Ken Kaneki

Ken Kaneki (金木 研, Kaneki Ken) is the main character of the story. He used to be a normal human, leading a normal student life, but due to certain events, he ended up being transplanted with Rize Kamishiro's ghoul organs and became a half-human, half-ghoul. Currently, he is a freshman student studying Japanese Literature at the Department of Literature of Kamii University and works part-time at Anteiku.

Appearance
As a normal college student, Kaneki is a scrawny young man with little to no athletic background who prefers to read books. In his free time, he wears casual clothing. At work, he wears the regular Anteiku waiter uniform, consisting of black trousers and a black vest over a white dress shirt and a black necktie. Because he can't mentally control his one-eye Kakugan, he wears a medical eyepatch to cover it. His ghoul mask shows resemblance to a leather gimp mask with an eyepatch and lipless grin that shows artificial teeth, much like restrained asylum monster. The bolts sticking out of his neck and the fact that he is an artificial ghoul gives him a Frankenstein theme.

Personality
Kaneki is a shy and reserved person with just one close friend. He usually spends most of his time reading books that are mostly novels. He is extremely gentle and appears to be optimistic most of the time. Influenced by his mother and a true testament of modesty, he willingly takes blame and punishment from others so that he can be someone who doesn't hurt people but rather "the person getting hurt" However, this lack of assertiveness normally makes him bullied and taken advantage of by others.

After he was turned into a half-ghoul, he clings to his human side. To keep his life in the human world, he began to work at Anteiku and has built relationships with the ghouls there. Because of his experiences, he has started to have interest in becoming stronger and reading martial arts books so that he can protect himself and people who are close to him. He is troubled with himself being a half-ghoul and is searching for a place he can belong to. If people he likes are threatened, Kaneki will try to protect them and make sure that he will be the one who will mostly get hurt instead.

After his time during the fight in the 11th Ward, Kanaki's personality changes to a ruthless anti-hero. Rather than becoming his mother's good son, he decided that he is a ghoul and so decided to pull out anyone threats his friends' lifes.

Further, Kaneki's mental health gets worse in a way resembles multiple personalities or Dissociative Identity Disorder. He may get berserk and attack anyone showing another personality from the way he talks then. Also he would get "illusions" and an image of Rize appear before him.

Past
Kaneki liked eating cooked burgers that his mother made long ago.

He lost his father when he was four years old. He barely remember his face and was awfully curious as to what sort of person he was. He knows that his father was an avid reader and had ton of books, so when he followed the sentences in the book his father had been reading, he felt like he was having a conversation with his dead father which calms him down strangely.

His mother later died by overworking herself when he was ten, simply by all the works that she had to deal with especially with his auntie,  who was tight on money and hounded his mother for cash. He was then adopted by his auntie, the Asaoka family, after his mother passed away.

His aunt's son ,Yuuichi, who she always compares with him since Yuuichi didn't do well at school which made her angry by comparing both of them when she was actually comparing him, Kaneki, with his late mother. Her feelings of inferiority regarding Kaneki's mother then were turned to him as spite. As time passed the family became a place which didn't gave him (Kaneki) any comfort any longer which turns out that nobody in the family would look after him that left him all alone.

He had a few friends during elementary school, Hide approached Kaneki and was his only support which really saved him from loneliness, most likely because he noticed that Kaneki had trouble dealing with his classmates. Since then, Hide and Kaneki have been best friends.

Prologue
In the first chapter, Kaneki and Hideyoshi Nagachika at Anteiku are listening to the news about ghoul attacks in the 20th ward. Hide wondered if Touka Kirishima was Kaneki's new crush that he wanted to show him, but Kaneki denied. Instead, Kaneki pointed to Rize Kamishiro, when she entered the café. After Hide had left the place, Kaneki ended up being arranged to a date with Rize. However, Rize actually was a ghoul targeting Kaneki, and she tricked Kaneki to enter a quiet alley. During her attack, Kaneki was wounded at the abdomen by her kagune, but Rize was hit by falling steel bars before she could kill him, apparently killing her. To save his life, the staff of the Kanou General Hospital under the direction of Prof. Akihiro Kanou decided to transplant Rize's organs into him. From then on, Kaneki was a half-human, half-ghoul.

