History Manga / TokyoGhoul

* DiesDifferentlyInTheAdaptation: 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 ReforgedIntoAMinion before being put down for good.

* HumanMomNonhumanDad: Justified. Itori explains to Kaneki that if a female Ghoul became pregnant with a human's child, her body would simply treat her offspring like a food source and absorb it for nutrients. [[spoiler: The only way for a natural One-Eyed Ghoul to be born is for the human mother to resort to cannibalism]].

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Among those associated with the Quinx Project, Akira is literally the only one with a natural hair color. Sasaki has MultiColoredHair that is black and white, Arima has white hair that was once dark blue, Urie has dark purple hair, Mutsuki has teal hair, Saiko has blue hair, and Shirazu's blond hair has a distinctly orange cast to it.

The manga ended at 143 chapters on September 18, 2014, with a total of 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.

[[folder: Tokyo Ghoul movie]]
!!The upcoming live-action film provides examples of:
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* HypotheticalCasting: In a tweet, Ishida confirmed that the actor he imagined playing Ken Kaneki has been cast in the lead role.
* LiveActionAdaptation: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

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[[/folder]]

''Tokyo Ghoul'' is a {{seinen}} manga series that mixes together elements of horror and action, starting off with references to ''Literature/TheMetamorphosis'', but quickly switching into a tragic story about the circle of violence between humans and [[OurGhoulsAreCreepier ghouls]].

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler: Rize]], the circumstances of whose disappearance and return set off major development for Kaneki.

* ConstructionZoneCalamity: 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.

** In the very first chapter, [[http://www.mangareader.net/toukyou-kushu/1/5 Hide and Kaneki discuss ghouls over coffee]], and they both draw what they think ghouls look like. [[spoiler:Kaneki draws something that look a lot of like the One-Eyed Owl, and Hide jokingly draws [[TemptingFate 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 [[SecretSecretKeeper simply never told him]].]]

** [[spoiler:The [[http://www.mangahere.co/manga/toukyou_kushu/c002/2.html bug]] mentioned in Kaneki's discussion of ''The Metamorphosis'' looks a lot like a centipede.]]

* TacticalRockPaperScissors: 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 [[http://mangachrome.co/toukyou-kushu/53/15/ here]].

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler: 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.]]

* BigBad: The One-Eyed Owl [[spoiler:[[BigBadEnsemble and]] Souta Wasshu-Furuta]], as in the manga.

* AnimationBump: The series has a darker color palate and notably characters more closely resemble their manga counterparts.

* Banjo Kazuichi is a walking shout out to, of all things, ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'', 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.

** 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.
* SamusIsAGirl: Disguising their gender is a trick used by many infamous Ghouls, taking advantage of the tendency to assume a deadly Ghoul is male. [[spoiler: 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 a homosexual male ghoul.

* SmallReferencePools: A minor theme throughout the series is based on various characters' interest in literature. Every time someone is shown reading a novel, it's a work by Takatsuki Sen.

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Haise Sasaki is a highly-skilled and hard-working Investigator, but treated with suspicion by his peers due to his [[HalfHumanHybrid half-Ghoul]] nature.
* AnchoredShip: [[spoiler: After a couple hundred chapters, Kaneki and Touka finally receive the [[RelationshipUpgrade Relationship Upgrade]] that's been teased at for almost the entire run of the first and second manga.]]
** [[spoiler:Naki and Miza]] end up together and are shown to have produced children in the final chapter.

** Rushima[=/=]Cochlea Raids: Tatara, Torso, and Kishou Arima.

* BreatherEpisode[=/=]ChristmasEpisode: Chapter 31.5, which focuses on the Quinx and friends celebrating the holiday at the Chateau.

* CatchAFallingStar: [[spoiler: 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]].
* CannibalLarder: 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.

* CoitusEnsues: [[spoiler: Kaneki and Touka spend Chapter 125 having sex for the first time]].

