Manga / Tokyo Ghoul

"I am... a Ghoul."

"If, for argument's sake, you were to write a story with me in the lead role, it would certainly be a tragedy."

— Ken Kaneki

Tokyo Ghoul is a seinen manga series by Sui Ishida that mixes together elements of horror and action, starting off with references to The Metamorphosis, but quickly switching into a tragic story about the circle of violence between humans and ghouls.

Your average bookworm and Ordinary College Student, Ken Kaneki, has fallen for a beautiful woman by the name of Rize Kamishiro. On their first date, said woman reveals herself to be a monster known as a "ghoul", a creature in human form that feeds on human flesh. Having taken the time to trap him, she prepares to eat him when a falling girder smashes her to bits and leaves Kaneki horribly injured. Saved through a transplant of organs from the dead woman, Kaneki is left with the inability to eat normal food and a hunger that just won't go away. It doesn't take long before Kaneki realizes what's happened to him, and the far-reaching implications of being a person who belongs to both the human and the ghoul world.

In this world, ghouls are creatures that can only feed on humans. As a result, the Commission of Counter Ghoul (CCG) was created to combat them. Kaneki, now a one-eyed ghoul (a type known for being extraordinarily powerful), finds shelter in Anteiku, a local coffee shop staffed by friendly ghouls. But soon, he becomes pulled into a war between the CCG and Aogiri Tree, a ghoul supremacist organization led by the One-Eyed Owl, a feared and enigmatic figure.

And now, Kaneki struggles with his humanity more than ever...

The manga was serialized in Weekly Young Jump from September 8, 2011 to September 18, 2014, with a total of 143 chapters in 14 volumes. A sequel, Tokyo Ghoul:re began serialization in October 2014. Taking place two years after the disastrous events in Tokyo, it follows new protagonist Haise Sasaki, Akira Mado, and members of a newly-formed team of Ghoul-Hybrids created by CCG as they continue the fight against Aogiri and the Owl, all while a traitor within the CCG sets his own plan in motion. This sequel manga ended with 179 chapters in June 2018.

The series has been adapted into four 12-episode seasons by Studio Pierrot. The first season, simply titled Tokyo Ghoul, debuted in Summer 2014, and, for the most part, follows the flow of the manga, ending halfway through the Aogiri arc. The second season, Tokyo Ghoul √A, debuted in January 2015, picking up where the first season left off but partly going off into a different direction to the manga, blending in its own story with the rest of the original manga. A third season based on Tokyo Ghoul:re was released on April 3rd, 2018, with a fourth and final season released in October 2018. The anime premiered on Toonami on March 25, 2017.

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Tokyo Ghoul

This manga provides examples of:

