Eto Yoshimura


 * "One-Eyed Owl" directs here. For the artificial One-Eyed Ghoul, Owl, see Seidou Takizawa. 

Eto (エト, Eto) is a member of Aogiri Tree, often seen interacting with fellow Aogiri member, Tatara.

She is the One-Eyed Owl (隻眼の梟, Sekigan no Fukurō), the half-human half-ghoul daughter of Yoshimura and Ukina. Her human identity is Sen Takatsuki (高槻 泉, Takatsuki Sen), a best-selling horror novelist mentioned throughout the series.

Her relation with the One-Eyed King is unclear. However the CCG and Nico speculate that they are the same person.

Appearance
As Eto, she has a child-like appearance. Her entire body is wrapped in bandages, with tattered maroon cloak with droopy ears attached to the hood. She wears a floral scarf around her neck. Her right eye is a kakugan, while the other eye is a normal green eye.

As Sen Takatsuki, she is an attractive woman in her early 20s. She typically wears a sleepy or curious expression and dresses in modest or sloppy fashion. Her long green hair is usually messy and uncombed or bundled on top of her head in a messy bun. However, even though she is typically unkempt, she is noted to be a great beauty with many admirers and greatly resembles her mother, Ukina.

As the One Eyed Owl, her initial Kakuja created a mask with one hole on the right eye's position and three zigzag lines on the left, with two lines at the mouth's position slanted downwards, which greatly resembled her father, Yoshimura's Kakuja mask. After 10 years of cannibalizing, presumably, her massive Kakuja now forms a mask like-head with four horns and a single eye in the center of the mask with three markings on the left and right cheek and the forehead, and a huge smiling mouth.

Personality
Because of her human and ghoul nature, Eto has a number of sides to her personality.

As a ghoul, she has a sadistic personality, cutting off Shinohara's leg so that he could "match" with Juuzou's injuries and taunting Kurona and Nashiro about their parent's death. Her twisted personality is possibly the result of fighting to stay alive during her early years in the 24th ward. As a result, she has no qualms about remorselessly slaughtering humans and ghouls alike.

Like many ghouls, she is able to compartmentalize her ghoul and human alter egos with relative ease. Since she doesn't see any value in human life, this indicates that she has a misanthropic view on humanity. Whether her views on humanity was a factor in her attacks on the CCG is still unknown.

As Sen Takatsuki, Eto projects a childish air around her through her actions and overall demeanor. She appears to be quite playful and ditzy at times, oversleeping on the day she was supposed to be signing books and taking photos with admirers when it was prohibited by her manager.

Past
Eto/One-Eyed Owl was born to Ukina and Yoshimura as a hybrid human and ghoul being. However, when Ukina was forcefully killed by Yoshimura under the orders of V, the child was hidden in the 24th ward in order to protect its frail life. As Eto grew up in the 24th ward, she came to hate the world and continued to survive; eventually, she became a half-kakuja due to the low human and high ghoul population ratio in the ward. In her youth, Eto first appeared to the CCG during their whack-a-mole hunts and killed Mado's wife as the latter covered for her comrades' retreat.

One day, Eto appeared for the first time and single-handedly killed a Special Class Investigator that was affiliated with the 3rd ward. Eto was assigned a S-rating and then given the nickname X.

One month later, Eto executed a large-scale attack on CCG's 2nd ward branch office. The office was heavily damaged and CCG suffered numerous casualties. Eto's rating was increased to SS, and her nickname was changed to 'Owl', due to her plumage-like Kagune. After a report of Eto only having one kakugan, her nickname was again changed to 'One-Eyed Owl'.

Afterwards, Eto and other ghouls attacked the Ghoul Detention Center in the 23rd ward. Eto's rating was upgraded to SSS.

Later, Eto's faction attacked the 2nd ward for a second time. This time, First Class Investigator Kuroiwa dealt heavy damage to Eto's kakuhou with his Quinque. However, Kuroiwa himself was seriously injured and could not participate in subsequent operations.

Finally, Yoshimura, acting in his daughter's place, attacked the 2nd ward for a third time alone. CCG's team was unable to exterminate Yoshimura. However, the genius Rank 2 Investigator Arima used the Special Class Investigators' quinques as he went up against Yoshimura. Finally, he defeated Yoshimura, leading to CCG's victory. Yoshimura, wounded, vanished after this day ten years ago.

At an unspecified point during her teenaged years, Eto would adopt the human identity of "Sen Takatsuki" and begin her career as a novelist. Her first work, titled Dear Kafka, would go on to be a best-seller and help establish a strong following as an author. She published five other works, before publishing The Black Goat's Egg -- the very novel being read by Ken Kaneki and Rize Kamishiro at the beginning of the series.

