Akihiro Kanou

Akihiro Kanou (嘉納 明博, Kanō Akihiro), often referred to as Professor Kanou (嘉納教授, Kanō-kyōju), is a physician at Kanou General Hospital. He is responsible for Kaneki's transformation into an artificial one-eyed ghoul, using him as a prototype for his surgery.

Appearance
Kanou is an elderly, grey-haired man who wears the typical attire of a physician: White coat, white shirt, and black necktie.

Personality
At the beginning, Kanou appears as a gentle, benevolent physician whose purpose is to ensure the health of his patients. He will disregard regulations if it allows him to save the life of his patient. However, behind this facade lies the mind of a disturbed mad scientist. Kanou sees ghouls or more specifically one-eyed ghouls as a way for humans to evolve in order to escape the "birdcage" that is encasing the "world". He exhibits a misanthropic perspective on humanity, seeing them as a weak, inferior species that possess no potential for the future. He has stated that he has lost all hope in living in a world with humans. He has shown no remorse for his human-ghoul experiments, seeing them as merely stepping stones for his goals and ambitions.

Prologue
After Ken Kaneki was mortally wounded by Rize Kamishiro, Kanou transplanted Rize's organs into Kaneki, turning Kaneki into a one-eyed ghoul. This caused an organ transplant scandal since Kanou did not ask Rize's family for permission.

Doves' Emergence
After Kaneki was released, Kanou continued performing Kaneki's regular medical examinations. Kaneki questioned if Kanou figured out what had happened to his body because he should have an elevated Rc Factor.

Aogiri Arc
Tatara revealed that Kanou was aware and responsible for Kaneki's transformation into a half-ghoul. Supposedly, Kanou transplanted a kidney into Kaneki, but actually, he transplanted a kakuhou. Kanou escaped from Aogiri Tree's clutches.

Raid of Kanou's Lab
Kaneki finally discovered Kanou at the very core of his lab. He called Kaneki his "ultimate creation" and explained his reason for turning him into a ghoul. Kanou felt that the world was trapped in a "cage" and decided to create artificial one-eyed ghouls to become that "ray of hope" to finally break free from that cage. Kanou persuades Kaneki to join him and Aogiri Tree so that he can show Kaneki the "true form" of the world, then revealing that Yoshimura was responsible for creating Aogiri Tree. Kaneki struggled to decide on what to do when Yomo suddenly appeared and rescued Rize. Yomo tells Kaneki to follow his own path and warns him of the approaching Doves. Kanou escapes with Shachi, not before releasing all of his failed experimental subjects after Kaneki and saying that he will look forward to seeing him again.

Afterward, Kanou watched the events unfolding from a monitoring room alongside Eto. When Kuro arrived, he noted her poor condition but advised her to abandon Shiro as a lost cause, reassuring her that she will make plenty of new friends at Aogiri. He departed through a back entrance to the facility.

Post-Owl Suppression Operation
Kanou appeared in a new laboratory, accompanied by Tatara and Eto. He discussed how investigators have stronger bodies than normal people and was pleased that Aogiri has provided him new materials for his experiments. The doctor admitted that Kaneki was only ever intended to be a test of his procedure, but turned out to be far more than he had ever imagined. Eto suggested that, now that Kaneki is gone, they should make a "new Kaneki" using Yoshimura as the new donor.

Auction
Dr. Kanou remained a member of Aogiri, observing the battle at the auction hall from a room filled with monitors. He advised Eto that it is time to send the "Owl". The first of his new artificial Ghouls to be revealed is Seidou Takizawa.

Rose Extermination
Kanou is seen discussing Gagi and Guge with Naki, hoping to gain his consent to use the twins' kakuhou for experiments. He simplified what he is saying to Naki due to Naki's lack of proper education, telling him that he will definitely revive the twins. Naki thanked him and shared his joy with other fellow White Suits. Kanou expressed his interest in the Quinx, describing Dr. Chigyou as a genius and hopes to have a conversation with him. Kanou then wondered what his "beloved prototype" is doing at that moment.

Kanou is given the body of former Quinx Squad Leader Ginshi Shirazu after Aogiri Tree attacked a vehicle containing it. Kanou examined Shirazu's body and is impressed by the CCG's ingenuity of gradually accustoming a ghoul's kakuhou into a human body through Frame technology. He was certain that by implementing Quinx technology into his ghoulification experiments, he can increase the success rate and decrease any adverse side effects. Kanou later asked Tatara for a new body to use for his experiments and expressed his wish to speak to Eto, only for Tatara to inform him that she is "busy".

