Tokyo Ghoul: Ishida Sui and Berserk

In this post I will discuss the parallels between Tokyo Ghoul and Berserk, and the instances in which I think, Ishida has drawn inspiration from Berserk. These are also relevant to the events of the current Moon arc in TG:re surrounding Kaneki’s transformation into dragon and the upcoming Sun arc. Even if you haven’t read Berserk, it should be easy to understand.



I’ve never really constructed such an extensive meta before, so forgive me if it might be a bit disorderly. I should also warn you, it’s a very long post.



So, let’s start off with the most obvious reference to Berserk, Amon.

He resembles Guts a lot, design-wise. They both have a preference for large and heavy weapons, and both wear an armor which increases their physical capabilities, while exposing their bodies to great risk.

There’s also a thematic parallel. When Casca fell off the ship, Guts tried to grab her wrist with his left arm, forgetting that it’s just an iron prosthetic.

As a result, Guts is reminded that everytime Casca stood near water, she fell into the water while he tried to stop her fall.

This is what Amon has forgotten too, even if he tries to force back the life he once lead as a human and CCG investigator, it won’t ever be the way it was. He has yet to realize that.



Now to move on from Amon, I’d like to continue with some of the quotes from Berserk, which reminded me of TG.

Puck’s speech about the Count throwing away his humanity reminded me greatly of Kaneki, Seidou, and the Oggai who threw away their humanity.

And this, the decit filled system, reminded me of the twisted birdcage, Kanou was referring to. The CCG’s or rather V’s system.

Next up is Skull Knight’s words to Guts and Yoshimura’s to Kaneki. They are only vaguely similar.

But if we take into account that the world of ghouls has been in a way equalized with the world of the dead, by Nishiki’s words,…

…then it makes more sense.

Arima too, equalized ghouls with the dead.

Another noteworthy thing happens after the scene where Guts is told that he now lives in the boundary between the two worlds.

Some more parallels.

Guts’ and Kaneki’s respective war declarations.

Tsukiyama’s and Guts’ view on strength.

Guts and Kaneki also displayed very similar behaviour in regards to the people important to them.

The part about letting his own malice burn inside him, also applies to Amon.

Now if you take a look at this cover of chapter 37 of Berserk, you might recognize it as resembling the skeleton depiction of the OEK. It even has only one eye.



And you know how the old OEK is from the 24th ward, specifically from the underground city in the 24th ward.

Well, it might not surprise you at this point, but in Bereserk too, exists an old and forgotten city beneath Midlands capital, Windham.

The former ruler of this city was emperor Gaiseric, who just so happened to wear a skull helmet.

Now it’s important to remember that Uta is likely the old OEK.



Back to the underground city. It was apparently sunken by five angels. It’s not known whether these angels were a prior inacarnation of the Godhand, which also has 5 members.

The five angels will be important later, so remember it.

On top of that city remained a hole in the ground, after it was cast into oblivion. Into that hole, the people built a prison, very similar to Cochlea. With the only difference being Cochlea isn’t directly connected to the 24th ward’s city, but it should still be above it, seeing as the 24th ward is supposed to stretch throughout the entire underground of Tokyo.

V14 also has a parallel in Berserk.

The next thing Ishida has probably been inspired by, is the Behelit. The Behelit is a spiritual item with which one can summon the Godhand with, which will then grant the summoner his desire, in exchange for his humanity and the lives of others.



TG’s Behelit is Rize.



Through being turned into a ghoul and as a result having to consume the lives of others, Kaneki became able to partially fullfill his desire, which was to exist for love and revolution.



(He still has quite a way to go though)



Furuta’s wish was to expose the Washuu as ghouls and prolong his own life to bring his plan of initiating the destruction of this system, to fruition. He achieved both.



Kurona and Nashiro wished to return to the days they spent with their parents (that was fullfilled through Kanou, albeit in a twisted way) and to take revenge on the CCG/V which were the ones who killed them. Kurona has yet to achieve the latter.



The Oggai all wished for vengeance. They sacrificed their humanity to attain the power to take revenge on ghouls, who killed their families.



Also, they themselves served as food for Kaneki, who is a Daruma, a japanese doll meant to fullfill wishes.



Use: When purchased, the figure’s eyes are both blank white. A user will then select a goal or wish and paint in one of the figure’s two eyes. Once the desired goal is achieved, the second eye is filled in.

Furuta wishes for Kaneki to take care of the world.



Seidou also gave up his humanity for his desire, which was to save Amon and be a hero.

Ultimately his wish was fullfilled.

Additionally Ishida actually made the remains of Takizawa’s parents look similar to a Behelit.



There’s also this, the Sword of Actuation. A weapon made by Skull Knight through refining Behelits within himself. It is a weapon meant to kill the Godhand.



Which looks suspiciously similar to what Amon has here.

Now we move to the core of this post, it’s especially important for the events that are currently unfolding in TG.

There’s an arc in Berserk called The Tower of Conviction arc. The Tower of Conviction, actually called Albion, is a monastery. The surrounding area of that tower is filled with refugees from the war the Kushan are waging against Midland. Within this area also lives the egg apostle. Apostles are those who used a Behelit and sacrificed their humanity, they all attain a new demonic form, though the egg apostle is an exception. He takes the shape of an egg, or rather a Behelit.

