Ken Kaneki/Synopsis

==Plot==
===Background===
He lost his father when he was four years old. He barely remembered his 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, so when he followed the sentences in the book his father had been reading, he felt like he was having a conversation with his dead father which calmed him down, strangely.
His mother later died overworking herself when he was ten, simply by all the work that she had to deal with, especially with his aunt, who was tight on money and hounded his mother for cash. He was then adopted by his aunt's family, the Asaoka family, after his mother passed away.
His aunt's son, Yuuichi, who she always compares with him since Yuuichi didn't do well at school;this fact made her angry. When comparing her son with Kaneki, she also compared Kaneki with his late mother, saying how alike they were. Her feelings of inferiority regarding Kaneki's mother were turned on him as spite. As time passed, the family became a place that didn't give Kaneki any comfort for long because nobody in the family would look after or cared for him.
He 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 began to ostracize him, which really saved him from loneliness.
He later works as a waiter for Anteiku under Yoshimura's guidance. After his fight with Amon he gains the name "Eyepatch" because of his mask's design and becomes somewhat famous after a ghoul saw him defeating Amon. He loves to read and is normally quiet and reserved. He has a bad trait of easily trusting strangers which sometimes puts him in life threatening situation.
===Doves' Emergence===
After Kaneki had started working part-time at Anteiku, his friend Hide visited him there. Hide thanked Touka for nursing Kaneki and him after the "car accident", the lie the manager used to cover up what had really happened to Kaneki, Nishio, and him. After they had left Hide, Touka told Kaneki to make sure that Hide won't find out about him being a ghoul: 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 gave it a try, the manager gave him special sugar cubes that he could use to curb his hunger, but warned him that he might have to eat meat when the time would come. During Kaneki's working time, Ryouko Fueguchi and her daughter Hinami came to Anteiku. Touka told Kaneki that these two ghouls did not hunt themselves.
Ghoul investigators from CCG entered the 20th ward looking for Ryouko Fueguchi and her daughter 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, where 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 that Hinami could depend on her. Kaneki thought that a parent's concern for their child was strong in any world.
Few days later, while Hinami was eating human meat in a room on Anteiku's second floor, Kaneki suddenly entered the room without knocking on the door. After he apologized, she asked if he is ghoul or human. To answer her question, Kaneki explained his situation. He noticed that she had one of Takatsuki's books, so they started to talk about the stories. Kaneki also tutored Hinami how to read some new kanji to expand her vocabulary. Before she and her mother left, Hinami thanked him and asked him to teach her again next time. When she and her mother left, the ghoul investigators encircled them. 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 just as they arrived, Mado killed Ryouko. 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's attack on the ghoul investigators, Kaneki noticed Touka's injuries. He intended to treat her wounds, but Yoshimura stopped him, because Touka would have to carry the responsibility for her actions herself and Anteiku didn't have the power to oppose 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 forced him to use his kagune. After training, Uta delivered Kaneki's mask.
Later, they went to CCG's branch office in the 20th ward to spread false information on Hinami's whereabouts. Before they could leave, Mado suspected them to be ghouls, so he forced Kaneki through the Rc scan gate, but the gate didn't react to Kaneki. 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, Mado attacked them. Kaneki was relieved they had found her, however, he overheard investigator Amon's phone conversation with Mado. As Amon set off for Kasahara River where Hinami and Touka were, Kaneki, wearing his mask, 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, the orphans and demonized ghouls for corrupting the world with their gluttony. As a former human, Kaneki couldn't deny that ghouls had brought violence to the world and caused tragedies because of their consumption. However, after remembering Ryouko's sacrifice for her daughter, he finally realizes the truth to Yoshimura's earlier comment, that he is the only one who can 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 has a reason to fight, Kaneki won using his reluctantly-used kagune. After defeating Amon in battle with his ghoul instincts excited, Kaneki starts losing control of his powers. Desperately, he asked Amon to leave so that he didn't have to kill someone. Shortly thereafter, Kaneki lost control and he started acting like the binge-eating Rize. Yomo appeared and stopped Kaneki from rampaging. Yomo and Kaneki 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.
