Sui Ishida's hit series Tokyo Ghoul is a grim but exciting entry in the world of seinen manga, imagining a dark world where flesh-eating ghouls hunt humans with impunity and terrorize the night. Despite all this, there is a ray of hope, and protagonist Ken Kaneki is certain he can find a way to heal this "wrong" world.
Ken is in for the adventure of a lifetime when he becomes exposed to the world of ghouls. As a half-ghoul himself, he is on the border between the human and supernatural realms, and his quest to fix this wounded world will lead him to shocking revelations and difficult choices to make. These five stunning plot twists best defined the story of Tokyo Ghoul.
When Rize Kamishiro Attacked Ken Kaneki
This is the key plot point that set the events of Tokyo Ghoul in motion. Ken was a perfectly ordinary college student who bonded with a beautiful young woman named Rize Kamishiro over a love of literature. Rize invited Ken on a date, and the two of them really hit it off -- until they were walking alone together one night in an abandoned street.
Rize revealed her true ghoul nature and ravenously attacked Ken, until some steel beams at a construction site fell and impaled her. The injured Ken was taken to a hospital, but more importantly, Rize's organs were transplanted into him to save his life. Now he has become a half-ghoul, with his left eye turned solid red.
When Ken Was Accepted Into Anteiku As A Ghoul In Need
This plot point happened not long after Ken's transformation into a half-ghoul. He was slowly starving to death but refused to even try to eat people. Helpless and alone with nothing but his intense ghoul hunger, he also failed to get along with Touka Kirishima when they first met. But Ken approached her again at the coffee shop called Anteiku, where the kind owner, Mr. Yoshimura, took pity on him.
He allowed Ken to use Anteiku as a second home where ghouls and humans co-existed in peace, which put him on track to become a proper ghoul at last. This also allowed him and Touka to become proper allies, and she started training Ken underneath the shop. Without Anteiku and Mr. Yoshimura's help, Ken wouldn't have gotten very far in Tokyo Ghoul.
When Aogiri Tree Kidnapped Ken
Later in Tokyo Ghoul, the ghoul terrorist organization called Aogiri Tree made its move when Ayato Kirishima, Touka's younger brother, personally captured Ken in Anteiku with the aid of the brutal Yamori/Jason. Ken was brought before Aogiri Tree's higher-ups, including the vicious Tatara, and was kept as their prisoner for a time. This was Ken's chance to meet a new ally, a kind ghoul man named Banjo.
Most importantly though, Ken's capture led to his torture at the hands of Yamori, which broke down his mental barriers and allowed him to fully embrace his ghoul nature at last. At one point Ken broke free, devoured Yamori's kagune to obtain a kakuja, then escaped as a fully-fledged ghoul warrior. This never would have happened at Anteiku.
When Ken Learned About Dr. Kano's Ghoul Experiments
Ken was free from Aogiri Tree but still needed answers -- at last, he had the power and the initiative to seek them out. He formed a small party with Banjo and his former enemy, the aristocratic Shu Tsukiyama, and infiltrated a remote mansion owned by Dr. Kano.
Down there, Ken and his allies discovered the truth: Dr. Kano had deliberately put Rize's organs in his body to make an artificial ghoul, and there were many more lab-grown ghouls. What is more, Rize wasn't even dead -- Dr. Kano was still using her to make new ghouls and experiment with ghoul biology. The doctor saw this as the means with which to escape the suffocating confines of a dangerous world, and Ken was determined to take him down. But vengeance would have to wait, since more of Ken's enemies arrived, including CCG investigator Kotaro Amon.
When Ken Lost To Kisho Arima & Lost His Ghoul Memories
Later on, the CCG prepared for a massive raid on Anteiku to take down the fabled one-eyed owl. Every expert ghoul hunter -- from Kotaro Amon and the impish Juzo Suzuya to Kisho Arima himself -- was on the scene. Ken faced Arima in a duel near a massive pile of dead ghouls, but it was in vain. Despite his incredible centipede-like kakuja, he was no match for Arima's advanced quinque and technique as he suffered a serious blow to the head.
Ken lost and later woke with zero memories of being a ghoul. He now went by the name Sasaki and approached the CCG investigator Akira Mado as her subordinate and junior-level ghoul investigator. This proved that Ken was not yet ready for his ultimate triumph in this dark world, and also set up the events of Tokyo Ghoul:re.