After the accident, Kaneki hid that Rize was a ghoul. Everything he ate tasted disgusting and he was hardly able to eat normal food, so he started to live only on water for days. Around the time that he realized that ghouls were also unable to eat normal food, his hunger struck him. Unable to find anything to satisfy his hunger, he wandered the streets. At that time, he discovered that the waitress Touka Kirishima from Anteiku was also a ghoul as she killed a human. In terror, Kaneki ran away. He soon discovered that he was hardly able to keep himself in check. Since the transplant was the reason for the changes in him, he tried to destroy the transplant, but he was not even able to harm himself. Desperate, he turned to Touka for help. Touka refused, but Anteiku's manager Yoshimura gave Kaneki human meat to satisfy his hunger.

However, Kaneki was still repelled by the thought of having to eat human eat, so he decided not to do it. Instaed, he looked for other digestible food hopelessly. He discovered that he was still able to drink coffee. Drinking coffee calmed him down, so he went off to buy more. In some store, Nishiki Nishio advised him to buy the instant coffee Blondy. As Kaneki was returning home, he noticed the smell of delicious food. He traced the smell's source, which turned out to be a human corpse. The ghoul Kazuo Yoshida was eating the corpse, but he was immediately killed by Nishiki. Asserting that this was his feeding ground, Nishiki attacked Kaneki, too. At that moment, Touka appeared and declared that this place wasn't Nishiki's feeding ground, but Rize's. Nishiki retorted that this was originally his feeding ground until Rize came, but Touka, unfazed, responded that the feeding grounds would be re-alloted among the weaker ghouls and that it was his own fault for being too weak. Angered, Nishiki attacked Touka, but was immediately defeated. Touka tried to force Kaneki to eat, but Kaneki refused because he was human and different from ghouls. Angered, Touka retorted that Kaneki was neither human nor ghoul and no place where he would belong, but she also warned him that a ghoul's hunger was hell.

When Kaneki and Hide visited Nishiki in Kamii University to get the DVD of last-year's college festival, they disturbed Nishiki and Kimi Nishino when they were making out. Kaneki discovered that the Nishiki was the ghoul that attacked him shortly before. Nishiki told them to help him look for the material, but then claimed that he took the disk home. He proposed that they should go to his home. In reality, he deceived Kaneki and Hide, took Hide out and started fighting Kaneki. He provoked Kaneki by standing on Hide's face with his foot, but Kaneki was no match for Nishiki with kagune. However, when Nishiki tried to kill Hide, Kaneki made his kagune come out. With his kagune, Kaneki heavily injured Nishiki. As Kaneki started to lose control and was about to eat Hide, Touka stopped him.

Later, Kaneki woke up and found himself inside Anteiku. The manager led him to Hide's resting place. Kaneki wanted to approach Hide, but stopped. Before, he had already noticed blood inside his mouth and his hunger was diminished, so he asked Yoshimura what he had eaten. The manager told him that he already knew what he had eaten, since it was the only way to satisfy a ghoul's hunger. Kaneki cried out that he was neither human nor ghoul and there was no place for him, but Yoshimura replied that he was wrong and that he belonged to two worlds. Yoshimura proposed to Kaneki to work at Anteiku. Yoshimura would him teach how to live as a ghoul so that Kaneki could keep his place as a human.

Doves' Emergence
After Kaneki had started working part-time at Anteiku, his friend Hide visited him there. Hide thanked Touka for nursing Kaneki and him after the "car accident", the lie the manager used to cover up what had really happened to Kaneki and Hide. After they had left Hide, Touka told Kaneki to make sure that Hide won't find out about him being a ghoul: she would kill him to protect the ghouls' identities if that were to happen. Afterwards, the manager showed Kaneki how to eat sandwiches like a human. After Kaneki gave it a try, the manager gave him special sugar cubes that he could use to curb his hunger, but warned him that he might have to eat meat when the time would come. During Kaneki's working time, Ryouko Fueguchi and her daughter Hinami came to Anteiku. Touka told Kaneki that these two ghouls did not hunt themselves.

Ghoul investigators from CCG entered the 20th ward looking for Ryouko Fueguchi and her daughter Hinami. As the news spread in the ward, the manager asked Touka to guide Kaneki to the mask shop HySy ArtMask Studio in the 4th ward, where Kaneki became acquainted with the owner Uta.

