Ken Kaneki

Ken Kaneki is a male anime and manga character who features in Tokyo Ghoul.

Biography

Ken Kaneki.

Ken Kaneki (Japanese: 金木 研, Hepburn: Kaneki Ken) was a Japanese male born on a December where he lived in the modern age in Japan. He knew that his father was an avid reader of books that led to Ken eventually developing a hobby for reading books and literature. His father was noted to had passed away when he was 4 years old and he was cared for by his mother. Some of his memories indicated that though she was kind and generous to him that she was sometimes physically abusive to him. When he was a child, his mother struggled to provide for them. All the work that she had to deal with was too overwhelming and the one who put the most stress on her was his mother's sister. Kaneki's aunt was noted to had always hounded his mother for money which contributed to their financial woes. Due to overworking, his mother came to pass away when Ken was only 10 years old and he had to stay with his maternal aunt with her family where it was noted that she was abusive to him. However, Kaneki's life with his adopted family was no less hostile. His aunt always compared him to her son, Yuuichi, who did not do well at school, which greatly angered her. When comparing her son with Kaneki, she also likened Kaneki with his late mother noting about their similarities. Her feelings of inferiority regarding Kaneki's mother were turned on him as spite. As time passed, the family became a place that did not give Kaneki any comfort for long because nobody in the family would look after or care for him. Kaneki also barely had any friends during elementary school. During that time, Hide approached Kaneki, most likely because he noticed that Kaneki had trouble dealing with his classmates. Since then, Hide and Kaneki have been best friends. Hide was his only support during the time the Asaokas ostracized him, which really saved him from loneliness. During this time, he came to notice a young woman named Rize Kamishiro where he developed a crush on the woman who read similar books as himself.

One day, Kaneki and Hide listened to the news about ghoul attacks in the 20th ward while in Anteiku. Hide then wondered if Touka was Kaneki's new crush that he wanted to show, which Kaneki denied. Instead, he pointed to Rize as she entered the café. After Hide left, Kaneki was able to arrange a date with Rize after they were able to talk when she bumped into his book. However, Rize later revealed herself to be a ghoul targeting Kaneki after tricking him into entering a isolated alley. During her attack, Kaneki was pierced through the abdomen by her kagune, but before she could finish him off and feed, steel beams fell and crushed her. To save his life, the staff of the Kanou General Hospital under the direction of Dr. Kanou decided to transplant Rize's organs into him. From then on, Kaneki became a half-human, half-ghoul. After the accident, Kaneki hid the fact that Rize was a ghoul. He found that everything he ate tasted disgusting and he was hardly able to eat normal food, so he started to live on little more than water for days. Around that time he realized ghouls were also unable to eat normal food, his hunger struck him. Unable to find anything to satisfy his hunger, he wandered the streets. At that time, he found out that the waitress, Touka, from Anteiku was also a ghoul when she killed a human in front of him. In terror, he ran away. Moments later, he saw that he could barely keep himself in check, salivating profusely. Since he thought the organ transplant was the reason for his transformation, he tried to get rid of the transplanted organs, but was unsuccessful. Desperate, he turned to Touka for help. Touka refused to give assistance to the former human, but Anteiku's manager Yoshimura kindly gave Kaneki human meat to satisfy his hunger.

