Shuu Tsukiyama

Shuu Tsukiyama is a character from the Tokyo Ghoul anime and manga.

Shuu was the infamous Gourmet (Bishokuka) ghoul of the 20th ward. He was a fourth-year student studying Social Welfare at the Department of Human Sciences at Seinan Gakuin University. He comes from the extremely wealthy and influential Tsukiyama familywhich his father, Mirumo Tsukiyama was the head of. Tsukiyama himself became the head of his family after the Tsukiyama Family Extermination Operation. He was also a member of the Ghoul Restaurant, known as MM until he betrayed them.

He joined Kaneki's group with the hidden intention of eating Ken Kaneki, obsessed with his scent and taste but eventually came to genuinely care for Kaneki. Two years later, his severe depression and anorexia after Kaneki's apparent demise left him emaciated and required constant care from his family servants. After finding out Kaneki was alive and meeting him, he recovers, being able to walk and eat on his own as well as take measures to help Kaneki regain his memories.

Sometime after the death of his cousin, Karren von Rosewald, he joined Goat as a direct subordinate of the One-Eyed King and joined the White Suits for a brief period of time and fought together with the other members of the organization during the Dragon War.

Six years after the war, he became one of the leaders of the organisation United Front together with Kazuichi Banjou and Ken Kaneki.

Appearance
Tsukiyama is a tall, attractive, young man with a gentle look likened to his mother's. He considers himself fashionable and usually dresses in European attire, though his sense of style is questionable. He typically wears formal suits or semi-formal dress-shirts and long pants decorated with bold contrasting colors (usually red and purplish blue) and eccentric patterns such as stripes, flowers, or geometric shapes. His brightly blue hair was usually neatly combed, with a characteristic long fringe neatly swept towards the left. Upon his first appearance, Kaneki thought to himself that he looked like a model.

He possesses a mask shaped like a crescent moon as a reference to his name.

Two years later, his lengthy depression had significantly altered his physical appearance. As a result of his starvation, he became emaciated with visible sternum and sunken facial features. His kagune, when out of control, wrapped him up and gave him a monstrous appearance. Due to his poor health, he had unkempt hair and nails and wore a plain sleeping robe.

After he found out Kaneki was still alive, he made a speedy recovery and resumed his previous appearance plus flamboyant mannerisms, however in a much more mellow manner.

During the Rushima Landing Operation, he wore a dark robe with black clothing underneath.

Personality
Tsukiyama appeared to be a confident, friendly, and intelligent ghoul. However, these were merely acts to lure his "prey" into the Ghoul Restaurant and to conceal his eccentric, cruel, and selfish personality. He considered himself a strong predator who would seek to devour the finest meals he made of his "prey" and would not hesitate to resort to any merciless tactics in order to achieve his goals. As a result, he was disliked by most ghouls in the 20th ward. His interest in European literature and language was shown in his gestures and mannerisms, his dialogue often peppered with random phrases of English, French, and Italian. Family associates have likened his intellectual gestures to those of his young father. (In the anime, he showed great anger towards others who disrespect his taste in food.) Tsukiyama felt insulted when Rize Kamishiro declined his invitation to join the Ghoul Restaurant, who mocked the "classy" eating habits of the restaurant that resembled the humans'. Therefore, Tsukiyama bore grudges over Rize and called her a "pig" for ridiculing his taste in food. He had poor control over his emotions, with intense outbursts or "meltdowns" especially when it came to losing something important or failing to capture his "gourmet target." During times when he was calm and rationale, he seemed to be quite intelligent and often came up with strategies to help his comrades. He compared himself to a noble "knight," especially later when in the service of Kaneki. Besides food, he also enjoys reading, fashion, and playing the piano.

In the earlier series of Tokyo Ghoul, Tsukiyama seemed to have little understanding of others' feelings and how relationships worked. He called his only human friend Chie Hori a "pet," in order to rationalize his lack of interest in eating her. He also did not understand Nishiki Nishio's feelings for Kimi Nishino and assumed that she might also just be a precious pet to him. Although he did not have many friends and generally not being well-liked by others, it was reflected during his first conversation with Kaneki that he actually wanted a good friend whom he could talk to share his interests with. However, he failed to acknowledge this and was revealed later in Tokyo Ghoul that he continued to consider his feelings of friendship and care towards Kaneki as a mere pursuit of "gourmet food." Despite his poor social skills, he occasionally showed genuine care towards people he valued. For example, he tried to cheer up Kaneki after his breakdown at Kanou's lab, brought flowers to please Hinami Fueguchi when she was feeling down, and gave encouraging words to Kanae when he first joined Tsukiyama's family.