One day, the manager asked Kaneki to obtain "food supplies" with Renji Yomo, i.e., they looked for humans who committed suicide. Afterwards, they picked Ryouko up, who was warned by Yomo that the investigators came because of her and that she should move more prudently for Hinami's sake. Ryouko agreed and said she would stop relying on her dead husband so that Hinami could depend on her. Kaneki thought that a parent's concern for their child was strong in any world.

Few days later, Hinami was eating human meat in a room on Anteiku's second floor, as Kaneki suddenly entered the room without knocking the door. After Kaneki apologized, she asked what species he was. To answer her question, Kaneki explained his case. Kaneki noticed that she had one of Sen Takatsuki's books, so they started to talk about the stories. Kaneki also tutored Hinami how to read some new kanji to expand her vocabulary. Before she and her mother left, Hinami thanked him and asked him to teach her again next time. While Hinami and her mother were leaving, the ghoul investigators encircled them. Ryouko gave her daughter the chance to escape while she fought the investigators. During her escape, Hinami ran into Kaneki and asked for help, but just as they arrived, Mado killed Ryouko. Kaneki participated in Anteiku's meeting after Ryouko's death. Kaneki considered Ryouko's death his fault for being too weak to save her.

The next day after Touka's attack on the ghoul investigators, Kaneki noticed Touka's injuries. He intended to treat her wounds, but Yoshimura stopped him, because Touka would have to carry the responsibility for her actions herself and Anteiku didn't have the power to oppose CCG. Even so, Kaneki still chose to treat her. Kaneki told Touka that he believed the ghoul investigators' existence was necessary and that he considered her actions wrong. Nevertheless, he would mourn her were she to die, and asked her to teach him how to fight, so that he would be able to act next time. The next day, they entered the underground, tunnels originally built by ghouls, to practice. By threatening his life, she forced him to use his kagune. After training, Uta delivered Kaneki's mask.

Later, they went to CCG's branch office in the 20th ward to spread false information on Hinami's whereabouts. Before they could leave, Kureo Mado suspected them to be ghouls, so he forced Kaneki through the Rc scan gate, but the gate didn't react to Kaneki. While Hinami confined herself in Anteiku's room on the upper floor, Touka visited her and gave her a newspaper that contained Kusaba's death notice. Realizing what Touka was doing, Hinami ran away. When Touka and Kaneki noticed Hinami was missing, they began searching for her. Touka found Hinami and informed Kaneki, but before they could leave, Mado attacked them. Kaneki was relieved they found her, however, he overheard investigator Amon's phone conversation with Mado. As Amon set off for Kasahara river where Hinami and Touka were, Kaneki, wearing his mask, stood in Amon's way to buy enough time for Touka and Hinami to flee.

Kaneki initially went easy on the investigator until Amon was easily able to overpower him. After taking down Kaneki, Amon paused to talk about the recent death of a fellow investigator, the orphans and demonized ghouls for corrupting the world with their gluttony. As a former human, Kaneki couldn't deny that ghouls had brought violence to the world and caused tragedies because of their consumption. However, after remembering Ryouko's sacrifice for her daughter, he finally realizes Yoshimura's earlier discussion, that he is the only one who can see both the human and ghoul worlds; that two sides are almost the same. Convinced that he has a reason to fight, Kaneki won using his kagune that he was reluctant to use. After defeating Amon in battle with his ghoul instincts excited, Kaneki starts losing control of his powers. Desperately, he asked Amon to leave so that he won't kill someone. Shortly thereafter, Kaneki lost control and he started acting like Rize. Yomo appeared stopped Kaneki from rampaging. Yomo and Kaneki rushed to Hinami's and Touka's whereabouts and afterwards left to go back to Anteiku. On their way back, Hinami asked if it was right for her to live and Kaneki answered that he believed Hinami's mother told her to live.

After Mado's death, Kaneki went to Kanou General Hospital for a checkup. Kaneki heavily questioned if Kanou knew what had happened to his body. Afterwards, Kaneki went to university. During class, Hide brought up the news about the death of two ghoul investigators. To Kaneki's concern, Hide had mostly figured out the Rabbit case. As Kaneki asked Hide why he was interested in this matter, Hide pulled out Hisashi Ogura's new ghoul book that he found really interesting. Hide toyed with the idea of joining the investigation to which Kaneki heavily objected.

