In this exclusive and vital second season of Tokyo Ghoul, the journey of the protagonist is displayed.
He goes through many ordeals and overcomes those while involving other important characters along the way.
Synopsis
In second season, protagonist Kaneki Ken overcame his flesh-craving, ghoul-like characteristics. He came out much stronger after withstanding the immense torture of Jason.
But, when he declared his intention to join the same Aogiri Tree that was the reason for his suffering, his friend at Anteiku showed disbelief and distrust.
The whole ordeal in the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, started after that, as he spearheaded Aogiri Tree’s missions, CCG became more concerned about the 20th ward where the Anteiku were.
Leading Characters
Kaneki Ken
Kaneki Ken was a naive introvert and an avid book-lover college student. After his father died in his early childhood, he received his book collections and has been fond of them since.
After surviving an attack from a ghoul named Rize by the accidental death of her, her organs were transplanted inside him.
This process turned him into a half-ghoul, half-human hybrid. In the second season he accepted his nature as a ghoul.
Kamishiro Rize
Kamishiro Rize is a unique ghoul who needs to consume humans in larger numbers than a regular ghoul.
At first, she used to live in another area. Later she came to the area where Kaneki lives suddenly.
She met Kaneki under the pretext of a date while plotting to eat him which resulted in her accidental death.
Later her organs were transplanted into the body of Kaneki, turning him into a half-ghoul, half-human hybrid.
She isn’t physically present in the second season.
Hide
Hide is the only friend the naive and introvert Kaneki has. He had been Kaneki’s best friend since childhood.
Hide has a keen sense of understanding things, but never goes out of bounds by pointing things out.
When Kaneki turned into a half-ghoul, half-human hybrid he sensed some discrepancies in his behavior but chose to not worry Kaneki over that.
Even in the second season, he continued to act oblivious and worry about Kaneki at the same time.
Kirishima Touka
Kirishima Touka is a high school girl, a little bit rough around the edges and only rude to Kaneki due to his negative take on ghoul in general at the beginning.
She is a very strong ghoul, protective of his community.
She hates the CCG from her guts, as they hunt ghouls indiscriminately.
After killing an investigator from CCG in the first season, her she became a target under CCG reader in the second season.
Yoshimura
Yoshimura is a warm person and the boss of the cafe Anteiku that Kaneki frequented before he became a half-ghoul, half-human hybrid. He is also the leader of the organization Anteiku, built for the ghouls by the ghouls.
He was the person who helped Kaneki, adjust to the human world after he became half-ghoul.
Yoshimura previously used to be a cold-blooded killer for hire. But later he fell in love with a human girl Ukina and had a child with her and changed his way.
This fact about him is disclosed in the second season.
Ukina
Ukina was the human wife of Yoshimura who appeared in the second season. She accepted Yoshimura’s ghoul side and loved him.
She gave birth to his child who was a half-ghoul, with very difficulties.
Owl
A half-ghoul, like Kaneki. Its identity is a mystery and physically appears in the second season. It is the strongest ghoul in the entire Tokyo.
Nishio Nishiki
Nishio Nishiki is a short-tampered ghoul, who is very sensitive about his territory.
He is a senior at the same college in which Kaneki and Hideo study.
Before he knew of Kaneki, Kaneki once intruded into his territory and was almost killed by him.
Even though he thinks of humans as nothing more than food, he is in love with a human girl, which is shows in second season.
Koma Enji
Koma Enji is a proud waiter at Anteiku with a pinch of playfulness in him. He is an excellent coffee brewer next to Yoshimura.
In the past, he used to be a violent leader of the Apes Ghoul gang but later changed his way by the influence of Yoshimura.
This fact became clear in the second season even though he used to brag about his feats since the first season.
Irimi Kaya
Irimi Kaya is a waitress at Anteiku with a tranquil personality.
In the past, she used to be a gang leader of Black Dober a ghoul gang which became known in the second season.
Hinami
Hinami is a small girl, her father and mother both were killed by CCG investigator Kureo Mado.
