Uta

Uta (ウタ, Uta) is an old friend of Renji Yomo and Itori.

He owns the HySy ArtMask Studio, where he sells bespoke masks. He is known as No Face to the CCG investigators.

Appearance
Uta is man of average height with black hair, styled into an undercut. Various tattoos cover his arms, and a sun tattoo covers his entire left pectoral region. At first glance it appears that his kakugan is always activated, but in response to Haise Sasaki's inquiry he claims that these are scleral tatoos, i.e., black ink was injected into his eyes. Uta typically wears a grey tank top underneath a black wrap sweater, along with harem pants and black sandals. He also wears a black necklace with round, white gems hanging from it. Kaneki describes his appearance as being a little scary. During the auction, he wore a opened collared zebra striped dresshirt with matching pants, a light coloured striped suit buttoned up, and a pair of white gloves. Despite being in the Clown group, he is yet to be seen wearing a clown mask of any kind.

As a teen, his hair colour was much lighter, swept back, and at times kept down with a hairband. He did not have any of his tattoos during his younger days. His ghoul mask is an expressionless face with a stitching design similar to a voodoo doll, covering the eyes and the white surface. During the auction after the timeskip, Uta wore a mask resembling a bird with a wide beak and 4 small holes on the side.

The tattoo on his neck is a Latin quote written in Greek letters which reads, "I can live neither with you, nor without you."

Νεχ ποσσυμ τεχυμ ωιωερε, νεχ σινε τε. Nec possum tecum vivere, nec sine te. &#8212;Martial, Epigrams XII, 46

Personality
He has a very nice way of speaking and seems to be friendly. Although his expression almost never changes, he has an amusing way of teasing people. Uta seems to be unfazed by most things, and will even go as far as letting someone he respects die in order to respect their will, acting as if nothing major happened afterwards.

As an artist, Uta holds exotic aesthetics and is often noted as having ill yet masterful tastes; he is shown to hold respect for fellow artists. Uta entertains himself through the search for inspiration and crafting masks based on said ideas.

Uta was sadistic and savage from his youth, and appears to have left those ways behind as time passed. Once his affiliation with the clowns becomes apparent in the manga though, it is revealed that he hasn't changed completely yet, as it was implied that he saw Kaneki's demise as "fun". Like all members of his organization, he may revel in creating chaos and destruction. However, his personal motives are still unclear other than that he adheres to hedonism.

Despite the hedonistic and sadistic side of his, Uta has on numerous occassions shown genuine concern for others. As the former leader of the 4th ward and a renown mask maker, his reputation leads others to respect and consult him for advices. He also tends to introduce his fellow acquaintances to each other for their own benefits (e.g. Kaneki, Asa).

Past
Uta used to be the leader of the 4th ward in his early years, as he was the strongest ghoul there. Sometime during his reign, he would be informed of a strong ghoul roaming in his territory. After fighting said ghoul numerous times and feeling that their strengths are on par, Uta decided to befriend the young ghoul who he later learns is called Renji Yomo.

At an unspecified time periof after Yomo began living with Uta's gang, Ghoul Investigators led by Arima entered the area on an extermination mission. Surrounding a group of investigators including Take Hirako with his gang, the two groups fought to the ghouls' advantage until Arima appeared. Watching Yomo being enraged and easily overpowered by the CCG's reaper, Uta instructed his gang to retreat after Yoshimura appeared to save Yomo.

Doves' Emergence
Ken Kaneki and Touka Kirishima went to his shop, the HySy ArtMask Studio, to get a mask for Kaneki. While taking Kaneki's measurements, he talked with Kaneki about Touka and the risk factor of the varying wards ghouls inhabit.

By chance, Uta brought Kaneki's newly-made mask to Anteiku just when Touka and Kaneki had stopped training. He made Kaneki wear his new mask. He remarked that he placed the eyepatch on the right side because he wanted to see Kaneki's left eye.

Gourmet Arc
He is only seen here when Kaneki is taken to Helter Skelter, the bar the Itori owns. The two of them shock Kaneki when Itori wears one of Uta's masks to scare him. They are then shown having a pleasant conversation together at the bar, discussing his and Renji's past and how the 4th Ward is now dangerous because of them.