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• AB Negative: AB is one of the rarest blood types in Japan, accounting for less than 10% of the population. Kaneki and Rize note while on their first date that they have the same blood type, which works out perfectly when he's in need of an organ transplant a few hours later. Creepy Twins Kuro and Shiro are also AB, and Dr. Kanou seems to have a knack for finding AB-types for his experiments using Rize.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Ghouls utilize the underground tunnels to train, or travel without being observed. The area known as V-14 becomes significant, being the only way for Ghouls to enter or leave the 20th Ward. Arima sets up an ambush there, and slaughters the wounded Ghouls attempting to flee. He later encounters and defeats Kaneki there.
• Abusive Parents: Several examples.
  • Kaneki's aunt took him in after his mother worked herself to death trying to support both families. However, she began to take out all her resentment towards her sister on him and accused Kaneki of trying to make her own son look bad. She began to verbally abuse him, as well as isolating him from the rest of the family and showed no interest in him after he left for college. Later his mother is revealed to have beat him as well.
  • Juuzou was raised by a sadistic ghoul called Big Madame (who went so far as to castrate him) which twisted him into a Psychopathic Manchild.
• A Glass of Chianti: Classier Ghouls (such as Tsukiyama and Itori) drink blood from wine glasses in imitation of human behavior. After the timeskip, Kaneki is seen drinking from a martini glass while discussing business with Itori.
• The Alcatraz: Kokuria (as in "cochlea", the spiral cavity of the inner ear), the special Ghoul prison located in the 23rd Ward. Quite literally a massive shaft built into the ground, it is divided into separate basements that house Ghouls based upon their ranking. The lower ranked Ghouls are towards the top, and the further down one goes the higher rated (and more dangerous) the Ghoul prisoners are. These prisoners are kept alive for information, or as eventual resources to create new Quinque weapons. It takes a large-scale invasion by the most powerful members of Aogiri Tree to liberate some of the prisoners. Even then, they weren't able to reach the lowest levels of Kokuria where the SSS rated Ghouls are stored.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: In the final arc, Anteiku is raided by CCG. Most of the cast are sent fleeing for their lives, while Yoshimura makes his last stand along with Koma and Irimi. Kaneki heads into the battle zone in a desperate attempt to save them, but instead is subjected to a Curb-Stomp Battle thanks to Arima and may have been killed.
• All Love Is Unrequited: There's a considerable amount of unresolved feelings, rejections, or dead lovers in this series. The finale sees a heartbroken Touka firm in her belief Kaneki will return someday, Tsukiyama in a grief-fueled Angst Coma, Akira mourning the loss of two more people she loved, and Nishiki forced to leave Kimi behind to protect her.
• Almighty Janitor: Rank 3 Ghoul Investigators. While at the very bottom of the pile in terms of authority, it is only possible to be this rank if personally appointed by Chairman Washuu, himself. Arima started his career as one, prior to jumping two Ranks after defeating the One-Eyed Owl in single combat. Juuzou also starts out as one, but turns out to be a One-Man Army.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: Kaneki goes from a normal young man with typical attitudes about the mysterious Ghouls, to a Half-Human Hybrid forced to adjust to living as a Ghoul. He very quickly learns that they aren't the monsters he believed them to be.
  • Chapter 143 gives us an even more straight-forward example: Some of the Investigators listed as deceased during the raid on the 20th Ward were really stolen by Aogiri, and are set to become the new test subjects for Dr. Kanou's experiments in creating artificial Ghouls.
• Animal Motifs: Numerous Ghouls are associated with animals, using their imagery for their masks or aliases.
  • Kaneki: Insects, particularly Creepy Centipedes.
  • Touka: Rabbits
  • Yoshimura: Owls
  • Yomo: Ravens and Crows
  • Irimi: Dogs
  • Koma: Great Apes
  • Hinami: Butterflies
  • Rize: Spiders
  • Chie Hori: Rodents (hamsters, rats, mice)
• Applied Phlebotinum: RC cells. Humans and Ghouls both have them, and the later use it as their primary source of energy.
• Arc Villain: Each arc features at least one major antagonist that is either killed or otherwise reduced as a threat afterwards.
  • Introduction: Nishiki Nishio.
  • Doves' Emergence: Kureo Mado and Koutarou Amon.
  • Gourmet: Shuu Tsukiyama.
  • Aogiri: Yamori.
  • Lab Raid: Shachi, Kuro and Shiro.
  • Anteiku Raid: The Owl for the CCG side, Kishou Arima for the Ghoul side. Unfortunately, The Bad Guy Wins in both cases. Yoshimura is defeated and Eto cleans up before kidnapping him. Arima slaughters the ghouls that face him, before soundly defeating Kaneki.
• Arc Symbol: A random shot of a centipede appears throughout the Aogiri Arc, leading up to Yamori sticking one in Kaneki's ear during his torture.
• Arc Words:
  • "The World is Wrong.". At the very end of :re, Kaneki rebukes this statement, saying "This world isn't wrong. It just... is.
  • "To live is to eat others."
  • "My salvation is..."
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Suzuya's first two chapters has him slaughtering a gang of ghouls for fun, sucking out a police officer's eardrum and squashing it for wasting his time, and stealing Kaneki's wallet.
• Art Evolution: The early chapters' art is a bit inconsistent, with some panels looking much better than others. This smooths out over the course of the series, with the art becoming more polished and consistent.
• Asshole Victim: As a general rule, if a character is a Jerkass, be they Ghoul or Human, chances are they will die horrifically.
• Astral Checkerboard Decor: Checkered patterns appear throughout the series, most notably in Yamori's Torture Cellar, the CCG chairman's office, and Uta's mask studio. Suffice to say, this pattern appearing is never a good thing.
• The Bad Guys Win: How the series ends. Anteiku and the CCG's battle causes massive damage to CCG, while Anteiku is destroyed. While Aogiri Tree takes the hurt CCG inspectors and Yoshimura to continue their experiments with Pierrot laughing their asses off at their manipulations
• Badass Crew: Tokyo Ghoul is filled with this.
  • There's the Anteiku rescue team of Yoshimura, Yomo, Uta, Touka, Nishiki and Tsukiyama.
  • Then there's Kaneki's crew with Tsukiyama, Hinami, Banjou and the Gas Mask Brothers.
  • The CCG Investigators form one whenever preparing to hunt a dangerous, high-ranked Ghoul.
  • And don't forget Aogiri Tree. Being the leaders, Tatara, Noro and Eto are considered absurdly strong, and already displayed huge strength, durability or movement speed far beyond the level of "extremely strong". In fact, Eto is the One-Eyed Owl herself, the currently strongest ghoul introduced in the whole series. Even their underlings such as Ayato, Miza, Naki and Yamori are absolute powerhouses who can take on even the strongest investigators. And the list goes on and on...
• Badass in a Nice Suit: All over the place.
  • The staff of Anteiku wear high-end dining uniforms, and are almost to the person powerful Ghouls.
  • CCG Investigators wear suits, and are highly-skilled fights able to fight Ghouls head-on.
  • Yamori wears a nice, white suit while dishing out brutality. Naki and his two nameless lackeys imitate his style, while acting as front-line soldiers for Aogiri Tree.
• Badass Longcoat: Ghoul investigators sometimes wear long white greatcoats over their suits, even whilst fighting.
  • Renji Yomo also dons a slick buttoned-up trenchcoat.
• Badass Normal: CCG's Investigators are this out of necessity, facing Ghouls with little more than intense physical training, their wits, and weapons made from slain Ghouls.
• Bad Date: Rize and Kaneki's date is what kickstarts the plot, as their date was going great, right up until she tried to eat him. Their date concludes with her crushed under several tons of steel beams, and him needing an emergency organ transplant to save his life.
• Becoming the Mask: A literal case for Kaneki. As masks in the ghoul world reflect both personality and fighting style of their wearers, Uta making such a monstrous leather mask for the soft-spoken Kaneki seemed like a mismatch. However, as the story progresses, Kaneki grows to become just the fierce and savage character his mask exudes.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: A major, reoccurring theme that hits more than one character. Kaneki, Yamori, and Suzuya all suffered extensive torture over long periods of time, and emerged from their ordeals changed for the worse. While Yamori and Suzuya are psychopaths that revel in their brutality, Kaneki manages to hang onto enough of his former self to simply become a very ruthless Anti-Hero instead of a monster.
• The Berserker: Some Ghouls that develop Kakuja-type Kagune seem to fall into this state while using it, losing control of themselves and brutally attacking everything in their path.
• Beware the Nice Ones: A common theme.
  • Kaneki is noted for his kind personality, but has incredible potential for violence when it comes to protecting those he cares about.
  • Yoshimura may be a kind and supportive grandfatherly figure to his employees, but he is also one of the most powerful Ghouls in the series.
  • Uta is easy-going and friendly, but noted he was extremely violent in his past. When he does fight, he can tear his opponents to pieces without even using his Kagune. He's also part of Pierrot, the group of ghouls that caused Rize's accident and thus the reason why Kaneki became a ghoul.
• Big Bad: The mysterious One-Eyed Owl/King, leader of the ghoul supremacist organization Aogiri Tree. The finale reveals that he is actually Eto Yoshimura/Sen Takatsuki, Kaneki’s favorite author and the Half-Human Hybrid daughter of Big Good Kuzen Yoshimura. Her true goal is to end the Forever War between humans and ghouls.
  • Also introduced as major antagonists are Rize Kamishiro, a Femme Fatale who serves as Ken Kaneki’s Enemy Within due to being a hallucinatory figure after she is taken out early, and Dr. Akihiro Kanou, the Mad Scientist who turned Kaneki into a ghoul.
  • The side story JOKER has the unnamed leader of the skull mask gang, as Juuzou is trying to track him down- and finds out that he is a girl (again) whom Juuzou saved on a train from a molester.
• Big Damn Heroes: Kaneki pulls one together with He's Back! when he saves Touka and holds her in his arms in a Bridal Carry.
• Big Eater: "Binge-eater" Rize.
• Big Good: Yoshimura, manager of Anteiku and the leader of the 20th Ward. His mere presence has kept the 20th Ward peaceful for a decade, and he provides a moderate counter to the extremes of the CCG and Aogiri.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: The majority of ghouls kill humans without hesitation. Humans generally kill ghouls indiscriminately due to how easily they can be killed by ghouls' kagune. The few ghouls that don't kill humans are either killed by ghouls due to being weaker and involved in territorial disputes or by humans so they can be stripped of their kagune so they can be manufactured into anti-Ghoul weapons.
• Black Eyes of Evil: The biggest tell if someone is a ghoul. Their eyes go black when especially hungry or using their powers.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Played with. Several ghouls that have fully accepted their nature see humans as nothing more than prey of some sort and don't really believe in good or evil. Ghouls closer to humans, however, mostly follow these beliefs as a way to cope with killing humans to survive.
  • Chie Hori is a human example of the trope, with a rather...unique morality that allows her to remain completely detached from the scenes she photographs.
• Body Horror: The ghouls' kagune. They don't match their mostly human appearance, instead being crimson insectoid limbs that tear out of the ghoul's body.
• Book Dumb: A common trait of Ghouls, most of which grew up living on the streets or in poverty, with no access to a formal education. The best they can hope for is very basic homeschooling from their parents. Ghouls such as Touka and Nishiki, who attend school, are the exception.
• Book Ends: The first season of the anime has its first and last episodes end the same way: the screen cuts to black as Kaneki swallows a chunk of meat. In the first episode it's his first taste of human flesh, forced on him against his will, and he's terrified and disgusted. In the last episode, he's embracing his instincts and powers as a ghoul by devouring his torturer.
• Breakout Character: Tsukiyama. He starts out as an arc villain, but returns later to become Kaneki's most valuable — if untrustworthy — ally in the second half of the series.
• Break the Cutie: Almost every single character is shown to have suffered a traumatic experience or five over the course of their life, robbing them of their innocence and leaving them severely damaged people. This is what makes many Ghouls become brutal killers, and drives many CCG Investigators to hunt Ghouls so aggressively. Kaneki is flat-out stated to be the protagonist of a tragedy, and it shows with the sheer amount of cruelty he endures.
• Bridal Carry: Kaneki does this to Touka after he swoops in to save her after she was defeated by her brother, Ayato.
  • Kaneki again after catching Banjou, who fell off a roof during training.
• Came Back Strong: Each near-death experience sees Kaneki essentially reborn, emerging as a stronger being each time. However, it isn't without a price.
  • Came Back Wrong: Each subsequent "rebirth" and increase in power chips away at his sanity, leaving him a little less human each time.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Ghouls are able to become stronger as a result of feeding on their own kind, though it is implied to take a toll on their sanity.
• Cannibal Larder: To be expected from a series about cannibalism and creatures that eat humans.
  • A prequel side story focuses on Rize. Early on, her land lady approaches her to discuss a complaint about a smell coming from her apartment, which Rize claims is from trash she allowed to accumulate. Later on, we see that its actually because she's got a bath tub filled with blood and body parts.
  • The storage freezer in Anteiku completely averts this trope, as it seems to be neatly organized with innocent-looking packages of meat.
  • The pilot oneshot, which features a more violent version of Kaneki, shows body parts hanging in what may be his refrigerator and an eyeless head floating in a jar on the floor in his room.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Kaneki's inability to just tell Hide what happened to him, and slowly cutting him out of his life to protect him. Then it turned out that Hide knew almost the entire time, and was simply waiting for Kaneki to tell him.
  • Amon and Akira have considerable UST as a result of both having serious issues with letting down their guard. This leads to Akira making an Anguished Declaration of Love after Amon is reported dead.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Some characters look more different than others, but it's pretty much impossible to mistake someone for somebody else unless there's a reason for it.
• Character Tics: Used heavily in relation to several characters.
  • Yamori's unique manner of cracking his knuckles, a habit he picked up from his human torturer. Naki does it to imitate him, while Kaneki begins to do it as well after being tortured.
  • Kaneki has a tendency to adopt the tics of others, such as Yamori's knuckle cracking. Hide informs Touka that he has a tendency to touch his left hand to his chin whenever he's lying to spare someone's feelings. In a flashback, we see his mother doing the same thing.
• Chekhov's Gun/Chekhov's Gunman: All over the place.
  • In Chapter 20, a pair of Investigators are seen discussing how The Gourmet has killed one of their men. In Chapter 39, Tsukiyama has a Quinque prepared for the scrapper to use against Kaneki and mentions it was a "souvenir".
  • The Bin Brothers and their kagune. Their kagune are used along with the broken pieces of Amon's first Quinque to create an Anti-Centipede weapon to bring down Kaneki.
  • Sen Takatsuki, the oft-mentioned author. She is the One-Eyed Owl, Yoshimura's Half-Human Hybrid child. As it turns out, she is also Aogiri's true leader, Eto.
  • Madam A, one of the members of the Ghoul Restaurant. She has been working for Dr. Kanou, and her Scrappers are his failed experiments.
  • Souta, another member of the Ghoul Restaurant. Not only is he a member of the Clown Masked Gang, but he's the one that dropped the steel bars on Rize.
  • The Clown Mask Gang, mentioned from time to time throughout the series. They are Pierrot, a gang of pranksters led by Uta and Itori. They have been manipulating Kaneki throughout the series for their own amusement, leading him along a path to his doom.
    • When Kaneki meets Uta, one of the first things he sees is a clown mask on the wall.
• The Chikan: The Joker one-shot features one that Hanbee and Suzuya catch molesting a schoolgirl on the train. Suzuya intervenes, which turns out to be the break in the Skulls case — the girl is their leader, and later rips off the pervert's offending hand.
• Child Eater: Donato Porpora's favorite meal was children, leading him to pose as a Catholic priest and open an orphanage. Little surprise that Amon has such serious issues related to ghouls and orphaned children.
  • Subverted with Tsukiyama, who turns out to prefer the flesh of the elderly. He considers men over the age of 90 to be a particularly rare delicacy.
• The City Narrows: The 24th Ward, an underground labyrinth where an unknown number of Ghouls live. It is considered horrible even by Ghouls, but because CCG rarely dares to go there it is also an ideal location for a hunted Ghoul to hide. Yoshimura discusses sending Hinami there to escape the Doves pursuing her, but the others ultimately argue that keeping her in near-constant House Arrest is better than sending her to the 24th Ward. It is also mentioned that the infamous One-Eyed Owl emerged from there, and it is one of two Wards that prominent members of Aogiri Tree called home. Yoshimura sent his infant daughter to live there, in order to hide her from the organization called "V".
• Combat Pragmatist: How the members of the CCG operates, as humans against ghouls whose strength and power ranges from 4-7 times of that of an adult human wouldn't last in a fair fight. As Mado had put it, "Even 'cowardice' can be forgiven in the name of 'justice.'"
• Cosmic Plaything: If it wasn't obvious enough, the universe really seems to hate Kaneki.
• Construction Zone Calamity: The seemingly harmless date between Rize and Kaneki ends in her taking him to a deserted area, then revealing her nature as a ghoul and attacking him. However, before she could finish him off, several steel beams from the construction area fell on her and crushed her.
• Crapsack World: Humanity must deal with the constant fear of a predatory species that looks just like them, until they reveal their Game Face and start eating people. However, in reality the majority of Ghouls live miserable lives and simply want to live in peace, killing only because there is no other choice for them. Most are orphaned young, and they live in constant fear of the Ghoul Investigators charged with exterminating them without mercy. The cycle of death and revenge draws in everyone, with very few characters in the series that are genuinely innocent.