After Mado's death, Kaneki went to Kanou General Hospital for a checkup. Kaneki heavily questioned if Kanou knew what had happened to his body. Afterwards, Kaneki went to university. During class, Hide brought up the news about the death of two ghoul investigators. To Kaneki's concern, Hide had mostly figured out the Rabbit case through deduction. As Kaneki asked Hide why he was interested in this matter, Hide pulled out Hisashi Ogura's new ghoul book that he found really interesting. Hide toyed with the idea of joining the investigation to which Kaneki heavily objected.
Later on, Kaneki went to Touka's apartment because he was worried about Hinami who had started living there. To Kaneki's surprise, Touka ate all of the home-made food by her classmate Yoriko, making him wonder how important Yoriko was to Touka.
===Gourmet Arc===
The day after Touka and Kaneki practiced underground with Yomo, Tsukiyama, nicknamed the Gourmet, came to Anteiku during their work time and was attracted to Kaneki's smell. On a later date, Tsukiyama approached Kaneki in his university as Kaneki immersed himself in a martial arts book. Tsukiyama persuaded Kaneki to meet him at a cafe the next Sunday. Lost in thought, Kaneki went to Anteiku despite it being closed and met Yomo in front of Anteiku. Yomo invited Kaneki to meet someone who asked for Kaneki. Together, they went to 14th ward's Helter Skelter bar and met Yomo's old friends, the bar owner Itori and Uta. After they had talked about the relationship between Yomo, Uta and Itori, Itori spilled a glass of blood on Kaneki to uncover his sole kakugan. Itori was excited seeing a One-Eyed Ghoul and wondered if the other "One-Eye" felt as self-conscious about his eye as Kaneki. Kaneki wanted to know about the other one-eyed ghouls, so Itori told Kaneki about hybrids, pregnancy of half-ghouls and the rumored "One-Eye". Soon, the conversation turned about Kaneki and Rize's mysterious death, and Kaneki discovered that the accident was likely set up by someone. Itori proposed a trade to Kaneki: if Kaneki uncovered information on the Ghoul Restaurant from the Gourmet, namely Tsukiyama, she would share information on the accident.
After the meeting, Kaneki, immersed in thought, got lost and ran into a group of ghouls that were attacking Nishio. Kaneki saved Nishio from the ghouls that planned to eat him and returned him to his apartment, while Nishio was cursing him. As Kaneki was about to leave, Kimi attacked Kaneki to protect Nishio, thinking that Kaneki was the "narcissistic man"; however, Nishio asked her to stop.
The following Sunday, after Kaneki and Tsukiyama played Squash, they visited the café. After Tsukiyama seemingly cut Kaneki's finger accidentally with his finger nail, he used Tsukiyama's handkerchief to soak up the blood. Tsukiyama went to the bathroom with the handkerchief and sniffed it, revealing his obsession with Kaneki's smell, flesh and blood. As Kaneki asked Tsukiyama about the ghoul restaurant to gather information, Tsukiyama invited him as a guest to the ghoul restaurant. However, this was a trap set by Tsukiyama, because he was not meant to be a regular guest, but instead was meant to become the dinner together with Kobachi and Ami. As Kaneki was fighting the restaurant's scrapper Taro-chan during the dismantling show, his one kakugan activated, revealing him to be one-eyed. Tsukiyama realized that Kaneki was an even rarer dish than he had thought and came to the conclusion that he didn't want to share with the other members, so he killed the scrapper as Kaneki's replacement.
