Tokyo Ghoul: Season 1/ Episode 5 “Scar” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

Though Kaneki appears free, Tsukiyama lurks in the shadows waiting on his delectable prey.

Review (with Spoilers)

Tsukiyama is such a great villain, but I do feel censorship ruins the episode for all the blood and gore gets blurred out. But, to compensate for the gory bits being censored, we do get quite a sweet story out of Nishio. The type where, if it was the sole focus of the episode, his story could possibly get you a little teary-eyed. Though with Nishio not being the main attraction, all it ends up doing is changing your opinion of him. For the most part anyway.

Topic 1: A Friend Indeed – Toka

With Toka eating Yoriko’s food she has gotten ill. Not to the point where she has to drag herself out of bed and looks like she has the flu, but through her we see that human food really doesn’t agree with a ghoul’s stomach. Though, because he was worried, Kaneki checks on her to make sure she is alright, and while he checks on her Yoriko comes over and gets the impression Kaneki and Toka are dating. An interesting idea if I do say so myself.

Topic 2: Somebody Already Broke My Heart – Nishio

Speaking of dating, we learn that the girl Nishio was seemingly just messing around with is likely his girlfriend, and with her introduction comes half of the main plot which deals with us getting to know Nishio. For one, he seemingly comes from a family of ghouls which used to be his parents and older sister but said parents seemed to have died around the time Nishio was in elementary school so his sister took care of him the best she could. That is until the boyfriend she had in her early adult years found out she was a ghoul. Something he apparently couldn’t accept for he snitched on her and this lead to her being killed.

Fast forward to Nishio’s adulthood and we find him falling in love with a young woman named Kimi. Someone who, after seeing his sister die due to trusting a human, somehow renews his faith in people. For not only is she willing to keep his secret, but she also provides some of the flesh on her shoulder since Nishio is far too weak to hunt. Heck, if it wasn’t for Kaneki, and later Toka, in the episode, he’d likely be dead.

Topic 3: Bon Appetite – Kaneki, Tsukiyama, Toka, and Nishio

Leading us to talk about Tsukiyama who, despite putting Kaneki in a death match, has let Kaneki go free. Something which I must say was very odd since his obsession with eating Kaneki would lead you to think he would have just imprisoned him. But I guess the thrill of the chase is half the fun for this freak. Though, it should be noted, as much as he is a freak he also makes for a good hunter. For after Kaneki helps Nishio, Kaneki gets to know Kimi. Mostly due to his desire to understand how she and Nishio work out, though I think it may also deal with Kaneki wondering about the possibilities of him maybe dating a human girl in the future. Especially after Toka and Itori’s warnings against him dating a human, never mind revealing he is a ghoul.

But his time with Kimi is cut short since Kaneki seems to want to help his former tormentor Nishio. Thus allowing Tsukiyama to set up his grand plan which includes feeding on Kaneki as he fills himself with Kimi.  A sick twisted idea of a meal which Kaneki goes to stop, and ends up finding Nishio joining him despite starving. Leading us to watch as both men try to take on Tsukiyama, to no avail, and then Toka showing up. Leading to, once again, hints being dropped about their past together, but nothing definite enough for us to understand their former relationship. What is known though is that, when Toka eats properly, their powers are equal. However, after all of Yoriko’s human food, she is  quite weak and the only way to match Tsukiyama is by eating flesh. Now, does this mean Nishio would be willing to sacrifice a bit of Kimi in order for Toka to defeat Tsukiyama? Well, no. Though with him pretty much knocking on death’s door he couldn’t stop her if he wanted to. So the question becomes: whose flesh can Toka eat? Well, Kaneki’s. And with hardly enough of his flesh to count as a meal, Toka begins looking seriously badass and seems ready to possibly take down Tsukiyama.

Things To Note

I am assuming Kimi is adopted because she mentions that her parents are dead, after Nishio is defeated by Kaneki, and yet in the present day she says that as long as Nishio doesn’t eat her parents she can turn a blind eye to him being a ghoul.

Kaneki saves Nishio from a gang of ghouls who seem to have no problems eating one of their own.

We briefly see Hinami in this episode.

Toka, I assume to preserve her human relationships, continues to eat Yoriki’s food despite knowing it weakens her. And from what she tells us, it seems not just eating humans, but the quality of the human can affect the strength and kagune of a ghoul.

I am still left unsure how anyone becomes a ghoul, be we do learn Toka has been a ghoul since 14, and Tsukiyama since 18. Said information is provided by Tsukiyama so it can be assumed that perhaps these two are siblings or just family. Either way, he has known her for at least 4 years.