• Crazy Consumption: Tsukiyama to the other ghouls. He's absolutely obsessed with eating, to the point where he reads human books about cooking and taste, even though he can't experience any of it.
• Creepy Child: Eto, who is covered head-to-toe in bandages. Her creepiness is amped up when the audience finds out her true identity as the One-Eyed Owl.
• Cursed with Awesome: Ghouls are physically superior to humans in all ways, with enhanced senses, a Healing Factor, and a predatory organ they can use to pretty much destroy anything. They are also highly resistant to mundane weapons like knives and guns, leading many Ghouls to see themselves as a superior species.
  • Blessed with Suck: But all this power comes with the cost of being forced to live off human flesh, with coffee and water the only normal things they can enjoy. The vast majority live lonely existences on the fringe of society, always having to look over their shoulder for risk of discovery by humans or predation by aggressive Ghouls. Almost all Ghouls are orphans, with little hope of a normal life and no ambitions or dreams beyond living one more day.
• Cycle of Revenge: A central theme of the series. Many Investigators and Ghouls alike are driven by their bitterness over losing loved ones, and lash out at the other species in revenge. CCG actively encourages this, often taking in children orphaned by Ghouls with the intention of raising them to be future Investigators. Many Ghouls, likewise, seek to kill Investigators to avenge their murdered family or friends.
• Dead Person Conversation: Kaneki sees Rize often in his head, especially in times of distress and intense emotional pain. Until he learns that she is not dead at all.
• Deceased Parents Are the Best: Deconstructed with Kaneki's mother, as her gentle nature led her to work herself to death for her sister, who would repay this by abusing Kaneki. Played straight with Arata Kirishima and Kureo Mado, both shown to have been doting single fathers.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: The finale of the series sees Kaneki facing the legendary Kishou Arima, an Investigator with nicknames such as "God of Death/Grim Reaper" and "The Undefeated Ghoul Investigator". Arima dishes out a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle, but is genuinely impressed when Kaneki manages to not only damage IXA in the process, but nicks him on the cheek.
• Demoted to Extra: The Anteiku staff, after the Aogiri Arc. Touka in particular ends up on the sidelines until nearly the end, because Kaneki is intentionally avoiding her in hopes she'll continue living like a human. In the anime, they are given a bit more focus, however.
• Department of Child Disservices: CCG is given custody of children orphaned in Ghoul attacks, and sends them to their Junior Academy with absolutely no intention of ever finding them new families or giving them a normal life. Instead, the facility is a Tyke Bomb factory that raises orphans to become future Investigators and while their physical and educational needs are met... it doesn't seem like much focus is given on their psychological well-being. In particular, it's shown that little to no effort was taken in helping Juuzou recover from being Raised by Orcs — Shinohara accomplishes in a few months what the Academy couldn't be bothered to do given years.
  • The Academy staff in fact framed Juuzou, for the animal killings around their campus committed by one of the teachers — who used to be a warden at Cochlea and is implied to be Yamori's torturer — further isolating Juuzou from his peers.
• Despair Event Horizon: After torturing Kaneki for days, Yamori decides to renege on their deal and brings in a mother and child that Kaneki gave himself up to protect. He offers a Sadistic Choice — he'll kill one, but spare the other but Kaneki has to decide which one. When Kaneki refuses and offers his own life instead, Yamori simply kills both hostages in front of him. This event causes Kaneki to hit rock bottom, with him emerging out the other side a changed person.
  • Touka and Tsukiyama both cross it during the raid on Anteiku, despairing at their helplessness to save Kaneki. Touka manages to cling to hope and keep moving, while Tsukiyama appears to have fallen into an Angst Coma.
• Dirt Forcefield: Even when characters are impaled, dismembered, disemboweled, half-beheaded or suffering any of the other enormous injuries the series dishes out, their clothes show only the most superficial indications like a moderately reddened hole instead of the remains of a river of blood. And those dealing the violence may be covered in gooey bits during a fight, only to get away almost completely free of any splatter later.
• Disposing of a Body: Anteiku acts as a "soup" kitchen for ghouls, so left over bodies are brought over, butchered and stored away in their fridge.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Suzuya is quick to violence for minor offense. For example, when a cop arrests him for carrying a bloody weapon and doesn't believe he's an Investigator, he sucks out his ear drum and then stomps on it.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Who would have thought that Sen Takatsuki, Eto, and the One-Eyed Owl would turn out to be the same person?
• Downer Ending: The series warns from the beginning that it is a tragedy. That doesn't make the particularly bleak conclusion to the original series any less painful, with Anteiku destroyed by CCG, Yoshimura captured by Aogiri as Dr. Kanou's new donor, and those in the cast that aren't possibly dead either maimed or on the run. Added to this is the revelation that two of Kaneki's closest allies, Uta and Itori, were secretly part of a group manipulating him for their own amusement. Good thing they announced a sequel.
• Dressing as the Enemy: The Anteiku rescue team disguise themselves as members of Aogiri, in order to make infiltrating their base easier. Uta provides them with counterfeit masks, and they all wear the same robes as the Faceless Mooks until continuing the ruse becomes pointless.
• Dysfunction Junction: Almost every single character is messed up in some capacity, with either serious psychological issues or a traumatic past. Justified by the Crapsack World they live in, and the nature of the conflict between humans and Ghouls. The Ghoul characters' issues stem from lives spent being hunted by CCG, while the employees of CCG are messed up because losing loved ones to Ghouls is what motivates them in their work, or from witnessing particuarly depraved ghouls in action.
• Ear Ache: Two particularly gruesome examples occur.
  • During one torture session, Yamori places a centipede in Kaneki's ear. Rather than scream in agony, Kaneki begins to laugh hysterically.
  • During his introduction, Suzuya takes revenge on a police officer giving him a hard time by sucking the man's eardrum out.
• Eating the Enemy: Ghouls normally eat just humans for food. However, ghouls will resort this as a defense against other ghouls and CCG soldiers. In fact, certain ghouls in world have begun to take to eating their fellow ghouls in order to gain extraordinary powers. This includes the protagonist Kaneki himself who, after finally being broken, pinned his tormentor down and devoured his kagune.
• Eat the Evidence: Ghouls manage to stay hidden by eating the entire body of their victims. Sometimes, they just find people that have killed themselves and eat that over a living person, because there's less chance someone will miss that person and less chance of law enforcement becoming involved.
• Eat the Rich: Possibly the gourmet club's favorite food.
• Emergency Transformation: Central to the plot. Kaneki becomes a Half-Human Hybrid as a result of a life-saving organ transplant.
  • Again, when Kaneki must fight off dozens of Kanou's failed experiments, and the effects of his cannibalism coalesce into his first kakujya.
• Evil Genius: Mado Kureo, an Investigator obsessed with Ghouls and making new weapons for their kagune.
• Evil Tastes Good: Rize and Tsukiyama are both descriptive in how delicious the taste and suffering of their victims is to them. Likewise, Kaneki realizes the first time he tastes human flesh that he can feel himself being overwhelmed by hedonistic urges, and has to fight against the temptation to give in to his Superpowered Evil Side.
• Expository Hair Style Change: Several occur over the course of the story.
  • Kaneki's change from black hair to white, after being tortured by Yamori.
  • Touka grows her hair out during the timeskip.
  • Hinami starts wearing her hair in a stylish bob, which Kaneki cuts for her.
  • Nishiki starts wearing his hair shorter and neater after he becomes a waiter at Anteiku.
  • When Hide appears as a CCG part-timer after the timeskip, his hair is longer and is styled down rather than sticking up in spikes.
  • In the Joker one-shot that takes place in the future, Suzuya seems to have dyed his hair black.
• Eyepatch of Power: Kaneki starts wearing one when he has trouble controlling the color of his left eye. Subverted with his mask, which covers the other, non-ghoul eye. The designer made it that way so he could see Kaneki's hidden eye properly.
• Faceless Goons: A staple of any Ghoul gang, wearing themed masks.
  • The gas mask trio that work for Banjou are a rare heroic example.
  • The nameless members of Aogiri, all dressed in identical robes and masks.
  • Irimi's old gang, Black Dobbell, all wear black trench coats and dog masks.
  • Koma's old gang all wear parkas and gorilla masks.
  • The members of the Skull Mask gang in Joker.
• Fair Cop: The members of the CCG are a varied lot, but several stand out for being insanely good looking. Amon and Akira in particular are noted for being attractive.
• Fairytale Motifs: The Ghoul Restaurant takes inspiration for tales such as The Restaurant of Many Orders, with Kaneki even drawing a comparison between himself and the protagonists of that tale.
• Fan Service With A Smile: The waitresses at Kaneki and Hide's favorite restaurant, Big Girl, are noted for being very attractive.
• Fantastic Racism: The conflict between Humans and Ghouls often veers into this, with people on both sides expressing such sentiments about the other species. Most humans don't think there is anything wrong with killing children if they happen to be Ghouls, while the members of Aogiri Tree hold to an ideology of Ghoul supremacy.
• Feminine Women Can Cook: Played straight. Yoriko and Akira are both capable cooks, in comparison to their more tomboyish counterparts, Touka and Misato. Touka's case is justified by her being a Ghoul, while Misato appears to be known as a Lethal Chef among her peers.
• Femme Fatale: Rize, the ghoul that took Kaneki on his fateful first date. This is especially played up in the anime adaptation, where not only is she depicted naked in her very first appearance in the very first scene, Kaneki has the habit of hallucinating her tempting him to give in and satisfy his hunger in the most luridly intimate terms possible.
• Flat "What": Kaneki after meeting Dr. Kanou, who reveals that Manager Yoshimura is deeply connected to Aogiri.
• Flower Motifs: Several appear during the course of the series.
  • In the final episode of season one, flowers are used extensively in Kaneki's hallucinations. The field is initially all white carnations (innocence) — flowers his mother filled their house with prior to her death. Rize's appearance prompts the flowers to transform into spider lilies, a motif that continues through the episode as Kaneki comes to grips with his past and accepts his nature as a Ghoul.
  • Daffodils feature prominently in the final chapters, as Kaneki faces Arima. A single daffodil, as seen on the cover featuring Arima, means misfortune. On the other hand, Kaneki is repeatedly shown in fields of daffodils, which symbolize respect, rebirth and new Beginnings. The flower is associated with the New Year.
  • Hinami is associated with sunflowers, which symbolize adoration.
  • Tsukiyama brings a bouquet of rudobekia (black-eyed Susans) when visiting Kaneki's group, and places one in Hinami's hair while talking to her. They symbolize encouragement and motivation. They are also noted as an attractant for butterflies, which Hinami is associated with.
• Food Chain of Evil: Yamori theorizes that Ghouls are meant to prey on each other, since it's rumored that cannibalism increases a Ghoul's strength. This turns out to be true, as the Kakuja are the most powerful of all Ghouls and become this way through devouring their own kind. While ordinary Ghouls prey on humans, Kakuja and Half-Kakuja prey on normal Ghouls.
• Food Porn: Inverted. There's a lot of detailed food items in the series, but many of them are made with human meat, even some sugar cubes Kaneki uses with his coffee. Some are outright human parts, like an eye Tsukiyama eats from a famous woman. There are also incredibly descriptive summaries of how human food tastes to Ghouls (in short: not pleasant) that get downright nauseating due to Kaneki being very literate in his disgust.
• Foreshadowing: Wow. Where to start?
  • In the very first chapter, Hide and Kaneki discuss ghouls over coffee, and they both draw what they think ghouls look like. Kaneki draws something that look a lot of like the One-Eyed Owl, and Hide jokingly draws Kaneki. In the end, "half jokingly" can be debated, since we eventually learn that Hide knew that Ken was a half-ghoul for a large part of the story, but simply never told him.
    • Even more going towards Re; That drawing Kaneki makes more or less looks like his head once he's become a giant monster "Dragon".
  • Kaneki comments that Takatsuki Sen's short story, Sayoshigure (meaning "cloudburst"), was a precursor to Black Goat's Egg. Sayoshigure is soon after shown to be a portent of Ryouko's death. These two works further connect through Kaneki, as the event related to Sayoshigure is the first catalyst driving Kaneki's determination to gain strength, even as his psyche splinters like that of the protagonist in Black Goat's Egg.
  • The bug mentioned in Kaneki's discussion of The Metamorphosis looks a lot like a centipede.
  • A centipede appears in a tiny panel in the chapter where Kaneki and Banjou and his group attempt to escape.
  • When Kaneki asks his younger self what he thinks about his mother, the kid responds that she is a great person while scratching his chin. In Re, it is later revealed that Kaneki's mom wasn't as kind as she seemed.
  • A subtle one that isn’t understood until :re in retrospect. During the final CCG operation in the 20th Ward, after defeating Yoshimura, the One-Eyed Owl appears suddenly without warning and lays siege to the exhausted investigators. As it was already established that all routes across the ward were being monitored and guarded by the CCG (aboveground travel being impossible as they would be spotted, and underground travel being impossible with Arima guarding the required underground route V14), several characters wonder how she managed to appear out of nowhere without detection, but in the chaos of the battle the question is later forgotten. With the reveal later on that Eto and Arima were working together the whole time to subvert the CCG (mainly the Washuu), it becomes clear in hindsight that he let her pass through to advance their plans to keep the investigators from being completely victorious and to keep hope alive for the ghouls (indirectly helping build up the legend of the One-Eyed King in the interim, which comes to fruition in :re).
• Fowl-Mouthed Parrot: Loser, an injured Cockatiel adopted by Hinami and prone to shouting insults at people.
• Fractured Fairy Tale: Volume 11 features several comics parodying various fairy tales.
  • "Kenderella": Kaneki is abused by his Wicked Stepmother Yamori and wicked stepsisters Rize and Ayato, but sent to the Royal Ball by a wizard named Hide. There, he meets Prince Tsukiyama...who turns out to be a pervert. To avoid being found, he smashes the Glass Slipper before they can make him try it on.
  • Snow White: Evil Queen Nico asks his Magic Mirror, Yamori, who the fairest of them all is. The Mirror punches him in the face.
  • Little Red Riding Hood: Ayato pretends to be Hinami's grandmother and threatens to eat her, but then claims it was a joke.
  • Rapunzel: Nishiki climbs the tower in hopes of finding Kimi, but instead discovers Shachi waiting for him. He checks the script, and horrified when it instructs them to fall madly in love and conceive a child. Shachi waits expectantly.
  • Momotarō: Amon emerges from a peach and goes on a quest to defeat the Oni. When he arrives with his companions, they find Arima standing on a mountain of Oni corpses.
  • Hansel and Gretel: Brothers Yamori and Naki get lost in the woods, and eat Nico's house. Nico demands repayment with their bodies, so they beat him up.
• Freudian Excuse: Nearly every character has one and in this world, that's not surprising.
• Game Face: Ghouls have Black Eyes of Crazy with red pupils and Tainted Veins around their eyes when revealing their true nature. Those extending their kagune take it a step further, since they're essentially growing extra weaponized limbs.
• Gendered Outfit: The employees of CCG dress in typical gendered office attire. This results in female Ghoul Investigators going into the field wearing pencil skirts and modest heels even when they fully expect to be fighting Ghouls.
• Generic Cuteness: Women in the series nearly all have a cute rounded face and a soft-looking physique.
• Government Agency of Fiction: The Commission of Counter Ghoul (CCG), a government agency responsible for all matters related to Ghouls. An unnamed Chinese counterpart is mentioned, as well as the mysterious Ghoul Forschung Gesellschaft in Germany.
• Gray Rain of Depression: It is raining when Mrs. Fueguchi is killed by Kureo Mado, with the skies going from bright but rainy to dreary and depressing as the event unfolds. It is also raining during the final arc, which concludes on a particularly bleak note.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: The final Arc deals with this, ultimately summed up through Yoshimura expressing that they are all ultimately sinners that have done evil things. The majority of the staff at Anteiku are formerly brutal Ghouls that have tried to reform and live peacefully with humans, but acknowledge their past sins as something that must be atoned for in the end. On the other side are the forces of CCG, who genuinely believe what they are doing is right and will make Tokyo safer. There are Knight Templar types among them, but the majority are just average folks that are trying to protect the citizens of Tokyo. The perspective flips between the two sides, ultimately showing the tragic consequences when these two well-intentioned groups are forced to fight each other to the death. As a direct result, heavy losses are taken on both sides and The Bad Guy Wins.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In the anime, the worst injuries are obscured from the audience. In the manga, not so much.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The One-Eyed Ghouls. Kaneki is the first known example of one actually existing and the first ever successful artificial hybrid. Other One-Eyes are the stuff of legend in the Ghoul community.
  • Hybrid Power: One-Eyed Ghouls are stated to be far more powerful than full-blooded Ghouls, as a result of Hybrid Vigor. For a reason never explained, they are able to pass undetected through the special scanner gates CCG uses to prevent Ghouls from entering their headquarters.
• Happy Place: Kaneki is prone to hallucinating the locations of happier times in his life or fields of beautiful flowers, during moments of extreme duress. While being tortured by Yamori, he spends quite a bit of time in a massive field of white Carnations or in his childhood home, talking to an imagined Rize. Near the end of the series, when critically wounded by Arima, he travels through several moments from his childhood as well as several imagined fields of flowers.