She loves to read books but couldn’t go to school due to her being a ghoul. So, Kaneki often helped her read difficult words.
After Kaneki went to Aogiri Tree in the second season, she missed him the most.
Mado Kureo
Mado Kureo was a CCG first-class investigator who killed any and every ghoul indiscriminately like a madman.
He collected all the Kagune of the ghouls he killed and Makes Quinque.
Quinque is a weapon made from Kagune to deal with ghouls.
According to him, ghouls are inferior to humans and are trash who are trying to imitate human behavior.
He was hell bound to take revenge on another half-ghoul except for Kaneki.
That ghoul killed his wife.
He was killed by Touka in the first season and his daughter succeeded him in the second season.
Amon Koutarou
Amon Koutarou is a CCG first-class detective with a strong sense of justice.
He was subordinate to Mado Kureo.
After Mado’s death, his daughter Mado Akira became his partner in the second season.
He thinks that the world isn’t right, it has become twisted.
Due to some negative experiences due to ghouls in his childhood, he thinks they are the ones twisting the world in this way.
According to him, no ghoul is innocent and all of them need to be purged. But after meeting Kaneki, whom he calls eye patch he started to doubt his previous thoughts little bit.
Mado Akira
Mado Akira is the daughter of Mado Kureo and an excellent 2nd class CCG investigator.
She first appears in the second season of Tokyo Ghoul.
She is very punctual and efficient.
She aims to take revenge for both her father and mother.
Shinohara Yukinori
Shinohara Yukinori is a Special Class CCG Investigator.
Yukinori was Mado Kureo’s first partner and last partner of Suzuya Juuzou.
He was the instructor of Amon Koutarou at CCG Academy. He has a cheerful personality.
His character is covered in the second season in detail.
Suzuya Juuzou
Suzuya Juuzou was raised by a violent ghoul for entertainment.
After being rescued by the CCG he was placed under the care of Shinohara Yukinori and in future, he became Juuzou’s partner.
Oomori Yakumo
Oomori Yakumo is a strong and brutish ghoul who indulges in torturing others and eating his species.
His sadistic need for torture developed in a prison he was previously in, at the hand of his interrogator.
His body developed beyond a normal ghoul’s due to his cannibalistic habit.
He is manipulative and uses violence to get whatever he wants.
Due to his nature and his always wearing a hockey mask while “working” he was named Jason.
He was also famous by the name Yamori, as his facial features resembled that of a lizard.
Naki
Naki is the self-proclaimed brother of Yamori and his first appearance was in the second season. He is unhinged.
After the death of Yamori by the hand of CCG he became hell-bent on revenge.
What’s in the story ?
Opening
In the first season, half-ghoul protagonist Kaneki Ken was abducted by Yamori, one of the executive ghouls of Aogiri Tree.
At the same time, Aogiri Tree attacked the CCG of the 20th ward.
In this turmoil, members of Anteiku infiltrated CCG to rescue him while fighting members of Aogiri Tree.
On the other hand, while being intensely tortured, Kaneki’s body and mind mutated somehow.
As shown in the second season, he escaped the grasp of Yamori and wounded him severely.
On the other hand, another strong ghoul was causing havoc.
That ghoul was named Owl by CCG.
Touka of Anteiku had to fight his brother Ayato who was in Aogiri Tree and was heavily wounded.
Kaneki saved Touka in the Nick of time and had a conversation with Ayato while in combat.
According to him, Ayato joined Aogiri Tree to protect the one person he cherishes the most.
After escaping the scene with his Anteiku friends, he declared a shocking decision to join the same Aogiri Tree which was the reason for his misery.
Staging a play
After entering Aogiri Tree in the second season of Tokyo Ghoul, he spearheaded the plan to take over the 9th and 10th wards of Tokyo and succeeded in that.
After that incident, he became widely known as Eyepatch ghoul.
As he left his regular life behind, he was declared missing and his friend Hide started looking for him.