Later on, Kaneki went to Touka's apartment because he was worried about Hinami who started living there. To Kaneki's surprise, Touka ate all of the home-made food by her classmate Yoriko Kosaka, making him wonder how important Yoriko was to Touka.

Gourmet Arc
The day after Touka and Kaneki practiced underground with Renji Yomo, Gourmet Shuu Tsukiyama came to Anteiku during their work time and was attracted to Kaneki's smell. Another day, Tsukiyama approached Kaneki at Kamii University as Kaneki immersed himself in a martial arts book. Tsukiyama persuaded Kaneki to meet him at a cafe the next Sunday. Lost in thought, Kaneki went to Anteiku despite it being closed and met Yomo in fron of Anteiku. Yomo invited Kaneki to meet someone who asked for Kaneki. Together, they went to 14th ward's Helter Skelter bar and met Yomo's old friends, the bar owner Itori and Uta. After they had talked about the relationship between Yomo, Uta and Itori, Itori spilled a glass of blood on Kaneki to uncover his sole kakugan. Itori was excited seeing a one-eyed ghoul and wondered if the other "One-Eye" felt the same as Kaneki. Kaneki wanted to know about the other one-eyed ghouls, so Itori told Kaneki about hybrids, pregnancy of half-ghouls and the rumored "One-Eye". Soon, the conversation turned about Kaneki and the mysterious death of Rize, and Kaneki discovered that the steel bar accident was likely triggered by someone. Itori proposed a trade to Kaneki: Kaneki should uncover information on the Ghoul Restaurant from the Gourmet and in exchange, she would share information on the accident.

After the meeting, Kaneki, immersed in thought, got lost and ran into a group of ghouls that attacked Nishiki Nishio. Kaneki saved Nishiki from the ghouls that planned to eat him and brought him to his apartment, while Nishiki was cursing Kaneki. As Kaneki was about to leave, Kimi Nishino attacked Kaneki to protect Nishiki, thinking that Kaneki was the "narcissistic man"; however, Nishiki asked her to stop.

The following Sunday, after Kaneki and Tsukiyama played Squash first, they visited the café. A book page cut Kaneki's finger and he used Tsukiyama's handkerchief to soak up the blood. Tsukiyama went to the bathroom with the handkerchief and sniffed it, revealing his obsession with Kaneki's smell, flesh and blood. As Kaneki asked Tsukiyama about the ghoul restaurant to gather information, Tsukiyama invited him as a guest to the ghoul restaurant. However, this was a trap set by Tsukiyama, because he was not meant to be a regular guest, but instead was meant to become the dinner together with Kobachi and Ami. As Kaneki was fighting the restaurant's scrapper Taro-chan during the dismantling show, his one kakugan activated, revealing him to be on-eyed. Tsukiyama realized that Kaneki was an even rarer dish than he thought and came to the conclusion that he didn't want to share with the other members, so he killed the scrapper as Kaneki's replacement.

Kaneki, frightened of Tsukiyama, slept at Anteiku as Hinami came to bring the cockatiel Hetare together with Yomo and Yoshimura. Kaneki told them he saw lots of ghouls and commented at how they laughed behind their masks at the injured him and the two people that were with him. Yoshimura commented that they were ghouls who killed their emotions and forgot the value of life. After Yoshimura and Yomo left, Touka called Kaneki because a girl was waiting downstairs for him. Kimi Nishino begged Kaneki for help since Nishiki's state had worsened further. Kaneki promised to help her. As she was returning home, Tsukiyama kidnapped her to set the next trap for Kaneki.

After Kaneki had found Tsukiyama's letter about Kimi being kidnapped by him, Nishiki came looking for Kimi. Kaneki and Nishiki decided to face Tsukiyama together to save Kimi. However, Kaneki and Nishiki were no match for Tsukiyama, and even after Touka joined them, they were losing because Tsukiyama was the only one who could use his kagune. However, Nishiki's tenacity and Kaneki's idea to allow himself to be eaten by Touka led to victory against Tsukiyama.