  • Dream Sequence: Chapter 140 is entirely composed of this, as Kaneki revisits scenes from his past and converses with various versions of himself in a field of flowers. It may or may not also be a Dying Dream...
• He Who Fights Monsters: A common theme of the series. Several Investigators are shown to have become monsters themselves over time, taking pleasure in the suffering of the Ghouls they hunt. Kaneki himself also begins down this path, having decided to take the fight to Aogiri Tree to protect the people he cares about.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Ghouls live among humans in modern society, with a few characters even going to public schools with human friends.
• Homeschooled Kids: CCG uses this as one method to ferret out Ghoul Children, asking people to look for children that never attend school. Hinami, Nishiki, Touka, and Ayato were all shown to have been given rudimentary education by their families with only Nishiki and Touka managing to eventually attend school like normal humans.
• Horror Hunger: The very nature of ghouls.
• Humans Are Flawed: The series portrays both species as equally flawed, making mistakes or acting in a selfish manner for the sake of survival. The central conflict of the story results not from inherent evil, but merely the difficulty of understanding others in spite of good intentions.
• Human Resources: Played straight and inverted.
  • Ghouls will devour as much of a human body as possible, and some will even scavenge the dead in order to avoid having to kill. Anteiku makes this a primary source for the food provided to their customers, with Yomo scavenging the bodies of suicide victims and others already dead in order to feed the community.
  • CCG makes use of Ghoul bodies whenever possible, and not only through researching them. Quinque metal used to make bullets or the Investigators' custom weapons come from a Ghoul's kagune. RC suppression fluid used to subdue Ghouls is also made through liquifying the bodies of Ghouls.
• Human Subspecies: No one knows the exact origin of Ghouls, something Touka expresses the desire to study in the future. But the two species are clearly closely related, allowing cross-species organ transplants and reproduction.
• Hybrids Are a Crapshoot: Hybrids between humans and ghouls can be either primarily human, called half-humans, or primarily ghoul, called one-eyed ghouls. Half-humans have enhanced physical abilities at the cost of accelerated aging, with no half-humans surviving past their thirties. One-eyed ghouls are a lot rarer and fare a lot better, being physically identical to full ghouls aside from having only one kakugan and capable of growing stronger than regular ghouls without the strain from which half-humans suffer.
• I Do Not Drink Wine: Ghouls cannot digest human food, which tastes absolutely vile to them. This is a telltale sign of one, so many practice tricks to swallow just enough food to pass, but must quickly throw it up to avoid becoming sick. After his surgery, Kaneki's first sign that something is wrong is his inability to eat food. He's intensely relieved when he discovers that coffee still tastes good, making it the single human food Ghouls can enjoy.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Aside from humans, ghouls can also eat other ghouls (though they taste disgusting to each other), though special mention goes to the incidents of cannibalism that occur in more violent areas.
• Impossibly Delicious Food: Tsukiyama sees Kaneki as this.
• Instructional Dialogue: At a scene of carnage left by Juzo, Shinohara takes him aside for a lecture on humane conduct (according to CCG) and ghoul anatomy.
• Invited as Dinner: The Ghoul Restaurant's primary method of getting their meals, with individual members bringing a "guest" as dinner.
• I Shall Taunt You: How Kaneki manages to defeat Amon. He goads him into attacking recklessly so his movements will be simpler and easier to dodge.
• It Amused Me: In the final chapter we learn that the events of the manga have been orchestrated by the group of Ghoul pranksters called "The Pierrot" : Uta, Roma, Itori, Nico, Souta being confirmed members. Their motivation seems to be "the last to laugh" in the world where both human and ghoul are hunted.
• It's All About Me: Rize doesn't seem to care about anyone but herself, going on binging sprees that leave the Ward in chaos. She killed the former leaders of the 11th Ward, and then skipped town with the Investigators closing in. This allowed Aogiri Tree to move in and take over the Ward.
• It Tastes Like Feet: Kaneki describes the taste of human food to ghouls like this; he compares the taste of miso soup and bread to gasoline and sponges.
• Knight Templar: The "Doves," human investigators that have absolutely no sympathy for ghouls.
• Laughing Mad: After Yamori places a Chinese red-headed centipede into Kaneki's ear, the insect goes to town in Kaneki's brain. Instead of crying out in pain, Kaneki starts cackling insanely.
• Latex Perfection: The Ghoul "Applehead" has a mask of an old woman's face that is good enough to allow it to blend in with society and so good even Amon doesn't spot anything awry.
• Lethal Chef: Investigator Misato Gori, who unfortunately keeps attempting to prove her femininity through cooking sweets and then presenting them to others as a gift. This leads to an outbreak of food poisoning at every Branch Office she visits, while she remains completely oblivious to being the cause. Special Class Kuroiwa's reputation of being Made of Iron is further proven through his ability to eat her cooking without falling ill.
• Let's Meet the Meat: How the Ghoul Restaurant operates, making a big show out of it.
• Living MacGuffin: The One-Eyed Owl, a legendary Ghoul rumored to be a Half-Human Hybrid. She is Yoshimura's daughter, as well as the leader of Aogiri Tree. Both CCG and the mysterious organization known as "V" consider its very existence a threat, and seek to destroy it.
• Lost in Translation: The series utilizes a good amount of wordplay and discussion of kanji that doesn't exactly translate into other languages. Many unofficial translations have dealt with this issue through inserting notations to explain it.
  • The translation gets even more muddled when poetry gets involved, such as in chapter 139. The translation available during the part Kaneki recites the poem probably doesn't make sense unless you find the accompanying notes that various users have provided. In summary, to an English speaker it seems as though Kaneki is lapsing into gibberish due to brain damage, but he's actually trying to keep himself together by reciting poetry (which is a very Kaneki thing to do), and that allows Arima to learn his identity and greet him, since Arima knows Kaneki used to be a Japanese Literature student.
• The Lost Lenore:
  • Ukina, the human woman that Yoshimura once loved.
  • Kasuka Mado, the long-dead wife of Kureo and Missing Mom to Akira.
  • Harima, the classmate and first love of Amon.
• Love Martyr: Two incidents with drastically different outcomes.
  • Kaneki's mother cared for her sister so much, she worked herself to death trying to support both families. Her sister repaid her by abusing Kaneki out of spite.
  • Kimi seems like one towards Jerkass Nishiki, but her devotion is eventually rewarded when she's willing to be eaten to save his life. This leads to him joining Anteiku and becoming a kinder person overall.
• Mad Eye: Several variants occur.
  • Kureo Mado has one, as a result of his unstable personality.
  • All One-Eyed Ghouls naturally have it, when revealing their Game Face. Kaneki in particular is prone to this in his less stable moments.
• Manipulative Bastard: Tsukiyama lures Kaneki to the Ghoul Restaurant with the intention of having him for dinner.
• Masochist's Meal: Human food to ghouls. Some eat anyway, mostly to avoid suspicion. On the other hand, it's taken to extremes by Kaneki, who helpfully describes how bad the food is after it makes him violently ill.
• Masquerading As the Unseen: Yoshimura and Ayato both take up the identities of loved ones, Taking the Heat to protect them. It works since the only things known about them are their masks and general appearance of their kagune, both easily imitated.
• Metamorphosis: Kaneki goes through a gradual one at series start.
• Misplaced Retribution: Amon's entire reason for hunting ghouls is to avenge fallen human children.
• Missed Him by That Much: After the Time Skip, Kaneki has been actively avoiding Hide...who becomes an intern at CCG for the sole purpose of searching for his missing friend. Both end up attending the book signing of Sen Takatsuki, and miss each other by mere seconds. As Kaneki boards an elevator and the doors close, the neighboring elevator opens and Hide steps out.
• Muscles Are Meaningless:
  • Averted: Kaneki starts out lean but then trains to develop a Heroic Build to improve his fighting and kagune skills.
  • Played Straight: On the other hand, women in the series nearly all appear svelte and soft but can dish out just as much damage as the men.
• Morality Chain: They are everywhere.
  • Hide serves as one for Kaneki, helping bring him back to his senses when his powers go out of control.
  • Yoriko became one to Touka, helping her adjust to living a more peaceful existence.
  • Kimi is one for Nishiki, who gives up on hunting humans for her sake.
  • Kaneki becomes one to Tsukiyama in the second half, as his desire to stay at Kaneki's side leads him to give up his "gourmet" habits and betray the Restaurant. It's pretty clear, though, that when Kaneki isn't around to keep him in check, Tsukiyama is happy to slip his chain a bit.
  • Shinohara makes himself one for Juuzou, in an attempt to keep his destructive tendencies in check. He tells Juuzou to do to him whatever things he was considering doing to people that make him angry. It results in considerably less maiming of people and eventually results in Juuzou rediscovering his capacity for empathy and grief.
• Mood Whiplash: At the end of each action-packed, blood-soaked volume/episode are short, comedic comics about various characters doing plot-unrelated things. Can also happen mid-action, such as the monstrous butcher, Taro, not knowing how to open a briefcase.
• Must Have Caffeine: A darker example with Kaneki while he's first discovering his new eating habits. Coffee is one of the few things he can digest properly besides human meat. As time goes on, he's constantly drinking the stuff with a sugar cube packed with bits of human meat and blood to stay healthy.
• Naïve Newcomer: Kaneki as a newly-changed Half-Human Hybrid is invited by Yoshimura to begin learning about the Ghouls, and understand them as a former human. On the other side, Juuzou serves as one for CCG, lacking any formal training or education prior to being put on active duty. Shinohara, a former instructor, is made his partner and gives lectures on Ghoul anatomy, regulations, and the Quinque technology.
• Named Weapons: Quinque are given a name when created, usually chosen by their owner. In some cases, the name is taken from the Ghoul used to create it and those with multiple copies will have a fraction in the name as well.
• Natural Weapon: The ghoul's kagune are predatory organs formed from Rc cells they gain from eating humans. While each kagune is unique to the user (although close family such as siblings can have similar kagune) they fall into one of four categories.
  • Ukaku: Wings that form from the shoulder blades.
  • Koukaku: Heavy weapons that form from the mid-back.
  • Rinkaku: Tentacles that form from the lower-back.
  • Bikaku: Bladed tail that forms from the coccyx.
  • Kakuja: An exceptionally rare mutation that occurs as a result of extensive cannibalism. It creates an armored shell around the Ghoul.
• Non Violent Initial Confrontation: Shinohara visits the ghoul cafe, Anteiku, to share a last cup with the cafe's manager, Yoshimura aka the Owl, before the CCG mission to kill the powerful Owl ghoul.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Hide is the primary example in the series, intentionally acting like a fool to throw people off just how clever he actually is.
• Obsessed with Food: Rize, whose amount of consumption is scandalous even to other ghouls. Tsukiyama, and by extension all the members of the Ghoul Restaurant. For a more benign version, Touka's human friend Yoriko, who wants to be a professional cook.
• One-Man Army: Post-timeskip Kaneki, Amon, Juuzou, Yoshimura, Arima, and the One-Eyed Owl are all considered capable of demolishing large numbers of foes on their own. The Owl and Arima, in particular, are noted to be the only ones capable of taking each other on.
• Only One Female Mold: Men with highly distinct facial features: Amon, Kureo Mado, Kanou, Banjou, Donato, Shinohara, Iwao, all the Washuus, Yoshimura, Koma, Hoji, Yamori, Ito, the restaurant critic, and so on. Women with distinct facial features: Applehead, Madame A, the running woman in the restaurant, and the CCG clerk. Nearly all the women have the same face, including members of the main cast like Rize, Touka, and Akira.
• Organic Technology: Humans and Ghouls both have their own unique technology based around RC cells. Humans harvest the corpses of Ghouls to create various substances, from an RC fluid to Quinque metal used in Investigators' weapons. On the opposite end, Ghouls havel developed a building material made from flesh, that reacts to their Kagune. Rarely seen outside the 24th Ward, it allows them to make maze-like dens that are difficult for humans to navigate or even discover.
• Orphanage of Fear: The Catholic Orphanage run by Donato Porpora seemed like an Orphanage of Love, but was actually this. The children supposedly adopted out into loving families were actually being murdered, and what he didn't eat himself was secretly fed to the other children as snacks. Amon was his favorite, and the fact that he was spared by the Ghoul that raised him continues to haunt him.
• Our Ghouls Are Creepier: The Ghouls in the series are essentially super-powered humans with a Horror Hunger for human flesh.
• Parental Abandonment: It would probably be easier to summarize the characters that still have both their parents. Most of the cast are orphans, with very few Ghouls still having parents by the time they reach their teenaged years. The most notable examples significant to the story are:
  • Kaneki's father died while he was still very young, and his mother eventually died from overwork. This left him to be raised by his maternal aunt, who pretty much took the Wicked Stepmother route with him.
  • Touka and Ayato lost their mother early on, and eventually lost their father as well. Ayato grows up to have some very serious Daddy Issues as a result.
  • Yoshimura was forced to abandon Eto in th 24th Ward to save her life. It isn't clear how she feels about her abandonment, or the father that has spent her entire life either lying about her existence or impersonating her to keep her safe.
• Past Victim Showcase: When Yamori leads Kaneki into his Torture Cellar, the mutilated corpse of his previous victim is still chained to a chair.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: A major theme of the series, as ultimately the conflicts are driven by both sides trying to do this. Whether it is acceptable to kill a human or a Ghoul really seems to depend on which side of the story we are currently following. When Amon is the protagonist, the Ghouls killed are almost always brutal killers deserving of death but when Kaneki is the protagonist, often the Ghouls are morally ambiguous and the Investigators the brutal killers.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Offend Suzuya at your own peril.
• Power-Up Food: Ghouls can become stronger, based on the quality of their diet.
• Posthumous Character: Rize is the primary one of the series, as her death triggers the events of the series.
  • Minor characters Ukina and Harima have a strong influence on the men that loved them.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The first season of the anime rearranges the order of the Dove's Emergence and Gourmet arcs, as well as condensing the Aogiri Arc. The second season partly takes an alternate route that is mixed in to the second half of the manga.
• Promotion to Parent: A common event among Ghouls, with the eldest sibling acting as provider and protector to their young sibling(s) after their parents have been hunted down and killed, and go to extreme lengths to protect the young from the genocidal CCG. They move frequently, maintain connections who can produce false documents, keep ghoul children isolated from human children, and make a lot of effort to blend in with humans themselves to both suppress suspicion and draw attention. Touka became this to Ayato, while Nishiki and Yomo were both raised by their respective elder sisters.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Discussed in the aftermath of the raid on Anteiku. Though numerous Ghouls were exterminated, many Investigators were either killed or maimed in the process and their primary target(s) escaped.
  "Just who the hell is the winner in this operation?"
• Random Power Ranking: CCG has a system of ranks used to designate how dangerous a Ghoul is believed to be, though no formal explanation has ever been given concerning the qualifications. The lowest mentioned is Rank B, while the highest is SSS-rank, held by the legendary Hero Killer, the One-Eyed Owl. Their ranking determines what level of Cochlea a Ghoul is sent to, should they be captured.
  • Rank Inflation: The SS and SSS rankings for Ghouls, used to designate the strongest Ghouls.
• Red Baron: Numerous Ghouls use aliases, often given to them by CCG.
  • Eyepatch / Centipede: Ken Kaneki
  • Rabbit: Touka Kirishima
  • Owl: Yoshimura
  • Raven: Renji Yomo
  • Devil Ape: Enji Koma
  • Black Dog: Kaya Irimi
  • No Face: Uta
  • Jason: Yamori
  • One-Eyed Owl: Eto / Sen Takatsuki
  • Binge Eater: Rize Kamishiro
  • Gourmet: Shuu Tsukiyama
  • CCG's Grim Reaper: Kishou Arima
  • Yukinori "Indomitable" Shinohara
• Sadist: Several characters display tendencies towards brutality.
  • Rize states that she enjoys "gently scrambling" the organs of her victims.
  • Yamori is a full-blown Torture Technician that enjoys preying on other Ghouls.
  • Mado enjoys the screams of the Ghouls he kills, taking it to such extremes that he goes out of his way to inflict as much physical and emotional harm as possible before killing them.
  • Arima is described by the creator as "massive and sadistic". However, he never displays enough emotion to verify whether or not he genuinely enjoys slaughtering Ghouls.
• Samus Is a Girl: Disguising their gender is a trick used by many infamous Ghouls, taking advantage of the tendency to assume a deadly Ghoul is male. The One-Eyed Owl, Lantern, and the leader of the Skulls Gang all turn out to be women long after their deadly reputations are established. In-universe, the Binge Eater (Rize) is assumed to be male until Shinohara points out that the pattern of victims suggests either a woman or (Juuzou suggests) a homosexual male ghoul.
• Scenery Gorn: Shows more and more of this as its collected works progress into more epic and fantastical territory. Examples from the first series include an abandoned mall that houses a ghoul army, an illicit lab with walls of flesh, and ghoul-inhabited branches of the sewers.
• Screw Destiny: Touka gives one of these when she stops Kaneki from giving into his hunger, deciding that she doesn't want to see someone fall to the ghoul hunger again.
