sentrakk:

I originally wrote this meta before the announcement about TG ending was made and never posted it so it might as well be my final meta about TG for now. I was originally going to finish writing it on that fateful Monday, but didn’t go through with it due to the announcement so unfortunately the Akiramon/Ayahina comparison I wrote as well is not going to be included. I noticed that it still needs a lot of polishing and adjustments and since I’m not in the mood to write about TG anymore I had to scrap it completely, sorry about that.

Now that we’re all still depressed about the fate of mutsurie, I can at least prove that it was always intended to be romantic and was leading up to the same point as Touken up until chapter 179. No idea why Ishida shafted it so suddenly, but at least the development in the previous chapters is still there.

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Basically the manner in which Touken and Mutsurie are paralleled is that Touka and Urie share their roles while Kaneki and Mutsuki share theirs for the most part. In the beginning Touka and Urie were hostile towards Kaneki and Mutsuki, though both did it in their own ways, Touka by being openly rude and Urie by not expressing his feelings out loud and only being salty in his mind. They disliked the other person and had a wide array of insulting names to call them, hypocrite, idiot, dumbass etc. Kaneki and Mutsuki on the other hand tried to be kind towards Touka and Urie and had no ill will towards them. They tried to get along, but it didn’t always work out too well

Touka started warming up to Kaneki over time and Urie changed his way of treating Mutsuki after the Auction, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Before that the important parallel moment is the first big battle where the two are fighting together. Leading up to that moment are the first Tsukiyama arc and Auction parallels with Kaneki and Mutsuki going through very similar experiences. Both of them for example end up on display on a stage and have a dangerous ghoul after them, Tsukiyama wants to eat Kaneki while Big Madam buys Mutsuki at the auction and wants to make them her pet.

Kaneki and Mutsuki eventually come face to face with Tsukiyama and Big Madam, but this time they are joined by Touka and Urie. They do most of the fighting since Kaneki doesn’t really succeed at anything he tries and Mutsuki only rather unsuccessfully deals with Big Madam’s lackeys. They’re still very bad at fighting so they just get kicked in the gut and are unable to do anything anymore

Touka and Urie try to fight Tsukiyama and Big Madam after Kaneki and Mutsuki are injured, but are unsuccessful as well and fall to the ground defeated.

Kaneki and Mutsuki, despite being very injured, crawl over to Touka and Kaneki. What follows are two scenes that are portrayed in a very romantic manner. As a result Touka and Mutsuki manage to release their kagune.

Touka embraces Kaneki and her biting his shoulder looks rather erotic. This panel as well as the panel before it emphasizes Touka’s lips and Touka bites Kaneki on his shoulder, the same place they bit each other when they later on got married. Kaneki also afterwards looks at his scar left by Touka and thinks about this quote:

Touka left a permanent mark on him that won’t go away so the scene is pretty undoubtedly romantic. The Mutsurie scene that parallels this moment also parallels a Touken scene that happened before the Tsukiyama arc, but it gets the same point across by combining these two. That scene in question happens to be this and it is the one where Touka fell in love with Kaneki

Touka has insecurities about being a ghoul and doesn’t think her life is worth as much as a human’s, but Kaneki says her life matters to him and is empathetic and kind towards her. Mutsuki too shows Urie empathy and kindness as well as comforts him about his own insecurities, about feeling like being a hindrance to Sasaki and being lonely. This is most likely the moment Urie fell in love with Mutsuki too since immediately afterwards his attitude towards them changes drastically so there is the added romantic element. This scene is also sexual in tone like the Touken scene with the embrace, period blood, Urie figuring out Mutsuki’s sex and him penetrating Mutsuki through the stomach etc.