However, Kaneki was still repelled by the thought of having to eat human meat, so he decided to continue rejecting it. Instead, he frantically looked for other digestible food. From there, he discovered he was still able to drink coffee. Drinking coffee calmed him down, so he went off to buy more. In a store, a man revealed to be Nishio advised him to buy the instant coffee Blondy. As Kaneki was returning home, he noticed the smell of delicious food. He traced the smell's source, which turned out to be a human corpse. The ghoul Kazuo Yoshida was eating the freshly slain body, but he was immediately killed by Nishio. Asserting that this was his feeding ground, Nishio attacked Kaneki as well. At that moment, Touka appeared and declared this location was not Nishio's, but Rize's. Nishio retorted that it was originally his feeding ground until Rize came, but Touka, unfazed, responded that the feeding grounds would be re-allotted among the weaker ghouls and that it was his own fault for being too weak. Angered, Nishio attacked Touka, but was immediately defeated. When Touka tried to force Kaneki to eat some of the meat, he hysterically screamed that he was human and different from ghouls. Angered, Touka retorted that Kaneki was neither human nor ghoul and no place where he belonged, before warning him that a ghoul's hunger was hell. When Kaneki and Hide visited a senior student from the university to get the DVD of the previous year's college festival, they disturbed him and Kimi in the middle of lewd activity. Kaneki realized the senior student was Nishio, the ghoul who had attacked him from before. Nishio told them to help him look for the material, only to then claim he took the disk home and proposed they go with him to get it. In reality, he deceived Kaneki and Hide, knocked Hide out and started fighting Kaneki. He provoked Kaneki by puking on Hide and then standing on his face with his foot, but even an angered Kaneki was no match for the kagune-wielding Nishio. However, when Nishio tried to kill Hide, Kaneki was able to release his kagune in a fit of desperation. With his kagune, Kaneki heavily injured Nishio. As Kaneki started to lose control and was about to eat Hide, he was stopped by Touka. Later, Kaneki awoke and found himself inside Anteiku. When he asked for Hide, the manager led him to the room he was sleeping in. Kaneki wanted to approach Hide, but stopped. Before, he had already noticed blood inside his mouth and his diminished hunger, so he asked Yoshimura what he had eaten. The manager told him that he already knew what the answer was, since there was only one way to satisfy a ghoul's hunger. Kaneki cried out that he was neither human nor ghoul and there was no place for him, but Yoshimura told him he was wrong since he belonged to both worlds. Yoshimura proposed that Kaneki to work at Anteiku. Yoshimura would teach him how to live as a ghoul so Kaneki could keep his place as a human.

After Kaneki started working part-time at Anteiku, he was visited by Hide. Hide thanked Touka for nursing Kaneki and him after the 'car accident'. After they moved out of earshot of Hide, Touka told Kaneki to make sure Hide would not find out about him being a ghoul, stating she would kill him to protect the ghouls' identities if that were to happen. Afterwards, the manager showed Kaneki how to eat sandwiches like a human. After Kaneki failed to successfully do so, the manager gave him special sugar cubes that he could use to curb his hunger, but warned him he may have to eat meat when the time came. During Kaneki's working time, Ryouko Fueguchi and her daughter Hinami came to Anteiku. He was informed by Touka that the two ghouls did not hunt themselves. Later, ghoul investigators from the CCG entered the 20th ward looking for Ryouka and Hinami. As the news spread in the ward, the manager asked Touka to guide Kaneki to the mask shop, HySy ArtMask Studio in the 4th ward. Here, Kaneki became acquainted with its owner, Uta. One day, the manager asked Kaneki to obtain 'food supplies' with Yomo, i.e., they looked for humans who committed suicide. Afterwards, they picked Ryouko up, who was warned by Yomo that the investigators came because of her and that she should move more prudently for Hinami's sake. Ryouko agreed and said she would stop relying on her dead husband so Hinami could depend on her. Kaneki then thought that a parent's concern for their child was strong in any world. A few days later, Kaneki walked in on Hinami eating human flesh in a room on Anteiku's second floor. After he apologized for not knocking, she asked if he was ghoul or human. To answer her question, he explained his situation. He noticed that she had one of Sen Takatsuki's books and began talking about the stories. He also taught her how to read some new kanji to expand her vocabulary. Before she and her mother left, Hinami thanked Kaneki and asked him to teach her again next time. Just after they left, they were encircled by ghoul investigators. Ryouko gave her daughter the chance to escape while she fought the investigators. During her escape, Hinami ran into Kaneki and asked for help, but Kureo Mado killed Ryouko just after they reached the scene. Kaneki participated in Anteiku's meeting after Ryouko's death. Kaneki considered Ryouko's death his fault for being too weak to save her. The next day, after Touka had attacked the ghoul investigators, Kaneki noticed Touka's injuries. He intended to treat her wounds, but Yoshimura stopped him, saying she would have to carry the responsibility for her actions herself and Anteiku did not have the power to oppose the CCG. Even so, Kaneki still chose to treat her wounds. Kaneki told Touka that he believed the ghoul investigators' existence was necessary and that he considered her actions wrong. Nevertheless, he would mourn her were she to die, and asked her to teach him how to fight, so that he would be able to act next time. The next day, they entered the underground tunnels originally built by ghouls to practice. By threatening his life, she managed to goad him into releasing his kagune. After training, Uta delivered Kaneki's mask.

