(Edit: this ended up being a lot longer than I was expectingholy shit????)(Another edit: I forgot to actually censor the word to**ken so now it’s gonna come up in the tags I’m sorry lads)
First of all, I wanna start by saying that I’m not a “saltyfujoshi who’s upset that my yaoi ship isn’t canon” or a “Touka-hatingmisogynist”. I like hidekane but that doesn’t affect my views on touken bc Iknew that it wouldn’t be canon and that a touken endgame was more likely. Also I’vealways loved Touka since I started the series two years ago, but her currentcharacter regression is what’s slowly making me dislike her. Also I’m writingall of this off the top of my head, so sorry if I give any false information orleave important bits out!!
Okay so I actually used to like touken because I thoughtthey had a lot of potential for development and really could’ve been a greatship. My main problem with it is how poorly written the ship is. I’m mainlyfocusing on :re because I loved the og Tokyo ghoul series. Let’s start withtheir development from both characters’ perspectives. Start of :re, we seelight-haired Touka, all beautiful, grown up and mature-looking running her own café.Wonderful! Turns out she built the :re café as a home for Kaneki to come backto, even though everyone else thought he was missed or dead. Tbh I thought itwould be for everyone since she valued her family and friends at Anteiku asmuch as Kaneki but still: it’s really sweet, I can’t fault it much. At the sametime, it’s also very disappointing because og Touka had clear goals in life,wanted to attend school and university and build an independent life and careerfor herself and cared about all of her friends and family equally. That’s theTouka I love. But no, let’s have her wait around for several years for a guyshe’s merely just friends with and doesn’t know that well. Because that’s agreat way to write a strong, independent, smart female main character! Also, whatdid she do for him other than the :re cafe? She recognised Kaneki as Haiseimmediately and said she didn’t want to force herself upon him and make himremember his actual self, which sounds nice of her in theory, but she knew thathe wasn’t actually happy at the CCG and how he was treated there. Yet she didnothing to try and help?? She even told Tsukiyama to just give up when hewanted to save Kaneki?? I thought she loves him? Touken development from Kaneki’sperspective: he thinks Touka is very pretty. That’s really it. And that’s whilehe has amnesia. What did she doexactly to inspire him to keep living? What did she sacrifice for him? What otherromantic things does he say about her except for her pretty appearance? Notmuch.
Let’s skip forward a bit. Touka and Kaneki haven’t seen eachother properly for ages and haven’t had a proper conversation. Bear in mind:they’re still just friends at this point. Not even best friends or anything.Kaneki’s spent more time with Nishiki than with Touka at this point. This is agreat opportunity for them to catch up and have a nice, meaningfulconversation. What does Touka think a great thing to bring up in thisconversation is? Ask if Kaneki’s a virgin! This is based solely on “how helooked at her” when he had amnesia.Not long after asking this, she says that she’s always trying to find ways tostop him from leaving, which heavily implies she was trying to tie him downwith a relationship which is really gross. I understand that she hasabandonment issues due to her past, but that isn’t a good enough excuse. Themeaningful conversation I was hoping for comes back into light when the two ofthem start talking about Yoriko and Touka asks Kaneki about Hide and how hecopes with it. Kaneki gives her a heartfelt answer about how he could never doanything concrete because he’ll start missing Hide again. This is a wonderful opportunityfor them to mutually discuss what it’s like to be a ghoul with a human bestfriend and how to handle the pain, therefore developing and deepening theirrelationship. Let’s have a quick recap of the atmosphere here. They’re in anabandoned warehouse in the middle of a war, they’re tired and need to rest(which Kaneki suggests) and talking about their dead friends. Of course, thissituation is BURSTING with romantic, sexual tension and Touka feels the need toclimb on him and kiss him out of the blue. Does this lead to them discussingtheir feelings like adults, seeing as Touka stans love to talk about her “amazingcharacter development and maturity”? Nope, they fuck without any protection orforeplay out of an impulsive decision which results in pregnancy. One, how clichécould you possibly get? Two, didn’t Itori say that conception with ghouls wasvery unlikely at the start? And we’re supposed to believe that this chaptermakes sense and isn’t ooc at all? We’re supposed to just accept it because “she’sa girl and he’s a boy”? Kaneki could’ve had a sex scene with Hide or Nishiki inthat chapter and it would’ve made the same amount of sense tbh.