Kaneki, frightened of Tsukiyama, slept at Anteiku for the night. The next day, Hinami, also bringing along the cockatiel Loser, Yomo, and Yoshimura, visited Kaneki. Kaneki told them he saw lots of ghouls and commented at how they laughed behind their masks as he, Kobachi, and Ami were injured. Yoshimura commented that they were ghouls who killed their emotions and forgot the value of life. After Yoshimura and Yomo left, Touka called Kaneki because a girl was waiting downstairs for him. Kimi begged Kaneki for help since Nishio's state had worsened further. Kaneki promised to help her. As she was returning home, Tsukiyama kidnapped her to set the next trap for Kaneki.
After Kaneki had found Tsukiyama's letter about Kimi being kidnapped by him, Nishio came looking for Kimi. Kaneki and Nishio decided to face Tsukiyama together to save Kimi. However, Kaneki and Nishio were no match for Tsukiyama, and even after Touka joined them, they were on the losing side because Tsukiyama was the only one who could use his kagune. However, Nishio's tenacity and Kaneki's idea to allow himself to be eaten by Touka led to victory against Tsukiyama.
===Aogiri Arc===
Banjou and his followers came to Anteiku to search for Rize by orders of Aogiri's leaders. Touka and Kaneki decided to hear his story, and Banjou began to talk about his time with Rize in the 11th ward. However, Banjou soon realized that Kaneki smelled like Rize. Because he suspected Kaneki to be her boyfriend, he attacked him, but Banjou was easily knocked out by Kaneki. When Banjou woke up again, Kaneki tried to clear up the misunderstanding. He told Banjou that Rize had moved somewhere else, hiding from him that she had died. Banjou asked Kaneki to tell her that she should run away because he feared that Aogiri would try to gravely hurt her. At that moment, Ayato Kirishima, Yamori and Nico raided Anteiku. They announced that they were ordered to capture Rize herself or "the person who smells like her". Touka and Kaneki were easily overpowered and Kaneki was kidnapped.
After Kaneki had regained consciousness, he asked Ayato about Touka's condition, but in response, Ayato taught Kaneki the rules of the place while kicking and beating him. Kaneki was brought before Tatara. To make Kaneki reveal his kakugan, Tatara pierced his abdomen. Tatara realized that he could not use Kaneki the way he originally planned, so he granted Ayato the right to do whatever he wished with Kaneki. Tatara revealed to Kaneki that the escaped Doctor Kanou was aware what had happened to Kaneki's body and that Kanou didn't transplant a kidney into Kaneki, but a Kakuhou.
After the meeting, Kaneki was approached by Banjou, who proposed that they should escape together.During the meeting, he meets Banjou's resistance group who were also subdued by Aogiri. Banjou proposed that because the Aogiri superiors take turns leaving on different days of the week, they will make their escape when security is light.
On the night of the escape, the Anti-Aogiri group attempted to escape. However, the Bin brothers were alarmed by their escape and went after the group to intervene. When Banjou stayed behind to cover their escape, Kaneki and the gas mask followers came to his aid to confront one of the Bin. Admist of fighting, Yamori and Nico joined them along with several of the resistance members, revealing that they have overheard their plan and proceeded to ambush them. Despite knowing that death is the penalty for betrayal, Yamori instead proposed to Kaneki that he will overlook this event in exchange for his cooperation as an assisant because he possessed Rize's organs and had 'potential.' Kaneki hesitantly accepted, knowing that they would be killed otherwise and was taken by Yamori and Nico into his "hobby room".
