glossary

Here is a collection of terms widely used in Tokyo Ghoul series. You will also find them throughout this shrine. If you are not very familiar with the series, I really hope this section helps!

The terminology in this page are sorted alphabetically. A huge portion of the definition here was written by following the manga translations found in the world wide web.

Anteiku
A coffee shop in the 20th Ward, managed by Yoshimura. All the employees are ghouls, but they also have human customers. Touka and Kaneki works part-time here. It is a peaceful place where humans and ghouls coexist (unbeknownst to the humans), and its mission is to help fellow ghouls.
Aogiri Tree
A group of terrorist ghouls believed to be led by the One-Eyed Owl. Their enemy is Doves of the CCG. The members, especially top-ranked ones, are known to be rather powerful and ruthless. They also recruit weaker ghouls as slaves.
CCG
Short for Commission of Counter Ghouls; an agency that investigates criminal cases connected to ghouls. They also combat and capture ghouls. They develop weapons and armors derived from the defeated ghouls’ kagune. The headquarters is based in the 1st Ward.
Chimera
A rare case where a ghoul is able to manifest more than one type of kagune. Hinami has a chimera-type kagune, bearing an ukaku and rinkaku, each inherited from her parents.
Cochlea
An asylum facility owned by CCG to secure ghouls, located in the 23th Ward. The ghouls imprisoned in this place are given RC suppressants in order to restrain their abilities.
Doves
A term for humans who work as CCG investigators.
GOAT
An organization of ghouls found by Kaneki, striving for a future where ghouls and humans can understand each other. The name comes from one of Takatsuki Sen's book titles, The Black Goat’s Egg.
Hybrid
A hybrid is a species that is born as a result of the copulation between a ghoul and a human. Currently, there are 2 types of ghoul that we know of:
Half-ghoul
A ghoul with only one kakugan, the other eye is that of a normal human. They have the body and characteristics of a ghoul, able to regenerate and unable to consume human food. A half-ghoul is considered stronger than a normal ghoul. A half-ghoul can also be obtained through experiment of transplanting a ghoul’s body parts into a human. The experiment is done by dr. Kanou Akihiro.
Half-human
Half-humans are hybrid whose characteristics are more similar to a human than a ghoul. They can eat human food, they do not have kakugan and they do not develop kagunes. However, they have high physical abilities, and accelerated aging process thus shortening their lifespans. The half-humans are bred, raised and trained in Sunlit Garden.
Kagune
A weapon manifested by ghouls. Basically, a kagune is RC cells which have been released out of the body. They are like liquid muscles, but they can form as solid as teeth. Other than to hunt for food, kagune is used to combat fellow ghouls in turf wars. There are 4 types of kagune, differentiated by the parts of the body where they come out.
Kakugan
A ghoul’s distinctive eye where the iris turns red, and the sclera turns black. It can appear by their own will, or when they are in an excited state or extremely hungry.
Kakuhou
A ghoul's organ that resembles a sack where the Rc cells are stored. The kakuhou's location is the same place where the kagune comes out from.
Kakuja
An armor-like kagune that is formed in result of ghoul cannibalizing. It can transform into something massive and monstrous. Not every ghoul can develop a kakuja. The CCG has successfully experimented to apply this armor for investigators.
Mask
During a battle or hunt, ghouls wear masks in order to hide their identity, especially from the CCG. The investigators usually use the mask imagery as nickname to the ghouls, for example Touka’s Rabbit and Kaneki’s Eyepatch. The mask shop where Kaneki goes to is HySy, managed by Uta.
Oggai
A new generation of quinx experimented by dr. Kanou with Rize’s kagune. Just like Kaneki, they all have rinkaku-type kagune.
Quinque
Weapons wielded by CCG investigators, used to combat against ghouls, because they are immune to ordinary weapons (e.g. knives). The raw material to build a quinque is a kagune, extracted from ghouls defeated or captured by CCG.
Quinx / Q
Humans who possess a built-in quinque inside their body, obtained from surgery by the CCG. However, they do not become half-ghouls and they can eat human food. They usually possess one kakugan with grey sclera instead of black one.
RC Cells
Red Child cells—the cells that comprise a large part of a ghoul’s body. It is related to the composition of the kagune. The origin of its name stems from how the individual cells resemble curled-up fetuses. Ghouls have a Rc factor ten times higher than humans, because they stock Rc cells by eating people. A healthy human has an average Rc Level of 200 to 500, while a ghoul displays levels between 1000 and 8000.
RC Suppressant
A type of liquid that temporarily suppresses a ghoul’s RC cells activity. It weakens the ghoul, and has a foul smell.
:Re
A coffee shop run by Touka and Yomo. The colon in its logo are made of circles with different colors, probably as a reference to the one-eyed ghoul (Kaneki).
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