Urie and Mutsuki as well as Kaneki and Touka grow closer after the incident, but the peaceful times don’t last for long. Kaneki and Mutsuki end up getting kidnapped by two horribly abusive ghouls, Yamori and Torso, and are put through very violent and traumatizing torture. This changes their behavior drastically and makes them more mentally unstable. I won’t get into how similar white haired Mutsuki and Kaneki are since that would need a meta of its own, but it should be obvious anyway. Meanwhile back at home Touka and Urie are extremely worried about them and are comforted by their friends.

While both are aware of the fact that there’s a high chance that Kaneki and Mutsuki are already dead…

…they still have a strong resolve to go on a rescue mission to bring them back regardless of what others may think

Here the roles that Urie and Mutsuki have compared to Touka and Kaneki are reversed briefly, but the parallels still stand. When Touka sneaks into the Aogiri base, she comes across Ayato and ends up fighting him while on Rushima, Mutsuki ends up in a fight with Takizawa and Amon. They end up losing, but are saved at the last moment by Kaneki and Urie who appear out of nowhere

Touka and Urie are worried about Kaneki and Mutsuki’s health after reuniting with them

It’s also worth to note that Kaneki and Mutsuki engage in a rather brutal act of violence. Mutsuki after hearing about Urie ends up hurting Takizawa and Akira, Kaneki hurts Ayato after he beat up Touka

Despite doing what they’re doing, they seem to care a lot about what Touka and Urie think

In the end Touka and Urie only want Kaneki and Mutsuki to come back home and live happily together like they used to

(Touka commenting on Kaneki’s hair while blushing and being awkward is probably also a parallel to Urie checking out Mutsuki’s coat in chapter 100, which like this was the first interaction we saw them have after the fight. Touka, Urie, your crushes are showing)

Kaneki doesn’t want to stay at Anteiku anymore though and starts going after his own goals instead. Small difference here is that Mutsuki left the Qs squad already before they were kidnapped, but, started going after their own goals only after the kidnapping incident. Both of them start spiraling downwards with their mental health, doing terrible things and eating ghouls/humans to become stronger. For example Kaneki raiding Kanou’s lab and having to see Rize taken away is a parallel to Mutsuki raiding :re cafe and having to watch Sasaki escape, but again, I’m not going to focus on the Kaneki/Mutsuki parallels much since that would take too long.

Touka and Urie are aware of what’s going on and hear about the things Kaneki and Mutsuki have been doing. They take the initiative and decide to go and confront Kaneki and Mutsuki. Touka runs after Kaneki and meets him at the bridge and Urie comes to Kuroiwa’s wedding just so that he could talk to Mutsuki. However, they both end up struggling to come up with the words.

This time their approaches end up being the opposites though, because Touka and Mutsuki end up being the ones who get angry and shout while Kaneki and Urie are more meek. Touka says true things about Kaneki, but ends up lashing out and getting too angry while Urie doesn’t say and express his feelings anywhere near enough. They both just want Kaneki and Mutsuki to come back home, but Touka tells him to stay away due to getting too angry and carried away in the heat of the moment and Urie doesn’t express his feelings enough to convince Mutsuki to come back.

The scene ends with the boys getting absolutely wrecked and Mutsuki and Touka exiting the stage dramatically. One is beaten to a pulp physically by Touka’s fists, the other is beaten up emotionally by the friendzone. (lol)

Despite Touka managing to change Kaneki’s mind briefly, the end result is the same as with Mutsuki and the two leave and aren’t seen again for a while. They go on dangerous suicide missions to protect Anteiku and join the 24th ward raid despite having people waiting for them at home. That is due to their own goals that they still refuse to let go of, both goals in this situation being related to their father figures Yoshimura and Sasaki. Kaneki and Mutsuki of course don’t succeed at what they set out to do and end up going through a near death experience.

After which they disappear for a while and their loved ones don’t know what happened to them. Touka nor Urie make an effort to look for Kaneki and Mutsuki and instead sit still and do nothing, waiting for them to come back instead.