• Sequel Hook: The final chapter concludes with absolutely none of the various plots have been resolved and several cliffhangers. Amon is listed as dead but they Never Found the Body, Hide is missing and may have been eaten by Kaneki, Tsukiyama is in an Angst Coma, Yoshimura has been captured by Aogiri Tree as the new source of material for Dr. Kanou's experiments using captured Investigators, Anteiku has been destroyed and its employees exposed as Ghouls who then are forced to go into hiding, Shinohara is left brain dead and on life support, and the worst of all, it appears Kaneki is in fact dead, and even if he isn't the CCG has erased all traces of his existence and handed Arima the rights to use him for a quinque, while Touka is still waiting for his return. Thank God, Tokyo Ghoul:RE came out.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: All ghouls have access to special organs called kagune, which all take different forms for each ghoul.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • Yoriko advises Touka to share a meal with Kaneki to win his heart.
  • Hinami states she would be happy if Kaneki and Touka were reunited at Anteiku.
  • Takizawa's mother suggests he should date Akira, to his great horror.
• Ship Tease:
  • Kaneki and Touka get multiple bits of this over the course of the series. Examples include when he forces her to stay behind at Anteiku so she can graduate school, but still has a present sent to her on her birthday. On her end, when she hears he has visited Anteiku, she rushes out to meet him while imagining multiple scenarios of how she'll greet him.
  • In an omake, Kaneki is placed in Cinderella's role and Tsukiyama is the prince. (Tsukiyama still wants to eat him.) There's also the issue of Kaneki's battle suit◊, which is completely backless and also form-fitting. The backless part would make sense given the nature of his kagune, but the gap doesn't need to be that big. Then the author suggested◊ that Tsukiyama was the one who designed it.
  • Amon and Akira, primarily because her advances are repeatedly rejected by him. She's tried to kiss him twice, while it seems he's still not entirely over Harima's death. She makes an Anguished Declaration of Love after he is declared dead, weeping openly in front of her peers.
  • Enji Koma and Kaya Irimi, the two senior waiters at Anteiku, get this late in the series. Even while they are fighting to the death in different locations, each is shown to be thinking about how the other is doing.
  • Takizawa goes from resenting Akira as his rival, to calling himself an idiot for only "having seen her from the side". His mother and Hide both tease him over her, suggesting her as a potential girlfriend. After he's declared dead along with Amon, Akira weeps while declaring she loved them both.
• Shoot the Dog: A major element of Yoshimura's back-story. Ukina, his human lover, was exposed as a reporter investigating the organization he served. They forced him to kill her himself, as his final job. However, doing so allowed him to flee the organization and protect his Half-Human Hybrid child by hiding her in the 24th Ward. Touka threatens to do this to Hide and Kimi, in order to protect herself and Kaneki from being exposed.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the final arc, Kaneki braves the CCG blockade of the 20th Ward in order to rescue Yoshimura, Koma, and Irimi. He manages to save the latter two and sends them off with others to escape through the V14 tunnels. Later, he himself ends up there and discovers that the fleeing Ghouls were ambushed and massacred. Arima proceeds to dish out a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle, possibly killing Kaneki in the process. Yoshimura is defeated by CCG, but ultimately kidnapped by Aogiri Tree to be used in the next stage of Dr. Kanou's experiments.
• Shout-Out: As with foreshadowing, where to even start? The series makes dozens of references.
  • Kafka's The Metamorphosis is discussed extensively in the beginning chapters, with Kaneki comparing himself to the main character.
  • Hermann Hesse's Demian is drawn on for a quote defining Kaneki's moral transition.
  • Almost everything about Yamori/Jason.
  • The works of Takatsuki Sen are an homage to the psychological, surrealist tales by real world author Haruki Murakami.
  • Living up to his classical literature speciality, Kaneki frequently makes connections between his situations and things he's read.
  • As Amon searches for information on Rabbit, he visits his adoptive ghoul guardian, Father Donato Porpora, who tells him to chase Alice instead.
  • In the final battle, Kaneki clings to his sense of self by reciting Kitahara Hakushu's Ode to an Old Ainu.
  • An interesting case of a Shout-Out, Expy (due to physical similarities, role in their respective stories, abilities and preferred weapons) and Actor Allusion (courtesy of Daisuke Namikawa) Kishou Arima wields a quinque named "Narukami", and it's even lightning-based similar to Yu's initial Persona.
  • Banjo Kazuichi is a walking shout out to, of all things, Banjo-Kazooie, down to his name. He's big and buff, a total sweetheart, a bit gullible, and almost useless without his snarky, quick-footed partners; his kakuja turns out to be a wing-like ukaku.
• Slasher Smile: Ghouls and some of the less stable Investigators (such as Mado or Juuzou) wear one while on the hunt.
• Small Reference Pools: A minor theme throughout the series is based on various characters' interest in literature. Almost every time someone is shown reading a novel, it's a work by Takatsuki Sen.
• Social Darwinist: A recurring theme in Tokyo Ghoul is the idea that those who are weak and vulnerable will always be trampled by the strong and privileged. Many ghouls rationalize their existence as superior lifeforms since they are designed to devour human meat to survive.
• Spin-Off: Tokyo Ghoul Jack, a 7-issue prequel starring Arima Kishou and Taishi Fura when they were in high school. It also features minor appearances by a younger Itsuki Marude and Yamori.
• Spoiler Opening: The first opening and ending credits show multiple characters that don't appear until later, as well as showing Kaneki with white hair.
• Stages of Monster Grief: Kaneki's initial development focuses on his struggle to adapt to becoming a Ghoul, and goes through the various stages over the course of the story.
• Starting a New Life: Ghouls that choose to live among humans do this frequently, adopting altered or false names and using falsified documents to create a human identity. Should their identities be compromised, survival requires them to abandon their current identity and start over somewhere else. Touka and Nishiki have both done this in the past, and live under false identities in the 20th Ward. During the finale, both are forced to abandon their human identities and human loved ones, fleeing the 20th Ward after Anteiku is destroyed.
• Suddenly Sober: Akira and Takizawa both end up sloshed, and argue comically for several minutes. Takizawa sobers up the instant he realizes that he just cussed out his boss, while Akira's moment of clarity lasts long enough to have a very serious conversation with Amon. She then immediately faceplants into the counter and has to be carried home.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: The CCG. Amon is the primary example of the series, serving as the protagonist of chapters focused on the human side of the story.
• The Syndicate: Aogiri, the underground ghoul organization led by the fabled 'One-Eyed King'.
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The Ghouls' Kagunes have a form of this, prompting one of the characters to point out that Ghouls are created to kill even their own kind. Lampshaded at one point.
  • Ukaku: Uses speed to outmanoeuvre and overpower the plain Bikaku, but quickly depletes their energy reserve and risks running empty mid-fight. (Shoulders/Upper Back)
  • Koukaku: Their defensive capability is sufficient to tank out Ukaku's flurry of light attacks, but the increased defense comes with reduced speed. (Below/between the shoulder blades)
  • Rinkaku: Their offensive capability is enough to punch through the slow-moving Koukaku's defenses, but their RC cells are less concentrated, resulting in lower defense. (Waist)
  • Bikaku: Lacking any glaring weakness to prey on, they are considered a Rinkaku's worst enemy. (Tailbone)
• Taking the Heat: Yoshimura takes up the identity of the Owl to protect his daughter, while Ayato starts wearing a Rabbit mask and establishes himself elsewhere, taking pressure off Touka.
• Tarot Motifs: Certain characters are associated with numbers which are hidden in manga panels featuring them. These numbers reference a tarot card and reflect the current state of the character. This tumblr page has an in-progress analysis of these numbers.
  • Kaneki Ken - The Hanged Man (XII), The Chariot (VII), Temperance (XIV), The Hermit (IX), The Death (XIII)
  • Juuzou Suzuya - Death (XIII), The Hanged Man (XII)
  • Touka - The High Priestess (II)
  • Hide - The Fool (0), The Magician (I)
  • Itori - The Lovers (VI)
  • Seidou Takizawa - The Devil (XV), The Lovers (VI)
  • Arima - Justice (XI), Wheel of Fortune (X), Death (XIII)
  • CCG - The Hierophant (V)
  • Chie Hori - The Fool (0)
  • Rize Kamishiro - The Devil (XV)
  • Shuu Tsukiyama - The Moon (XVIII), The Lovers (VI)
• Time Skip: The series skips forward nearly six months after the end of the Aogiri Arc.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: Tsukiyama, a ghoul known as "The Gourmet", becomes so depressed after Kaneki's apparent death that he refuses to eat anything, wasting away to a skeleton in the process. It takes the news that Kaneki is alive to snap him out of his depression and begin eating again.
• Torture Technician: Yamori is the primary example of the series, and seems to have left his proverbial mark on Kaneki who shows a willingness to engage in these same tactics. Suzuya has elements of one, though too disorganized to be effective at it.
• To Serve Man: Justified as the only things ghouls can digest, besides human flesh, is coffee and other ghouls. The former can only sustain them for so long while the latter is...frowned upon, and can cause mental instability in those who indulge, such as Kaneki.
• Transhuman Treachery: Kaneki zigzags this trope, eventually abandoning his human life entirely to live as a Ghoul. Even so, he avoids killing the Investigators he faces in battle and instead breaks their weapons or knocks them unconscious. On the other hand, the Creepy Twins Kuro and Shiro play it absolutely straight, even defiantly claiming they have no further use for the human world.
• Tranquil Fury: Kaneki wears a serene expression as he fights back against and kills Yamori and later breaks half the bones in Ayato's body in a precise, clinical manner
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Invoked. Investigators convince the Kirishimas' neighbors to turn them in by claiming that even though Touka and Ayato are children, if they are Ghouls they are monsters that wouldn't hesitate to dismember an adult. In reality, most Ghoul children tend to subvert this by being gentle until forced to grow up very quickly; their parents will fiercely defend them from the real horrors of Ghoul society.
• Tsundere: Touka, who's normally violent and abrasive, but has a vulnerable side around those she trust or those who surprise her, in the case of Hide in the first chapter.
• Tunnel Network: Ghouls make use of a complex network of underground tunnels to move around, or carry out other tasks such as training safely away from the prying eyes of humanity. The 24th Ward is nothing but these, being a complex underground maze occupied almost entirely by Ghouls.
• Tyke-Bomb: The CCG openly use this trope, albeit in a more positive manner than most other examples. They take in children who are orphaned in Ghoul attacks, give them food, an education, shelter, and train them to become members of the organization. From what we've seen of the CCG-run orphanages, children there are treated very well.
• Uncanny Valley: A major visual element throughout the series. Ghouls sometimes trigger this reaction, being very human-like in appearance but displaying expressions or movements that just aren't human. And many scenes would feel simply cute, heartwarming, inspirational or otherwise pleasant if not for the horrifying features included:
  • Kaneki walks in on the adorable Hinami while she's eating human meat. She would look like nothing more than a girl embarrassed at her eating habits, but her kakugan are active, there's blood on her face and there are fingers on her plate.
  • An enormous chunk missing from Kaneki's torso gives an otherwise heartwarming moment of acceptance from Hide a gruesome reminder of the terrible context in which the scene occurs.
• Uncertain Doom: Oh, lord.
  • Kaneki's CCG file lists him as "Erased", leaving it ambiguous whether or not Arima killed him.
  • Hide is listed as "Missing", leaving it ambiguous whether or not Kaneki ate him.
  • Koma and Irimi were last seen heading to V14, where Kaneki later finds that Arima has massacred the Ghouls fleeing through there.
  • Amon is listed as "Killed in Action", but last seen in the presence of Tatara and his body was not recovered. It is revealed that Aogiri Tree has captured Investigators, with the implication they will be used for Dr. Kanou's second round of experiments creating One-Eyed Ghouls.
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: In Chapter 81, Amon mentions that Quinque have an "Organism Confirmation" system of some sort. That Quinque were being used at the Ghoul Restaurant proves that Ghouls have figured out how to hack the system, rendering it useless.
• Unusual Eyebrows: The CCG is full with characters with odd eyebrows, including Amon.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Kaneki's appearance was altered drastically by being tortured for ten days by the Aogiri general, Jason. While it's perhaps understandable that his friends don't comment on this change when he is reunited with them, it is rather odd that two enemies easily recognized him from great distance as if he looked no different at all.
• Van Helsing Hate Crimes: Ghouls eat human flesh and the CCG exists to stop them. Not only is being confirmed as a ghoul grounds for immediate death, a human who knowingly aids a ghoul is penalised far more harshly than if they'd aided a human criminal. It's technically forbidden to inflict "extreme suffering" on a confirmed ghoul when putting them down, but that is definitely more of a polite fiction than reality. Many CCG agents have lost family, friends or limbs to ghouls and view them as nothing more than monsters, and will sadistically torture, mock and maim them. The ones they catch are dissected after death for ghoul-killing weaponry (and sometimes they're not actually dead when that happens). On the inverse side, most ghouls live short, violent lives without receiving much education (often they're illiterate), lose their own families and friends to the CCG, and have trouble trusting humans out of fear they'll be betrayed. Even the ones who don't view humans solely as meat tend to be paranoid and cynical. The series goes to a great deal of trouble to demonstrate that both sides have inflicted horrors on each other for variously justifiable reasons and will continue to do so.
• Villainous Breakdown: Tsukiyama has one of these when Touka takes a bite out of Kaneki.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Played Straight and Subverted. The CCG engages in widespread PR campaigns to amplify fear of ghouls and justify its operations. The organization's image as guardians of the human way of life is threatened frequently as ghouls form their own counter-alliances that cause immense losses to the CCG and the public.
• Vegetarian Vampire: The Anteiku is a cafe that covertly sells human flesh to ghouls that can't bring themselves to kill humans. The shop scavenges flesh from suicide hotspots and other remote locations where corpses can be found.
• Virus-Victim Symptoms: Kaneki begins to realize that something is wrong with his body after being released from the hospital, with food tasting horrible and a new Horror Hunger emerging. He slowly pieces together that he's become a Ghoul, and begins to pull away from his human life as he becomes closer to the staff at Anteiku.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Whenever a Ghoul needs to purge the human food they've previously consumed, the audience is spared actually seeing them throwing up. Special mention goes to Kaneki's epic binge-and-purge sequence as he first realizes he's become a Ghoul, attempting to eat every single thing in his apartment and repeatedly getting sick.
• Voice of the Legion: With exception of one character, ghouls using kakuja gain an especially inhuman quality to their voices.
• Warm Bloodbags Are Everywhere: The experience of any particularly hungry Ghoul that lives among humans. In particular, Kaneki experiences this repeatedly when he first becomes a Half-Human Hybrid, and struggles with suddenly viewing human beings as a tasty snack. He initially refuses to hunt or even eat flesh that's presented to him, which naturally doesn't do his physical health or mental stability any favours.
• Wham Shot: When the CCG defeats Yoshimura in his "Owl" form, everyone celebrates the defeat of a powerful, monstrous ghoul, then, almost immediately afterwards out of nowhere another monstrous looking version of the One-eyed Owl appears.
• When It All Began: In chapter 119, Yoshimura reveals the events that led to the creation of both Anteiku and Aogiri Tree. His recruitment into the mysterious organization known as "V", his relationship with a human woman, and the birth of his Half-Human Hybrid daughter, Eto.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Everything to do with ghouls who've gained the kakuja form, which is a rare mutation that comes from cannibalism. The kakuja form is incredibly powerful, but also renders the ghoul into a screaming, raving lunatic. Kaneki best illustrates this; he suffers a mental breakdown every time he uses his kakuja kagune.
  • Averted with the CCG using kakuja-formed Quinques. Aside from being powerful the weapon forms don't seem to have much of a downside. The exception comes in the Arata prototype armor, which gifts the user reflexes that equal or surpass a ghoul, but doesn't inflict insanity. Instead, it tries to eat you.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Zigzagged with the various white-haired characters of the series.
  • Tatara and Arima both play this relatively straight, being ruthless agents of their respective sides.
  • Renji Yomo subverts it, as while he initially seems like an intimidating figure with his stoic demeanor and Crow-themed motif, he turns out to be a supportive and caring individual.
  • Kaneki plays with this trope in many ways, as the change from black hair to white hair signals his spiral into Anti-Hero status.
• Workout Fanservice: Kaneki and Amon each get a scene devoted to showing off their bodies while working out.
• A World Half Full: Despite the inherently fucked up nature of the setting, the series emphasizes that things aren't all bad, with Touka quite explicitly spelling it out to Kaneki at the start. The series takes time to show the characters living everyday lives beyond the constant violence and, while very few characters are free of innocent blood on their hands, the story goes out to humanize practically every major character to at least some degree, reflecting how the vast majority of them are simply broken people doing their best to cope.
• World of Symbolism: The entire series is rife with various symbolic images and themes, including many messages hidden within the artwork itself. Particular symbolisms seen frequently are tarot card numbers and flower motifs and meanings.
• Yandere: Kaneki attracts them, it would seem. Tsukiyama and Roma Hoito are both crazy for him in their own ways, one the Token Evil Teammate willing to do anything to protect him and the other a Loony Fan that loves him best when his life is in ruins.

