Ken Kaneki/Haise Sasaki (Tokyo Ghoul)

"'If, lets say, you were to write a story with me as the main character, it would certainly be a tragedy. No. Everyone’s the same, in fact. He’s the main character of his novel, and she’s the main character of her movie. All those that walk this earth are the main characters of their own tragedies. All steal, and from all, something is stolen. We can’t help it. That’s who we are. Steal, and be stolen. Imprison, and be imprisoned. Follow, and be followed. Do, and be done. Affirm and negate over and over. We fight ceaselessly to save ourselves from loss. And yet the people and places we love will one day surely be lost. We will all surely be forgotten. Life is sad. Empty. But, despite knowing we will one day be bereft, despite knowing we will one day disappear, we still strive in wretched ways. We still wish to be beautiful. And I consider. “Which one?” I choose. “This one.” Forever choosing, forever being chosen. Nothing more. Nothing less.'" "- Ken Kaneki"

Ken Kaneki is the main protagonist of the dark manga series Tokyo Ghoul, and its sequel, Tokyo Ghoul:re. He is currently the husband of Touka Kirishima, the father of Ichika Kaneki, and the best friend of Hide Nagachika. Previously, he was a student who studied Japanese literature at Kamii University, living a relatively normal life. However, this quickly changed after Rize Kamishiro's kakuhou was transplanted into him and transformed him into a one-eyed ghoul. Kaneki is the first known artificial one-eyed ghoul. His unique half ghoul state is what later inspires the idea of the Quinx. After joining Anteiku as a part-time waiter, he learns how to live as a ghoul and eventually becomes known as Eyepatch (眼帯, Gantai).

Why He Rocks

 * 1) The way Kaneki lived through with his upside down life painfully, is how he accepted his own tragedy. Making viewers sympathize and feel along with him. His personality changes after being haunted and traumatized, Kaneki's mental state undergoes extreme changes over the course of the series. Before his torture, Kaneki would at times refer to his actions as "we" or "us," albeit mostly while in a stressed state:
 * 2) * Human Kaneki: A shy college student who just want to read books. Upon meeting with Rize, he almost gets eaten, then gets Rize's organs transplanted inside of him, and becomes a ghoul. After knowing that he can no longer eat normal food and live as a human being, Kaneki must overcome his conflict and learn how hard it is for a ghoul to live in society.
 * 3) * White hair Kaneki: After being tortured by the infamous Jason, he accepts his ghoul side and became cold hearted. He forms a group of ghouls to stop Aogiri Tree from commiting acts of terrorism.
 * 4) * Haise Sasaki: After his encounter with the CCG's white reaper, Kishou Arima, and gets his head impaled and both of his eyes gouged out, Kaneki survives, but suffered from amnesia and lived under a new name: Haise Sasaki, and he is working with the enemy of ghouls. Haise may have his dorky side, but he is actually a reliable mentor. While funny, yet he is haunted by his former self.
 * 5) * Black Reaper: Sasaki has regained his old memories, in sharp contrast and a much more opposite compared to his previously gentle personality, Sasaki became colder and much more violent. He fought with more brutal force and was willing to put Tsukiyama's life at risk, despite already remembering his old acquaintance. And after meeting Touka, Yomo, and Ayato again, he makes a vow where he is going to sacrifice himself as his final mission and for his old friends to escape Cochlea.
 * 6) * One Eyed King: He gained a new personality where he will stay alive to protect his friends and loved ones. After Arima had committed suicide, Kaneki makes a promise to be king for Arima in order to make peace between humans and ghouls.
 * 7) * Post Dragon: Although not much of a personality change, but during his final confrontation with Rize, Kaneki reflects on his life, finds his own redemption, as he recognizes that everyone is their own protagonist, and that his tragedy doesn't make him anymore special than anyone else. He knows that the world is a harsh and unforgiving place, but despite it all, people will still strive to be loved and chosen by those around them. As a result, he'll carry on and choose and be chosen, nothing more, nothing less.
 * 8) Both Natsuki Hanae (Japanese) and Austin Tindle (English) did an amazing performance voicing him.
 * 9) His character design may start out simple at first, based from his human state, but it gets better as story progresses. Going from having white hair and monochrome clothing from Jason's torture, back to black hair, dons glasses and trench coat as the Black Reaper, then finally, back to white hair, except grew longer in length and dragon marks on the eyes to the neck, and a large scar on the left side of his face.
 * 10) He doesn't hesitate to help anyone whenever they are hurt. For example, Nishiki being beaten up by one of the thieves, he helps him. Despite the fact that both Kaneki and Hide were treated harshly by Nishiki.
 * 11) He gets accepted by people who share a similar backstory with him, including his own enemies, Kishou Arima and Eto Yoshimura. Which is why he is much stronger than before.
 * 12) The relationship between him and Touka is very entertaining. Back when Kaneki had at first gone to her for help when his hunger was becoming increasingly worse, but Touka harshly rejected him after he stated he was different from "monsters" like her. She refused to show any compassion and beat him up, telling him to go and die on his own. She thought of him as a fool for his refusal to eat human meat despite being aware he was formerly human. When Kaneki joined Anteiku, Touka had little patience for his mistakes and lack of knowledge of ghoul-related affairs, much to his dismay, causing him to think of her as scary.
 * 13) His Post Dragon Kagune in the final battle against Furuta looks awesome. He also has massive cross-shaped blades attached to them that he can swing around as close range weapons or extend long distances. In addition, he can use these as shields to defend against even the strongest of attacks. Their defensive power are great enough to withstand an attack from Dragon with Kaneki sustaining little to no damage.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) While likable, he isn't properly protrayed in the anime. In the manga, he is traumatized, yet he is living happily with Hinami, Tsukiyama, and Banjou. However in Season 2, he is nothing but a sad, yet vengeful young man. Not helping the fact that he almost has the same personality as Jotaro Kujo from JoJo's Bizzare Adventure.
 * 2) * Speaking of the anime, he joined Aogiri. First, he gets kidnapped and tortured by them, then he gets rescued by his friends, then goes back to the organization where he was kidnapped and decides to join them, which was one of the dumbest decisions that any anime character has done.
 * 3) Hypocritical move: He trashed his previous ideology of "It's better to hurt rather than hurting others," pledging to crush those who dared threaten his place of belonging.

Trivia

 * The term "Kaneki" translates as "gold tree" while "Sasaki" translates to "Helpful Wood".
 * The name "Haise" was created by combining the kanji from "coffee" and "world". The kanji used for "Ken" is the same one used for "to sharpen" i.e. sharpen one's fangs.
 * 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 Tokyo Ghoul popularity poll, he was ranked 2nd, then Touka was ranked 1st, while Haise Sasaki was ranked 3rd.
 * Kaneki likes reading, beautiful language, intellectual women, and hamburgers.
 * His Japanese voice actor Natsuki Hanae, also voiced Kousei Arima from Your Lie in April, and Tanjirou Kamado from Kimitsu no Yaiba. His English voice actor Austin Tindle, also voiced Vali Lucifer from the High School DXD series, Ayumu Aikawa from Is This a Zombie?, and Marco Bodt from Attack on Titan.