10 days before the CCG stormed the Aogiri hideout, Yamori showed Kaneki his "hobby room". Kaneki is shocked when he sees a dead person sitting on a chair, whom Yamori reveals to be his former underling who is tortured for making a mistake. Yamori showed Kaneki Rc suppressants and explained that they are are used to weaken ghouls and forcibly injected the drug by stabbing Kaneki's left eye with a syringe. After the injection, Kaneki's body was weakened so that Yamori could torture him for pleasure. Days of torment took a toll on his physical and mental state. Trivially, Yamori reveals to Kaneki that Kanou had known he was surgically making him into a half-ghoul and that Rize's kakuhou was "special" for it's abnormal vigor.The torment had made his hair whiten and he begins to wonder what has happened to his friends. In a state of despair, he begins to hallucinate Rize and began to reminisce over his tragic past. Rize called him and his mother weak, but Yamori appeared with Kei and Kouto before she finished. Enraged that Yamori didn't fulfill his end of their bargain, Kaneki was given another ultimatum: Who of the two will he spare? Unable to comply to Yamori's twisted pleasure, Kaneki refused as Nico protested against Yamori's distasteful violence. The aggrivated Yamori ultimately killed both the mother and child ghoul and he and Nico left Kaneki in despair. Rize's illusion spoke to Kaneki, taunting him that it was his weakness that lead the two to their grisly demise. 'Rize' reasons that if more brutal ghouls like Yamori and Aogiri were to come to power, then his friends will eventually suffer similar fates. Realizing that in order to prevent this, he must become a ghoul full-heartedly and learn to control his kagune.
During the CCG attack, Yamori returned to Kaneki. He told him of a rumor that if a ghoul were to cannibalize one another, they will become stronger but ghoul meat was considered disgustingly distasteful. When he motioned to carve out Kaneki in order to eat him, Kaneki bites him and agrees with his latest notion. Freeing himself from the chair, he attacks Yamori and bites him, jeering that ghouls were indeed made to compete and that it can't be help that Yamori could be devoured, too. The two fought with their kagunes, in which Kaneki eventually overpowers him and proceeded to eat Yamori's kagune. After feasting on his kagune, Kaneki reminded him, before leaving, that the CCG will come to the hobby room and kill him while he has been wounded and disarmed.
Kaneki later fights Ayato. During the fight the had a brief conversation about Ayato's motivations in Aogiri. Kaneki concludes that Ayato joined Aogiri in order to protect Touka because he had impided Yamori to "play" with her. The fight is even, but it ends when Kaneki breaks through an entire building using Ayato as an battering ram. The fight ends when Kaneki "half-kills" him by breaking 103 out of 206 bones in Ayato's body as revenge for Touka.
When the fight is over and Kaneki and his friends are safe, Kaneki states that he will not come back to Anteiku. He accepts the help of Banjou and Shuu, even Hinami, but he do not allow Touka to follow him.
===Raid of Kanou's Lab===
After the invasion of the Aogiri hideout, it is rumored that he was the one to single-handedly destroy the Ghoul Restaurant and kill about 50-60 members. In the Ghoul Restaurant Kaneki confronted Kuro and Shiro, two one-eyed ghouls with the same abilities from Rize, which were later confirmed to be newer products of Doctor Kanou.
===Anteiku Raid===
After overhearing CCG officers' plans to raid Anteiku, Kaneki decided to head there as fast as possible to help out Yoshimura. During his way in the 20th Ward, Amon appeared in his way and began fighting him with Kaneki retaliating unwillingly. With a new quinque, Amon held an advantage over Kaneki. However, Kaneki chose to activate his Kakuja and overwhelmed his opponent easily, even when Amon received a newer quinque made for him mid-battle. Slashing off Amon's left arm but losing a chunk of meat on his waist, Kaneki retreats into the sewer paths to continue on. In the sewers he gradually begins to lose his mind due to his incomplete-Kakuja's side effects until Hide appears. Trying to convince himself that Hide couldn't possibly be there and what he's seeing is in fact an illusion due to his madness, Hide confronts him and tells him he knew Kaneki became a ghoul but still wants to aid him. After being told that CCG has surrounded the entire place, Kaneki is asked by Hide if he can go all out once more to escape the raid.