Meanwhile Touka and Urie go on their own missions unrelated to Kaneki and Mutsuki, Touka goes to Cochlea to save Hinami and Urie goes to save Kaneki from the Dragon, both joined by their respective groups. In the middle of the mission they happen to come across Kaneki and Mutsuki and are finally reunited with them for the first time since their fight. It is the same for Touka and Kaneki since Kaneki only now regained his memories and met Touka while being fully aware of who she is. The situation isn’t sorted out so easily though, because both Kaneki and Mutsuki are very suicidal. Kaneki is trying to get himself killed by his father figure Arima and Mutsuki, after their plans were soiled, is trying to get themselves killed by their own family, Urie and Saiko.

This is the point where Hide and Saiko come especially relevant. Hide is Kaneki and Touka’s friend (yes, he is Touka’s friend too) and Saiko is the friend to Urie and Mutsuki while Touken and Mutsurie are the intended  romantic pairing. The group dynamic is basically the exact same. What ends up saving Kaneki and Mutsuki from committing suicide in the end is actually their friend rather than Touka or Urie, though they did contribute to the cause. If Saiko and the imaginary Hide were the MVPs, Touka and Urie provided the necessary support. They for example manage to shake up Kaneki and Mutsuki and make them cry and falter, but it is not enough to stop them from trying to kill themselves.

Imaginary Hide and Saiko to the rescue, because sometimes you just got to call your friend out for being an idiot.

Kaneki and Mutsuki’s need to die is put on hold for now since they have people waiting for them. Touken and Mutsurie are eventually reunited in an place that resembles the old days at the beginning of their relationship. Despite Kaneki being the One Eyed King and the leader of Goat, the Anteiku still has been reborn in a way with Touka and Kaneki together in a cafe again with rest of the gang. The CCG too has gone through some changes with the human-ghoul alliance, but now Mutsuki is back in the Qs squad with Urie and Saiko, even Kaneki is back.

Things don’t start working out for between Kaneki and Touka as well as Urie and Mutsuki immediately though and there is quite a lot of awkwardness and lack of communication. They have one conversation together that doesn’t really go anywhere even if both Touka and Urie have things they’d want to say, instead they seem rather content with the way things are on the surface (they also have such beautiful smiles)

There’s also the moment of very obvious discontent, Touka’s bothered by being left behind again and Mutsuki’s bothered by Urie’s “work this, work that” attitude.

And those are all the major parallels we got until TG:re ended. The way the ships developed were identical and leading up to the same point, that point being them finally having a heart to heart talk together about their issues together. After the parallels I showed before, there was a big mission Kaneki and Touka were part of before things calmed down and they talked together, that being started with the famous “are you virgin” question. Urie and Mutsuki too were part of a big mission after some issues with their relationships were highlighted (the big fight with V), meaning that logically they would have talked things out too after the fight was over.

Instead though we got the time skip and chapter 179 so the parallels stopped in a rather awkward spot, right before we got the pay off Ishida had been setting up for a long time. Touka confessed in her discussion with Kaneki so logically we would’ve finally seen Urie confess his feelings to Mutsuki as well. If the parallels would’ve gone even further than that, we would’ve gotten everything beyond that point as well. So even if there was a major 6 year time skip, Urie and Mutsuki should’ve been married with kids by now, just like Touka and Kaneki were. It feels rather strange that Ishida would do something like this with the parallels to an obviously romantic relationship if he didn’t go through with it in the end. Even if mutsurie was meant to be an example of two people that never got together due to Urie’s feelings being unrequited, we should’ve still gotten the heart to heart discussion before the manga ended and Urie confessing. Now that Ishida ended it here, none of the build up lead anywhere. Why include that panel of Mutsuki looking bothered by Urie’s words if it never even was addressed? It’s clear that Ishida’s plans were always to do something different with this ship than what we got in chapter 179, but I guess that’s all we’ll still get and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever find out why. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Mutsurie got a rather disappointing end, but it’s clear that they were always intended to be a romantic couple.