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Tokyo Ghoul:re

The sequel provides examples of:

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• Abusive Parents: Abuse is a common theme, leading to some of the most shocking flashbacks in the series.
  • Juuzou's abusive childhood is revisited, when he confronts Big Madam. However, he reassures her that he doesn't hate her for what she did to him.
  • The Quinx Project included a generous financial bonus for volunteers, leading Saiko's mother to forcefully sign her up for the project against her will.
  • When he regains his memories, Kaneki is forced to confront the reality of the abuse he suffered at his mother's hands.
  • Mutsuki was violently abused by his father, and possibly molested.
  • Torso was raised in isolation by an abusive father that ended up eating his first friend.
• All of the Other Reindeer: Haise Sasaki is a highly-skilled and hard-working Investigator, but treated with suspicion by his peers due to his half-Ghoul nature.
• Ambition is Evil:
  • Urie's ambition leads him to cause considerable problems for the group, intentionally sowing seeds of doubt and undermining Sasaki's leadership.
  • Matsuri Washuu, the youngest generation of The Clan that rules the CCG. His ambition knows no bounds, with a tendency to throw away the lives of his subordinates to achieve his goals. Many within the CCG fear what could happen, if he inherits control of the Washuu Clan and the CCG.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Subverted. The story switches to the perspective of a new group of CCG Investigator, supervised by Akira Mado, and team leader Haise Sasaki appears to be the new protagonist. However, Sasaki is in reality Kaneki all along.
• And Now You Must Marry Me: After capturing Mutsuki, Torso declares that they're getting married. He even went so far as to change Mutsuki into a white dress and put a ring on his severed hand.
• And Then John Was a Zombie: And then Takizawa was a Ghoul...
• Animal Motifs: Once again, there are Ghouls who use animal motifs as part of their aliases.
  • Orochi: Snakes.
  • Seidou Takizawa: Owls.
  • Ayato Kirishima: Rabbits, having taken over the identity of "Rabbit" from his sister.
• Anyone Can Die: Oh, good lord. The Tsukiyama Extermination Arc in particular proves to be incredibly bloody, with bodies piling up on all sides. Hairu Ihei, Shiki Kijima, Mairo, Matsumae, Nobu Shimoguchi, Noro, and even Ginshi Shirazu have all met their demises by the end of it.
• Apocalypse Maiden: Eto seems to have embraced the idea of being one, having been hunted since birth. She goes further with this, discussing in a Rousing Speech how legend describes One-Eyed Ghouls as harbingers of Great Change and Revolution. According to these legends, the CCG was actually created to destroy a powerful hybrid that lived during the Edo Period.
• Arc Villain: Thus far, each arc has featured at least one antagonist that was either killed or reduced in significance later.
  • Torso Investigation: Torso and Orochi.
  • Auction Raid: Nutcracker, Big Madam, and T-Owl.
  • Rose Extermination: Kanae von Rosewald, Noro, and the Owl.
  • Rushima/Cochlea Raids: Tatara, Torso, and Kishou Arima.
  • Clown Siege: Tsuneyoshi Washuu.
  • Dragon: Furuta, Uta, Donato, Kanou and Rize.
• Art Evolution: Following the already significant improvement from the run of its predecessor, Ishida's art gradually changes even further to a looser, more painterly or "sketchy" style similar to the volume covers or illustrations he posts on his twitter.
• Ascended Extra: Several very minor side-characters have been given more prominent roles.
  • Chie Hori, Tsukiyama's Muggle Best Friend from the novels.
  • Matsumae, Tsukiyama's caretaker from the novels.
  • Seidou Takizawa returns as a major antagonist.
• Ascended Meme: A Halloween Omake includes Seidou Takizawa showing up to the office party dressed as his :Re incarnation, carrying a Pineapple. ^ExplanationTakizawa with a pineapple is a common meme (and cosplay prop) thanks to his infamous killing of Daisuke Atou. He admits he just kind of... ran with an idea and has no idea what he's supposed to be.
• Babies Ever After: Kaneki and Touka have a daughter, with a second child on the way. Takeomi and Yoriko have a son together, and Naki and Miza end up having an astounding nine kids together.
• Badass Family: Certain bloodlines are credited as being exceptional, producing incredible individuals generation after generation.
  • The Washuu Clan, the Ghoul-hunting family that have commanded CCG for more than a century.
  • The Kuroiwas prove to be one as well, with it revealed that both father and son are among the 0.01% of humans with Super-Strength sufficient to fight Ghouls barehanded.
• Battle Butler: The Tsukiyama family employs quite a few of these, dividing their time between standard domestic duties and murdering for the sake of their masters. Matsumae and Kanae are the most prominent among the servants.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • In the original series, Takizawa felt insecure about being Overshadowed by Awesome and consumed by the desire to prove himself. He gets his wish in the sequel, but at the cost of his humanity and sanity.
  • Tsukiyama wants to return Kaneki's lost memories. It happens during the operation that destroys his family and their business, thanks to a Brain Washed And Crazy Kanae. Suffice to say, it wasn't what he had in mind.
  • Urie is annoyed when their latest operation seems over without a fight, wishing for a violent battle so he can get plenty of credit. The second half of the operation proves to be a blood-soaked nightmare, where Anyone Can Die. Including Shirazu dying in his arms, leaving Urie devastated.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Eto continues to be the central antagonist for the first half of the story, whilst Dr. Kanou works to further his own agendas, until Eto is detained post-Tsukiyama Extermination. The role is then usurped halfway by the traitor to the Wasshu clan known as Kichimura Wasshu, also known as Souta and Nimura Furuta. It is revealed that he was the one who sprung the steel beam incident which got Kaneki turned into a one-eyed ghoul all the way in the beginning, has been influencing events from behind the scenes, and gets himself involved in much more. A Greater-Scope Villain exists in his father, CCG chairman Tsuneyoshi Wasshu, who is the chairman of the CCG and indirectly behind the series events, but after Furuta kills him and takes down Eto, he becomes the Final Boss of the series. Ironically, he has the same goal as Eto, to end the Forever War.
• Big Fancy House:
  • The appropriately-nicknamed "Chateau", a rather impressive multistory house where the Quinx Squad live together. Not only is it shown to be quite large, but designed and decorated in very modern style with plenty of luxuries.
  • The Tsukiyama Manor, a sprawling European-style estate.
• Big "SHUT UP!": Tsukiyama to the rest of Goat when Itori tries to convince them that Kaneki intentionally turned into a rampaging monster to kill humans.
• Bilingual Backfire: Inverted. Kanae makes an Anguished Declaration of Love in German, confessing everything while not expecting Tsukiyama to understand a word of it. He responds in flawless German, and reassures Kanae that everything is alright.
• Black Sheep: The Quinx (and now Akira by association, despite being plenty respected as an Investigator in her Tokyo Ghoul days) are looked down on by other Investigators, who consider them an embarrassment.
• Blessed with Suck: The majority of Half-Human Hybrids are like this, with Born Winner Eto being the rare exception. The children bred by the Garden are closer to their human parentage, without a kagune or Healing Factor. They inherit a ghoul's superhuman physical abilities, but have a significantly shortened lifespan. Their brief lives are spent serving V and the CCG, until they either die in combat or break down and die of old age in their 30s.
• Bloodier and Gorier: While the original series had plenty of blood in places, the amount of gore and bloodshed is increased significantly for the sequel.
• Bloody Hilarious: Kijima getting his head sawed in half, after his chainsaw lands on him blade-first.
• Break the Badass: The Tsukiyama Extermination Arc isn't pleasant for anyone in-universe. Even the more seasoned combatants among the cast seem quite perturbed by how jarringly violent and psychologically disturbing the operation turns out to be.
• The Bus Came Back: Slowly but surely, characters from the original series come back to their roles in this sequel.
• But Not Too Foreign: Kanae is German and Japanese, though the exact breakdown isn't clarified.
• Cannibal Larder: The Investigators raiding Torso's home note that it is horrifying, even by the usual standards of Ghouls — with the headless, limbless torsos of women scattered all over.
• Catch a Falling Star: Kanae leaps from the roof of the L.E. Building to catch Shuu, and uses her kagune to throw him to safety before falling to her death.
• Caught the Heart on His Sleeve: In chapter 122/123 of the sequel manga Mutsuki finally catches up to Kaneki at the re: cafe and pleads with him to return to the CCG while pulling on his sleeve. It’s tragic because Mutsuki truly believes all the bad stuff currently going on will be fixed if Kaneki returns but he also wants him to return because he has feelings for his former Sensei; twisted feelings but feelings nonetheless. However, Kaneki is in love with Touka and wants to remain with his ghoul friends so he refuses. This makes Mutsuki snap and attack Kaneki and try to kill Touka.
• Cerebus Syndrome: About the first quarter of :re is very light-hearted compared to the original series (one of the first scenarios is the Quinx attempting to steal Sasaki's underwear). It isn't very long before the series reverts to the tone of the original, however, and at times is even darker.
• Chekhov's Gun: Quite a few seemingly minor things from the original series are back with much more meaning and importance now.
  • The signed copy of The Hanged Man's McGuffin, which provides Sasaki with the proper spelling for Kaneki's name.
  • Kaneki's missing person poster, which Chie saves for Tsukiyama.
  • Several draft reports Amon wrote about his encounters with "Eyepatch", and left in the Archives where Sasaki finds them. Because they were never formally submitted, the drafts survived CCG making Kaneki an Un-person.
  • Chapter 1's plot description of the Takatsuki Sen novel, "Black Goat's Egg", and the revelation in Chapter 53 of :re that Kaneki's mother beat him.
• Christmas Episode: Chapter 31.5, which focuses on the Quinx and friends celebrating the holiday at the Chateau.
• The Coats Are Off: Urie and Sasaki both remove their coats prior to getting into a serious fight, to avoid Clothing Damage when using their kagune.
• Continuity Nod: All over the place.
  • The prequel sees Akira meeting Sasaki for the first time as she visits a grave, echoing her first meeting with Amon.
  • In chapter 5, Shirazu's motorcycle is destroyed during the battle with Orochi. Marude's motorcycles being blown up during operations was a Running Gag in the original.
  • Nishiki lampshades this, when he's impaled by Sasaki's kagune.
  • In chapter 9, Sasaki recalls the first time he met Juuzou and their strange interaction. Juuzou recognizes him as Kaneki, and pays him back to make amends for stealing his wallet.
  • In Chapter 13, Sasaki mentions that Akira shouldn't drink.
  • In Chapter 31, Sasaki bites a chunk of flesh off the cheek of his tormentor to gain a power boost.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Several occur, primarily ill-fated Red Shirts and Mooks.
  • Chapter 72 reveals the method of execution used for Ghouls imprisoned in Cochlea, once they are no longer useful: They are simply loaded into industrial compactors and crushed to death.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Several, often powerful Ghouls facing weaker human opponents.
  • Orochi dishes one out to the Quinx, teaching them the limits of their powers in comparison to a powerful Ghoul.
  • In turn, Sasaki deals one out to Orochi after unleashing his powers.
  • Takizawa's slaughter of the Atou Squad has about as much to do with an even battle as throwing a frog in a blender.
• Deadly Deferred Conversation: Sasaki puts off a conversation with Shirazu, promising that they'll discuss it after the operation. Shirazu ends up dying in the proceeding battle.
• Designer Babies: The children from the Sunlit Garden are purpose-bred, with the majority Half-Human Hybrids that are almost indistinguishable from humans.
• Died on Their Birthday: Implied. The battle in Cochlea begins on the eve of Arima's 33rd birthday. Meaning he committed suicide on his birthday.
• Disguised Hostage Gambit: Turns out that the clown army which has run amok around Tokyo are captured humans with mouths sewn shut and helplessly pushed forward to the slaughter, much to Juuzou´s disgust and dull surprise.
• Disguised in Drag: An undercover Investigation requires the team to pose as women, to mixed results.
• Disney Villain Death: Eto, Shuu, and Kanae all fall from the roof of the L.E. Building, though only one actually dies in the process.
  • The ghoul Shikorae ends up being blown out of the top CCG building window by Urie.
• Distress Call: Played straight and subverted during the Auction Arc. While the Ooshiba Squad manages to get out one final communication with vital intel before being wiped out, the Atou Squad isn't so fortunate. When Command radios them with new orders, Takizawa simply answers it to create the illusion that all is well.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Torso's attack on Mutsuki, with torn clothing and brutal beatings after the attacker calls him a "woman".
• The Dog Bites Back: Usually used to further the drama, as opposed to being triumphant.
  • Mutsuki is amazingly tolerant of abuse...right up until he's not. Killing his family with an ax at the age of 12, after years of abuse. Ripping Torso apart after a month of captivity and abuse.
  • Ch 89: Takizawa kills Tatara, after revealing he's spent years dreaming of getting his revenge.
• Do Not Drop Your Weapon: While training the Quinx, Sasaki berates them about the importance of never dropping their weapon in a fight, no matter what.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: When Touka and Kaneki reunite, one of the first things she does is punch him so hard he loses consciousness, and she happily says that doing so makes her feel a lot better. Their first explicitly mutual romantic interaction is when Touka has sex with him while he's emotionally vulnerable and has just confided in her about missing Hide, right after she admits that she's looking for a way to keep him at her side. While her plan works, when he suspects something's up and visits her, she panics and physically hurls him out of her room in front of his shocked subordinates. Her non-combative violence towards him is entirely Played for Laughs, and Kaneki says he believes the people he loves always hurt him, while strongly implying that Touka reminds him of his physically abusive mother. Still, they end up married with a child.
• Downer Ending: It doesn't matter which side you were on, the Tsukiyama Family Extermination ends badly for everyone. Except for Aogiri, who despite losing Noro get everything they wanted.
• Driven to Suicide: Kaneki spends months planning his own death, but ends up regaining his will to live. In contrast, Arima attempts to get Kaneki to kill him...then finally finishes the job himself, slashing his own throat. He explains that he was Secretly Dying, and chose to end things before his body broke down further.
• Dynamic Entry: Played for Laughs in Chapter 10, when Saiko refuses to come out of her room and Shirazu and Urie decide to break the door down. Using their kagune. Mutsuki spends the rest of the scene in the background, hopelessly attempting to repair the broken door.
• Ear Cleaning: In Chapter 14, Saiko asks Sasaki to clean her ears.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The series sees everyone put through horrific trials, but ends with most living out happy lives. In particular, Kaneki survives his many trials to settle down with Touka and starts a family while helping work towards peace between the species.
• Enemy Mine: The CCG and ghouls are forced to work together, to destroy the monstrous Dragon and bring down V for good.
• Engineered Public Confession: Eto tricks Furuta into confessing several critical secrets about himself and V, unaware that a recorder has been planted in the interrogation room. Afterwards, she hands it over to Kaneki as proof of her claims about CCG and V being aligned.
• Everyone Is Related: Tsuneyoshi Washuu is the biological father of not only Nimura Furuta, but also Kishou Arima and Rize Kamishiro.
• Evil Tastes Good: There are several scenes of Ghouls savoring the results of their carnage, such as Nutcracker sensually licking gore from her fingers or Takizawa repeatedly commenting on how delicious his victims taste.
• Exact Eavesdropping: Shirazu overhears Sasaki refer to Orochi as "Nishio-senpai".
• Exact Words: Sasaki's kindness will be the death of him. He serves as an aspect of Kaneki that's compliant and nice, but that's a façade to the world. On realizing this Sasaki "dies" so that Kaneki can be born again.
• Fanservice Pack: Puberty and years of training are a blessing for several characters, which have become considerably more attractive since the original series. Sasaki and Ayato have both developed into handsome, athletic men with broad shoulders and a tendency to dress in very flattering clothing. On the other hand, Hinami has developed from a cute little girl into a beautiful woman with one of the larger busts in the series.
• Fatal Flaw: Quite a few characters have them.
  • Urie has his Pride, his ambitions, and unwillingness to work with others.
  • Akira warns Sasaki that his kindness will be the death of him.
  • Ken's morality and passivity gets in the way of his ambitions both as a Ghoul and as the One-Eyed King, and weakens him.
• Flat "What": Saiko's reaction to Sasaki's plan. Mutsuki and Shirazu are merely stunned silent.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Played ruthlessly straight in the Rushima arc, which sees many individual plot threads spread out over two very different locations. Expect entire plot threads to be halted for several chapters at a time while the narrative focuses elsewhere.
• Full-Frontal Assault:
  • Eto seems very fond of doing terrible things to people while partially or fully nude.
  • Kanou's experiments are very naked when released to attack Kurona.
• Gender Reveal:
  • Used as a significant plot point during the hunt for Torso, with his identity exposed when he kidnaps Mutsuki.
  • In Chapter 30, Juuzou refers to Big Madam as "Father" and the following chapter sees her labeled as a "male Ghoul" in the report. It isn't clear whether BM was merely a Creepy Crossdresser or a trans woman.
  • Chapter 52 reveals a significant portion of Kanae's backstory, who was actually born Karen. He lost his entire family fleeing the Rosewald extermination, and by the time he arrived in Japan, he had decided to live as a man to carry on the family name.
• Generation Xerox: Touka and Kaneki are basically palette swaps of Hikari and Arata especially now that they're romantically involved.
• Genre Shift: The sequel starts out as a fairly light action/noir with a good bout of comedy thrown in due to shifting to the viewpoint of the Quinx. After the Auction arc, however, the series returns to being a psychological thriller with horror elements.
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: After escaping from the ambush by Mutsuki, Aura and one of the Oggai Squads, Touka and Kaneki take shelter in an abandoned building. Touka puts the moves on Kaneki and they spend the night having sex.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Urie starts out intensely jealous of Sasaki, before finally coming to respect him.
  • Takizawa is jealous of Sasaki, as Dr. Kanou's "masterpiece".
  • Kanae is consumed by his jealousy towards anyone that Tsukiyama cares about. Even as a child, he resented Chie for being Tsukiyama's friend. But nothing compares to his jealousy towards Sasaki, the focus of Tsukiyama's attention.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The main cast are all ghoul-human hybrids working for CCG. The Quinx are labeled "humans with an installed Quinque", though this is mostly semantics with a Power Limiter keeping their Ghoul traits in check. Sasaki is a straight-forward example, and the prototype used to create the Quinx Surgery. Takizawa is also revealed to have become one.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Occurs frequently to humans and Ghouls alike.
• Healthcare Motivation: Shirazu volunteered for the Quinx Project and is obsessed with money in order to care for his little sister. After his death, the other Quinx vow to work for promotions in order to continue financing her care.
• Heir Club for Men: The sole survivor of the Rosewald family was the youngest child, Karen...who became Kanae and decided to carry on her brothers' task of reviving the family.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Urie suffers one when he is defeated by Orochi, and the rest of the team suggest retreating. In desperation, he starts trying to eat his own flesh in order to recharge his kagune.
  • Sasaki suffers a truly epic one after recognizing Orochi as Nishiki, and hearing his real name.
• He's Back!: Twice. First in chapter 53 when Sasaki regains Kaneki's memories, and again in chapter 75, where a hallucination of Hide finally convinces Kaneki to defeat Arima and live.
• History Repeats: Several moments echo similarly incidents in the original series.
  • In the prologue, Akira and Sasaki's first meeting takes place as she reports her promotion to the grave of a loved one. This is exactly how Amon and Akira first met.
  • Sasaki/Kaneki is forced to use his kagune to rescue his friend(s) from Nishiki, triggering a loss of control that requires the female protagonist to defeat him. Nishiki even lampshades this, quoting himself from their original battle.
  • Sasaki/Kaneki first meets Touka at a coffee shop where she works.
  • Sasaki/Kaneki is forced to confront something inside himself in order to defeat a stronger foe, Takizawa/Jason, respectively. Kaneki accepted the Ghoul side of himself and Sasaki tapped into his Enemy Within to use his powers better.
  • After Kaneki experiences a traumatic torture, wherein he breaks down and accepts his identity as a ghoul, Kaneki's hair turns white in the process. In chapters 52-54 of :re, Haise breaks upon realizing he's nothing but Kaneki's "dream" of a normal life, and finally "wakes up" to become Ken Kaneki once more. At the same time, the last of his white hair turns black.
• Hope Spot: In Chapter 24, a cornered Red Shirt is visibly relieved after she manages to get Takizawa to remember giving a lecture to her class at the Academy. Both smile at each other... and then he shoves his hand through her chest and tears her head off, scolding her for talking during class.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: The special Quinx squad, a team of Investigator modified into artificial One-Eyed Ghouls. Also, the Washuu Clan, famous ghoul hunters that are themselves ghouls.
• Hurricane of Puns: Courtesy of Sasaki, who engages in considerable word play and terrible puns.
• Icarus Allusion: Matsuri references the myth of Icarus, referring to the L.E. Building as Daedalus's Tower because Mirumo has sent his son there to to escape via helicopter.
• Interspecies Romance: Amon and Akira as of chapter 121.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Mutsuki has the misfortune of being subjected to this more than once, being licked by Nutcracker and even changed into a white dress in preparation for "marrying" Torso.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Several battles involve trying to bring a comrade back to their senses.
  • On Rushima, Amon fights a deranged Takizawa in an effort to bring him back to his senses. While this fails to get through to him, Akira choosing to shield him and Amon's unwavering faith in him does finally get through to Takizawa.
  • In Chapter 112, Saiko and Hsaio fight Urie in order to save him after he Frames Out.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Orochi does this to Sasaki, who shortly afterwards returns the favor. Both possess a Healing Factor strong enough to walk off a hole in the stomach.
• Insistent Terminology: The Quinx are "humans with installed Quinque", not One-Eyed Ghouls. This distinction seems to be important in drawing a line between their "experimental soldiers" and the controversial hybridization research performed by the likes of Dr. Kanou.
• Irony: Kaneki's need to uphold his morals and find a solution that doesn't kill anybody leads to him becoming a thoughtless monster who only thinks of its own survival and slaughters innocent people along the way.
• Lady and Knight: A Gender-flipped example, with Shuu Tsukiyama and his bodyguard, Matsumae. She's even referred to as "Tsukiyama's Knight", and wields her kagune like a sword and shield. While she privately admits to loving him, it's familial rather than romantic.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Haise Sasaki suffers from it, having lost the memories from the first twenty years of his life. It isn't clear exactly what caused it, but probably had something to do with his trauma-induced breakdown and Arima stabbing him in the skull twice.
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Kijima brags about having killed Yuuma and Aliza with his chainsaw Quinque. Moments later, Matsumae slices his arm off and causes said chainsaw to flip into the air and come down blade-first into his skull.
  • Mutsuki kills Torso by decapitating him, and then removes his limbs.
• Last Stand: An enormous number of Ghouls working for the Tsukiyama Group gather in the lobby of the Lunar Eclipse building, prepared to hold the line as long as it takes for Shuu to escape.
  • The Rushima invasion serves as the last stand for Aogiri Tree, with the CCG having uncovered their main base, Eto being arrested, and the One-Eyed King intending to die.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Many late game plot twists in the original series are treated as casual information the reader is excepted to know coming in.
  • In a notable example, the reveal in JAIL that Kijima's Quinque Rotten Fellow is made from Rio's brother is given very casually as information in Kijima's profile.
• Lethal Chef: Saiko. She describes it as being kind of like okonomiyaki, but the results are censored and neither Big Eater is willing to touch it.
• The Lost Lenore: Several, as a direct result of the Downer Ending of the original series.
  • Akira has repeatedly alluded to having lost people, hinting that she remains haunted by Amon's loss.
  • Tsukiyama is shown to have never fully recovered from losing Kaneki, becoming bed-ridden as a result of his grief.
• Lost in Translation: In the official translation of the first series, Kaneki and Hide give Takatsuki Sen the name of "Kanaki" at a book signing, using a different set of characters than those in Kaneki's name. This undermines a scene in :re where Sasaki learns the kanji for "Ken Kaneki" from one of the signed books.
• Love Triangle:
  • Kanae turns out to be in love with Tsukiyama, who remains obsessed with Kaneki even years later. Sasaki remains unaware of his part in things, having no memory of Tsukiyama and unaware of the reason Kanae keeps trying to kill him. Eto shows up to take advantage of Kanae's increasingly unstable emotional state, encouraging him to act on his jealousy and rage. In the end, Kaneki pulls off a gambit to save Tsukiyama... by forcing Kanae to sacrifice her life to save him.
  • Akira, Takizawa, and Amon make up a complicated relationship with equal doses of violence and affection. All three have alternately tried to kill or rescue the others, with loads of unresolved emotions as a result of the men both having been assumed dead for several years.
  • A relationship (at least) develops within the CCG. Matsuri Washuu is secretly in love with his subordinate, Urie...who is completely fixated on Mutsuki to the point of Gibberish of Love. Unfortunately for him, Mutsuki actually has feelings for Sasaki/Kaneki... to a violently obsessive degree.
• Mad Woman In The Attic: Tsukiyama, bed-ridden and confined to his bedroom at his family's estate. The family tries to handle his problems quietly, keeping him drugged and feeding him with little apparent regard for the risks to his condition. The servants are even shown to keep him drugged, to keep him quiet and under control.
• Meaningful Funeral: In chapter 85, the members of Squad Zero and Kaneki hold an impromptu funeral to bid farewell to Arima. Kaneki plants what is left of Owl in the ground as a marker, and recites poetry as a eulogy.
• Meaningful Name:
  • As revealed in chapter 86, The "re" in Tokyo Ghoul:re comes from the Maltese word for "king", as the manga has been a chronicle of Ken Kaneki's rise to take the mantle of One-Eyed King.
    • As the name of Touka's cafe, it also symbolizes Kaneki, "red eye", and her wish for him to "return".
  • Nishiki's name resembles the Japanese word for Python, "Nishikihebi".
  • Tatara means "Furnace". He turns out to have the ability to generate flames.
  • A Noro is a type of spirit medium. Noro turns out to be a zombie-like creature.
  • Matsumae's name is a reference to the Matsumae clan, who were tasked with guarding Hokkaido, the northernmost area of Japan. Matsumae in the series is the primary bodyguard for Tsukiyama.
  • "Sasaki Haise" is layered with meanings:
    • In the final pages of the first series, Arima claims responsibility for Kaneki with "hai, se..."/"yes, [?]...", the scene cutting off there. Haise is conditioned to be deferential and obedient.
    • The kanji used for "hai" means "ash grey". After his defeat by Arima in the first series, Kaneki narrates that his consciousness turned to ash. The same kanji can be pronounced "hee" and appears in the Japanese written word for coffee.
    • Kanae notes that "Haise" is like the word "heisse" in German, meaning "so-called", an indication that "Haise Sasaki" is an illusory identity. "Sasaki" also means this in Japanese.
    • The kanji in both names together can be read as "to aid the world".
• The Mole: Furuta is an agent of V, and has infiltrated numerous groups over the years in pursuit of information about the One-Eyed King. Not only is he the person responsible for leaking CCG information to Aogiri, he also infiltrated the Ghoul Restaurant and the Clowns as Souta.
• Monster Misogyny:
  • Torso, the deranged Ghoul targeted by the Quinx, is noted to exclusively prey on women.
  • Inverted with Nutcracker, a female ghoul that attacks only males.
• Morality Pet: Sasaki seems to be one to Arima. However, it isn't clear whether his kindness is genuine or merely an act to manipulate him. At least until Arima's death, with him making a Dying Declaration of Love and sending his squad to assist Kaneki's escape.
• murder.com: Torture Technician Shiki Kijima posts an extremely graphic torture video onto the internet. He does this to taunt the employers of his victim, and justifies it since Ghouls don't have rights anyway. The video immediately causes a scandal, though he's only reprimanded for his actions. He later reveals that he killed the victim immediately after posting the video.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: The most appropriate way to deal with a Love Triangle, it seems.
  • Kanae's jealousy over Tsukiyama being so focused on Sasaki leads to several attempts at murder.
  • Mutsuki's crush on Sasaki escalates, with Sanity Slippage leading them to attack Touka and threaten Yoriko.
• My Own Private "I Do": By Chapter 132, Kaneki and Touka marry with a very small ceremony as their limited resources and the constant hounding by the government make it impossible to have anything more.
• Neck Snap: Takizawa does this to an unfortunate Red Shirt, while Takeomi does this to the Clown mook.
• Nonuniform Uniform: The Investigators' uniform is essentially office attire and a white Badass Longcoat. But the rules are clearly flexible enough that we see an incredibly wide variety of styles.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: As of Chapter 85, it's clear major change is on the way. Arima has died, leaving his squad with orders to aid Kaneki in defecting from the CCG. Marude has discovered the Washuus are ghouls, and killed Yoshitoki Washuu in a fierce battle. Donato Porpora has been freed, and Cochlea is in ruins. Aogiri is making its Last Stand. And Mutsuki has gone insane, having regained the memories of his violent past.
• Official Couple:
  • Kaneki and Touka eventually finally receive the Relationship Upgrade that's been teased at for almost the entire run of the first and second manga, complete with consummation and child.
  • Naki and Miza end up together and are shown to have produced children in the final chapter.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Chapter 143's entire battle was this. Kaneki goes off to fight against Juuzou and the Zero Squad in what was reported to be one of the hardest battles of their lives... and then smash cuts to their total failure, Kaneki limbless on the ground and confused about his circumstances, Zero Squad decapitated elsewhere. Furuta and his crew make sure to tell him how hard everyone fought and how awesome the fights were just to rub it in Ken's face, and how he almost could have won if his opponents faltered even once.
  • In the anime adaptation, the battle is played out onscreen, though kept solely between Kaneki and Juuzou. It ends more or less the same way.
• Off with His Head!: A common fate of Red Shirts and Mooks, as well as Takizawa's favorite killing method.
• Ominous Visual Glitch: After Ken turns into a monster, the Chapter title is glitched to repeat itself, and the ending watermark has incomprehensible language replacing the regular text.
• Open Secret:
  • A surprisingly large number of people both within CCG and among Ghoul society know that "Haise Sasaki" is merely a false identity for an artificial half-Ghoul. Aogiri, the Anteiku survivors, and the Clowns all know that he's an amnesiac Kaneki.
  • Everyone in the Tsukiyama Household seemed to be aware of Kanae's secret.
• The Ophelia: A gender-inverted Deconstruction occurs with Tsukiyama, portrayed as extremely beautiful and frail... when he isn't having violent fits. His family's handling of his condition is... questionable, suffice to say.
• Panty Thief: Urie (and Shirazu) steal Sasaki's underwear and trade it to Chie for information. She readily admits her intentions to give them to her "creeper" friend as a present.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: The members of the Tsukiyama family seem to have perfected this trope. Their hunting uniform uses a widow's veil instead of an actual mask, while Tsukiyama dons a baseball cap as a disguise without bothering to hide his distinctive hair or sense of style.
• Parental Abandonment: The trope returns in full force. Akira, Urie, and Mutsuki are all orphaned as a result of Ghouls, while Saiko was essentially sold to CCG by her mother. Shirazu states his mother abandoned them long ago, and he doesn't seem to think much of his father.
• Parental Substitute: Amnesiac Hero Sasaki states that because he has lost most of his memories, Arima and Akira are essentially his parents. Arima responds by calling the Quinx Squad his "grandkids". Sasaki himself is also substitute to Saiko and admits that he babies her— she even refers to him as "Maman".
• Porn with Plot: Chapter 125 is dedicated solely to Kaneki and Touka getting it on. But with everything leading up to it, and how the two go about it, it's truly a scene that can be described as "making love".
• Power Limiter: The Quinx's implanted kakuhou have 5 "frames", and all of them have theirs limited to the second level, meaning they can only use 40% of the power. Using more power probably will mean becoming less human. As of Chapter 15, Urie undergoes the surgery to increase his power.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Hirako gives one to his former superiors.