Later, they went to the CCG 20th Ward's Branch Office to spread false information on Hinami's whereabouts. But before they could leave, they passed by Mado, who suspected them of being ghouls. He then forced Kaneki through the Rc scan gate, but the gate did not react to both their surprise. While Hinami confined herself in Anteiku's room on the upper floor, Touka visited her and gave her a newspaper that contained Kusaba's death notice. Realizing what Touka was doing, Hinami ran away. When Touka and Kaneki noticed Hinami was missing, they split up to search for her. Touka found Hinami and informed Kaneki, but before they could leave, they were attacked by Mado. Kaneki, who had been relieved that Hinami was found, overheard Investigator Koutarou Amon's phone conversation with Mado. As Amon set off for Kasahara River where Hinami and Touka were, Kaneki donned his mask and stood in Amon's way to try to buy enough time for Touka and Hinami to flee. Kaneki initially underestimated the investigator until Amon was easily able to overpower him. After taking down Kaneki, Amon paused to talk about the recent death of a fellow investigator and children orphaned by ghouls, demonizing ghouls for corrupting the world with their gluttony. As a former human, Kaneki could not deny that ghouls had brought violence to the world and caused tragedies because of their need to feed on humans. However, after remembering Ryouko's sacrifice for her daughter, he finally realized the truth to Yoshimura's earlier comment; that he was the only one who could see both the human and ghoul worlds in their entirety, that they could manage to get along due to their similarities if they would sit down and talk. Convinced that he had a reason to fight, Kaneki won using his reluctantly-used kagune. After defeating Amon in battle with his ghoul instincts excited, Kaneki started losing control of his powers. Desperately, he asked Amon to leave so he would not become a killer. Shortly thereafter, Kaneki lost control and began madly craving flesh. He attacked Yomo as he arrived and was brought back to his senses when he realized who he just attacked. Yomo remarked on how he now saw why Yoshimura was interested in Kaneki before giving him a package of meat to eat. The two of them then rushed to Hinami's and Touka's whereabouts and afterwards left to go back to Anteiku. On their way back, Hinami asked if it was right for her to live and Kaneki answered that he believed Hinami's mother told her to live in her last moments.

Overview

Personality and attributes

In appearance, Ken Kaneki was a male human who had appeared to be a scrawny young man with no athletic background where originally he wore casual clothes. Upon becoming a ghoul, he came to join Anteiku and was given the alias of Eyepatch (眼帯, Gantai). The appearance of his distinct kakuja led to him gaining the alias of Centipede (ムカデ, Mukade). Following his period of amnesia, he came to operate as a ghoul investigator in the Quinx's where he was given the name of Haise Sasaki (佐々木 琲世, Sasaki Haise). After the Tsukiyama Family Extermination Operation, ghouls came to know him under the moniker of the Black Reaper (黒い死神, Kuroi Shinigami). He later gained the title of the One-Eyed King (隻眼の王, Sekigan no Ō) that was the prophecised leader of all ghouls.

It was shown that originally he was a shy boy with Hide being his only close friend. Kaneki had a preference for reading books and showed no athletic talent. As such, he usually spent most of his time reading books that mostly consisted of novels. He was extremely gentle and appeared to be optimistic most of the time. Influenced by his mother and a true testament of modesty, he willingly took blame and punishment from others so that he could be someone who did not hurt people but rather became the person who got hurt instead. However, this lack of assertiveness normally got him bullied and taken advantage of by other people.

Kaneki was always trying to protect others as he was essentially trying to protect himself from becoming alone again. To escape that scenario, he would shoulder the task of protecting others onto himself without looking for others to help him. This was also the reason why Kaneki seemed to reject the notion of 'living' because to him watching others die before him was the beginning of returning to those lonely days without anyone behind him.

However, beneath his altruistic and gentle nature was an underlying fear of being alone that was aggravated by his mother's death. He despised the idea of solitude, hence he tried to protect those dear to him so he would not have to face his fear of being alone in the world.

This was perhaps his greatest weakness. Since Kaneki was always trying to protect others, he was essentially trying to protect himself from ever being alone again. Therefore, to escape that scenario, he would shoulder the task of protecting others onto himself, without relying on anyone else. This was also why Kaneki rejected the notion of 'living', because watching others die reminded him of those lonely days without anyone beside him.

After he was turned into a half-ghoul, he clung to his human side. To keep living in the human world, he began to work at Anteiku and established relationships with the ghouls there. He started to develop an interest in becoming stronger and began reading martial art books so he could protect those closest to him. However, he was still troubled with the fact that he was a half-ghoul and wanted to search for a place where he could belong. As much as he treasured his life, if people close to him were threatened, he would not hesitate to put his life on the line.

He claimed that he was not like the protagonist of a novel and instead said that he was a college student who liked to read who could be found anywhere. However, he did say that if one wrote a story about him where he was in the lead role then such a story would be a tragedy.

