Handiness: a window to Arima’s Thoughts and Emotions

Hello there ~ ~

Once again, I come to you with another Arima-related meta analysis. Like all of my metas, I always share my thoughts in hope of gaining feedback from other people in the fandom. I have been meaning to write this meta for 6 weeks now, but I was procrastinating. Here it is.

I am really more a geneticist than a psychologist/psychiatrist, but I do have a minor in psychology and hence these little things are always interesting tome me.



Ironically, both Kaneki and Shachi were too focused on Arima’s eyesight… but ended up failing to lend a hit when attacking from his blind spot. It seems they are missing something. I believe that we were also too focused on Arima’s eyes, and we missed his arms/hands. I have been intrigued by Arima’s handiness for a long time now…



First of all, Arima is obviously ambidextrous. He boastfully uses both hands in most of his attacks, whenever the need arises. The panel below is a reminder from Tokyo Ghoul - Chapter 73 when Arima was taunting Hirako for relying only on one hand.

While we keep this in mind, let us take a look at some of the strange things Arima’s hands did following his V14 encounter with Kaneki.

In Tokyo Ghoul:re - Chapter 8, Arima attacks Haise with his right leg, then points a pen at Haise’s eye, using his right hand. Later on, Arima’s left hand grabs his right, as you can see below.

I am not sure how important body language is for Ishida-sensei, but knowing him, he would not consciously draw a panel without carefully thinking of the outcome. Body language is one of the strongest tools a psychologist can use to understand people.

As such, Hand/Arm Gripping is a signal of frustration and an attempt at self-control. In this case, one hand grips the other arm very tightly as if it is an attempt by one arm to prevent the other from striking out. The further the hand is moved up, the more angry the person has become. This is showing a greater attempt at self-control because the hand is gripping the upper arm, not just the wrist. It is this type of gesture that has given rise to such expressions as, ’Get a good grip on yourself’.

To put things into context, back then, Arima was indeed angry at Haise for going all out in battle. The kick and pointing the pen at Haise’s eye were not another training session, they were Arima’s punishment for Haise. Arima though, probably realized that he should have not done so, and thus restrains himself, by forcefully putting his right arm aside.



The next question would be, what’s the difference between right and left? And why is Arima restraining his right arm?

Here, let us examine another realm in the land of Psychology: The Brain.

The Brain is partitioned into two hemispheres: right and left. However, these hemispheres controls the opposing side of the body. As such, the right hemisphere controls the left body, and the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. As such, Arima restrained his left hemisphere by restraining his right hand.

-Why is this important, again?

-There you go:

From this panel, neurologists and psychologists were able to realize that the right brain is the realm of emotions, while the left brain is the realm of actions and duty. This is sometimes why people are classified into left or right-brained.

The left brain connects our internal world to our external world giving us that feeling of being separate from one another. It’s the left brain that gives us the sense of “I am”.



The right brain is that part of our brain that connects us to each other. In relationships, it is the right brain that tells us that our partners are attuned to us.



Following this scientific overview, let us put it all in context: Arima is probably torn between his emotions and his duty, ie his right hemisphere and hisleft hemisphere, and this can be seen in his left and right body movements.

Because Arima is a well-achieved investigator, he is definitely managing this conflict well and acting according to what he thinks is subtle. However, that does not mean he can control his body language.

Yes, we don’t know much about Arima’s point of view or thoughts, but his body language practically spills some.

Putting one’s hand in his pocket is a very known signal that someone is hiding something. At the same time, this gesture also means that someone is restraining their hand. In this panel, Arima’s left side is said to be welcoming. while his right side is said to be inhibited. As such, Arima is simply happy to be having a cordial dinner with Haise. He is restraining work by not discussing it (hiding it in his pocket), alongside any violence towards Kaneki that can be dictated by his left hemisphere.

Correction: (Thank you for @harukaze87 and anon): When Arima was giving Haise the option to choose a name, he hides his right arm under the table, and puts his left arm on the table, facing Haise. Again, here Arima is restraining an arm. Notice however how his left hand is forming a barrier between him and Haise.