Aogiri Arc
Kazuichi Banjou and his followers came to Anteiku to search for Rize by orders of Aogiri Tree's leaders. Touka and Kaneki decided to hear his story, and Banjou began to talk about his time with Rize in the 11th ward. However, Banjou soon realized that Kaneki smelt like Rize. Because he suspected Kaneki to be her boyfriend, he attacked him, but Banjou was easily knocked out by Kaneki. When Banjou woke up again, Kaneki tried to clear up the misunderstanding. He told Banjou that Rize had moved somewhere else, hiding from him that she had died. Banjou asked Kaneki to tell her that she should run away because he feared that Aogiri would try to gravely hurt her. At that moment, Ayato Kirishima, Yamori and Nico raided Anteiku. They announced that they were ordered to capture Rize herself or "the person smelling like her". Touka and Kaneki were easily overpowered and Kaneki was kidnapped.

After Kaneki had regained consciousness, he asked Ayato about Touka's condition, but in response, Ayato taught Kaneki the rules of the place while kicking and beating him. Kaneki was brought before Tatara. To make Kaneki reveal his kakugan, Tatara pierced his abdomen. Tatara realized that he could not use Kaneki the way he originally planned, so he granted Ayato the right to do whatever he wished with Kaneki. Tatara revealed to Kaneki that the escaped Doctor Kanou was aware what had happened to Kaneki's body and that Kanou didn't transplant a kidney into Kaneki, but a kakuhou.

After the meeting, Kaneki was approached by Banjou, who proposed that they should escape together.

Hideyoshi Nagachika
Kaneki would call him by his nickname Hide and he is best friends with him. The two of them are very close to each other and have been close friends since childhood. Although Kaneki would lack the assertiveness to speak to others, Hide would often speak in his place as his "voice" As Kaneki is willing to fight to the death for his friend, Hide is also able to percieve Kaneki's emotions.

Touka Kirishima
Before discovering that she is a ghoul, Kaneki would see her as a cute girl. She was confused to see half-ghoul and then started to refuse him as a former human, but since Kaneki joined Anteiku the two of them are becoming closer, and it would seem like she bosses him around. Touka would help him many times either because he is a coworker or she does care about him. Kaneki also started to care about her as much as he cares about Hide. He also delvelops a similar taste in clothing.

Since they started to practice together, in fights their movements together would be synched.

Yoshimura
Kaneki is grateful for Yoshimura helping him survive being a ghoul. He would also listen to him with care to what he has to say. Since Kaneki is working part-time in his shop and would take missions from him, he is affiliated with Yoshimura's organization Anteiku.

Renji Yomo
Initially, Yomo is distant and uncaring when Kaneki first cooperates with him in a body scavenging mission. Yomo is aware that he is half-ghoul and grew interested in his development after Kaneki's fight with the doves. Periodically he gives advice to Kaneki whether on fighting or avoiding trouble.

Hinami Fueguchi
Hinami looks up to Kaneki as a big brother. She's aware and interested in his half-human nature as she may had a few or no interaction with human society. They both share a passion for reading, especially Sen Takatsuki's works and he very often tutors her new vocabulary to learn. After her mother's death, both Touka and Kaneki have been very protective of her and treats each other like family.

Rize Kamishiro
Kaneki took a liking to Rize because of her beauty and love for books. And so Rize got attracted to Kaneki either from his delicious smell or the feel of fun by manipulating him. Both of them had many shared interests. After their date, Rize tried to hunt him down but she fails at the end.

In Kaneki's mind, she would appear before him. First time, she started a sensitive conversation about Kaneki's past and personality.

Powers and Abilities
Kaneki starts off as weak and not used to fights, with strong body that has neither muscles nor fitness. He has poor reflexes, reflecting his terrible athletic skills when he was previously human. Despite this, he is shown to be very adaptive and a quick learner. He also has an ability of learning martial arts very fast through martial arts books.


 * Rinkaku Kagune: After the organ transplant, Kaneki also inherited Rize's kagune. Rize's kagune is special because it has an abnormal regenerating factor even among the Rinkaku types. While his body is soft and fragile, his kagune focuses on providing enough brute force to take down even the toughest enemies. So far, his kagune can produce four tentacle claws that provide him with muscular blades to cut or pierce foes.

Despite the surgery, Kaneki seems to lack the sense of smell other ghouls have that can differentiate between humans and ghouls.

Trivia

 * Kaneki was ranked first in the character popularity poll.
 * Kaneki likes reading, beautiful language, intellectual women and hamburgers.