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This is a question that I've been willing to know the answer of for a while, yet from many different sources I have kept hearing variations of "Tatara is dead", but with nothing compelling to back it. So finally, I decided I would resolve this question with my own analysis, to attempt to put this issue to rest. However, after a bit of lazy digging around, I felt no more confident or knowledgeable about Tatara's status.
Fast forward for a few weeks, and after still bringing this topic up many times in conversation, many people seem to be absolutely sure about what happened to Tatara, yet I for the life of myself can't figure out why. So this time, rather than be lazy, I thought I would actually do a bit of a detailed analysis about what happened to Tatara, so at least it'd be written down and I could refer people to what I'm working with. I didn’t think I would come to a conclusion and I haven’t, but I at least did put together a few key things that you are free to double-check.
I will present relevant panels in chronological order to make things easier to follow.
Page 0: Chapter 60
"Our highest priority target is the Chinese ghoul Tatara, the remnant member of Chi Se Lian", says Haise. This is very important context, because it shows that Tatara is their primary target of the island invasion. It would seem odd for the CCG to forget their highest priority target.
Page 1: Start of Chapter 88
Here it appears that Tatara is being quoted as saying that Aogiri Tree will end today. Just keep this in mind for a Chapter 98 reference.
Pages 2a/2b: Chapter 89
This is an extremely crucial part to understand. First of all Tatara is presumably saying to himself “king… did you acquire ‘the thing’ you were looking for? I… ‘either side’ is…” while thinking about a flashback. He also seems to mutter “E-to…” out loud, which if he were to die, would be his last word.
This scene with the flashback and him muttering Eto’s name is often cited as some sort of evidence of his death, because (a) he got a flashback and (b) he just said Eto’s name like characters say their last words. However, I was pointed to multiple previous examples where a flashback like that did not signify death, so (a) seems to be at best, an unreliable predictor of a character’s impending doom, and (b) doesn’t seem to be much of an argument in itself because all he says is one person’s name without any sort of context. Even if he was saying her name as his last word, a reader saying so is simply guessing.
Then there is a “flop” sound effect, which probably has to do with him falling on his back. Here at the end of Page 2b we see perhaps the single most important frame, so you really should memorize everything in it. Tatara is on his back, and there is a weapon stuck in the ground next to him, which matches with the one that Takizawa took from Kobin. However, take note of other very important things.
(a) the surface of the floor does not have vines (not really sure what this is but I’m calling them vines from now on), and there are steps on the floor
(b) the walls do have vines
(c) there are presumably dead CCG soldiers behind him, including one with legs dangling from something at a height.
(d) there is a chair on the floor to the left of him (behind his head from his perspective)
Keeping note of all these things makes it easier to verify what we are looking at later.
Page 3: Chapter 89
Here, Takizawa is grabbing Akira by the neck and giving a frustrated monologue after presumably destroying Houji’s squad offscreen. It is important to realize that Houji was killed offscreen because that means there is a gap in our window into this story, where we actually didn’t see what happened. So, one could say, something happened to Tatara in this time, without the reader finding out. It is possible; there really wouldn’t be a witness apart from maybe Akira, because Kobin seems unconscious.
His words here are also used as an argument for Tatara’s death, but I really don’t understand why. “I would dream of this day… using this power to kill Tatara, saving the CCG.., saving you guys…” are his words. However, we see that this was just a dream of his because obviously the latter didn’t happen. The former (killing Tatara) only needs to be a possibility for him to make such a statement. You could say Takizawa didn’t go ahead and and take the extra measure to end Tatara’s life, but he could have, which is all he needed for this scenario to be possible to realize his dream, with the CCG’s cooperation (imagine, for example Houji congratulating him, and then him truly destroying Tatara). After all, after Tatara’s body flops to the floor, that is the last physical dealing that we see Takizawa having with Tatara.
Pages 4a/4b/4c: Chapter 90
At first glance, not much seems to happen here of relevance. In the first panel of Page 4a, you see Takizawa kicking Amon with Akira looking on. In the third panel of Page 4a, you see Amon crashed into the wall. In the 2nd panel, it is difficult to figure out what is going on, but there are two main robed figures, one on the right wearing what appear to be white robes but with hair that extends outside of the normal circular outline of a head. I believe it is important to conclude that this figure is Takizawa due to his hair, even though his robe often is drawn as black. So then the figure on the left with the shaded robe (shaded rules out Tatara) has to be Amon, who is making noises in pain, which would also make sense.
The important thing here from the second frame is to note the shape of the boundaries of this location. To Takizawa’s right (north for the reader if you project a compass onto the drawing with standard orientation which is a convention I will use), you can view what appears to be a circular step, so it is likely that Tatara exists to the north of these two guys, on a higher step. Remember from Page 2b that Tatara had fallen on his back on the highest step.
Page 4b is where things get really sketchy. In the top section, Takizawa asks “You’re going to kill me too, right Amon?” I’m not sure who he is referring to who has also been killed by Amon, but it is likely meant in a figurative sense because Amon arrived too late for Akira. Amon is shown hunched over in the top right panel, clearly having suffered some damage. Amon in the lower left panel of the top section says “I came” and you can view two different kinds of hands there. And it is on the bottom panel where you see his statement continuing “to save someone who was once my friend and comrade...”.