Aogiri Arc
Uta is a part of the team that goes to save Kaneki when he is kidnapped by the Aogiri. He accompanies Yomo, Touka, Nishiki and Tsukiyama in the endeavor. Sometime later, Tsukiyama remarks that Uta, though having his kakugan active, isn't actually using his full power. Uta answers by telling him he doesn't think he needs to be serious right now, and that he is only here for Kaneki and so he doesn't get lazy.

Despite not being at full power, he is able to keep up with Renji and Tsukiyama. When they finally find Kaneki, Uta along with Renji tries to comfort him after what he has been through.

Anteiku Raid
Uta gives Kaneki information about the CCG's Reaper, mentioning how strong and invincible he is. He also tells him bits about his relationship with Renji and Itori. Uta is later revealed to be a member of the Clowns and he was seen celebrating along with the other clown members.

Auction
At the Auction, Uta makes a grand entrance and serves as the Auctioneer of the event. He oversees the sales of a famous actor, as well as several insignificant "items". When Tooru Mutsuki is brought onto stage, he declares that the asking price would normally be 1 million.....but quickly notes the unusual scent of this particular item. Yanking off Mutsuki's eye-patch, he announces that the item for sale is a rare One-Eyed Ghoul and starts the bidding at 10 million.

The crowd is whipped into a frenzy, and a bidding war begins over this rare prize. As the bidding continues, Uta whispers to Mutsuki that the operation has failed and no one will be coming to save him. Having shaken the young Investigator, Uta oversees the final winning bid of 200 million. Taking advantage of the crowd's excitement, he declares the next special item for sale -- a beautiful, doll-like young woman. However, the woman interrupts him and reveals herself to actually be Juuzou Suzuya in disguise. He stabs Uta repeatedly in the face, before turning his attention to the audience.

As the raid on the Auction begins, Mutsuki recalls Uta's words to him and realizes this meant the Auctioneer knew Investigators had infiltrated the Auction. Later, he appears before Hirako and Shimoguchi squad, as Roma hides behind him, he greets Hirako.

As the fight starts, Uta continuously dodges Hirako's attacks and sarcastically remarks that Hirako has improved with his increased variety of attack patterns and must have gone up a few ranks. After the other clowns join in, he warns Roma to not take Hirako lightly, before other investigators begin engaging as well. Uta then wears a mask of Arima's face, telling Hirako to stand by; however, Hirako loses his composure and immediately slashes Uta across the face, during which Uta manages to stick Juuzou's knives, which were originally stabbed into his face, into Hirako's left arm and tell Hirako to return them for him.

As their fights continue, Uta shows interest in why Hirako doesn't show the pain in his injured arm but it would be boring if he doesn't respond. He then dodges Hirako's strikes effortlessly and pushes the knives into Hirako's arm deeper, which results in the slightest expression of hurt on the latter's face. At the moment, it is unknown whether or not Uta had finished his fight with Hirako, but as he hears the screams of Haise over the intercom he briefly takes off his mask, listening with some sort of interest. When the S3 squad came to the auction as reinforcement, Uta left with Roma.

Post-Auction
One month after the auction raid Uta is seen drinking coffee in :re, conversing with Yomo and Touka regarding what's going to happen to Kaneki. He notes that Kaneki is still the same and shows a concerned look when asked about the clowns' plan with Kaneki, stating that he has no idea what their boss is thinking. He then tells Touka that he still considers Kaneki as a special customer before leaving.

Rosewald investigation
Uta was seen in his workshop and welcomed Haise when he entered and asked if he was still opened. He briefly converses with Haise on his customer's concern about the eyepatch mask sent to him from the store. Confirming that the mask was indeed sent by him, he feigns ignorance on how he might've sent it to the wrong address and that it was meant for a regular customer and then offers Haise to keep it as a sign of goodwill from their "fated encounter". He claimed that it was not him who sent Haise the novel however, before being asked by Haise on if he makes custom-made masks. Later, he makes custom masks for the Quinx squad for them to go undercover as ghouls.