Kaneki passes out and wakes up with a sweet taste in his mouth. Hide is nowhere to be found so he continues to wander to the route V14 only to run into Kishou Arima in what he first believes to be a flower field, later found to be a field of Ghoul corpses slain by Arima. He instinctively knows who Arima is but is nonetheless drawn into a battle with him, getting pierced in the back and stabbed through his one kakugan eye. He starts freaking out and losing his mind, and after he gets 8 claws on his kagune, they start battling while Kaneki shout nonsensical sentences. However Arima surpasses him, so he finally decides to finish Arima with one hit thinking that because Arima is a human he would die, but was instead blocked by Arima's quinque Ixa's, defensive barrier. Then Arima revealed that he knew who Kaneki was by calling him by his name and saying that he was impressed that Kaneki managed to damage his quinque. Arima then went on to pierce Kaneki through his body with Ixa which raised him from the ground before dropping him in front of the man. After stating how he hadn't expected Kaneki to damage his quinque, he stabs Ixa through his head before mentioning he needed a new quinque.
===Post-Raid Anteiku===
After the operation had ended, Kaneki was imprisoned in Cochlea as Prisoner #240. His mental state had deteriorated seriously: He was repeatedly picking at his eyes until his wounds were festering, refusing food, crying at night, and was clawing at the doors such that his finger nails came off while screaming they should let him out. Furthermore, he was suffering from amnesia. The prison staff expected him to die. Arima started bringing him books. Reading those books greatly improved his mental state. Later, Arima told Kaneki that he would need a name, as it had been planned to appoint him as an investigator as part of his rehabilitation program, and asked him to choose one. He picked his two favorite kanji from the words 'coffee' and 'world', forming the name 'Haise'.
==Torso Investigation==
At the CCG main office in the 1st ward, Haise Sasaki is revealed to be the mentor of the Quinx Squad. He became distraught at the fact that his team mates went out to conduct an investigation without him. Haise and Mutsuki decide to consult Team Hirako, a group of higher-class investigators, only to face nothing but prejudice and inequity, as Sasaki was labeled incompetent and dishonorable for not being able to control his squad independently. Later on, Sasaki arrived at the scene of the investigation, ordering Urie to spare Akashi Kobayashi’s life; for he might have some sort of helpful information. He also scolds his members for trying to exterminate ghouls needlessly. However, Sasaki was forced to face criticism once again, being accused of following the “Torso” case blindly by not putting any sufficient efforts into his work.
Sasaki visited Shiba in his office, and the two conversed about the fate of the Qs' diet being affected by their Rc levels. He then attended a meeting held among Team Mado, Team Hirako and Team Shimoguchi. When he was singled out for being slack about ghoul extermination, Sasaki began to argue with Shimoguchi. However, much to his dismay, he was forced to co-operate with Team Shimoguchi. After the meeting’s dismissal, Sasaki met with a colleague, Kuramoto Itou, whom provided him with information on Serpent. When he arrived home, Sasaki found out yet again, that Urie and Shirazu have gone on an independent mission. He later tried to teach them about working together, but after they left without listening to what he had to say, Haise became serious about his work, and asked Mutsuki to accompany him on a mission to pursue Torso.
Haise and Mutsuki visited the SS level of Cochlea, where they spoke to Donato Porpora to gather information about Torso. Haise was told that ghouls often blend into society to maneuver their way for hunting, and that most of them take the method of driving taxis. Sasaki realized that Urie had been ahead of him in the Torso Investigation all along, but Donato requested Haise to pay a visit once more, for there is a special case that involves Sasaki himself. Recently Haise had recurring nightmares of a young man seen pondering in despair and hopelessness, trying to persuade Sasaki that he is worthless and will never rise above his weakness, but Haise paid no heed to the dream.
Sasaki soon immersed his interests into the Torso case; studying Torso’s pathological possessiveness since the ghoul has an abnormal habit of cutting off the legs of victims who subsequently acquire scars from surgeries; which may have a meaning. Before the deadline of the Torso Investigation, Haise, along with Mutsuki, visited a few surgical clinics within the area.
Category:Synopsis