Aogiri Arc
Eto attended the meeting where Kaneki was brought before Tatara. At the end of the meeting, Tatara left the Aogiri hideout's affairs to Noro. Tatara predicted that the doves would come soon and ordered Noro to follow their plan. Then, Tatara left with Eto to meet comrades that were waiting for them.

Raid of Kanou's Lab
Eto is among the members of Aogiri gathered while Tatara interrogates Dr. Kanou's assistant about his location. She briefly chats with Naki about Yamori's death, suggesting that Tatara should have killed Kaneki when he had the chance. Once the group have their information, she joins Tatara to discuss making their move before the Doves can.

She is among those sent to raid Kanou's lab, and uses the chaos to sneak deeper into the facility alone. There, she encounters the twins Kuro and Shiro, and begins to taunt them about their past. Displaying incredible speed, she is able to seemingly teleport around the room while asking them painful questions. Once her psychological tactics overwhelm them, she appears behind Kazuichi Banjou and rips out several of his ribs.

Later on, she joins Kanou in his control room and watches the confrontation between Koutarou Amon and a deranged Kaneki. She expresses interest in Amon, before leaving the facility along with Kanou.

Anteiku Raid
In the aftermath of the battle at Dr. Kanou's laboratory, she makes her first appearance as Sen Takatsuki at a book signing event. She arrives late to the event, and apologizes to the large gathering of fans for having overslept. While her manager protests, she cheerfully ignores the rules of the event and mingles with her fans taking photographs and chatting happily about the books. Kaneki and Hinami Fueguchi attend the event, and immediately catch her interest. She is pleased that Kaneki notices so many hidden details in her novels, while she forms an immediate connection with Hinami. After they leave, Hide arrives at the event and briefly chats with the author. She hints at her interest in writing a novel about a Ghoul.

Some time later, she observes Hinami having coffee with Shuu Tsukiyama and waits until the girl is alone before approaching her. She reveals that Hinami has a habit of clutching her hands when lying, and offers the girl honest advice about her inability to help Kaneki. Takatsuki claims to have gone through difficult times in the past, and gives her business card to Hinami, offering her assistance should the girl ever need it.

Later that day, she pays a visit to CCG and claims to have information. Amon meets with her, answering her questions about the RC scanner gates -- which she passes through without incident due to her hybrid nature. Once seated in an interview area, she begins to question him about personal things such as his lunch, stating that she wants an interview with an Investigator in exchange for the information she has. Amon is initially frustrated with her teasing behavior, but once he cooperates she reveals to him a conspiracy involving CCG and a trading company called Sphinx. She reveals that the company sold CCG a large amount of a fluid made from Ghoul corpses, and that Dr. Kanou's mansion was in fact property of CCG. Furthermore, she reveals that the president of Sphinx, Nanao Yasuhisa was murdered by a Ghoul. Having provided Amon with enough information to make him question CCG, she leaves.

She next appears during the battle in the 20th Ward, ambushing the team sent to kill Yoshimura in her full Kakuja form. Exhausted from the previous battle against her father, Iwao Kuroiwa, Yukinori Shinohara, Kousuke Houji, Koori Ui, and Juuzou Suzuya are quickly overwhelmed. She tortures and fatally wounds Shinohara, taunting a wounded Juuzou and batting him around until the remaining Special and Associate Special Classes arrive. They are barely able to hold her off, until the arrival of Squad 0 that led by Kishou Arima. Arima fights her in single combat, inflicting numerous serious injuries and forcing her to retreat. Before she flees, she swallows her father whole and leaps from the rooftop with him -- mocking CCG as she makes her escape. Later on, she regurgitates her father unharmed and emerges naked from her Kakuja armor. She greets her father with a deranged expression, revealing that Sen Takatsuki, Eto, and the One-Eyed Owl are all the same person.

Post-20th Ward One-Eyed Owl Battle
She is later seen talking with Tatara and Dr. Kanou, suggesting that they will simply have to replace Kaneki with a new one -- one created from her father and kidnapped Investigators.

In the aftermath of the battle, Tsuneyoshi Washuu theorizes that the One-Eyed Owl and the One-Eyed King of Aogiri are the same person. He reaffirms that she must be defeated at any cost.

Root A (Anime)
In their battle, Kaneki was noted by Eto, who was watching from afar with Tatara, to have become much stronger.

Eto asks Tatara if the 'others' won't come as many of their allies seem to have died, and she asks him about how many have died. Tatara replies 'About two hundred or so'. Eto then says that for the sake of those two hundred, they have to do their killing too.

After the Aogiri hideout is crushed, Kaneki sees the bodies of the dead investigators on the ground. He sees what seems to be an illusion of Eto smiling at him.

Kaneki is welcomed by the main executives of Aogiri, with Eto waving her hand at him and Ayato being visibly annoyed. Kaneki follows as they all leave the place.