* LostInTranslation[=/=]DubInducedPlotHole: In the official translation of the first series, Kaneki and Hide give Takatsuki Sen the name of "Kan''a''ki" 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.

* OfficialCouple: Kaneki and Touka eventually reach this point, [[spoiler:complete with consummation and child]].

* PreAssKickingOneLiner: Hirako gives one to his former superiors.

** [[spoiler: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 translation gets even more muddled when poetry gets involved, such as in chapter 139. [[spoiler:The translation available during the part Kaneki recites the poem probably doesn't make sense unless you find the accompanying notes that [[http://kyoujikuzunoha.tumblr.com/post/97521824298 various users]] have provided.]]

** Kimi is 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 [[LoveRedeems joining Anteiku]] and becoming a kinder person overall.

** 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.

* SamusIsAGirl: Disguising their gender is a trick used by many infamous Ghouls, taking advantage of the tendency to assume a deadly Ghoul is male. [[spoiler: 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 a woman.

* ToServeMan: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] as the only things ghouls can digest besides human flesh is coffee and other ghouls and the former can only sustain them for so long while the latter is...[[ImAHumanitarian well...]]

* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: Invoked. Investigators convince the Kirishima's 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, Ghoul children tend to subvert this by being gentle until forced to grow up ''very'' quickly.
* {{Tsundere}}: Touka, who's normally violent, but has a vulnerable side around those she trust or those who surprise her, in the case of Hide in the first chapter.

* CerebusSyndrome: About the first quarter of :re is very light-hearted compared to the original series (one of the first scenarios is [[ItMakesSenseInContext the Quinx attempting to steal Sasaki's underwear]]). It isn't very long however before the series reverts to the tone of the original, and at times is even darker.

* ExactWords: Sasaki's kindness will be the death of him. [[spoiler: He serves as an aspect of Kaneki that's compliant and nice, but that's a facade to the world. On realizing this Sasaki "dies" so that Kaneki can be born again.]]

** Ken's morality gets in the way of his ambitions both as a Ghoul and as [[spoiler:The One-Eyed King]], and weakens him.

* LostInTranslation [=/=] DubInducedPlotHole: In the official translation of the first series, Kaneki and Hide give Takatsuki Sen the name of "Kan''a''ki" 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.

** [[spoiler: Kishou Arima and Nimura Furuta are both agents of V, and Eto claims that the Washuus are in bed with the organization]].

* WellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: 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 to achieve their goals]].

* WhamShot: When the CCG defeats [[spoiler: Yoshimura in his "Owl" form]], everyone celebrates the defeat of a powerful, monsterous ghoul, then, almost immeditaely afterwards[[spoiler: out of nowhere ''another'' monsterous looking version of the One-eyed Owl appears.]]

** ''"My salvation is...."''

** "Kenderella": Kaneki is abused by his WickedStepmother 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.

* MissedHimByThatMuch: After the TimeSkip, Kaneki has been actively avoiding Hide......who becomes an intern at [[HunterOfMonsters 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.

** Mutsuki is amazingly tolerant of abuse....right up until he's ''not''. [[spoiler: 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]].

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: 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 SecretlyDying, and chose to end things before his body broke down further]].

* HeirClubForMen: [[spoiler: The sole survivor of the Rosewald family was the youngest child, Karen.....who became Kanae and decided to carry on his [[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe brothers' task]] of reviving the family]].

** [[spoiler: Arima's role in being the One-Eyed King was to hold the title until someone could kill him, becoming a HopeBringer 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]].

** A Type 5 ([[LoveDodecahedron 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 GibberishOfLove. Unfortunately for him, Mutsuki actually has feelings for [[spoiler: Sasaki/Kaneki... to a [[{{Yandere}} violently obsessive]] degree]].

