It’s one of those episodes where a lot of things are happening in the background in preparation for the story’s next arc (the adaptation’s final arc?), but nothing is happening with the main characters. So depending on how you look at it, it’s kind of a slow episode. Hell, it’s slow enough that the first five minutes are devoted to a flashback. In it, we get to see how Amon initially came to team up with Mado. At first, Amon rejected the demented investigator’s ways, but when the latter saved his life, the former started taking the veteran’s lessons to heart. See, I don’t understand why we didn’t see this flashback earlier. Had we, Amon’s reverence and respect for Mado would’ve made some sense. I wouldn’t have been scratching my head, wondering why someone as level-headed as Amon would turn a blind eye to Mado’s oh-so-obvious cruelty. I’m not saying that a five-minute flashback is enough to dispel my misgivings about these two’s working relationship, but it’s a start. Now that Mado’s dead, however, I don’t really see the point in learning about their working relationship anymore.

Anyway, Hinami has moved in with Touka, and as a sign of her maturation, she’s even given herself a new look by cutting her hair. Maybe she’s hiding it to some extent, but she seems to have gotten over the death of her parents enough that she can finally move on with her life. But what does this mean? Is she going to go to school? Who’s taking care of her when Touka is at school? Oh well. As for Touka, she’s still shaken up over the fact that Mado had had a family. In fact, we see his own daughter visit the man’s grave in this week’s episode. I wonder what role she’ll play in the episodes to come, but knowing anime, she’ll probably follow in her father’s footsteps or something. But for now, the bigger concern is the sudden appearance of Touka’s younger brother. First, we see a flashback with Touka, her brother Ayato, and her father as well (I don’t recall if we are given his first name). They seemed happy enough back then. Since Touka is alone now, I assume something terrible must have happened to the other two, especially the father. As for Ayato, he’s now a part of some group headed for the 20th ward. Like Yamori and some guy by the name of Banjo, everyone’s converging on the 20th ward in search of Rize.

It’s odd to me that these characters haven’t realized by now that Rize has died. But in any case, shit’s about to go down in the once peaceful ward. Not only is Ayato headed there — and he even mentions how he has a useless, peace-loving relative in the area — but Yamori, too. None of these guys look to be very nice people; when they find out Rize is no longer alive, I think they’ll just go for the next best thing: Ken. But what is so important about Rize? Why are her origins also so mysterious? During the downtime, Ken goes to see Itori to ask about Rize, but our information lady knows little about Rize either: “You see, one day, she just showed up. Nobody knows where she was, or what she was doing before then.” Rize is special in every way, I guess. Even her origins are a mystery. So of course, she tells him to go to the 11th Ward to find out more about the lady. Maybe this is foreshadowing, ’cause with the ghouls converging on Anteiku and thus Ken, I’m sure he won’t have the chance to do his own investigation. Not only that, it just so happens that Amon has joined a special task force assigned to the 11th Ward as well. But yeah, that’s pretty much it for the episode.

The rest of the episode concerns some peculiar odds and ends:

— For some reason, Anteiku has taken in a foul-mouthed cockatiel. Since it likes to say “Hetare!” over and over, its name is also Hetare. And did you know that Touka is apparently afraid of birds?

— HIdeyoshi sure does seem to know a whole lot about ghouls for a human. When asked about it, however, he pretends as though he’s getting all of his information from some book. Ken’s too oblivious to press the issue any further, but it seems to me that Hideyoshi has done a bit of his own investigation. I wonder if this is just his way to look out for Ken since Ken won’t confide in him. Still, in a world where ghouls have all sorts of super powers, Hideyoshi is at a severe disadvantage. If he keeps this up, I can’t see things turning out well for the guy.

— Ken bumps into someone who has a delicious smell. This someone also picked the main character’s pocket, which I’m sure viewers will just submit as yet another piece of evidence in their “People vs. Ken Kaneki” trial (“Oh my God, who actually gets their pockets picked!”). Anyway, this is all we see of this mysterious character.

So yeah, short post this week, but the episode didn’t leave me with much to think about. With only a few episodes left, however, let’s hope we can go out with a bang. Hey, the main character’s hair turns white, so the upcoming arc has got to be good, right?