Tatara

Tatara (in Japanese: タタラ, Tatara) is a ghoul and is one of the major recurring antagonists of the supernatural dark fantasy manga/anime series, Tokyo Ghoul. He is the Second-In-Command of the Aogiri Tree and is one of the direct subordinates of the One-Eyed King putting him in the position as one of Aogiri's top leaders.

Early life
Tatara was born in China where he was part of a ghoul organization called Chi She Lian and was friends with fellow members Fie and Yan sometime in the past. One day however, a Ghoul Investigator from the C.C.G. known as Kousuke Houji had assisted Chinese Authorities in tracking down the Chi She Lian organization and destroyed it leaving Tatara as the only known/sole survivor of the organization. Tatara then fled to Japan to escape China and survive where he was attracted by the preachings of Ghoul Supremacy by the mysterious One-Eyed King and he then joined the Aogiri Tree. Overtime, he had become one of the direct subordinates of the King and became the Second-in-Command of the Aogiri Tree. Sometime the past, Tatara had ran into Ayato Kirishima where he saw his power and potential, and recruited him into Aogiri.

Aogiri Arc
Tatara first appears in the Aogiri Arc of the story. His first appearance in the anime was where along with Noro and the Bin Brothers were attacking a small nearby local CCG Compound. Tatara found the last survivng Ghoul Investigator in the building and immediatly killed him and stated that he was the last one. Tatara then walked onto the roof where he told Eto that all of the CCG Operatives were killed and that they could leave. In the manga, he first appears in Chapter 54 where Ken Kaneki is brought before him after his abduction by Yakumo Oomori, Ayato and Nico following their stop at Anteiku. Tatara looks at Kaneki and pierces his abdomen to have him reveal his kakugan but thinks that his eye is "no good" and leaves him with Ayato. Tatara then leaves with Eto and leaves the 11th Ward Base in Noro's hands and predicts that the CCG will come which they do.

Once the CCG finally arrive, Tatara sits back with Eto as he observes the battle from the distance. Once the battle is over, the Ghoul Detention Center is attacked and Tatra and Eto lead the assault alongside some Aogiri Soldiers. The prison is ravaged and dozens of ghouls are freed and those who survived the raid all team up and join Aogiri expanding the organization's size and numbers.

Raid on Cochlea
Sometime after the 11th Ward Battle, the CCG's Forces were left scattered and were just regrouping and reorganizing when the Aogiri Tree launched an attack on the Ghoul Detention Center in the 23rd Ward. Tatara had participated in the raid and he had killed a Senior Ghoul Investigator sometime durignt he raid. Eventually, he stepped out of the control room and ran into Houji once more where he and Houji had a short little skirmish before being interrupted by Seidou Takizawa and gas was released into the room and left. He eventually fled once the raid was done.

Raid on Kanou's Lab
Post-Aogiri, Tatara and other members of the Aogiri Tree are seen on the hunt for Akihiro Kanou and begin a man-hunt for him. Tatara finds and interrogates Taguchi, a nurse who worked with Kanou, while he was at Kanou General Hospital. He then wraps up the interrogation and gives Noro a foot which possibly belongs to the nurse.

Anteiku Raid
During the CCG's assault on the 20th Ward after Anteiku was revealed to have been a secret ghoul organization, Tatara stands by and waits for Yoshimura and the CCG Forces to be delt with and their numbers thined out. Once the Anteiku forces were wipped out, Eto went in as the One-Eyed Owl and Tatara officially started the Aogiri Assault on the surviving CCG Forces. He led armies of Aogiri Tree troops into battle as he faced off with the beatened yet strongly resisting CCG Forces and confronted Seidou Takizawa. He demanded to know where Houji was but when he refused, he threw him in the air and Noro took a bite out of him causing Amon to go furious and charge at him. Tatara most likely won but Amon's status remains unclear. Sometime after the raid, it's revealed that Tatara took the ruined body of Takizawa to Kanou and allowed him to be turned into an Artificial One-Eyed Ghoul.

Rosewald Investigation
Three years later in Tokyo Ghoul:re, Tatara is still alive and active within Aogiri. Sometime during the Auction, he lead a small team of Aogiri Troops to attack a Quinque Steel Transport but then, the attack fails and is forced to retreat. Back at a greenhouse which is an Aogiri Base, Tatara is being yelled at by Ayato who wants the Aogiri Tree to rescue Hinami from the Ghoul Detention Center and Tatara says no. He soon breaks up a potential fight after Takizawa mocks Ayato for having an affection and stating that he fought her and Tatara berates Ayato for trying to start a fight.