During the Cochlea infiltration at CCG headquarters, she is seen along with the other Aogiri ghouls producing chaos in order to free Shachi. After his fight with Kaneki, Eto asks Shachi if he wants to see Rize. Later, Eto is shown to be watching over Kaneki as he fights Shinohara and Amon. She finally appears in her full Kakuja form, angering an injured Akira and bewildered Amon. She grabs Ayato and Kaneki and flees.

Eto later appears after her father was defeated, at first assuming her original Kakuja guise before it morphs into a beastial like form, grinning at the Investigators sinisterly. Shinohara and Iwao's suspicions about there being two Owls are confirmed with her appearance.

Eto makes quick work of the Investigators, looming over them with a crazed grin before turning her attention to Suzuya, about to attack him until Shinohara takes the blow instead. Angered, and desperate to save his father figure, Suzuya repeatedly tries to defeat her, but his attacks do no damage at all. Eto continuously mocks him, even stabbing Shinohara just to see him suffer. However, shortly afterwards, Suzuya's wounds catch up to him, and he falls, only to be caught by Arima. Eto quickly recognizes him, saying he's finally here before attacking him. Unfortunately, she is unable to land so much as a hit on him, and is forced onto the defensive as she tries to dodge his attacks. When it seems like she finally has the upper hand, Arima slices off her arm, forcing her to flee after eating Yoshimura. She is later seen regurgitating her father, who recognizes her while she says "father" in a singing tone, smiling cruelly down at him.

Nutcracker Investigation
Eto appears at the Aogiri Hideout, speaking to Ayato. She requests him to act as an escort and guard for Madam at an upcoming auction, since Aogiri earns lots of money through working for Madam. She also mentions that Ayato should be hectic, for the "floppy" might appear at the Auction.

Auction
During the Auction, Dr. Kanou and Eto observe the unfolding events from a control room at an undisclosed location. Kanou is pleased with how things are going, and asks permission to release "Owl" -- she agrees with this idea and contacts the new Owl over the radio. It is revealed to be former Investigator Seidou Takizawa, transformed into an One-Eyed Ghoul by Aogiri. He complains to Eto about being hungry.

Later on, while facing Sasaki and realizing who he actually is, Takizawa states this must have been her real reason for sending him.

Yoshimura
Eto appears to have some form of twisted relationship for her father when they reunite from the time she is an infant. This is evident by her intervention during the Anteiku Raid to save Yoshimura from being killed by the invading CCG investigators. However this is done in Aogiri's and Kanou's best interest as they plan to use Yoshimura for experiments. She appears to have little to no true feelings for her father other than his usefulness to Aogiri Tree.

Ukina
It is unknown whether Eto knows if her mother is alive or not. However it can be presumed that Eto knows about their relation since Yoshimura left Ukina's diary with Eto when he dropped her off as an Infant in the 24th ward.

Tatara
The exact nature of their relationship is unknown, though Eto is almost always seen in his presence. In public, their dynamic seems to be that of an older and younger sibling -- it is unclear whether this is more intentional misdirection, considering Eto's true age.

Hinami Fueguchi
The two initially meet at a signing event, and form an immediate connection. As Sen Takatsuki, Eto later approaches Hinami in a coffee shop and strikes up a conversation. She treats the younger girl with kindness, but also refuses to candy-coat her words and offers her genuine advice. As such, she quickly earns the girl's trust and establishes herself as a surrogate older sister. She provides her contact information, promising to offer help when she has the time to do so. Two years later, Hinami has become a member of Aogiri and was likely brought in after catching Eto's interest.

Ken Kaneki
The plans of their relationship is complicated, as a result of the many identities Eto has assumed. In her human identity as Sen Takatsuki, she is one of his favorite authors and someone he admires greatly. She is pleased with his ability to pick up on hidden details in her books, and they enjoy a brief discussion of her works. Their meeting renews his energy, while she claims to have found something hopeful in talking to him.

Kaneki is one of the few aware of her true origins, having learned it from Yoshimura. This brings him some uncertainty, even though he considers her a deadly enemy to be destroyed. While chiding Tatara for sparing Kaneki's life in the beginning, Eto seems to consider him interesting after witnessing his mutation into a partial Kakuja. She refers to him as "Kakuja's Egg", and while he seeks to destroy Aogiri, she seems to have some unknown plans for him.

In Root A, she seems to be interested in Kaneki, because of his new powers. After the building of Aogiri starts collapsing, Kaneki is stalked by Eto who influenced him to join Aogiri knowing he will grow stronger. She also collected research about him by questioning different people.

Koutarou Amon
Eto is fascinated by him, taking an active interest in Amon after witnessing his battle against a deranged Kaneki. She seems to know quite a bit about his past, considering this unusual and noteworthy enough to make him more interesting than the half-Ghoul Kaneki. In her human identity, she goes to CCG headquarters to meet with him under the guise of an interview. There, she discloses information about Kanou's laboratory, and causes him to begin questioning what dark secrets CCG might be hiding.

