Koutarou A-Moon

do you think amon could be associated with the moon? since Ishida always draws him as floppy during the night, and has had a moon behind him multiple times, like in chapter 47 of tg there’s a chapter cover of him looking up into the night sky at something (moon?) and his birthday in the calendar page has a moon. plus he is the deuteragonist in tg so I feel like we should see more of him soon



Good observation with Chapter 47, because the quote that accompanies Amon’s entire arc in association with the moon card perfectly.

“Amon’s quest to find himself’ which implies Amon as he is currently lacks a sense of self identity. Which also ties neatly into the mention of Amon as deuteragonist, because Amon’s chief job as a deuteragonist is to play foil to Kaneki. In fiction, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character, in order to highlight particular qualities of the other character. In essence a character who does not exist for their own self determinant purposes but rather to reflect another character. That is not only Amon’s central character trait, it is his entire role in the story.



That is how he represents the moon card, as the moon can provide no light of its own, and can only reflect the sun’s light.



Amon as a Foil

Koutarou Amon does not posses a strong sense of self, and because of that he is constantly reflecting others. Not in the way Kaneki physically copies others, but rather Amon provides a foil to nearly every character he interacts with in a meta sense, and in a motivational sense is constantly looking outside for his reasons behind his action.

Even in the same chapter the title page belongs to, Amon is shown deriving to Mado’s intuition in a case he’s currently investigating even after the man is dead, much to the shock of his coworker.

Amon even serves as a foil to Mado, go as far back as the first time the characters were shown fully drawn together in one panel in chapter 10 and this can be instantly discerned.

At a glance, one of them is straight laced and the other looks like Igor. Were it not for Amon’s character design looking so normal though, except for the distinct shape of his eyebrows, is what provides the contrast for Mado’s design in this scene to make it more distinct. The connection goes beyond, while they both hunt ghouls for basically what amounts to revenge under different names Amon always conducts himself seriously and with restraint while Mado takes sadistic pleasure out of the kills. Amon basically has no life or future plans outside of hunting ghouls, with Mado has already run the gambit of getting married, having a daughter, and prioritizing time to raise her. Which is also another point of contrast as Mado had his life much more figured out than Amon ever could, considering how much Amon stumbles through interpersonal relationships.



Mado provided Amon with the first person he could reliably reflect off of, but Mado dies. In a story sense, this is basically the most unsubtle way possible of saying that the character’s current way of living is wrong within the context of a story. Amon no longer has Mado’s sense of intuition to trust, but he must live on anyway. The story however, provides him with another foil immediately.

Kaneki, like Mado’s intuition was before became a point of obsession to Amon that others just could not understand. Once again you have Amon citing an outside source and another investigator looking at him in confusion.

Kaneki has mommy issues, Amon has daddy issues. They develop Kakugan in alternate eyes. They have completely different body builds, Amon being tall , muscular and traditionally masculine while Kaneki is short, skinny, and has an aspect of femininity to his character. Listing this is basically moot at this point because this kind of interaction with a character is what defines every major character Amon Koutarou forms a relationship with.

Amon and Akira are both investigators who graduated at the top of their class who have a connection to Mado. Their lives are both largely influenced by their father. Amon is a recognized talent, while Akira is trying to live through her potential and high promise. Amon is socially dense but well meaning, Akira is socially conscious but purposefully blunt and cold.

Juuzou and Amon are both prodigies of undeniable physical skill. They were both raised by ghouls. However, Amon doesn’t recognize this commonality between them and often criticizes Juuzou instead of emphasizing with him. Amon is well dressed and well respected, Juuzou couldn’t tuck in a shirt to save his life and is often underestimated and derided. In their killing of ghouls, Amon motivates himself with personal grudges, while Juuzou sees it as ‘just a job’.

Amon and Takizawa were both investigators and good friends that were turned into one-eyed ghouls, but Amon managed to escape and seems to retain much of his humanity, while Takizawa remains trapped with Aogiri. They were foils even before that obvious and drastic character change though. Amon was well respected investigator on the rise gaining a closer relationship with Akira. Takizawa was considered a second rate investigator whose relationship with Akira was strained.

Daddy Donato



As I said though, listing all of these ways Amon plays foil is basically meaningless. What is important is how often that happens and what that says about Amon as a character and how he interacts with others and the world. Which brings us back to Amon’s strongest character motivation.

Which is just, an extremely unhealthy ideal to base your entire life around. It’s telling that 1) Kaneki begins repeating this motivation almost immediately after breaking out of his torture. You know when he was also in a totally healthy mindset.

(There’s also a moon in this picture too, what a coincidence.)

It’s borderline martyr-complex thinking, which is also why the only distinguishing feature of his design, besides his eyebrows is his tendency to wear a cross around his neck (a sign of martyrdom+another sign of martyrdom).

Amon’s martyr complex doesn’t manifest in the same way Kaneki’s does, even though they share similiar coping mechanisms such as deferment to others, and self aggrandizing. That’s because their trauma is different. His upbringing with Donato is necessary to contextualize his behavior.

Donato is probably the closest thing to a remorseless monster Tokyo Ghoul has. Like Torso, on top of being a ghoul many undertones to his actions that parallel him to real life serial killers. Especially due to his being a catholic priest whose main targets were children.

Donato killed and butchered several children while running the facade of an orphanage. He did this without remorse. However, even while viewing human children as food there was one child he spared. Not only did he spare him, but when he was finally found out by that child rather than killing him to hide his secret Donato offered to let the child join him. There’s no logical reason then, for why that child survived when none of the others did. Except there is, that child was Koutarou Amon, Donato’s beloved son. He spared Amon out of love.