Rushima Landing Operation
Kanou managed a hidden lab on Rushima when suddenly an injured Kurona arrived at the lab, greeting him. Kurona revealed a deformed figure on her abdomen and requested Kanou to help Nashiro, to which he replied that he was not Dr. Frankenstein and cannot raise the dead. Kurona argued that Nashiro was alive because she can breathe, eat, and speak. Kanou pondered and concluded that the sounds produced from the deformed figure on Kurona's stomach were actually gas escaping from the body, not speech. He also stated the reason she saw Nashiro's face was because she was imagining it, which is a phenomenon known as Pareidolia. Kurona then decided that she wants to kill Kanou, so the latter immediately introduced a product of his Quinx surgery, Okahira. Kanou commanded Okahira to attack Kurona Yasuhisa. She managed to break a pipe which released a blistering steam that wounds Okahira. Kurona mentioned that there was once a tragic accident in which the pipes malfunctioned and incinerated various researchers, boldly saying that this will happen again. Kanou released another batch of Quinx while insisting on asking them what they think. After Kurona escaped Okahira, who tried to snap her neck, she told Kanou she knew what he was, declaring him a crazy mad scientist, which Kanou is only relieved to hear. Unexpectedly, Nishiki Nishio arrived, and held Kanou in midair with his kagune, telling him he has been looking for the Kanou, who commanded his Quinx to kill Nishiki. At the arrival of Shikorae and Roma Hoito as a request from Furuta, he was freed and taken away by Okahira.

Ken Kaneki
Their initial relationship is that of a kindly doctor and his patient, though the truth complicates things greatly. Kanou never intended for his patient to become anything more than a test of the procedure but is extremely pleased to witness his growth. He attempts to persuade Kaneki to join him and is disappointed at the harsh rejection. After news of Kaneki's apparent death reaches him, he expresses derision for his "ultimate creation" dismissing him as an unusual prototype. However, after discovering he survived and that he was able to battle his Owl upgrade equally he changes his mind designating him as his beloved prototype.

Rize Kamishiro
Rize is a victim of his experiments, a donor he captured and farmed to create his artificial half-ghouls. He considers her a valuable resource but allows her to suffer incredibly while being used and does not seem to care as it drives her insane.

Maiko Abe
She lived in poverty, wishing for money, quality meat and things only upper class ghouls received, and became indebted to Kanou when he gives her a better life after she attempted to kill and eat him. She is a valuable ally to Kanou and cares for his less-successful experiments. However, she is merely a pawn and he throws her aside without a second thought.

Nashiro Yasuhisa and Kurona Yasuhisa
Kanou approached the twins and convinced them to become his allies by revealing the truth about their parents' deaths. He used them for his experiments after testing the procedure on Kaneki to ensure its success. They are his second and third successful experiments and become his fiercely loyal servants, as well as Madam A's bodyguards. He manipulates them both to the extent the girls refer to him as their father, but when Shiro is fatally wounded, he refuses to do anything further to help her. During the Rosewald Investigation, Kanou states they are failures, labeling them as "floppies." During the Landing Operation, Kurona tells Juuzou that she is confident that Kanou can restore Nashiro, who has been absorbed by Kurona.

Eto
The two have a cordial relationship, seeing each other as important allies with similar goals and believing the same concept of the "twisted birdcage". He frequently interacts with her out of all the members of Aogiri and respects her.

Tatara
Kanou expresses his gratitude to the ghoul for providing him with excellent facilities and materials for his experiments. Though only a human, he seems to be useful enough to be treated decently by the second-in-command of Aogiri.

Seidou Takizawa
Takizawa is one of the investigators captured by Aogiri and given to him for his experiments. He seems pleased with the results of the experiments, and eagerly unleashes his creation.

Yoshimura
Yoshimura becomes the second ghoul to become his donor, farmed for kakuhous for the next stage of his experiments.

Nimura Furuta
Before the events of the story, Furuta was hired by Kanou as a bodyguard and collected people for Kanou's experiment for unknown personal reasons. They still keep in contact, as it was how Aogiri came to know about the corpse transportation after the Rose Extermination.

Powers and Abilities
Keen intellect: Kanou has proven himself to be a highly charismatic intelligent man, from being able to convince the likes of Kurona and Nashiro into joining his cause and allow him to perform ghoul experiments on them. Proof of his knowledge is in his ghoulification research and he has created several successful artificial one-eyed subjects, such as Kaneki, Furuta, Kurona, Nashiro, Seidou and Amon. He also has much knowledge in ghoul biology and how to create Rc pathways, as shown when torturing Seidou.

Quotes

 * Thinking about Kaneki: "I wonder how you're doing... my beloved prototype..."

Trivia

 * Kanou's role in changing Kaneki into an artificial ghoul and his role in Kaneki's character development mirrors the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein's Monster in Mary Shelley's book "Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus".
 * Kanou states that he experimented on a total of 1200 people, using Rize Kamishiro as his base. Of those experiments, only three resulted in an artificial one-eyed ghoul. It is known in Chapter 90, that 63 investigators experimented on using Yoshimura as his base, but he claims to have only had one success from those experiments.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he's featured as the "Seven of Clubs".