Akihiro Kanou
As co-conspirators, the two seem to be on good terms. The doctor is amiable to her, and she in turn seems to be interested in this very unusual human.

Seidou Takizawa
The former Investigator turned Ghoul seems to answer to her, and while their exact relationship remains unclear, she speaks to him with a friendly tone. When realizing her true intentions, he rudely comments on her sneaky behavior.

Powers and Abilities
Eto is the most powerful Ghoul seen thus far in the series, possessing an SSS ranking. She possesses incredible agility, able to readjust her position from the Yasuhisa sisters to Banjou at a speed where it seems like she teleported. She has exceptional reflexes, shown when she ripped out parts of Banjou's ribcage without him noticing until it had taken place. Eto is much stronger than most ghouls, evident by her attacks in CCG headquarters and the number of investigators that she has killed as the One Eyed Owl, shown when she easily subdues a team of high class investigators prior to Arima's arrival whereas Yoshimura had trouble fending off the same investigators' cooperative attacks. She is the strongest and most dangerous ghoul to date with 6-8 Kakuhous that help expand her kagune abilities.


 * Ukaku Kagune: Eto's kagune takes the form of two muscular blades on her shoulder blades and a plumage of feathers that can shoot bullets similar to her father's. Due to the high number of kakuhous in her body, her kagune abilities are very diversified.


 * Kakuja Kagune: Due to living in the 24th ward where the number of ghouls are much higher than humans, Eto had to cannibalize ghouls at an early age and quickly became a kakuja. Ten years ago, Eto's kakuja formed two large scimitar blades from her shoulders to counteract the close-combat weakness that most ukaku ghouls have. With two large blades, she could cover the distance between her opponents, parrying incoming attacks and striking back synchronously. Eto's first kakuja kagune also formed a mask with one hole on the right eye's position and three zigzag lines on the left, with two lines at the mouth's position slanted downwards, deceptively similar to her father's mask. In her current full kakuja form, Eto takes the appearance of a large, monstrous creature with her Ukaku kagune growing into large spikes protruding from her back, large bird-like feet, and her mask develops four horns and has a single eye in the center with three markings on the left and right cheek and the forehead. In this form, she is nearly unstoppable. While her ukaku kagune covers middle to far distances, her Kakuja cuts down those in front; it's almost impossible to escape her reach. Her ukaku kagune is also capable of shooting projectiles large enough to overwhelm most seasoned investigators with ease and her physical strength is augmented to the point where she is able to knock out an Arata Proto equipped Yukitori Shinohara and Iwao Kuroiwa through brute force alone. Unlike most kakujas, she is able to maintain her consciousness. So far, Kishou Arima has been the only combatant able to stand on equal footing with Eto in this form.

Works

 * Takatsuki's debut work is titled Dear Kafka. It was released when Takatsuki was still a teenager and is a bestseller with 500 000 copies.
 * Monochrome Rainbow is a short story collection. Among others, the collection contains the short stories Summer Diary, Resentments and Showers at Sunset (Sayoshigure).
 * The seventh work is titled The Black Goat's Egg. It narrates the story of a son and his mother, a cold-hearted serial killer called "The Black Goat". The protagonist is disgusted by his mother's depravity, but has to realize that he is developing the same cruel impulses. The book combines brutal descriptions with a delicate portrayal of the main character's mental state. After the organ transplant, Ken Kaneki likens himself to the story's protagonist.
 * Her eighth work is called The Hanged Man's MacGuffin, a collection of stories about the life of death sentenced prisoners. Kaneki reads it after the "Banjou incident".
 * One of her earlier works is Salt and Opium. It features Investigator Kunizaki, who is the uncle of Warden Oota Kimio in The Hanged Man's MacGuffin.

Trivia

 * She is the only natural One-Eyed Ghoul to date.
 * Like other One Eyed Ghouls such as Ken Kaneki, Eto's hybrid nature can bypass the Rc scanning machines in the CCG headquarters.
 * Her books such as The Black Goat's Egg and The Hanged Man's MacGuffin contains dark themes that reflect the life of a ghoul.
 * According to an Omake in Volume 11, her manager's name is Shunji Shiono.
 * She is left-handed.
 * She's developed some sort of interest in Kaneki's power, and refers to him as "Kakuja's Egg".
 * She has been shown consuming human food twice, both in unusual situations. While meeting with Hinami, she is shown holding a daifuku in her mouth with no obvious discomfort or ill effect. An artwork done by Ishida also shows her with a open package of snacks, even though she appears to be alone at the time. It is unclear whether she is simply very good at pretending to eat, or her unique nature allows her to consume human food.