  I quit.

• Precision F-Strike: The Tsukiyama Group are pros at this.
  • Tsukiyama dropping the f-bomb during the Chapter 47 cliffhanger, after seeing his escape helicopter shot down and Sasaki waiting for him on the rooftop.
  • Matsumae drops one in Italian, as a Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
• Pro-Human Transhuman: In contrast to the previous series, the hybrid members of Quinx are firmly on the side of humanity.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Quinx are not especially well-known in the CCG, and seem to be made up of rather quirky individuals.
• Red Baron: Numerous Ghouls use aliases, often given to them by CCG.
  • Orochi: Nishiki Nishio.
  • Torso: Karao Saeki
  • Yotsume: Hinami Fueguchi
  • Three Blades: Miza Kusakari
  • Nutcracker: Mayu
  • Scarecrow
  • Big Madam
  • Owl: (Seidou Takizawa).
  • Croque Monsieur: Mirumo Tsukiyama
  • Rose: Kanae von Rosewald
  • Hakatori / Quinque Hunter: Yumitsu Tomoe
  • The Black Reaper: Haise Sasaki
  • The One-Eyed King: Ken Kaneki
• Rank Up: Akira, Juuzou, Houji, and Ui have all received promotions since the original series. Naki, likewise, has become an Executive in Aogiri. In the aftermath of the Auction, a whole round of promotions come through the pipeline: Sasaki, Akira, Juuzou, Matsuri, Kuramoto, Hanbee, and the Quinx all get promotions.
• Red Herring: At the end of Chapter 79 Urie gets word that a Special Class Investigator has died and that a subordinate of theirs committed suicide. The identity of either of these people is danced around however for several chapters until it turns out to be a half-lie, as the "suicide" is implied to be part of a cover-up by Matsuri over Marude's murder of Yoshitoki.
• Red Shirt Army: The Auction Arc features 20 Red Shirts based on winners of a promotional contest. Each chapter features a page devoted to listing the ones killed that chapter, their method of death, and how many remain.
• The Reveal:
  • Haise Sasaki is an amnesic Ken Kaneki, being kept in check through the use of RC Suppressants and a restriction on using his kagune.
  • Orochi is Nishiki Nishio.
  • Seidou Takizawa is alive, and a Half-Human Hybrid working for Aogiri.
  • Kishou Arima and Nimura Furuta are both agents of V, and Eto claims that the Washuus are in bed with the organization. It is eventually revealed that V are the true leaders of the Washuu Clan and the CCG.
  • Nimura Furuta is Souta, and a member of the Washuu Clan.
  • Koutarou Amon is alive, and the robed Half-Human Hybrid previously glimpsed attacking Aogiri's forces.
  • V are the true leaders of the CCG and have been maintaining the status quo between Humans and Ghouls. Thus they are ultimately responsible for the events of the entire series.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: Exploited. Just in time to release her final novel, Eto surrenders herself to the authorities and is taken into custody. She convinces them to allow her to have a Press Conference for her retirement as Sen Takatsuki, then reveals herself to be a ghoul on live television. The novel is a break from her typical works, being a Heroic Epic about an One-Eyed Ghoul that challenges a Government Conspiracy and leads ghouls in a rebellion. Public opinion is dramatically shifted because of the novel, and leads to the formation of human-run Ghouls' Rights organizations protesting the Countermeasure Laws. And Eto, taken into custody immediately after her announcement and thrown into prison? She makes herself into the central figure of this civil rights movement, apparently sacrificing herself to bring the plight of her kind to light. The CCG never saw it coming, and is scrambling to counter it.
• Scenery Gorn: Caves that host a serial killer even by ghoul standards, the ragged tent where Torso grew up, the boiler/storage room Amon was confined in during the period when he was forced to assist Donato Porpora, and a sprawling underground city ruined by a truly monumental kagune.
• Secretly Dying: Arima is dying from old age, resulting in the push to find a Superior Successor to replace him.
• Self-Made Orphan: Oooh, boy. Mutsuki, Torso, and Takizawa all killed their parents in the past.
• Self-Sacrifice Scheme:
  • Kaneki's plan to rescue Hinami from Cochlea turns out to be this sort of plan. He intends to sacrifice himself to save her, believing that his betrayal of the CCG will led Arima to kill him.
  • Arima's role in being the One-Eyed King was to hold the title until someone could kill him, becoming a Hope Bringer and messianic figure for ghouls. During the battle in Cochlea, he intentionally plays the villain to provoke Kaneki into killing him...and when Kaneki refuses to strike the killing blow, he commits suicide to complete the scheme.
• Servant Race: The CCG has the Half-Humans, hybrids with very few ghoul characteristics. They are bred at the Sunlit Garden, and trained from birth to become exceptional Ghoul Investigators. They begin their careers around 15 years old, and spend their unnaturally short lives fighting until they either die in battle or their bodies break down. Arima conspires with Eto to spark a rebellion against his masters, hating his life spent as a living weapon.
• Sex Starts, Story Stops: Chapter 125 is entirely about Kaneki and Touka having sex.
• Sharing a Body: In the aftermath of the Auction, Sasaki and the inner Kaneki have begun to co-exist, talking to each other. We even see child Kaneki sitting around reading, while Sasaki does things.
• She's All Grown Up: All the younger characters from the original series when they reappear have become much better looking.
• Ship Tease: Present and accounted for already.
  • Shirazu is shown to have a crush on Akira, blushing in her presence and later declaring her the "Holy Mother of CCG".
  • From the moment they meet, Sasaki is taken with the beautiful waitress at a certain cafe and she seems interested in learning more about him. Even without his memories as Kaneki, Sasaki is still drawn to Touka. During the Christmas Episode, both are shown thinking about the other.
  • Ayato and Hinami spend quite a bit of time together, and he has to be physically restrained by Naki of all people to keep from charging off to help her when she's captured by Arima and Squad 0.
  • Calendar art features Naki and Miza Sweetheart Sipping from a heart.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: In chapter 3, Sasaki recalls Urie giving him his investigation expenses for the month — 198,220 yen ($1777.98) in taxi receipts.
• Shoot the Dangerous Minion: CCG has a regulation in place to dispose of Sasaki, should he ever lose control. He's well-aware of this, and accepts the risk as a necessary evil.
• Shoot the Dog: A non-lethal variant in Chapter 7: In order to bring an out-of-control and hysterical Sasaki back under control, Hirako has his team seriously wound him, so Akira can shoot him with a Sniper Rifle. Afterwards, she explains to the Quinx that should this method ever fail to bring him down, their orders are to kill him.
• Shout-Out:
  • Arima mentions reading Franz Kafka's A Crossbreed, at Haise's suggestion. The short story involves a man describing his very strange pet, a creature that is half Lamb and half Kitten. Caught between its instincts as predator and prey, the creature considers him its family and is content under his protection. However, the man wonders if a Mercy Kill might be the right thing to do for the tormented creature left in his care.
  • In chapter 10, a poster of Umaru is in Saiko's room.
  • Saiko's mumblings about games refer to real titles such as Final Fantasy XI, Conception, Kerbal Space Program and several others.
  • When Urie screams out in Chapter 55 after the death of Shirazu, it's drawn quite similar to another event with the same circumstances in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, specifically, Jojo shouting out CEEESAAAAAAAAR after the latter's death.
• The Squad: In contrast to the original series, the CCG seems to be focused on using squads instead of simply pairing up Investigators as partners.
  • The Quinx, a team of Human-Ghoul Hybrids created by CCG to address increasing concerns about Aogiri.
  • Hirako Squad, commanded by Take Hirako. They start out as a mixture of friends and rivals to the Quinx, considered more accomplished and almost evenly split between friendly members and hostile ones.
  • Suzuya Squad, the team commanded by Juuzou. They seem to be very close-knit and highly-regarded for their skills.
  • Squad 0, the mysterious unit commanded by Arima himself.
• The Squadette: Saiko, the lone female member of the Quinx.
• Staking the Loved One: Houji and Akira attempt a Mercy Kill on Takizawa, but are quickly overpowered. Houji is killed in the resulting battle, with Akira only surviving due to the timely arrival of Amon.
• Stalker with a Crush: Torso to Mutsuki, Tsukiyama to Sasaki, Mutsuki to Sasaki.
• Starting a New Life: Touka and Yomo have both done this, with human identities that allow them to operate :Re Cafe without drawing any attention to themselves. It's likely Nishiki and other survivors from the 20th Ward have done so as well.
• Stealth Pun: According to his official profile, Sasaki has been awarded the Kinmokusei Medal. Not only does this bring back the Flower Motifs of the previous series (Kinmokusei = Fragrant Olive), but an alternate reading for "Kinmokusei" is "Kaneki".
• Step Servant: Battle Butler Sobriquet Sex Switch Kanae von Rosewald (Karren) went from the youngest child of an extremely wealthy German family... to a servant in the household of her own uncle. Unlike most examples of the trope, she's treated well by everyone there... but there's still something troubling about making your orphaned ten year old niece a servant to her only surviving relatives.
• Strong Family Resemblance: A common occurrence in the series, sometimes of major significance.
  • Touka looks almost exactly like her mother, while Ayato is starting to look more like his uncle, Yomo.
  • Eto bares a striking resemblance to her late mother, especially after her Important Haircut.
  • Tsukiyama's resemblance to his late mother is pointed out repeatedly by others, and provides a heartwarming moment between father and son.
  • The members of the Washuu Clan have a distinctive look, which marks even the illegitimate children as members. It's an early indication that Yoshitoki, Arima, Furuta, and Rize are siblings. Furuta begins using his resemblance to Yoshitoki to his advantage, to win over the members of the CCG.
• Superpowered Evil Side: The twisted echo of Sasaki's old self serves as one, beginning to emerge since his battle with Orochi. Along with a significant increase in power, he also becomes far more ruthless and begins displaying the mannerisms he picked up from Yamori. Since these are the traits that Kaneki displays when it is in control, Haise wrongly thinks this is all there is to Kaneki's identity. The truth is more complicated.
• Super-Senses: Each member of the Quinx seems to have at least one heightened sense. Shirazu and Saiko both have inhuman hearing, while Urie's sense of smell is incredibly keen. Mutsuki seems to have unusually keen eyesight, even with one eye almost always covered.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
  • Haise Sasaki bears a more than notable resemblance to the previous protagonist, being a kindhearted bookworm with a great deal of power he's reluctant to use and concealed mental issues. Subverted in that it turns out that Sasaki is Kaneki, suffering from amnesia and given a new identity by CCG.
  • Mutsuki also bears several key traits of Kaneki early in the series, being a meek youth that wears a medical eye-patch and struggles to manage his powers.
• Tarot Motifs: As with the original series, hidden references to the Tarot can be found within the artwork.
  • Haise Sasaki - VIII. Strength, XII. The Hanged Man.
  • Torso - III. The Empress.
  • Hinami Fueguchi - II. The High Priestess, VIII. Strength.
  • Tooru Mutsuki - X. The Wheel of Fortune, VII. The Chariot, XIII. Death, VIII. Strength.
  • Uta - XIX. The Sun.
  • Nutcracker - III. The Empress.
  • Seidou Takizawa - III. The Empress, VII. The Chariot, XV. The Devil.
  • Kuramoto Itou - X. The Wheel of Fortune.
  • Ginshi Shirazu - XII. The Hanged Man.
  • Kanae von Rosewald: XIX. The Star, IX. The Hermit.
• Tempting Apple: Eto invokes the full imagery, offering her audience an apple while discussing the story of Eve and the Tree of Knowledge.
• Tested on Humans: The surgery developed to create the members of the Quinx squad.
• Their First Time: Kaneki and Touka spend Chapter 125 having sex for the first time.
• Time Skip: It takes place roughly two years after the end of the original series. After the Auction, the series skips forward roughly five months from November to April.
• Title Drop: In chapter 9, Sasaki, Mutsuki and Shirazu visit the coffee shop :Re. And meet Touka and Yomo.
  • The ":Re" part of the title is given further meaning in Chapter 86, when Kaneki takes the place of the One-Eyed King.
  In many languages, like for example in Maltese, "Re" means "King".
• Took a Level in Badass: All over the place, thanks to many a Time Skip.
  • Nishiki, Hinami, and Takizawa have all become significantly stronger since the original series.
  • The Quinx have become stronger both as individuals and as a team, in the months following the Auction Arc.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After regaining his memories, Kaneki proceeds to throw Tsukiyama off a building, berate a traumatized Urie, and then abandon the Quinx by resigning as their mentor. It's very likely a case of History Repeats...
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • Ayato Kirishima has matured significantly since the original series, treating his subordinates with kindness.
  • Shuu Tsukiyama spends considerable time worrying for others, and is shown to be sweet and nice when among his family servants.
• The Tower: The Lunatic Eclipse Building in the 8th Ward, the site of a brutal operation where Anyone Can Die. The arc even concludes with Shuu and Kanae falling from the building.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Coffee remains prominent as a favorite among humans and Ghouls alike, especially the members of the Quinx Squad. And in a particularly dark example, several Ghouls that show up have favorite "snacks" — Karao Saeki likes the torsos of women with scars, Nutcracker likes to drink crushed testicles like oysters, and Seidou Takizawa likes eating brains.
• Transhuman Treachery: Seidou Takizawa, one of the Investigators from the previous series, returns as a Half-Human Hybrid working for Aogiri.
• Un-person: Kaneki was "erased" by the CCG.
• Villainous Incest: The Washuu clan engage in incestuous relations with their Breeding Slaves. Furuta also has romantic and sexual intentions towards his half-sister, Rize.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Inverted and Played Straight. Nishiki notes that ghouls lack the resources and status to conduct something like a PR campaign for their own cause. On the other hand, the public image of an organization protecting humanity and tradition is crucial for the CCG to continue its operations.
• We Have Reserves: Discussed. The Washuu clan are noted for having this attitude, viewing their subordinates as completely expendable. The only reason they have continued to lead CCG for more than a century is because of their success at accomplishing missions in the process. Matsuri Washuu in particular is infamous for getting anyone under his command killed in the process of accomplishing the mission.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Eto and Arima conspired to change the world, by inciting a revolution they intended for another — Kaneki — to ultimately lead. While the goal of bringing down V and fixing the world is understandable, both took part in the cycles of violence and destruction that V has maintained through via the CCG to achieve their goals.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 7 has the reveal that Sasaki is indeed an amnesiac Kaneki. The strict rules he lives under are also introduced.
  • Chapter 20: The introduction of the new Owl, Seidou Takizawa.
  • Chapter 44: Kijima kills Aliza while revealing that the CCG now knows that the Tsukiyama Family are Ghouls.
  • Chapter 49-50: Itou is severely injured fighting Noro. Meanwhile, Mairo is bisected by Ihei, but succeeds in decapitating her and, in his dying breaths, helps Matsumae kill Kijima. Then Furuta, a minor character who had spent the entire arc in the background, does a terrifying 180 and kills the remaining Investigators and seemingly Matsumae while dropping a major hint that he might be more than he appears. The chapters end with Sasaki, about to kill Tsukiyama, getting his arm cut off by an unseen individual.
  • Chapter 53: Kaneki's subconscious forces Sasaki to remember that he was beaten by the mother who has previously been shown as gentle, considerate, hard-working and submissive to a fault. This radically alters the meaning of his younger self's nervousness, solitude, as well as his clinging to superficially compassionate ideals.
  • Chapter 55: Shirazu dies, marking the first time a major recurring character has been killed off.
  • Chapter 56, possibly the most pivotal chapter of the entire series since Kaneki succumbing to Yamori's torture: Eto goes crazy, Kaneki leads the fight before brutally impaling her with his Kagune, slices her in half and proceeds to devour her kakuja, with Ui finding him in the middle of his "meal". There's seriously no telling where the story may go from such a twist of the plot.
  • Chapter 57-58: An already whamtastic arc comes to a close as Kanae sacrifices herself to save Tsukiyama as he falls. Sasaki/Kaneki meanwhile stays with the CCG and is promoted to associate special class, but leaves the Quinx. Elsewhere Eto is shown to be alive and well and Aogiri has stolen Shirazu's body, meaning Kanou finally has the Quinx body he so desperately wanted for his experiments... The status quo has been well and truly shattered.
  • Chapter 63: The chapter combines this with a Wham Line, when Eto holds a Press Conference as Sen Takatsuki to discuss her final book... and then announces to the world that she is a Ghoul. The following chapter shows that society has been thrown into chaos, with public opinion divided and authorities scrambling to do damage control.
  • Chapter 64 blows that out of the water as Eto reveals that V has been apparently with the Washuu clan and the CCG since the very beginning. The gates made to detect RC Cells are tailored so they don't detect V agents Kagune. One of those former V agents just so happens to be Rize, finally explaining why she was chosen to be Kanou's doner and how the One Eyed Ghouls were able to pass through the gates.
  • Chapter 79: The full extent of Mutsuki's backstory and character is revealed as we discover that he's suffered from some degree of Split Personality and murdered Torso.
  • Chapter 82: The rematch of Kaneki vs Arima, the most anticipated fight in the manga, comes to a close as Arima commits suicide.
  • Chapter 83. Arima confesses to Kaneki that V and the CCG have been breeding Half-Human Hybrids at the Garden, and he is one of them. Marude confronts Yoshitoki Washuu, confirming that he and the entire Washuu Clan are secretly ghouls. Arima dies in Kaneki's arms, entrusting him with the truth about the world, and asking him to take credit for his death.
  • Chapter 85: Marude kills Yoshitoki, that is all.
  • Chapter 86: Eto reveals that the One-Eyed-King is Arima, who had been secretly collaborating with her in a gambit to take down V. The chapter then ends in Kaneki declaring himself to be the One-Eyed-King. Cue fans jaws hitting the ground.
  • Chapter 89: In one of the cruellest moments in the series, Takizawa preforms a dramatic Heel–Face Turn, killing Tatara, only for things to fall apart as Houji orders his death. Cue Takizawa killing Houji, choking Akira and Amon arriving in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
  • Chapter 98: The battle of Rushima ends, Kimi is revealed to be working with Kanou and Furuta massacres the Washuu family with the aid of Perriot.
  • Chapter 125: A "will they or won't they" moment, between Kaneki and Touka at the end of chapter 124, is thoroughly answered with a chapter entirely devoted to them having sex.
  • Chapter 129: Touka is shown attempting to eat human food so her unborn child with Kaneki can survive. Arguably doubles as a wham line, as she pleads, "Please. Don't die..."
• Wham Line:
  • Chapter 63: "I am a Ghoul." Said by Eto, during her live Press Conference about Sen Takatsuki's final novel.
  • Chapter 86: "In many languages, like Maltese for example, "Re" means "King." Said by Sen Takatsuki while Ken Kaneki accepts the throne of the One-Eyed King.
  • Chapter 138: "I am Hideyoshi Nagachika. Help me, Urie." In context, this was said by Scarecrow, who wrote it on paper.
• Wham Shot:
  • Chapter 4 combines this with a Gender Reveal, as Torso rips open Mutsuki's shirt and reveals a scarred, bound chest.
  • Chapter 6 delivers one in the form of a Cliffhanger with Sasaki's kagune manifesting as he cracks his knuckle, tears streaming down his face.
  • Chapter 9's last page is a shot of Sasaki looking in shock at Touka.
  • Chapter 20: Dr. Kanou and Eto decide to send in the new "Owl", revealed to be Seidou Takizawa.
  • Chapter 56, which is practically a series of these. Most notably, its final two pages are Kaneki slicing Eto in half, and Ui finding Kaneki devouring the remains of Eto's kakuja.
  • Chapter 82: The two page spread of Arima slitting his throat.
  • Chapter 83: Yoshitoki Washuu with a bullet embedded in his forehead, and active kakugan.
  • Chapter 110: Amon is alive. Again.
  • Chapter 143: A weakened Kaneki is about to fight Suzuya and Hanbee, both wearing Arata Armor. After two pages dedicated to showing both sides powering up, it cuts to the end of the fight, with a horribly injured Kaneki who LOST.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The series is surprisingly good about this, the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue in Chapter 179 reveals the fate of most of the supporting characters. But there are still a few major exceptions.
  • We never find out what became of Eto following the manga's finale. She was last seen aiding the CCG-Goat alliance against V.
  • Kuzen Yoshimura, the Big Good of the original series, was revealed to be alive and was last seen in a test tube, being harvested for his kagune by Aogiri. It's never shown if he was ever released or if the protagonists ever learned of his fate.
• Whole Episode Flashback: Much of Chapter 62 is flashbacks recounting Eto's life.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: The investigation into Nutcracker and the Auction involves several Investigators going undercover Disguised in Drag, with (mostly) stunning results.
  • Sasaki really gets into things, getting into disguise without any female assistance. He dubs himself "Sasako" and seems to have great fun with it. When Matsuri later criticizes his "unconventional" methods, it further cements him as an unreasonable Jerkass.
  • Suzuya goes undercover as an Elegant Gothic Lolita, and has his Big Damn Heroes moment while in a dress.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Once again, the dangerous nature of an One-Eyed Ghoul's power is explored. Sasaki, Urie, and Takizawa all suffer breakdowns while using their powers.
  • They are all topped by Eto, however, whose already disturbing Kagune result in a seemingly coherent, if creepy, character degenerating into a horrendously mutated monstrosity with multiple mouths that speak independently from one another, raving insanely with varying degrees of disconnection from current events and each other.
• Yandere: Numerous characters are definitely taking their Interplay of Sex and Violence too far. Kaneki/Sasaki in particular collects them like candy.
  • Kanae towards Tsukiyama, including wanting to murder Sasaki to get him out of the way.
  • Torso towards all his "lovers" in general, hacking off their limbs so they cannot "leave". He eventually fixates on Mutsuki as his destined "lover".
  • Roma towards Kaneki, including wanting to "kill" Sasaki because she thinks he's most beautiful when he's a Tragic Hero.
  • Mutsuki ends up being one towards Sasaki, including thinking about killing Touka. When Uta disguises himself as Sasaki to surprise Mutsuki...he ends up being stabbed repeatedly while Mutsuki begs him to never leave again.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Arima and the others bred by the Garden have a limited lifespan, as a result of their hybrid nature. Dr. Kanou also states that the same process that causes a half-ghoul to rapidly gain strength shortens their lifespan.