Amon however, cannot understand, or cannot accept this reason due to his own personal values of justice and therefore he is left questioning.

Amon even specifically states he wears the Cross which symbolizes his martyr complex, because to him it’s a symbol of his ignorance at the time of the orphanage.

In other words his Martyr Complex is a symptom of his survivor’s guilt.

Survivor guilt is a mental condition that occurs when a person perceives themselves to have done wrong by surviving a traumatic event when others did not.



Amon lacks a strong sense of self because he believes he as a person should not have survived Donato’s orphanage. Thus to cope with this, he searches for a reason for his survival.

“The world is wrong, the one’s corrupting it are you guys.”

Rather than searching for the answers within himself, Amon is constantly looking outwards.While it does give him a strong sense of justice and technically makes him a good investigator at the same time it’s why he has such difficulty relating to others seriously. Look at his final interaction with Akira before the raid.

Akira shares extremely personal information about her father, and her motivation after an entire arc of bonding with Amon. Faced with this new truth about Akira, and an upcoming raid in which they both might die Amon reaches for words but finds none.

He tries to bring up the woman who previously owned his Quinque (the fact that he even himself uses the quinque of a dead woman rather than his own is more telling), but Akira doesn’t let that perception fly. “Don’t pin her on me” she says.

Then Akira comes at Amon, in a way that’s truly herself. He’s not able to put any kind of peception on her from this point forward. He’s now interacting with the genuine Akira, and she calls for his own genuine interaction, too. Amon however, in this moment blocks the kiss, and Akira comments “That’s just like you” which means this is not a standout instance due to stress or surprise, but rather in line with the rest of his behavior.

Amon was presented with a choice, to embrace intimacy in Akira’s arms or reject it. The fact that he didn’t kiss Akira isn’t important, because Amon isn’t obligated to kiss Akira or return his affections. What’s important is the aftermath. Amon does something so strange as full on block a kiss with his bare hand, and then refuses to explain it leaving Akira emotionally distraught. He was asked to make a choice and rather than choose he just decided to destroy the moment entirely by removing himself from it.

When Amon is asked to make a genuine choice of his own free will, he always falters in the end and does nothing. When presented with the idea their might be corruption in the CCG Amon tells nobody before his disappearance during the raid, because it was a secret only he knew and thus had to make the decision on his own.

Amon never makes these decisions alone, because making these decisions requires ‘having the strength to choose’ for yet another callback to Kaneki’s arc in Amon’s character.

Amon lacks a strong sense of self, therefore he cannot choose.

That is why he relies so heavily on others and his interactions with them to define himself. That is why he acts like his slaughter of ghouls is him enacting justice, because if ghouls like his father aren’t the reason the world is wrong, if they’re not a pure evil that needs to be exterminated, then Amon loses his external reason for his survival and he cannot go on.



This isn’t just a prediction either, it physically happens in the comic at the end of his arc. Amon is finally forced by the narrative arc to make a choice. He can either do as he wanted to do and talk things out peacefully with the eyepatch ghoul, or act as he had been doing and continue defending the CCG. And he defers once again to others instead of himself, using his loved ones as an excuse to keep fighting.

He fights, dressing it up as some noble last stand. The last images seen as Amon’s consciousness fades out tell a different story, as Amon’s true tragedy of a character was not being weak unable to protect his home, but rather his inability to comprehend his father’s love for him. Which doesn’t allow Amon to love himself enough to develop a strong sense of self. The fact that he is about to have this revelation right before he loses consciousness and the story ends right there tragically, sources his relationship with his father and his failure to choose for himself as the cause of his tragic fall.

Amon and the Moon

Thus finally, the moon card and it’s association with Amon’s arc. The Moon provides light as a reflection of the Sun, yet this light is dim, uncertain, and only vaguely illuminates our path.

Amon was a character who derived all of is guidance from others, but it only lit him on a dim path that he ended up falling off of anyway. The moon is a card of self-reflection and insecurity, and Amon’s arc is chiefly about his self reflection and attempts to deal with his own deeply rooted insecurities.

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.



Amon projects his fear he felt in the past as a child, his guilt, onto the present by fighting ghouls. As the situation becomes more and more complicated though, he’s overwhelmed by the gray area he’s presented with.

The Moon is a card of illusion and deception, and therefore often suggests a time when something is not as it appears to be. Vigilance and clear perception will be necessary to find that which is hidden before it is too late.



Amon also, deceived himself with what his true feelings towards his father were until he was too late, and would have benefited if his perception towards the CCG were more vigilant.

Amon is also associated with the visible image of the moon. His appearances shown above, and this one below are always drawn at night.

And in his birthday image in his calendar, there’s a clear moon in the background.

His title ‘Floppy’ as a half ghoul even has a connection to the moon, as East Asian cultures including the Japanese perceive the spots on the moon to be the shape of a rabbit pounding a rice cake.

Therefore there is a great amount of Moon Symbolism with his character, and if the Tokyo Ghoul Tarot theory is true than Amon may feature heavily in an upcoming ‘Moon’ arc. At least though, a reading of the moon card summarizes pretty accurately his current position in the comic.

Oftentimes, the Moon appears in a reading when you are not sure of your destination, or even of the path you are travelling but you travel nonetheless. You may have lost your way and are now left to walk in the dark, guided only by your inner light and intuition.



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