Ken Kaneki

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

Plot
Ken, while meeting with his childhood friend Hide at a neighbourhood cafe called Anteiku, catches the eye of Rize, who appears to be an attractive young woman but is actually the resident dominant ghoul of the 20th district. Rize starts up a conversation with him by deceptively dropping her copy of the Black Goat's Egg, a sadistic novel of primal human urges, which he proceeds to pick up for her. As they discuss their interest in novels they decide to go on a date.

After their date, Rize feigns fear of ghouls and entices him to escort her to a quiet part of the city. There she suddenly bites into his shoulder and reveals she's a ghoul. Then, as he runs away, she successfully wounds his abdomen with her Kagune, tentacle-like projections which come from a ghoul's back. He collapses against the side of a building, presumably a warehouse.

Suddenly reebar falls, presumably from the roof of the building, and impales Rize. Bystanders call an ambulance and they are both taken to a hospital but Rize is presumed dead instantly. The attending surgeon Dr. Kanou makes a split-second assessment and saves Ken's life by transplanting Rize's intestines into Ken.

The transplantation of Rize's organs change Ken's physiology so that he becomes something half-way between a human and a ghoul.