kaneki ken
Species: One-eyed ghoul (artificial)Gender: Male
Birthdate: December 20
Age:18 (in TG), 21 (in TG:re), 23 (present)
Height/weight: 169cm/55 (in TG), 170cm/58kg (in TG:re)
Blood type: AB
Kagune type: Rinkaku
Ghoul aliases: Eyepatch, Centipede
Kaneki was a college student in Kamii University, majoring in Japanese Literature. He was a human that unwillingly turned into a half-ghoul after getting an organ transplant from Kamishiro Rize. Unlike pure ghouls, he only has one kakugan manifested on his left eye, while his right eye remains that of a human. This feature makes him special as one-eyed ghouls are rare, even his scent is different from other ghouls. Kaneki starts working part-time at Anteiku while also learning how to live as a ghoul.
Past
Kaneki lost her father when he was 4 years old. He left behind a lot of books, which Kaneki read, thus developing his hobby of reading and literature. As for his mother, Kaneki remembered her as a loving figure. She had to work hard to make a living for them, but Kaneki’s aunt appeared and asked her for money support as well. Kaneki’s mom couldn’t object to her pleas, and by holding even more burden, she worked even harder, ultimately led to her death from overworking when Kaneki was 10 years old.
Kaneki was adopted by his aunt as her ‘repentance’. Feeling grateful, Kaneki studied hard to get high grades at school. His aunt appreciated him at first, but soon grew to feel annoyed, comparing Kaneki to her own less-brilliant son. Kaneki became more and more introverted, unable to make a proper friendship with others; afraid of getting hurt in the process.
Nagachika Hideyoshi is Kaneki’s only (human) best friend whom he trusts, and it seems like Hide is his only anchor to the human world. After he’s turned into a ghoul, Kaneki fears that he will lose his only place if Hide ever finds out about his current identity.
Personality
Kaneki is naturally a kind-hearted boy who dislikes violence, and he’d rather be the one who gets hurt rather than seeing other people get hurt. When he finds out that he’s become a (half) ghoul, Kaneki refuses to eat or hunt humans, and would only drink coffee and the sugar cube provided by Anteiku. However, after watching Touka who gets hurt after trying to avenge Ryoko’s death, Kaneki decides that he should try to learn how to fight and use kagune.
Kaneki develops a more complex persona ever since he’s getting tortured by Yamori in Aogiri. Under extreme stress or near-death experiences, he would start seeing projections of influential people in his mind.While he gets stronger and more muscular, he’s become ruthless and violent, even uses taboo means to increase his strength. Kaneki adopts Yamori’s habit of cracking his fingers, especially when he’s excited.
In Tokyo Ghoul: re, Kaneki completely lost his memory after failing to save Anteiku, and trained (or should I say, used) by CCG to be a ghoul investigator. He is given a new identity, Sasaki Haise. Information regarding Haise will be explored further in Touken section.
appearance
Along with the changes of his personality, Kaneki’s appearance has also changed several times on the course of the series. He was originally born with black hair, but due to the extreme stress by being relentlessly tortured by Yamori, his hair turns white and all of his nails darken.
When he’s just been converted into a ghoul, the kakugan on his left eye would activate uncontrollably. Therefore, he tries to hide it by wearing an eyepatch.
Kaneki’s ghoul mask is a latex mask with eyepatch on the right side (revealing his kakugan), gnashing teeth with lipless mouth. There is a zipper between the upper and lower teeth, allowing him to bite his opponents without removing the mask.