On to the subject of Arima, personally, I am forced to suspend stupefying amounts of disbelief to concede to the notion of him being 100% human. Based on my personal observations, I feel it does not equate to the precedents and “laws” established in Ishida’s universe. Takeomi Kuroiwa (and his father) are apart of that “0.01%” of humanity that can amass physical strength rivaling that of a ghoul: which is already pushing it. Even so, their humanity is abundantly portrayed and they do not feel “super powered” at all in combat against a ghoul. On the other hand, Arima has been likened to God. Arima is that much of an anomaly, to the point he literally feels out of place in the series. Kaneki took one glance at him and immediately felt the fear of God. He was so stunned he did not even notice all the ghoul corpses surrounding him. "God", almost the antithesis of "human." A Ghoul Investigator so proficient in his craft, he is undefeated and causes his peers to be crippled with jealously: “Arimapathy.” He singled handedly fatally maimed SSS rank “Owl”/Kuzen and prompted him to flee: twice. On the other hand, it took 2 Special Class, 2 Associate Special Class, and a Rank 2 Investigator fighting at their level to defeat him. Following Cochlea’s breach, Tatara and Eto herself, the One Eyed King, made it a point to vacate the 23rd Ward premises before he arrived. They fear him. They fear “God.” Eto narrowly escapes from him a second time, this time commenting “Arm getting cut off...getting stabbed with a Quinque. Been a while since I had it this rough. That guy's really ruthless..." And what is more, she was unable to so much as lay a scratch on him despite the fact IXA was damaged and he only had Narukami at is disposal. I have seen Arima’s malcontents label him a “Gary Stu” (tangentially related, this term is often speciously used. A Gary Stu is qualitatively more than just an OP character) as well as an “asspull.” I feel these terms are only applicable if one genuinely believe Arima is human, and I personally feel Ishida is unabashedly hinting left and right that he is something more. There may perhaps be a cogent reason behind Arima’s fortitude, so I am going to propose to a theory. I do have evidence to bolster why I am led to the subsequent conclusions, but of course it is nothing full proof: just more food for thought. Arima really could just be a mere human with no “special” origins to speak of, and I am certainly open to that prospect (and I admittedly dislike it as I feel it makes little sense in the context of the TG universe) yet I just want to establish why I believe otherwise. I do not see how this “God” can be quantified as “human.” There are far too many potential indicators pointing towards the opposite conclusion. |