Moving on again. I would’ve been alright with chapter 125 ifthey had realised what they had done was irresponsible, yet they recognise thefeelings they have towards each other and start building a healthy romanticrelationship at a reasonable pace, discussing their issues and working toresolve them. Or, it could’ve been hinted at or explained that Kaneki is usingTouka/sex as an emotional crutch due to his mental illness. These would’ve madesense. But no, Ishida doesn’t ever discuss the unhealthy aspects of theirrelationship which is what led me to hate the ship even more. Within the next10 or so chapters they’re fucking pregnant and married? Even though they wereonly just friends like 11 chapters prior? Where was the development? How can y’allhonestly think this is good writing? It’s so rushed and forced and makes nosense. They’ve literally been dating for like 2.5 seconds, why are they alreadymarried? They’re married and they hardly know anything about each other! Beforeyou argue this point, lemme explain:
- We’re supposed to be seeing Touka as Kaneki’sOne True Love and the light of his life but she’s STILL hitting him at thispoint in their relationship. I don’t care how many people try to brush it offas comedy or “tsundere behaviour” it’s domestic abuse! Why is Kaneki’s motherabusing him seen as tragic and a massive factor towards his mental healthissues, yet Touka, the Love Of His Life, punching him into a table (knockinghim unconscious and saying “I feel much better now!” afterwards), pushing himviolently and calling him an idiot when he wants to have a serious conversationwith her is seen as comedy? Why? Because she’s pretty? Because she’s his waifu?It was even shown that he was worried about her hitting him again. I’ve seensome people say “He’s a grown man if it’s abuse he could just leave”. Mostabuse victims don’t recognise it as abuse dumbass!!! He literally said he wasused to being beaten by those he cared about which is why he’s normalised it inhis mind!! Just because she’s a girl it doesn’t make it okay for her to beabusing her partner. Touka stans like to use the excuse “She doesn’t know abouthis past!” which EXACTLY proves the point I’m making. She hardly knows him! Andthey’re married! Regardless of if she knows that he’s an abuse survivor or not,her actions are still gross. Y’all wanna talk about her “character development”but she’s still acting like her angsty 16-year-old self who can’t express herfeelings properly. She’s an adult woman now. It’s not fair of her to treatKaneki like this when he’s been nothing but kind to her throughout theirrelationship.
- I’ve also seen the excuse “Well, Kaneki left herwhen she has abandonment issues so he’s just as bad as her! It’s mutual abuse!”.First of all, you’ve just admitted the ship is abusive. Congrats, you playedyourself. Secondly, it proves my point again. He hardly knows about her too!You would think that Kaneki would take it upon himself to get to know Touka andher past and try to understand her as a person before marrying her. And we’resupposed to think that he’s smart? Of course, they were only friends at thetime and he had no obligations to Touka but it’s still not great that he lefther. Arguably, he originally left so that he could be strong enough to protectthose he cares about, including her, sooo yeah. The idea that he’s using her asan emotional crutch makes a lot of sense here, but we all know Ishida wouldnever show touken as the unhealthy relationship it is.
Next point, more bad writing. How is Kaneki out here sayingthat Touka is his only reason to live and calling her his best friend? I’m notdenying the fact that he loves her (I truly believe he does, but not to theextent that’s being currently portrayed), but is he forgetting other peoplehave done for him in the past? Who stopped Kaneki from taking his own life?Hide! Kaneki could’ve hallucinated about Touka down in that sewer if she wasreally the Light Of His Life, but no, he thought of Hide because his subconsciousknows that Hide is the only person who could’ve truly saved him at that point. Whatdid Touka do to stop him from taking his life? I’m not trying to say that Hideis better than her, but it makes no sense for Ishida to suddenly keep pushingthe idea that Kaneki’s number one top priority is Touka and pushing hisrelationships with other characters to the side. Don’t even get me started onhow Tsukiyama’s being treated. He starved himself for 3 years and was miserableafter thinking that Kaneki was dead then all of a sudden, he’s happy to plan atouken wedding? Who is this man idk him?? Honestly though, how is Kaneki 100%deeply and madly in love with her when the only romantic development from hisside was calling her pretty? They’ve hardly spent any time together where didhe find the time to fall in love with her and consider her as his best friend. Also,another thing; ghouls getting married via bitemarks is the dumbest thing I’veever heard and sounds like bad fanfiction. Ayato literally ate Touka’s kagunein the past and she’s recovered. Kaneki has been tortured and had his toesripped off in the past and that’s healed. Yet his bitemarks on Touka stayed?What the literal fuck? By this logic, Kaneki is also married to Rize, Amon (inthe ova they were canonly married and Kaneki asked for a divorce), arguablyHide depending on if he bit his shoulder and was already married to Touka fromtheir fight with Tsukiyama in the church. Yet this wasn’t pointed out untilnow. Bad. Writing.