As Hide guessed that him being a ghoul, he started working as a part-time messenger at CCG.
On the other hand, Kaneki continues with his endeavors to spread ghoul influence over Tokyo.
He helped an inmate of Cochlea, named Naki to escape while being transported.
Cochlea is a high-security prison for high-level ghouls.
His next target was Cochlea itself.
He planned to release all the inmates of Cochlea and did so.
In the process, he met with a ghoul well-versed in martial arts, named Sachi, first introduced in the second season.
Kaneki was attacked by him after he smelled Rize off of him and nearly pulverized him.
This awakened a hidden side to him, a form known as “kakuja”.
Kakuja is a form a ghoul gets after repeating cannibalism.
Kaneki had the potential because he previously ate Yamori.
All of this was thoroughly planned out by Kaneki throughout entire second season to become stronger enough to be able to protect Anteiku and his friends.
Only by forming a complete kakuja can he do that and by terminating some impending threats.
He was staging a one-man play all along.
Losses in the second season
In the second season, many losses are to be noticed.
There is one loss that somehow shaped this season, and that is the death of CCG’s first-class investigator Mado Kureo.
He was killed for revenge in the first season.
His daughter Mado Akira came to CCG in his place as a partner of Amon Koutarou in the second season. Amon Koutarou was the partner of Mado Kureo.
Mado Kureo’s death drew the attention of CCG towards the eyepatch ghoul(Kaneki Ken).
In the end, during the fight to take Anteiku down and the presumed Owl, Yoshimura, the real Owl appears and hurts Shinohara Yukinori near death.
At that time, his subordinate Suzuya Juuzou who previously never understood grief, then felt anger and a sense of loss.
Although it may go unnoticed, Takizawa Seidou, a 2nd class CCG investigator and previous classmate of Akira in the academy, went missing.
One of two major losses in this season may be the loss Yoshimura felt in his younger days.
Yoshimura was not always this gentle person, he was more of a cold killer.
Being entangled in such a life he closed off his heart from everyone.
Only one became an exception, a human girl named Ukina, who accepted his dark side and loved him.
Later they had a child, which was said to be the most miraculous thing, as a child between a ghoul and a human is next to impossible.
After all this happiness despair came crashing down.
Ukina was killed in front of him by the same organization he worked for and he had to leave the half-ghoul child of his to seek revenge.
These losses of mother and child were huge for him.
Another one of the greatest losses in this season is Death of Hide, the best friend of Kaneki.
Upon hearing the CCG investigators were gathered near the Anteiku and closed off the area, a worried Hide infiltrated CCG and went inside the barricade to look for Kaneki.
Unfortunately on his way, he was attacked by a ghoul of Aogiri Tree.
He holds on and finds Kaneki has a last conversation with him and dies finally in the second season.
This sense of loss was paramount to Kaneki, as he surrendered after that.
Redemption
Anteiku is a small cafe in the front but an organization in the back, built by a ghoul for the betterment of the ghoul.
The leader Yoshimura and two other key members Koma Enji and Irimi Kaya are by no means harmless ghouls.
They may be well-behaved, good wishers now, but by no means they were like that before.
Koma Enji used to be the leader of the Apes Ghoul gang at Ward 20, where Anteiku is situated now.
He was famous for seeking out strong CCG investigators.
Irimi Kaya used to be the leader of the Black Dobers gang and also killed a lot of CCG investigators.
Both ghoul gangs were rivals of each other and clashed with each other many times resulting in many unrelated casualties.
On the other hand, Yoshimura, previously named was a killing machine for hire. He killed many humans, and ghouls indiscriminately according to order until he fell in love with Ukina.
All of their wrongdoing wasn’t supposed to go unpunished.
CCG’s raid on Anteiku came to them as a punishment from the heavens.
Conclusion
This exclusive and vital second season tells the story of many individuals involved in the one-man drama of Kaneki Ken.
He strives to be a better and stronger version of himself to protect his cherished persons.
While striving to be strong he loses something and also someone along the way.
