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 later revealed to be the central character responsible for Kaneki's transformation into an artificial One-Eyed Ghoul.

Appearance
Kanou is an elderly, grey-haired man who wears the typical attire of a physician: White coat, white shirt and black necktie. Generally giving gentle smile to his patients.

Personality
At the beginning, Kanou appears as a gentle, kindhearted physician whose purpose in life is to ensure the well-being of his patients. He will even break 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 shows almost a misanthropic view on humanity seeing them as a weak inferior species that possess no potential for the future. He even 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 half-ghoul. This caused an organ transplant scandal, since Kanou did not ask Rize's family for permission.

Doves' Emergence
After Kaneki was released, Kanou still performed 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 Arc
Kaneki finally found Kanou at the very core of his lab, he called Kaneki his "ultimate creation" and tells him 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. After telling his reason, Kanou tells Kaneki to join him and Aogiri Tree so that he can show Kaneki the "true form" of the world, then revealing that it was Yoshimura that was the reason for the creation of Aogiri Tree. This almost made Kaneki to accept, but after Yomo rescued Rize, he told Kaneki to follow his own path and warned him of the approaching Doves. Finally Kanou escaped with Shachi, not before releasing all of his failed experimental subjects after Kaneki and saying that he will look forward to seeing him again.

Afterwards, he watches the events unfolding from a monitoring room alongside Eto. When Kuro arrives, he notes her poor condition but advises her to abandon Shiro as a lost cause, reassuring her that she'll make plenty of new friends at Aogiri. He then departs through a back entrance to the facility.

Post-20th Ward One-Eyed Owl Battle
Kanou appears in a new laboratory, accompanied by Tatara and Eto. He discusses how Investigators have stronger bodies than normal people, and is pleased that Aogiri has provided him new materials for his experiments. The doctor admits that Kaneki was only ever intended to be a test of his procedure, but turned out to be far more than he'd ever imagined. Eto suggests that, now that Kaneki is gone, they should make a "new Kaneki" using Yoshimura as the new donor.

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

Rosewald Investigation
Kanou is seen discussing about Gagi and Guge with Naki, hoping to gain his consent to use the twins' kakuhou for experiments. He simplifies what he's saying to Naki due to the ghoul's lack of proper education, telling him that he will definitely revive the twins "in a sense" which led Naki to thank him and share his joy with other fellow white suits. Kanou also expresses his interest in the Quinx, describing Dr. Chigyou as a genius and hopes to have a conversation with him. Kanou then wonders what his "beloved prototype" is doing at that moment.

Tsukiyama Family Extermination Operation
Kanou is given the body of former Quinx Squad Leader Ginshi Shirazu after Aogiri Tree attacked a vehicle containing it. Kanou examines 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 is certain that by implementing Quinx technology into his ghoulification experiments, he can increase the success rate and decrease any adverse side effects. Kanou later asks Tatara for a new body to use for his experiments and expresses his wish to speak to Eto, only for Tatara to inform him that she is "busy".

Ken Kaneki
Their initial relationship seems to be 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, the 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
Their chance encounter changed Maiko's life and gave Kanou a valuable ally that 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 approaches the Twins and convinces them to become his allies, promising to reveal the truth about their parents' deaths. He uses them for his experiments, after testing the procedure on Kaneki to ensure its success. They are his second 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. It is unknown whether either Twin continues to serve him, or were thrown away. Later during the Rosewald Investigation, it is revealed that Kanou thinks of them as failures, labeling them as "floppies."

Eto
The two have a cordial relationship, seeing each other as important allies with similar goals. He frequently interacts with her out of all the members of Aogiri, and seems to have respect for 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.

Quotes

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

Trivia

 * Kanou's role in changing Kaneki into a 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 unknown how many he has 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".