The main reason I included Page 4c was just to show in clearer detail the hood Amon was wearing at this moment as he finished his statement with “and that includes you, Takizawa!!!”.
Going back to the bottom panel of Page 4b, we see two characters:
(a) Takizawa wearing a robe which is cut off from our viewpoint on the bottom portion. The cutoff makes it look like our viewpoint is from at least a step above Takizawa. Whatever is cutting off the bottom of Takizawa’s robe does not look that curved, so it doesn’t perfectly match with a step, nor do we see a lot of rubble rocks around where Tatara originally was laying.
(b) “Character X” who appears to be wearing a collar, with hair rather than a hood showing from the back. This is in contrast with Amon who is wearing a hood, and no collar in the very next frame, although perhaps not in the previous. Also, the coloring of what seems to be hair, is quite light, as is the robe/jacket he is wearing. This is also in contrast with Tatara, whose collar goes all the way around his neck.
So, it’s possible and likely this Character X is Amon. It would make sense for X to be Amon, and I’m pretty sure we all assumed it were Amon, but there are a few hints that would make us think it could not be him. No matter what, X is poorly drawn because it doesn't really match up any character, so it is probably a red herring.
Page 5: Chapter 91
And the next we see of Amon (Page 5), is in a situation where he appears in pretty bad shape on the same level as Takizawa, and it looks like he hadn’t gotten up since he was first slammed into the wall. X did appear like he was supporting himself with his own energy, although it is possible that Amon got up and were hit into the wall again.
Page 6: Chapter 92
Compare to the scene from 2b. See the vines, see the bodies, see the chair, see Takizawa where Tatara is supposed to be, and Kobin’s sword/katana isn’t stuck in the ground anymore. It is possible that Takizawa is covering up Tatara’s body here. It looks like there are two different color robes here. But why would Takizawa be covering up Tatara’s body after just being attacked by Mutsuki? Surely Mutsuki would have seen what he was doing, and would he really be like “hey let’s cover up Tatara’s body now”?
Takizawa is shown basically on the same exact place where Tatara should be, yet the weapon is gone from there, and (possibly) so is Tatara. The chance of Ishida "overseeing" the centerpiece (Tatara) of a previous scene, while unknowingly or accidentally drawing Taki right on top of that centerpiece's location, is close to zero.
So could Tatara’s body be hidden by Takizawa? It would be really weird, considering Mutsuki’s presence. And since Mutsuki was there on a mission with Tatara as a primary target, Mutsuki should be at least aware enough of what Takizawa is doing. And when entering the location, Mutsuki only brings up Owl and Floppy in speech. How about Tatara? Nothing!
Fast forward to chapter 98:
- No mention of "highest priority target" Tatara by any of the people in the Quinx squad in any of the chapters between 92 and 98
- No mention of Tatara in the CCG post-operation talk
- 98% figure given, Aogiri Tree annihilated (which matches with Tatara’s prediction in Page 1). However it is presented as a victory of numbers rather than of actually killing or capturing any primary targets, including highest priority target Tatara.
- Kobin and Takizawa seem to be getting along just fine. Given what seemed to be a sort of aggressive, rash nature, it would seem that given her relation to Tatara, she would not be willing to join with Taikzawa. (Note: If Tatara did get away, he would've left Kobin behind, but it seems like they could have an asymmetric relationship in that Kobin has more respect for Tatara than vice versa. Tatara in general is also very cold to other people.)
So… please tell me, where exactly is "highest priority target" Tatara?
It’s possible that Takizawa ate his body offscreen, it’s possible Takizawa hid his body offscreen, it’s possible Tatara ran away, a lot of things are possible. Why is everyone convinced that he is dead?
Fast forward for a few weeks, and after still bringing this topic up many times in conversation, many people seem to be absolutely sure about what happened to Tatara, yet I for the life of myself can't figure out why. So this time, rather than be lazy, I thought I would actually do a bit of a detailed analysis about what happened to Tatara, so at least it'd be written down and I could refer people to what I'm working with. I didn’t think I would come to a conclusion and I haven’t, but I at least did put together a few key things that you are free to double-check.
I will present relevant panels in chronological order to make things easier to follow.
Page 0: Chapter 60
Page 1: Start of Chapter 88
Pages 2a/2b: Chapter 89
This scene with the flashback and him muttering Eto’s name is often cited as some sort of evidence of his death, because (a) he got a flashback and (b) he just said Eto’s name like characters say their last words. However, I was pointed to multiple previous examples where a flashback like that did not signify death, so (a) seems to be at best, an unreliable predictor of a character’s impending doom, and (b) doesn’t seem to be much of an argument in itself because all he says is one person’s name without any sort of context. Even if he was saying her name as his last word, a reader saying so is simply guessing.