Tsukiyama Family Extermination Operation
Tatara appears in Kanou's laboratory in the aftermath of the Tsukiyama Operation where he's been given new corpses for his experiments. Kanou is seen thanking Tatara for the resourcs he's been provided (especially with the corpse of a Quinx, Ginshi Shirazu) and says that he wishes to talk to Eto. Tatara informs him that Eto's "busy" and that he should stay out of things where he shouldn't be nosing around in.

Rushima Landing Operation
Prior to the operation, Tatara is seen overlooking the distance on the Aogiri Tree base on Rushima during Eto's final press conference. During the CCG's invasion of the Rushima base, Tatara ran into his old adversar, Houji, where he stated that it would be the end for him and he planned to avenge his brother Yan from all those years ago. The two of them would fight with Tatara launching various attacks against Houji only to have them be deflected but then Tatara pratically teleports towards him onlt to be interupted by Seidou. Tatara is mad at Seidou's interfierence but he's then attacked by Takizawa's ukaku kagune and is then impaled. As he is dying, he thinks back to the Anteiku Raid and wonders if Arima got what he wanted by letting him carry away Kaneki. Tatara dies but Houji is killed shortly afterwards making sure he didn't die in vain.

Appearance
Tatara is quite tall as he towers over his partner Eto. He has white hair and red eyes. He wears a red mask which covers the lower half of his face and wears a gigantic blue cloak when he's out on missions. His cloak is similar to the ones that the Bin Brothers wear and like other cloaks that standard Aogiri soldiers waer except his is blue and the standard uniform is red. Underneath the cloak is a big white trench coat that covers his entire body and even his hands.

Personality
Tatara comes across as a quite loyal individual as he is the Second-in-Command of the Aogiri Tree, leads Aogiri's Forces in battle, and is one of the direct subordinates of the One-Eyed King and probably even met him in person once. He is very cold-hearted, ruthless, and sinful when in combat as he will kill any enemy to Aogiri with intense strength and without any hesitation. His stamina is very high and is always monitoring the members of Aogiri. The only time he ever snaps is when he sees someone or something that reminds him of Kousuke Houji, a ghoul invesitgator who led the destruction of the Chi She Lian organization and now seeks vengeance against him. He goes insane even if a quinque is associated with Houji and has immense hatred for the investigator in general. Since he's a member of Aogiri, he believes that ghouls are vastly superior towards humans and believes in the ideology of ghoul supremacy.

Tatara appears to have little, if any, care about the other low-ranking members of the Aogiri Tree. This is shown in the aftermath of the auction where he is reluctant to rescue Hinami from the CCG and is shown to happily leave her behind and when Ayato mentions the many members of Aogiri who had died and asked if they were all disposable in the organization, Tatara refers to them as stray dogs and says that shey should behave like them confirming his darwinian and fascistic view of low-ranking and weaker Aogiri members. It is unknown why Tatara is fine with leaving captured members behind and shows no care for them dying but it is probably stemming from his past where he had lost his friends Fei and Yan and most likely tries to avoid personal attatchments with other people. Eto however, is Tatara's friend leaving the assumption that he has a semi-friendship with Eto. Tatara also appears to be a nihlist as he shows no care for his subordinates and views everyone under his authority as mere pawns.

