Ken Kaneki

"I'm not the protagonist of a novel or anything. I'm just a college student who likes to read, like you could find anywhere. But... 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 "In exchange for the pleasure of living as a person that ghouls can have... we receive this instead. We're overwhelmed by our appetites. I understand the feeling of sinking into pleasure. In some ways, it's only natural that... some ghouls like Rize-san exist. However... I'm not going to lose sight of myself. That's my way of fighting."

- Ken Kaneki "I know... there are ghouls who only see humans as targets to be preyed upon — and on the other hand, there are humans who have decided that ghouls are only inhuman monsters... But I don't think either of those are correct. I think what's necessary is the 'right distance.' Instead of mutually tramping on each others' existence we should just respect each other a little more."

- Kaneki to Nishiki.

Ken Kaneki (in Japanese: 金木 研, Kaneki Ken, though having a another name: Haise Sasaki) is the main protagonist of the 2011 manga and 2014 anime Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:re.

In season 2 of anime, Kaneki is considered as a anti-hero/protagonist villain due to his decision in joining the Aogiri Tree and fight against his former friends and his ghoul adoptive family.

In his human life, Kaneki is study's in a school of Japanese Literature at Kamii University and lives in a peaceful life, until he met Rize Kamishiro a beautiful femme fatale, who attracts and manipulates Kaneki believing that she loves him, after their date, Kaneki accompanied Rize to her home, until Rize changed into a ghoul and tries to eat Kaneki, Rize successfully eats Kaneki in a while, other the fight, a metal pole's fell in Rize, leaving her presumably dead. After that incident, Kaneki wakes up in a hospital, the doctor tells him that he undergo transplant, later Kaneki wakes up at his home and tries to get food to eat, though he briefly vomits any food he eats. His friend visit's him, and gives him his favorite food, though after Kaneki ate that he vomits quickly, leaving him very hungry. Later, an old man ghoul visit's Kaneki and helped him to overcome his hungriness, the old man ghoul seems to be Eto Yoshimura's father. His teammates gave him a nickname Eyepatch.

After Kaneki is captured by Aogiri Tree, he decides to join them and fights the CCG and even his former teammates/friends.

He was voiced by Natsuki Hanae in the Japanese version, and Austin Tindle in the English version.

History
When he was young, Kaneki like's burgers because his mother always made him burger foods when she was alive. He lost his father when he was four years old, he slightly remembered his face and awfully confused as to what sort of person he was. Kaneki knew that his father is bookish and had load of books. Ken Kaneki, followed the sentences in the books his father had been reading, saying he felt like he was having a conversation with his father which calmed him down. These developed his hobby for reading literature.

In some episodes Rize Kamishiro appears in Kaneki's hallucination, reminding all his past, and his mother's sacrifice to him and the sins of his evil aunt.

When Kaneki was a kid, his mother stuggled hard to provide them, all Kaneki's mother's work was extremely overwhelming and the one who put Kaneki's mother to stress is his evil aunt (Kaneki's mother).

Kaneki's aunt was extremely greedy when it comes to money, his aunt hounded his mother for cash. Being left nothing, his aunt can be seen as the one who droved his mother to death.

This lead to Kaneki's mother to abuse his own son, but Kaneki treats her kind, even when his mother do bad things. His mother died, when Kaneki is age at 10.

Now orphaned, Kaneki was adopted by his aunt's family, the Asaoka family. Though, Kaneki's life with his aunt was no less hostile, his aunt makes his life miserable. His aunt always compared him to her son, Yuiichi, who did not do well at school. Which greatly angered her.

When comparing her son to Kaneki, she also likened Kaneki with his late mother, saying how they are same.

Her feelings of inferiority/lower regarding Kaneki's mother were turned on him as spite. As the time passed, the family did not give comfort, to Kaneki.

Later, during his elementary school, Kaneki had no friends, but later Hide appeared at Kaneki and befriend with him, later they became bestfriends.

Appearance
As a Kaneki child, he had all of the same features when he is now adult, like black hair, as a normal university student, Kaneki was somewhat a short and scrawny young man with no athletic background, and preferred to read books rather than play sports.

After the steal beam incident, Kaneki bears a scar from the transplant operation, on the right side of his abdomen from his navel. In his free time, he wears a casual clothing.

At his work, he wears a standard anteiku clothing/uniform, consisting of black trousers and a graywaistcoat over a white shirt and a brown necktie. And he could not control his single kakugan that manifest in his left eye, but in season 2, he mastered it. He also wear a medical black eye patch in order to hide it.