A possible explanation to this behavior is that Arima does not wish to get too friendly with Haise. Instead, he would like to maintain professional standing. He does not want Haise to assume he will always be THAT nice to him. As such, putting a physical limit between him and Haise (his left arm is spread as a boundary) is a potential mental self-defense mechanism. At the same time, it means that his friendly, emotion-ful right hemisphere is in action..but this part of his brain is also a bit jumbled as to whether to be friendlier or pose a limit.





Arima, in a nutshell, is again struggling to find a balance between his right and left hemisphere. He seems to be doing it just fine… but letting his body language spill that much highlights that this endeavor of maintaining this balance is a struggle for Arima. Ironically, Arima is entrusted by V to maintain a balance between the Ghoul and Human world…

If we follow this logic, we can infer and understand some of Arima’s thoughts.

In the panel above, Arima is asking Haise not to talk to ghouls and perform his work with no hesitation. As such, this is his left hemisphere speaking, and so his right hand is talking. His left hand is hidden behind his back, on purpose, to restrain his right hemisphere from interfering. As such, Arima was putting his emotions aside, and giving attention to duty.

It is clear, from most of Arima’s fights, that although he is ambidextrous, his right hand is the dominant hand. As such, he prefers to use it in battle when he does not need both hands to attack. This was clear when Arima used his right hand to write down Kaneki’s newly assigned name.

This is why Arima attacking Kaneki in Cochlea using his right hand is not something that we must over-analyse with this psychological shit, right? Wrong.

Right when Kaneki dodged Narukami’s attack, Arima attacked Kaneki, with no hesitation, with Ixa, using his right hand. Later on, Arima handles Ixa with his left hand, with this sad look on his face.

It is true that Arima alternates between using his right and left hands during battle… however, in this case, Arima needed not to switch handling Ixa to his left hand because he was not fighting Kaneki, but rather just standing there looking at him….. hesitation, perhaps?

Ironically, in that same panel, we only see his left eye, while the light is reflecting onto his right eye. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps this is also a sign that Arima’s consciousness is in a conflict on whether to turn on a blind eye to Kaneki’s actions. As such, only the left eye can see Kaneki’s actions and hence forgive them.



Then, Arima switches Ixa back to his right hand, and hides his left hand behind his back, as if to restrain his emotions and proceed with following his duties. Through out their battle, Arima strikes with his right hand…. except for once:

Only in this panel, Arima switched Ixa to his left hand. This can be something random on Ishida’s part… but is anything ever drawn randomly by Ishida?

Keeping Ixa in the right hand seemed like a better move in this case, yet Arima decided to use his left… only in this panel.

Ironically, again, this is Kaneki’s monologue on hesitation and confusion. Although this is Kaneki’s internal discourse, this panel make it seem like Arima is also both confused and hesitant…

Following this moment, Arima switched to using his right hand, and begins his taunting discourse against Kaneki.

From this point onward, Ishida shows us Arima’s right eye, twice.

If Arima’s right eye is indeed partially blind, or even fully blind… this portrayal of angst in Arima’s right eye is useless…as he is not able to see Kaneki with his right eye. However, squinting the right eye in such a fashion is nothing but the left hemisphere’s anguish. Arima is no longer willing (or capable) of restraining his left hemisphere, and thus his emotions at this point are shut down.

It is important to note that Arima’s blindness, if real, on the right side only makes these assumptions stronger.

Naturally, any impaired function on one side of the body causes that specific side of the body to be more alert, more drastic and more violent. Hence, Arima’s right hand/arm/leg are expected to be especially harder to control… or so we think in the psychology field.

Finally… all of this can be just something my mind came up with and may not be of any relevance. I just wanted to share it with you nonetheless. I appreciate any feedback or discussion ^-^



I leave you with this panel, in which Ishida consciously took a decision to highlight Arima’s right arm by shading it differently than anything else in the panel… possibly foreshadowing a role for this hand… or a defeat.

Defeating Arima is a simple manner of defeating his sense of duty - his left hemisphere.