We all remember the quote from Hermann Hesse’s Demian in TG.

And of course we also know about Eto’s book, The Black Goat’s Egg. And also her comparing the world to an egg.

Kaneki bears great resemblance to the egg apostle. Let’s start comparing them.

The egg apostle, just like Kaneki is “nameless”.

When the egg apostle met humans for the first time they reacted negatively upon seeing him and and started throwing stones at him. As a result the egg apostle was chased away.

That’s when the egg apostle used the Behelit and became the egg apostle.



But since he had nothing to sacrifice, no attachment to anyone, he could only sacrifice one thing, the world surrounding him and himself.

But what is his desire?

Here, we have the already previously mentioned deceit-filled system again, the twisted birdcage, created by V, if we look at it in the context of TG.



Remember the five angels from earlier, which supposedly sank that ancient city? Well, I’m assuming V’s leaders are vaguely based on them and/or on the Godhand. Since V is the roman numeral for 5 and the Godhand has five members..



The egg apostle also mentions something that reminded me of a scene from chapter 140 of the first TG.

He also stated what he thinks of the world.



As the egg apostle explains himself to the reader, outside his cave, in the entire vicinity of Albion, the people who took refuge there are being mercilessly and indiscriminately killed by vengeful spirits of the people tortured to death by the inquisitors of the monastery. They accumulated into a giant mass that’s swallowing every living thing.

Looks familiar right?

The vengeful souls even utter similar words to the ones screamed by Dragon/Kaneki.

Also, evil spirits not part of the giant mass start posessing humans, which leads to them attacking other humans and eating their flesh. Which is interesting, considering that it’s been implied that Dragon will turn humans into ghouls, and that Kanou is about to create or already has created zombies.

Later the egg apostle is seen climbing the Tower of Conviction.

You might notice the moon being there. Coincidentally that’s the phase of The Fool’s Journey TG is currently in.

See the towers? Now what could be The Tower of Convincion in TG?

My bet is on either the CCG headquarters or the building Dragon’s body has wrapped around.

For reference, below depicted is the Tower of Conviction before and after he partially crumbled. The light in the upper right corner is moonlight.

While climbing the Tower, the egg apostle comes across the child of Guts and Casca, which is partially a demon. He decides to swallow it, feeling pity and fellowship to the dying baby.

At the summit, the egg apostle slowly begins to hatch.



The misshapen child, Kaneki.

For the new world something has to be sacrificed, it’s the refugees, or in TG it’s going to be the people of Tokyo. The massive crowd bears the brand of sacrifice.

Just like the Behelit and Rize, the egg apostle and Kaneki are crying red/black tears.

While this event is unfolding the tower continues to crumble. After the Tower of Conviction has crumbled completely, what is revealed is the sun.

But what is going to happen to our misshapen child, Kaneki?

Just like Griffith has transformed into Femto the Fifth Blessed King, during the Eclipse, Kaneki will transform into the Nameless King.

This cover of chapter 127 of Berserk is also interesting.

If we think back now to the quote from Hermann Hesse’s Demian, which Ishida put into chapter 8 of TG, this looks like the bird that fought it’s way out of the egg (the Behelit). It also looks a bit like Kaneki and Rize are connected through their kagune. The bird has been crucified, which is interesting, because Kaneki also has parallels to Jesus surrounding him. He was part of something similar to the last supper (the christmas chapter of :re, 31.5). Hirako, a rather close ally of Kaneki, has been called Judas. And most recently, Kaneki is going to sleep for 72 hours now, according to Hide and Dr. Chigyou. That’s three days, the same amount of time Jesus took to resurrect. There’s even more parallels between Kaneki and Jesus, but I won’t go into detail about them here, because other people have already discussed this subject and also because this post is about TG and Berserk.



Jesus is the the savior of mankind (at least according to christianity), so that would make Kaneki the savior of ghoulkind, but will he finally be able to choose? Will he stop avoiding killing humans if it’s necessary, for the sake of ghoulkind?



I’d say yes, but we have yet to see the results of his transformation.



I’m grateful, if you’ve actually read this far. If you have any thoughts on this topic, please go ahead and share them on this post. I’d love to know about more paralles between Berserk and TG.



The last thing I want to say here is, that I think Judgement is likely going to be the final phase of The Fool’s Journey in TG:re. After the Tower of Conviction had completely crumbled and Griffith was reborn, we see Skull Knight overlooking the scenery, and the narration says the following:



I think Ishida will tell the story of Nameless in a third part of TG, which will be The World from The Fool’s Journey.

EDIT:



I realized that Eto shares quite a few similarities with Slan from Berserk.



They both have a similar hairstyle and colour.

Eto’s Kagune is an Ukaku, which usually takes a form similar to wings. Slan has wings as well. Slan is also always nude, and Eto often appears nude.



There’s also an encounter between Guts and Slan that reminded me of Kaneki’s confrontation with Eto on the rooftop of the Luna Eclipse Building.