but that doesn’t actually matter. If Juuzou loses some members of his Squad, caused his other friend to turn into a Dragon by savagely attacking him, and sees it was all for a lie, a moon arc illusion–well. That might just break him, and Juuzou needs to break.
It’s funny, Juuzou has no particular empathy for ghouls, but also none for people either, aside from people he’s close to. He’s kind of Extreme Kaneki in many ways. If he learns that he failed to appreciate Hanbee and the others in the same way that he failed to appreciate Shinohara until it was too late, he might be able to make a decision (he is tied to Judgment, after all) and decide to help the people he still does care about–any remaining members of his Squad, but more obviously, Mutsuki, who needs help, and whom Juuzou has failed utterly at mentoring. He might be able to become Shinohara insofar as mentoring broken children goes (dare I hope for Hajime), and when he finds out Mutsuki is actually a ghoul now, that might help spur him to reconsider whether it really is okay to kill ghouls just because someone tells you to. Because Shinohara? He would never have killed Juuzou.
Well, Furuta definitely implied Shinohara’s still alive here,
though then again, Furuta is a known liar so I wouldn’t put it past him
to lie to Suzuya about that.
It also looks like Juuzou is alone here, so Hanbee and Nakarai couldn’t tell Juuzou if indeed Shinohara is dead. And I think Furuta very well might not be anticipating surviving this mission, so maybe it doesn’t matter to him what lies he has to tell since consequences aren’t going to be an issue:
It would certainly be ironic, and would certainly
reinforce the theme of chasing after the dead only serving to contribute
to you losing what you already have. If Juuzou killed his friend and
then realized it was all for nothing, well, I really hope that would
shake Juuzou to his core, and force him to reconsider his actions.
Because Juuzou’s stuck right now. He needs something to shake him, to
make him realize what he realized at the end of the first TG: that it does
matter if someone dies. He only seems to have realized that Shinohara’s
life matters; he needs to realize that everyone’s lives, including the
lives of ghouls, matter.
Which is why I’m currently very
nervous for Hanbee.
Like seriously, Juuzou, you realize there isn’t much of a difference between humans and ghouls. Please act on it.
But anyways, right now Juuzou’s become what he never
wanted to be: Rei 2.0. Instead of killing for good boy points, he’s
killing to keep his friend alive. Is that a better motivation? I mean,
I’m not sure it matters because we’re talking about murdering a friend
here, and children.
If Juuzou wants
to really honor Shinohara’s memory, he should try to focus on mentoring
other lost children, and he should stop killing, period, and develop
empathy for ghouls. Which to be frank he might have been able to do if
Kaneki reached out to him before it got to this point, and which I’m
hoping will happen in the future.
Touka leaving those flowers to Shinohara has to count for something.
It is possible. As I said before, Hanbee is foreshadowed to get stabbed in the head several times in omake. It’s possible he could even take a fatal blow for Juuzou, as his one character trait is having really intensive loyalty.
However, another interesting thought occured to me. “I’ve raised reapers for three people” could have a double meaning. Especially if the Kanou/Zombie arc that has been foreshadowed for a good while is coming soon.
Ui already made the connection between Furuta reviving people, and a god fo death.
In that case it would be three significant people revived from the dead by Furuta. Possibly even, three people that he revives specifically for people that he wants to get on his side.
In that case, since I’ve always been saying that there are only about three likely candidates for a Quinx revival surgery, Shirazu, Hairu and Kanae, those also could be in a way the three reapers that the chapter title was talking about.
hamliet 