Renji Yomo
First meeting each other when Uta was still the boss of the 4th ward, Uta fought Yomo several times on equal grounds, never finishing it as they knew they would both die were they to go all out. Finding it rare how someone as strong as him is around, Uta proposed to become Yomo's friend ever since.

Itori
Uta and Itori both belong to the clowns, and apparently have been friends from way back. They have a casual and relaxed relationship.

Ken Kaneki
Uta found Kaneki to be interesting as he is the first one-eyed ghoul he has met. Uta views him as a valuable customer.

Roma Hoito
They are both part of the clowns; Uta showed a slight concern for her safety during the Auction Raid.

Take Hirako
Uta first met Hirako ten years ago during an Clown investigation with Arima in the 4th ward and showed interest in his ability. When they clashed again in the Auction raid, Uta compliments Hirako on his improvemens. Uta treats Hirako as somewhat of a plaything, casually evaluating his abilities during their fight and enjoying bringing out different emotions out of the usual poker face.

Asa
Asa has adored Uta since a young age, having grown up in the 4th Ward during the time when he was its leader. Even after moving to the 23rd Ward, she continued to bother him about becoming his apprentice. Uta showed concern for her safety as evident when he scared Noyama away from Asa, telling him that he hopes to not have Asa killed.

Tsumugi Yamagata
The two are long-time friends, and have a deep respect for the other as a fellow artist. Tsumugi is a mentor to the younger man, and teases him about his "awful" artistic style. Uta respects her will and ignored Noyama, who eventually killed Tsumugi as a result, when asked not to pay attention to the stalking ghoul.

Powers and Abilities
Uta is an excellent mask designer creating many of the ghoul masks seen in the 20th ward. Like other ghouls, he possesses greater strength, speed and reflexes than that of a human. His body is also able to regenerate, and isn't affected by normal human weapons. In his teenage years, he was quite capable of defeating multiple ghouls at once. His strength led him to become the "peacemaker" of the 4th ward. His interactions with Kaneki and various other characters indicate that he is quite skilled at deception and manipulation.

So far, Uta never seems to fight using his kagune, instead mainly fighting with his bare hands. Uta's fighting abilities are implied to be on par with Yomo's, as the reason they never fought each other all out in their youth was due to them thinking they'd both end up dead if they ever did.

Uta has shown impressive regeneration feats; without any consumption, he has healed his face after being stabbed by several quinque knives in a short interval in addition to his instant regeneration when his face was injured again by Hirako slashing it in half horizontally.

Trivia

 * He likes mask-making, music, humans, and art.
 * The tattoo on his neck perfectly describes the relationships between humans and ghouls.
 * Despite donning a different hairstyle & color, clothing, and mask, the CCG was still able to identify him as "No Face" after several years.
 * Uta is shown to be associated with number "19", which is a reference to the Sun tarot card.
 * Tsumugi once commented on his ill taste of mask.
 * He considers human food as artistic due to their colors and arrangement, while Asa and other ghouls remark it as distasteful and revolting.
 * His sense of humor is somewhat strange when he gave Kaneki a Buddha mask in volume 2 omake, intentionally misread Renji's name - particularly the Ji character - as hemorrhoid, and passed Yomo a seashell for cover instead of a normal underwear in School of Ghouls spin off.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he's featured as the "Eight of Diamonds".

Quote

 * It's like "walking a tight-rope". For us to blend into a human place, every second is spent wondering "Can I continue or will I fall?"... If your feet get tangled along the way, you will end up at the bottom of hell... And if you don't cross the whole distance, in that instant everything will disappear... The rope's condition changes depending on your own choices. [...] so not getting involved is the best thing to do.
 * To Kaneki: Since you are a special custumer so I'd like to be some help to you. You are dangerous and are always wavering unsteadily, so everyone can't take their eyes off you. That includes the people hoping you won't fail, and the people waiting for the instance that you do.
 * Since everyone thinks many various things, it is difficult to understand them.
 * Tragedies nowadays aren't popular, so let's have more fun.
 * To me, he (Kaneki) is still a special customer, even now.
 * I became friends with Sasaki.