The trauma experienced during his life as a ghoul resulted in him suffering from psychological issues as a result. This often manifested as a mental construct that resided in his mind who he interacted with in order to resolve a matter. It first manifested as 'Rize Kamishiro' who taunted him for his weakness and convinced him to abandon his ideology as a human in order to fully embrace his lie as a ghoul. This saw him leave any fear of getting hurt and adopt a more brutal view of the world. Later on, he was badly injured by Arima leading to him suffering from a kind of amnesia where a new persona manifested named 'Haise Saski'. During this time, his mental construct took the form of a young Kaneki that represented his old self. A new mental construct later came to form that was 'Hide'.

Whenever he was near-starvation, he began to loses control of his Kagune or kakuja where he seemed to develop a personality that emulated Rize and Yamori.

As Haise, Kaneki was a self-contained, good-natured individual. He came off as trustworthy, loyal and devoted person. Though serious with his work, Haise was also merciful to some extent as he believed that an Investigator should not annihilate ghouls unnecessarily. Though he was hailed as the mentor of Quinx, he showed apportioned respect and great concern for his colleagues, pledging a protective streak over them. He also complied with the obligations assigned by his seniors without hesitation. Haise habitually reads books, and was very co-operative, as he preferred to work with his group than to single-handedly accomplish the CCG’s goals. He also tended to scratch the back of his head when he was thinking hard or feeling uncomfortable.

He barely remembered his father's face and was awfully curious as to what sort of person he was. He knew that his father was an avid reader and had loads of books.

One person who Kaneki had close ties with was Touka Kirishima (霧嶋 董香 Kirishima Touka) who he met when she was a waitress at Anteiku. After becoming a ghoul, she showed a harsh view towards him as he tried to come to grips wth his new life. This only changed after the death of Hinami's mother and the care he showed to her. The two then developed closer ties with one another where they began to develop feelings for one another.

After the Dragon Incident, he and Touka came to marry where they had a daughter named Ichika Kaneki (金木 一花, Kaneki Ichika).

One of his closest friends was Hideyoshi Nagachika (永近 英良, Nagachika Hideyoshi) who stayed in his company even after he became a ghoul.

Powers and abilities

Originally, Ken Kaneki was an ordinary human being with no special abilities or training. He was shown to had been an extremely intelligent person with much of his knowledge coming from his fixation on reading books.

This changed after his encounter with Rize Kamishiro and he came to inherit her kakuhou following an experiment whereby the organ was implanted in his body. This resulted in him being turned into an artificial ghoul hybrid where he gained the traits of the species such as a unique healing factor, an increased vigor and a rinkaku kagune with it being said that his abilities were more potent than a natural-born ghoul. His skin was hardened to the point that it could not be pierced by an ordinary bladed weapon. A consequence of his transformation meant that he could no longer consume ordinary food with it triggering his gag reflex and he gained no nourishment from it. He developed a different sense of taste whereby ordinary foods were disgusting to him. Instead, he could only gain nourishment from the flesh of human beings that he needed to consume otherwise he would starve to death and die.

He was shown came to possess superhuman where in one instance he knocked out a ghoul unconscious with an elbow kick. In another instance, he was shown to be able to rip a lamp post from asphalt and use it to strike his opponents. Kaneki was shown to be able to smash foes through multiple floors of a building.

Kaneki developed a large resistance to pain ever since his transformation into a ghoul. While he could still be injured, he was able to take injuries that were normally considered fatal, such as having his limbs sliced off, his eyes stabbed out completely and more. It was his ghoul nature that provided him with regenerative abilities allowing him to heal injuries over time. During an intense period of torture, it was shown that he regenerated his fingers and toes over a ten-day period.

At one point, Kaneki came to be morphed into the Dragon (竜, Ryū) that was a huge, uncontrollable kagune which spawned hostile, humanoid creatures from it.

As a ghoul, he had a unique made for him which had been given to Kaneki by Uta. It was used to hide his identity when out in the field and prevent ghoul investigators from determining his real identity. The mask designed with an eyepatch that covered his regular eye whilst his ghoul eye was left exposed.

Kaneki came to be the founder of Goat (黒山羊ゴート, Gōto) that was a ghoul resistance organization which aimed for peaceful co-existence between ghouls and humans.

Notes

• Ken Kaneki was created by Sui Ishida and featured in the setting of the Tokyo Ghoul universe.

Appearances

• Tokyo Ghoul:

External Links

• Tokyo Ghoul Wiki Entry
• Comicvine Entry

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