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: Because it follows a slightly different path to the original manga, a number of Kaneki's reasons for doing things are not explained, which makes following 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.
* AlternateContinuity: 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''

* OutOfFocus: 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 for his appearances. It says something when the most dialogue he's had for several episodes is feral rambling as his kakuja begins to act up.

** Noyama and Koharu were adopted by a wealthy human SerialKiller, 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.

** When Urie screams out in Chapter 55 [[spoiler: after the death of Shirazu,]] its drawn quite similar to another event with the same circumstances in ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', specifically, [[spoiler: Jojo shouting out CEEESAAAAAAAAR after the latter's death.]]

* TookALevelInJerkass: [[spoiler: 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 HistoryRepeats....

* LostInTranslation: While otherwise solid, During Kaneki's battle with Shinohara in episode 5 Creator/{{Funimation}} gives us this gem:

* CrazyConsumption: Tsukiyama to the other ghouls. He's absolutely obsessed with eating.

** BlessedWithSuck: 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.

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: 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 TykeBomb 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 RaisedByOrcs -- Shinohara accomplishes in a few months what the Academy couldn't be bothered to do given ''years''.
** The Academy staff in fact framed Juuzou, [[spoiler: 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.]]

* DysfunctionJunction: Almost every single character is messed up in some capacity, with either serious psychological issues or a traumatic past. Justified by the CrapSackWorld 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.

* FoodPorn: {{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, that gets downright nauseating.

** When Kaneki asks his younger self what he thinks about his mother, the kid responds that she is a great person [[CharacterTics while scratching his chin.]][[spoiler:In Re, it is later revealed that [[AbusiveParents Kaneki's mom isn't as kind as she seemed.]]]]

* VanHelsingHateCrimes: Ghouls eat human flesh and the CCG exists to stop them. It's technically forbidden to inflict "extreme suffering" on a confirmed ghoul when putting them down, but the latter 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 therefore sadistically torture, mock and maim the ones they find. The ones who do get put down humanely 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 recieving much education (many are illiterate), lose their own families and friends to the CCG, and have trouble trusting humans out of fear they'll be betrayed and executed. The ones that aren't raised to view humans 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.

** Haise Sasaki bears a more than notable resemblance to the previous protagonist, being a kindhearted bookworm with concealed mental issues [[spoiler: Subverted in that it turns out that Sasaki ''is'' Kaneki, suffering from amnesia and given a new identity by CCG]].

** A very messy Type 5. Kanae turns out to be in love with [[KissingCousins 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 [[MurderTheHypotenuse 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, [[spoiler: Kaneki pulls off a gambit to save Tsukiyama......by forcing Kanae to sacrifice her life to save him]].

** A Type 5 ([[LoveDodecahedron 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 GibberishOfLove. Unfortunately for him, Mutsuki actually has feelings for [[spoiler: Sasaki/Kaneki......to a [[{{Yandere}} violently obsessive]] degree]].

** Chapter 63: The chapter combines this with a WhamLine, when [[spoiler: 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.

** [[spoiler: Mutsuki]] ends up being one towards Sasaki, including thinking about killing Touka. [[spoiler: When Uta disguises himself as Sasaki to surprise Mutsuki......he ends up being stabbed repeatedly while Mutsuki begs him to never leave again]].

* DemotedToExtra: Tsukiyama and Banjou have significantly decreased roles, in comparison to the manga version of events.

* LostInTranslation: During Kaneki's battle with Shinohara in episode 5, Creator/{{Funimation}} gives us this gem:

* WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere: The experience of any particularly hungry Ghoul that lives among humans. In particular, Kaneki experiences this repeatedly when he first becomes a HalfHumanHybrid, and struggles with suddenly viewing human beings as a tasty snack.

* CharacterTic: Used heavily in relation to several characters.

** Chapter 6 delivers one in the form of a CliffHanger with [[spoiler: Sasaki's kagune manifesting as he [[CharacterTic cracks his knuckle]], tears streaming down his face]].