Another point: I cannot believe touken stans are out here really thinking that sex cures depression and that Kaneki found ‘true happiness’ by busting a nut in Touka like lmao are you serious? Being with Touka doesn’t automatically erase his mental illness, the torture he’s been through, his psychological and physical damages and his tragic childhood. Yes, being with her does add a positive aspect to his life but this isn’t how mental illness works at all, you don’t need to be a medical expert to know that, it’s just common sense.
I think this is my last point so here we go: Touka’scharacter regression due to touken and Kaneki. So far, it probably seems like I100% purely hate Touka, which is not true. I hate how she’s being written andtreated by the author. Like I said previously, I was literally in love with ogTouka. She was a total badass, she was smart, she was independent, she lovedschool, she loved everyone at Anteiku, she loved Yoriko and rabbits and musicand was just such a cool character. I originally shipped her with Kanekibecause I thought they had good potential and her character and independence wouldn’tfalter as a result of a romantic relationship. Well, I was wrong. Currently,Touka’s only relevance to the plot is to look pretty and be Kaneki’s waifu andbearer of his child. Ishida is trying to write her as a soft waifu but at thesame time she acts like an angsty teenager around Kaneki half of the time, howdoes that even work? How could you not possibly think this is unfair to her andis blatantly sexist writing? Because clearly a female lead can’t exist withoutbecoming dependant on a man or becoming a housewife at some point, right? Whydoes her character have to revolve around him yet his character doesn’t have torevolve around her? Why does her character and personality have to suffer as a result of a relationship?News flash: women can be in love and still be their own person. ToukaKirishima, who valued school dearly and loved her best friend Yoriko so muchthat she ate human food solely because she knew how hard Yoriko worked to makeit for her, gave up on her life goals and hardly cared when Yoriko was gonnadie? Even Kaneki thought that was weird. Also, Ishida is trying to push theidea that Touka has become smart and mature and makes good decisions. Uh,where? She waited around for Kaneki for several years when she could’ve beendoing more with her life, she had unprotected sex with him in the middle of awar, she’s now pregnant which puts her at a disadvantage as she has to fightand using her kagune would mean the baby would be absorbed as food for strength,which will cause emotional pain to her and to Kaneki. Wow she’s so smart,Einstein is shaking. Original Touka wouldn’t do this. She’s literally no betteras a 20 something year old woman as she was as a troubled 16-year-old child. Callit character development all you want, it’s character regression. Also, thispart is a bit of a reach I must admit, but Touka’s being drawn to look youngerwhich is really weird? Light-haired Touka at the start actually looks like anadult, yet current Touka looks like a teenager with her original hairstyle and bigshoujo eyes and a small nose and mouth in quite a lot of panels. Ishida evendrew her with the cutesy sparkly shoujo background when she told Kaneki thatshe was pregnant. Was that necessary? You can’t replace her current lack of apersonality with a pretty face, she actually needs character development lol. I’mnot denying that she actually loves Kaneki (once again, I truly think she doesbut needs to learn to express herself better and act like an actual adult).
I have more points I could make, but I’ll stop here becauseI literally wrote a whole essay here lmao. I just want to finish off by sayingthat even though I hate touken, I don’t hate touken shippers because I can seewhy people ship it, but I hate that 95% of you guys blatantly ignore theunhealthy aspects of their relationship and refuse to hear any criticism about Toukaor Kaneki because that’s just gross. The ship and the characters are problematicwhether you like it or not. Like I said, I wrote all of this off the top of myhead so if I’ve said anything that’s incorrect or missed things out please tellme!!