Relationships

 * Eto: The exact relationship between the two, both of them are close together and discuss matters to each other. Tatara values Eto very great fully and is always by her side. Since the two of them are constantly close together, it is quite possible that they are friends as Eto knows a lot about him personally. Tatara is also smart and knows alot os answers to questions that Eto may ask. Since both of them are executives, it's unknown who has authority over who or it they are equal in terms of power and they respect and like each other greatly. Eto also knows very personal information about Tatara showing how close the two of them are.
 * Noro: Tatara is the superior to Noro and he always follows his commands. Since both Noro and Tatara are the only two direct subordinates to the One-Eyed King and an omake from Eto says that Noro would be sad if something bad were to happen to Tatara implying that the two of them are very close together personally.
 * Ken Kaneki: Tatara looked down on Kaneki and labeled him a weakling and a fool upon his first encounter with him. He discards him but it becomes a major mistake that haunts Aogiri and Eto claimed that he should've killed him. In the anime however, Kaneki joins Aogiri and Tatara most likely respects him.
 * Akihiro Kanou: Though he's nothing more but a mere human, Tatara respects Kanou as he is a great benefit to the Aogiri Tree. With his experiments, Aogiri is given a new bread of Artificial One-Eyed Ghouls which makes them strong and very powerful soldiers. They have a professional relationship with each other.
 * Kousuke Houji: Tatara has an immense and deep hatred of the Ghoul Investigator Houji. Because he had worked with authorities in China back in the past, he is responsible for the destruction of the Chi She Lian ghoul organization which Tatara was apart of. He now seeks revenge against the investigator and will kill/destroy anything and anyone who's associated/affiliated with him.
 * Seidou Takizawa: Tatara took an interest in Takizawa back when he was a human and an investigator. He notices that his quinque was made from a ghoul named Fei and was an old friend of Tatara. He got mad deep down inside and threw Takizawa an Noro for a snack. Following the Raid on Anteiku, Tatara handed Seidou over to Kanou for his experiments and is responsible for turning him into a One-Eyed Ghoul. Two-years later in Tokyo Ghoul:re, Tatara most likely is forced to work beside him but since he's a ghoul now, the two won't have tension but they're yet to be seen together.
 * One-Eyed King: Tatara is one of the two direct subordinates to the One-Eyed King and thus is very close to him. Tatara has sworn absolute allegiance to the King and obeys and follows his every order. This is most likely due to the fact that he was one of the many ghouls attracted to the King's preachings on ghoul supremacy and seeks to make that dream a reality.
 * Ayato Kirishima: Ayato and Tatara have a very limited interaction with each other. Tatara is responsible for Ayato being a part of the Aogiri Tree and is Ayato's superior and Ayato never questioned any of his orders. Once Hinami is kidnapped by the CCG however, Ayato is mad that Tatara won't save her.
 * Fei and Yan: While information about Tatara's past is limited, he seems to have had a personal attatchment towards them leaivng the assumption that they were once possibly his friends. Tatara most likely spent a lot of time with them and once they were killed, he mad and Houji and has since than sworn to kill Houji in order to avenge his fallen comrades.
 * Hakatori: Hakatori is Tatara's direct subordinate so the two share a master-subordinate type of relationship. Since he has a lack of care for his subordinates, he most likely doesn't care for her either.
 * Bin Brothers: The Bin Brothers were once his loyal subordinates and followed his every command. Despite this however, Tatara had no concern for them as they were nothing more but pieces in his eyes. In fact, Tatara views all of his subordinates as pieces as comfirmed when answering yes to a question that Ayato had.
 * Matasaka Kamishiro: Tatara has a negative view and hatred for Shachi. He thinks of him as nothing more than a coward which is implied during his berating of Ayato for blaming Shachi's influence over Ayato for causing him to go soft. This also stems from the fact that Shachi doesn't kill humans which Tatara hates.

Powers and Abilities

 * Ghoul Physiology: As a ghoul, Tatara has considerable superhuman strength and enhanced natural abilities as well as a strong and powerful kagune as well.
 * Unknown Kagune: Tatara has a large and powerful kagune that is seen being capable of slaughtering an entire squad of CCG Soldiers which he had done before Siedou had interviened. In Root A, his kagune is partially seen during his confrontation with Seidou.
 * Unknown Kakuja: Tatara has a kagune which he aquired from cannibalism of other ghouls. His kakuja is well-developed and covers his entire body in armor.
 * Red Cell Pyrokinesis: One of Tatara's most unique abilities is that he has the ability of pyrokinesis that no other ghoul so far has. The emisions from his RC Cells in his body are able to produce flames that can be as hot as 4,000 degress celcius as noted by Akira and  he can alter the size and scale of the flame as well. He's seen using is pyrokinesis ability during the Rushima landing where he incinerates an entire squad of CCG Soldiers.
 * Superhuman Agility: Tatara has advanced superhuman agility like many ghouls but to a greater degree. Tatara is very fast to the point where he's pratically teleported due to his speed.
 * Superhuman Durability: In Root A, it's implied that Tatara has strong superhuman durability and has a strong regeneration factor as well. This is implied from him taking impacts from Houji's hollow and Misaki's quinque all without sustaining damage or wounds.

Weakness
Like all ghouls, Tatara cannot eat and consume human food otherwise it'll weaken him. Q-Bullets are most likely to cause him any harm. However, he is immensely strong, very powerful, and most likely has very few, if any weaknesses at all.

Trivia

 * He ranks 18th in Character Popularity.
 * Tatara is relatively calm despite his vengeance against Houji.
 * Tatara has a personal attachment to his former colleagues back in China since he wants revenge for Houji killing them and destroying their organization.
 * His full powers are yet to be fully revealed in the series.