Then there is a “flop” sound effect, which probably has to do with him falling on his back. Here at the end of Page 2b we see perhaps the single most important frame, so you really should memorize everything in it. Tatara is on his back, and there is a weapon stuck in the ground next to him, which matches with the one that Takizawa took from Kobin. However, take note of other very important things.
(a) the surface of the floor does not have vines (not really sure what this is but I’m calling them vines from now on), and there are steps on the floor
(b) the walls do have vines
(c) there are presumably dead CCG soldiers behind him, including one with legs dangling from something at a height.
(d) there is a chair on the floor to the left of him (behind his head from his perspective)
Keeping note of all these things makes it easier to verify what we are looking at later.
Page 3: Chapter 89
His words here are also used as an argument for Tatara’s death, but I really don’t understand why. “I would dream of this day… using this power to kill Tatara, saving the CCG.., saving you guys…” are his words. However, we see that this was just a dream of his because obviously the latter didn’t happen. The former (killing Tatara) only needs to be a possibility for him to make such a statement. You could say Takizawa didn’t go ahead and and take the extra measure to end Tatara’s life, but he could have, which is all he needed for this scenario to be possible to realize his dream, with the CCG’s cooperation (imagine, for example Houji congratulating him, and then him truly destroying Tatara). After all, after Tatara’s body flops to the floor, that is the last physical dealing that we see Takizawa having with Tatara.
Pages 4a/4b/4c: Chapter 90
The important thing here from the second frame is to note the shape of the boundaries of this location. To Takizawa’s right (north for the reader if you project a compass onto the drawing with standard orientation which is a convention I will use), you can view what appears to be a circular step, so it is likely that Tatara exists to the north of these two guys, on a higher step. Remember from Page 2b that Tatara had fallen on his back on the highest step.
Page 4b is where things get really sketchy. In the top section, Takizawa asks “You’re going to kill me too, right Amon?” I’m not sure who he is referring to who has also been killed by Amon, but it is likely meant in a figurative sense because Amon arrived too late for Akira. Amon is shown hunched over in the top right panel, clearly having suffered some damage. Amon in the lower left panel of the top section says “I came” and you can view two different kinds of hands there. And it is on the bottom panel where you see his statement continuing “to save someone who was once my friend and comrade...”.
The main reason I included Page 4c was just to show in clearer detail the hood Amon was wearing at this moment as he finished his statement with “and that includes you, Takizawa!!!”.
Going back to the bottom panel of Page 4b, we see two characters:
(a) Takizawa wearing a robe which is cut off from our viewpoint on the bottom portion. The cutoff makes it look like our viewpoint is from at least a step above Takizawa. Whatever is cutting off the bottom of Takizawa’s robe does not look that curved, so it doesn’t perfectly match with a step, nor do we see a lot of rubble rocks around where Tatara originally was laying.
(b) “Character X” who appears to be wearing a collar, with hair rather than a hood showing from the back. This is in contrast with Amon who is wearing a hood, and no collar in the very next frame, although perhaps not in the previous. Also, the coloring of what seems to be hair, is quite light, as is the robe/jacket he is wearing. This is also in contrast with Tatara, whose collar goes all the way around his neck.
So, it’s possible and likely this Character X is Amon. It would make sense for X to be Amon, and I’m pretty sure we all assumed it were Amon, but there are a few hints that would make us think it could not be him. No matter what, X is poorly drawn because it doesn't really match up any character, so it is probably a red herring.
Page 5: Chapter 91
Page 6: Chapter 92
Takizawa is shown basically on the same exact place where Tatara should be, yet the weapon is gone from there, and (possibly) so is Tatara. The chance of Ishida "overseeing" the centerpiece (Tatara) of a previous scene, while unknowingly or accidentally drawing Taki right on top of that centerpiece's location, is close to zero.
So could Tatara’s body be hidden by Takizawa? It would be really weird, considering Mutsuki’s presence. And since Mutsuki was there on a mission with Tatara as a primary target, Mutsuki should be at least aware enough of what Takizawa is doing. And when entering the location, Mutsuki only brings up Owl and Floppy in speech. How about Tatara? Nothing!
Fast forward to chapter 98:
- No mention of "highest priority target" Tatara by any of the people in the Quinx squad in any of the chapters between 92 and 98
- No mention of Tatara in the CCG post-operation talk
- 98% figure given, Aogiri Tree annihilated (which matches with Tatara’s prediction in Page 1). However it is presented as a victory of numbers rather than of actually killing or capturing any primary targets, including highest priority target Tatara.
- Kobin and Takizawa seem to be getting along just fine. Given what seemed to be a sort of aggressive, rash nature, it would seem that given her relation to Tatara, she would not be willing to join with Taikzawa. (Note: If Tatara did get away, he would've left Kobin behind, but it seems like they could have an asymmetric relationship in that Kobin has more respect for Tatara than vice versa. Tatara in general is also very cold to other people.)
So… please tell me, where exactly is "highest priority target" Tatara?
It’s possible that Takizawa ate his body offscreen, it’s possible Takizawa hid his body offscreen, it’s possible Tatara ran away, a lot of things are possible. Why is everyone convinced that he is dead?
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