His black ghoul mask resembles a dark leather gimp mask with an eye patch on it. It bears a lipless mouth with large, with a gnashing teeth, much like a restrained asylum/psychotic monster. Those bolts sticking out of his neck and the fact that he is an artificial ghoul invoke a Frankenstein-like theme. After being tortured by Yamori, his appearance changed drastically. His hair became completely white, his nails were blackened, and he developed a more muscular physique. He began to favor monochrome clothing and wore a form-fitting black bodysuit with cutouts when going into battle. In order to realease his kagune or his weapon.

Season 1 Pre-Aogiri
At, first Kaneki was a shy and reserved person, with Hide being his only close/best friend. Kaneki usually spent most of his time reading books, mostly novels of Eto Yoshimura. He was extremely gentle and appeared to be bullishness most of the time.

Kaneki's mother influenced him on a true testament of modesty, he willingly took blame and punishment from others so that he can be someone who does not hurt people, but rather absorb the torment. However, this lack of assertiveness normally got him bullied and taken advantage of. However, beneath his altruistic and gentle nature, was an underlying fear of being alone that was aggravated by his mother's death. He became depressed when his mother died because she was the only person who could talk to him if he had a problem, even when his mother beat him he didn't care.

He despised the idea of solitude; hence he tried to protect those who are dear to him so he would not have to face his fear of being alone in the whole world. This was perhaps Kaneki's greatest weakness. Since Kaneki was always trying to protect others, he was essentially trying to protect himself from ever being alone again forever.

Therefore, to escape that scenario, he would shoulder the task of protecting others onto himself, without relying on anyone else. He protects people without the need of anyone. This was also why Kaneki rejected the notion of "living" because watching others die reminded him of those lonely days without anyone besides him. After he was turned into a powerful half-ghoul, he clung to his human side. To keep living in the human world, he began to work at Anteiku and established relationships with the other ghouls there. He started to develop an interest in becoming much stronger and began reading martial art books so he could protect those closest to him. However, he was still troubled by the fact that he was a half-ghoul and wanted to search for a place where he could belong.

As much as he treasured his life, if people close to him were threatened, he would not hesitate to put his life on the line. His closest friends in the Anteiku shop are Touka Kirishima, Nishiki Nishio, Hiname Fueguchi, Hide, and etc.

Season 2 Post-Aogiri
After, joining the Aogiri Tree, Kaneki's personality in season 2, seems to be cruel and sadistic, as he fights Touka and other past friends of him. He also mercilessly breaks Ayato's bones.

Kaneki became extremely aggressive and strong, and having his kagune weapon makes him stronger, or gives him a strength to fight his enemies. Though in the end it is unknown if he redeemed himself.

Psychological self
In the middle to the last episode of season 1, a ghoul tortures him, and later Rize Kamishiro appeared in his hallucinations, making him remember all Kaneki's past, after this, Kaneki became violent, extremely feral mind, and tries to kill the one who tortures him.

In season 2, Kaneki became a more extremely brutal and aggressive fighter, fighting anyone without fear, and using his powers.

Kaneki seems to be psychopathic in the second season.

Powers and abilities
Ghoul Power: After the incident of steal beam, Kaneki becomes truly a ghoul, and inherited all the powers of the villain Rize Kamishiro. At first he can't control his powers but, later in the series he mastered to control it and uses it to defense himself.

Superhuman strength: Kaneki seems to have a high-level degree of superhuman strength due to Kaneki, ability to lift heavy things. And survive when fell into a rock or a hard concrete wall.

Immortality: Kaneki seems to have a immortal self due to being dead, he can survived if any shot him in his body parts or his head.

High-level Pain Immunity: Kaneki seems to be immune to any pain he will get, even if you stab him more times and even if someone throw at him a large truck.

Supernatural Regeneration: Kaneki inherited this power to Rize Kamishiro due to Kamishiro's ability to regenerate faster to avoid death.

High Intelligence: Kaneki seems to be extremely intelligent due to being studying hard, he is also cunning.

Martial Arts: Kaneki is extremely aggressive fighter due to his ghoul physiology and always reading about martial arts and other defensive skills.

Trivia

 * In the original manga, Kaneki never joined the Aogiri Tree after defeating Yamori and escaped. Instead, Kaneki returned back to his group, and they were involved in a confrontation against Akihiro Kanou.
 * Kaneki (金木) means "golden tree" and Ken (研) means "to grind/polish" or "study".
 * Kaneki's personality change on season 2, giving him a psychotic state.
 * Sasaki (佐々木) means "wren" and Haise (琲世) means "halsband world." The name was created using the kanji from "coffee" and "world".
 * Kaneki has a habit of touching his chin with his left hand when he is hiding something. This habit appears to be subconscious, as he still does it even after his memory loss.
 * In the first character popularity poll, Kaneki was ranked first. In the latest, he was second while Haise Sasaki came third.