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Tokyo Ghoul √A

The anime provides examples of:

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• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Because it follows a different path to the original manga, a number of Kaneki's reasons for doing things are not explained, which makes following the events difficult. There are only sometimes enough hints to infer what's going on. For example, the raid on Cochlea that frees Shachi is probably because he has information about Rize, but since he and Kaneki immediately begin to fight and he vanishes afterward it doesn't seem worth the trouble.
• Alternate Continuity: To an extent. It is described as "another Tokyo Ghoul", written by Sui Ishida but using some of his original drafts for the series. The differences to the manga lie primarily in Kaneki's decision to join Aogiri Tree instead of forming his own group, cutting some things out as a result. However, the season mixes this in with the manga's plot, keeping in many events and the general story that ultimately leads up to :re.
• Amazon Brigade: Irimi's old gang, the Black Dobers, appear to have been one of these.
• Bait-and-Switch Credits: The opening is minimalist to the extreme, with beautiful and bright colors set to a quiet and somber theme. The series itself is dark and full of violence.
• Big Bad: The One-Eyed Owl, as in the manga.
• Body Horror: The Arata Armor is fairly horrifying, both in appearance and what it does to the user. The Kakuja form is also milked for every ounce of Body Horror, especially after Kaneki begins his transformation.
• Bridal Carry: The main image for the anime features Kaneki holding a sheet-covered body this way. The finale reveals it to be Hide, whose body he carries back to CCG's main base camp.
• Collapsing Lair: Once CCG manages to take control over Aogiri's base, explosives cause the entire thing to come crashing down.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: Ayato is furious when Noro rescues him from Kaneki.
• Curbstomp Battle: The Owl dominates the battle against Shinohara, Iwao, Amon, and Hirako.
• Death by Adaptation: Hide, who is fatally wounded by Noro but manages to reunite with Kaneki one last time before dying of his wounds.
• Demoted to Extra: Tsukiyama and Banjou have significantly decreased roles in comparison to the manga version of events.
• Died in Ignorance: Ginshi Shirazu is mortally wounded creating an opening for Urie to kill their opponent. Though Urie and Saiko are by his side, Shirazu's so injured that he loses his ability to feel, see, or hear, so he has no idea his friends are beside him, trying to comfort him, causing him to believe he's dying alone.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Ukina dies of her wounds in Kuzen's arms. Also, Hide in Kaneki's arms.
• Downer Ending: Anteiku is destroyed. Hide dies, and a grief-stricken Kaneki is implied to commit Suicide by Cop. Amon is missing, and the surviving CCG members as well as Touka are all left broken and struggling to pick up the pieces.
• Evil Costume Switch: Kaneki trades in his mousey street clothes and Anteiku waiter's uniform for a sleek, bondage-inspired black battle suit after joining Aogiri.
• Evolving Credits: The artwork shown during the ending sequence changes every episode. The final episode features all of the previous versions playing in the background.
• Exorcist Head: In episode 11, Noro turns his head almost completely around to look at someone behind him. That his neck makes a gross snapping noise in the process adds to the sheer Body Horror of the scene.
• Face–Heel Turn: Kaneki joins Aogiri at the conclusion of the first episode.
• Foreshadowing: In the first episode which concludes the Aogiri arc, during Nico and Souta's scene where they reveal they are members of the Clowns, Nico turns around and you can see the reflection of Uta in his mask's eye.
• Giggling Villain: Eto's distorted, child-like giggling is downright creepy.
• Kill the Cutie: Hide and possibly Kaneki in the finale.
• Lost in Translation: While otherwise solid, during Kaneki's battle with Shinohara in episode 5 Funimation gives us this gem:
  Kaneki: My fingers...on the bench...
  • In fact, in the original Japanese, Kaneki isn't saying "benchi" (meaning "bench"). What he is actually saying is "penchi" (meaning "pliers", which makes a lot more sense when you think about it).
• Mortal Wound Reveal: The pools of blood in the cafe at first seem to be from Kaneki, but then Hide collapses and reveals a stomach wound. He dies shortly afterwards.
• Never Found the Body: Akira comes across Amon's broken and bloody Quinque and armor, but there's no sign of him.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Eto does this while watching Kaneki, moving to different locations around him every time the smoke obscures her form.
• The Oner: Episode 12 ends with a long shot of Kaneki carrying Hide's dead body to the CCG's main base camp.
• Out of Focus: Strangely enough, Kaneki, especially in the early episodes — while certainly still a major character, he hardly speaks, becoming a cipher rather than the viewpoint character he was before. It says something when the most dialogue he has for several episodes is his feral rambling as he uses his Kakuja.
• Power Echoes: Characters with kakuja seem to pick up an echo to their voices.
• Sensual Spandex: The anime design of Kaneki's battle-suit veers into this, with the material rendered shiny as well as extremely form-fitting. The hoodie and shorts he wears over the suit are a completely different material, implying that he added them for the sake of modesty.
• Shirtless Scene: Kaneki is shirtless (or possibly nude?) throughout the opening.
• Shout-Out: The Funimation dub throws one into episode 9, with Mougan referring to Koma as a "damn dirty ape".
  • At another point, Hide informs Akira that "Knowing is half the battle".
• Snow Means Death: The major battles at the beginning and ending of the series take place during snowfall.
• Snow Means Love: Inverted. It's snowing when Kaneki leaves Touka behind, ignoring her desperate attempt to catch up to him. Played straight with Hide, when Kaneki is carrying his dead body in his arm, apparently choosing to go to Arima in order to be killed and join him in death.
• The Stinger:
  • Episode 11 combines this with The Reveal, unmasking the mysterious One-Eyed Owl.
  • Episode 12: Some time later, we see Touka opening :re cafe.
• Suicide by Cop: Implied. After Hide dies, Kaneki carries his body back to CCG's main base camp and faces Arima.
• Tears of Blood: Kaneki weeps them in the opening. He similarly weeps a single bloody tear while holding Hide's body.
• Uncertain Doom: We are never told what happened to Kaneki, Amon, Koma, or Irimi.
• Vulnerable Convoy: In the third episode, Kaneki and Ayato lead an attack on a police convoy and free Naki.
• War Is Hell: Multiple scenes show the carnage that has left both CCG and Aogiri with heavy losses.
• Wham Line: "How would to see Rize again, Mr. Kamishiro?" Said by Eto to Shachi, Rize's surrogate father.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The Twins and Shachi vanish after the prison raid.

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Tokyo Ghoul:re anime

The sequel provides examples of:

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• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: We are never shown how the CCG discovered Goat's hideout as Hazuki Hajime never infiltrated Goat in this continuity. The closest thing to an explanation we are given is Furuta mockingly crediting it to the Power of Love on [Yandere Mutsuki's] part.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: The series has a darker color palate and notably characters more closely resemble their manga counterparts.
• Big Bad: The One-Eyed Owl and Souta Washuu-Furuta, as in the manga.
• Compressed Adaptation: Noticeably so. While the first season follows the majority of the story beats up to the end of the Tsukiyama Family Extermination arc, the second season greatly compresses the rest of the story, with an entire arc (the CCG Lab Raid) removed and many others extremely shortened.
• Death by Adaptation: Unlike in the manga, nothing shows either Eto or Iwao Kuroiwa as surviving their supposed deaths as they did in the manga.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Irimi Kaya and Koma Enji both died in the Anteiku raid in this continuity, rather than surviving and reappearing mid-series, only to be killed offscreen and Reforged into a Minion before being put down for good.
• Demoted to Extra: The 2nd Generation Quinx Squad members in general get this treatment, losing most of their character defining moments. Notable mention goes to Shinsanpei Aura who never joined Mutsuki in their quest for Kaneki/Haise.
  • Amon, Kurona and Takizawa also get this treatment due to the excision of the CCG Lab Infilitration arc.
  • Mutsuki also has a greatly diminished role in the 2nd season compared to the manga, with his role in both the Rushima Island and Clown Siege arcs reduced and completely excised respectively.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The second episode features Shiki Kijima and his junior partner, Furuta, both of which did not appear until later in the series.
• Spoiler Opening: The opening teases several of the big shockers of the :Re manga, such as Takizawa's revival as Owl and Furuta being a major character.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers spoil the identity of Orochi, showing him without his mask.

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Tokyo Ghoul Novels

The Novels provide examples of:

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• Battleaxe Nurse: Tsukiyama reveals to Chie that the kind and gentle nurse they'd spoken to the day prior was actually a Sadist that beat her elderly patients at night. Since they suffered from dementia, she could explain away their injuries and remain secure that no one would ever believe them. He does it to make a point about humans, rather than out of any concern for her abused patients.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Yuuri, Cain, the unnamed Nurse.
• Bullying a Dragon: An Alpha Bitch and her posse attempt to bully Touka, though she manages to restraint her more violent impulses.
• Clear Their Name: Banjou ropes his gang into helping him try to clear Rize of a recent killing. Only, she actually did do it. And Banjou's primary suspect is after Rize to avenge her murdered friend.
• Cool Old Lady: Tsumugi.
• Flayed Alive: Tsukiyama does this to an elderly patient. Years later, he does the same to the Battleaxe Nurse.
• The Food Poisoning Incident: In Misato's focal story, a Funny Background Event throughout involves her giving food poisoning to multiple branches of the CCG. It becomes so severe that a company-wide message goes out, warning of bouts of illness sweeping the organization.
• Happily Adopted: Ikuma Momochi, a Ghoul raised by a human woman.
• Information Broker: Chie Hori.
• Muggle Best Friend: Chie to Tsukiyama, Tsumugi to Uta and Asa.
• Muggle Foster Parents: The novels include both a positive and a negative example.
  • Ikuma Momochi was raised by a human, and has a very close and loving relationship with her.
  • Noyama and Koharu were adopted by a wealthy human Serial Killer, that used them to help him kill young girls. Their family was...dysfunctional, to say the least. Noyama was using Koharu to get Utsumi's money, while Utsumi fully intended to use his adopted Ghoul children as scapegoats, should his crimes ever be discovered.
• Oblivious to Love: Amon is utterly clueless to the affections of Koharu and Misato, much to Morimine's amusement.
• Police Are Useless: Subverted. Morimine turns out to be an extremely capable Detective, after his poor initial impression.
• Puppy Love: Hinami and Yuuki, though it leads nowhere.
• Secret-Keeper: The novels feature numerous humans that choose to keep Ghouls' identities secret.
  • Hide to Kaneki.
  • Chie to Tsukiyama and Ikuma.
  • Tsumugi to the Ghoul community as a whole.
  • Mitsuba to Ikuma.
  • Yuuki to Hinami, Kaneki, and Touka.
  • Shouta's father to Touka.
  • The nurse to Tsukiyama.
• Serial Killer: Utsumi and his adopted Ghoul children, preferring to prey on young women.
• Wandering Minstrel: Ikuma Momochi.

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