Haise and the Shadow

Carl Jung is a psychiatrist, and philosopher. He came up with a lot of well known psychological concepts, one commonly used is extraversion and introversion as Kaneki as commonly termed as an ‘introverted’ character. Jung’s psychology already applies to Tokyo Ghoul, and he’s already directly referenced, which lays the groundwork for a particular theory of his I am speculating is an important part of Kaneki’s character arc through the entirety of Tokyo Ghoul and Re:.

That is the concept of the Shadow, or the Shadow self.

In Jungian psychology, the shadow is the unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself.

Because one tends to reject or remain ignorant of the least desirable aspect of one’s personality, the shadow is largely negative.

There are however, positive aspects which may remain hidden in one’s shadow (especialy in people with low self esteem. Contrary to the freudian definition of shadow, the Jungian shadow includes everything outside the light of consciousness, and may be positive or negative.

These qualities all exist in Kaneki too, but his self esteem is too low to recognize them. In other words:

“Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life-”



“The blacker and denser it is-”



The shadow consists of the instincts that were repressed in early childhood as the conscious mind took form.

The shadow is instinctive and irrational.

It is prone to psychological projection, in which a perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else.

These projections insulate and harm individuals by acting as a constantly thickening veil of illusion and denial between them and the real world consequences of their actions.

Haise’s, and by extension Kaneki’s character arc throughout all of Re: is dealing with this concept of the shadow. Kaneki, due to early childhood trauma as already seen, began early on repressing his desires in order so that his conscious self his ‘ego’ could it the image that his mother wanted of him. ‘Becoe the person who is hurt, rather than the person who hurts others’. This rendered him docile and unable to speak of his own wants. His shadow became so strong, he was rendered unable to choose, a fact pointed out by Rize herself.

The shadow as stated above works through methods of projection. What Kaneki could not admit about himself he projected onto others, he hallucinated Rize as a representative of his strengths, as Kaneki at this point was extremely mentally and physically resound, Yamori even admitted so. Kaneki just couldn’t admit that fact about himself. Then Rize tells Kaneki about the weakness of his mother in relation to himself. There’s still a layer of ‘buffer’ around Kaneki’s own deficiencies at this point, he’s not admitted he was wrong so much as he is admitting that his mother is wrong. He’s not making a harsh decision himself so much as ‘devouring rize’ and absorbing her capacity to do so. His faults are not his own, but neither are the positive parts he is projecting away from himself in his representative of Rize. The end result of all of this projecting is his personality completely giving way to his shadowed instinct.

Notice how he calls out to his mother ‘the originator of his shadow’ and then questions his own self, (because he is ahving trouble distinguishing now between the conscious and the unconscious. His line ‘I’m So Fucked Up” could also be a reference to another series that dealt with Jungian philosophy in which the main character had to learn to accept all of himself in order to move forward.

In his deep introspection after the Centipede incident, Kaneki is plainly told that he had tried to throw away a part of himself.

An observation also made by Hide, who comments that Kaneki’s personality because of this projection tends to be a front, a fake, and that maintaining this ego of his puts a burden on Kaneki.

In Tokyo Ghoul though, despite finally realizing his true desires in the end Kaneki becomes a victim of his own failed coping mechanism. That mechanism in summary being experiences a trauma-> throws a part of his personality away to adapt or suppresses a need-> projects and/or hallucinates some fraction of himself to shift the blame of that action on-> Then his original personality becomes more of an act to pretend everything is okay and cover for what he is missing-> Which stresses his ego out further-> Until it collapses and gives way for the shadow’s baser instincts.

Kaneki realizes at least a part of this at the end of his ‘life’, but does not resolve to change it which leads to his eventual arc in :Re.

Haise at this point believes the only way he can be happy, is to ‘dream a happy dream’, which is really just another level of projection as after this point his whole past self becomes his shadow.

Now this entirely wasn’t a bad decision on his part. A human mind can only endure so much, and Kaneki had lost his last piece of hope (returning to Anteiku) and could no longer live with the sadness. Yet, he found a way to live onwards and find some semblance of happiness in the CCG. If Haise were in a less strenuous environment, he could recognize his new happiness and slowly come to terms with his old memories, while learning new, healthier coping mechanisms.

That, however, was not the case. As stated before, Haise’s journey is the journey of the fool. There is one card in tarot which embodies the shadow.

Thus the Moon calls your attention to your shadow, becoming consciously aware of any tendencies to project fear and anxiety onto your external surroundings, and turning it around into more positive and constructive energy. The Moon is a psychological card of projecting fear into your present and your future, based on past experiences. The images, thoughts and feelings that you have repressed over time cause inner disturbances that are becoming overwhelming. As a result, you are now experiencing negative blocks within your personality, causing fear and anxiety. To remedy this, you need to go through a purging process whereby deep memories are released.

Every major fight in Tokyo Ghoul: Re so far has called attention to Haise’s shadow in one way or another. The fight with Nishio is a reminder to Haise that the past which he had been continually in denial of still existed, by meeting a physical person who called back to it’s existence and nearly instigated a flashback. It also mirrored his first significant fight in the series, in a dramatic irony sort of way as Haise was unaware he was repeating the actions of the past.

The theory of the shadow is, in basic the more you repress it the stronger it becomes. The more Haise attempts to run away from his past, the more it will pursue him. The second fight in the series is against a more meteaphorical shadow.

Haise faces Takizawa, another Half Ghoul created by Kanou and one that was tortured by Aogiri until it changed their personality. However, unlike Kaneki, Takizawa gave in completely to his suppressed baser instincts until it was all that was left of him. His entire personality consists of his hunger, his inferiority complex, and a want to hurt others as he’s been hurt. To Haise this is his worst nightmare, that a former half ghoul he shares so much in common with can completely lose themselves like this. Haise fights what he fears the most.

This is also just a projection though, as Takizawa is not completely gone. Even completely overtaken by the shadow as he is, the shadow is not entirely negative. It only consists of repressed elements of his original ego, so Takizawa’s fondness of Akira stil remains. Hence why he runs away in shame once she appears on the scene. Due to the actions of his loved one though, Haise begins to see his past self as not entirely a negative force as well. Unfortunately the flawed coping mechanism remains in tact.

Haise’s conclusion is not “It’s okay if I’m Kaneki and he and I are one” but rather “it’s okay if I disappear” meaning he stil sees them as two separate entities. To overcome the moon after all he must recognize that him and Kaneki his repressed shadow self are the same entity.

Akira summarizes it “Names don’t matter.”

After the fight with Takizawa, Haise’s shadow takes a more recognizable form.

Revealed in the most recent chapters, this is Jungian symbolism in the most literal manner possible. While at the same time reinforcing the idea that he and Kaneki are different entities, his child shadow eventually reveals to Haise he is the embodiment of childhood memories.

Not only that, but he is also the embodiment of some of his darker subconscious desires. “To die in a cool way’, ‘To be loved by everyone’. While the resolution of this arc is not known yet how it will affect Haise in the long term, he has now at least accepted his shadow self. Or, decided to stop dreaming as Haise.

Therefore it’s only fitting his hair has turned competely black, to reflect the fact that he is now the shadow completely overlaid on himself.