As the story progresses, his personality underwent significant changes as a result of his encounter with Kaneki's group and lengthy depression later on. The deterioration of his health damaged his mental state and caused him to suffer terrifying bouts of violence. To address these, his servants resorted to drugging him to keep him calm. When he was calmed, he was somber and deeply withdrawn from the world. He is well-liked by his servants, especially Kanae and Matsumae, with whom he had developed a strong bond since he was young.

After his recovery from his depression, he shows significant maturation in his character. He has become more humble and recognizes the importance of his family and friends. He is deeply saddened when he learns his servants went overboard with hunting for the sake of finding food for him, and feels he should be responsible for Yuuma's capture by the CCG. He apologizes to his servants for the problems his condition had caused and expresses his gratitude. He is also determined to act on his own in order to save Yuuma and protect his other servants from further dangers. When he discovers that Kaneki is still alive as "Sasaki," he admits he has no longer considered him as "food" for a long time and is determined to help him get back his memories. He genuinely cares about Hori and friends from Anteiku and even admits he is egocentric.

Abilities
Ghoul Physiology: Living as a full ghoul, Tsukiyama possesses a koukaku kagune along with increased physical capabilities.
 * Koukaku Kagune: He can form a linear metallic ribbon that can wrap into a flexible spiral that doubles as armor to shield his upper body. To extend his reach, he can form it into a large, sword-like blade that is suited to thrusting and stabbing.


 * Superhuman Durability: During his fight with Touka, Tsukiyama was able to survive having his arm and part of his face torn off.
 * Superhuman Agility and Speed: During his fight with Touka Kirishima, Tsukiyama demonstrated speed and mobility that does not match the usual physical cababilities of most heavy-weight Koukaku ghouls.

Trivia

 * In the first character popularity poll, Tsukiyama was ranked third. In the latest, he came in at fifth.
 * Tsukiyama means "moon mountain" and Shuu means "practice, study, collection."
 * Tsukiyama likes self-discipline, humans that are tempting (irrespective of age and gender), and new stimuli.
 * Tsukiyama's hobbies are sports, martial arts, playing musical instruments, and evaluating prey.
 * When asked about Kaneki's battle suit, author Sui Ishida suggested that Tsukiyama made it for him.
 * In the artbook Tokyo Ghoul: zakki, Ishida revealed that Tsukiyama was originally intended to be the main character of an entirely different series. However, he ended up using the character in Tokyo Ghoul instead.
 * He had Tsukiyama first appear together with Chie Hori in another work that he submitted for publication a decade ago.
 * MM, Tsukiyama's Ghoul Restaurant alias, coincides with his seiyuu's (Mamoru Miyano) initials.
 * In the official omakes, Hinami calls Tsukiyama "flower man" or "fireworks man."
 * According to design notes, the library and room he appears in while thinking about Kaneki in Episode 5 is his parent's manor.
 * According to the Audio Drama, he has a 73m² bedroom and an excessively large bed.
 * In the same drama, he claims his favorite method to calm himself down as a child was to play Chopin while screaming at the top of his lungs.
 * According to the second Audio Drama, Tsukiyama becomes easily intoxicated when drinking and is (unsurprisingly) a very loud, emotional drunk.
 * Ishida revealed that Tsukiyama could play the piano so well he could make a decent living out of playing in jazz bars.
 * His birthday, March 3rd, coincides with the nationwide festival, Hina-matsuri.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he is featured as the "Ace of Diamonds."
 * As a child, he expressed guilt over eating humans. His father reassured him that any human being eaten by him would feel honored.
 * As a child, he frequently played football (soccer) with his father and was apparently a prodigy at the sport.
 * He greatly resembles his mother, who passed away while he was still very young.
 * As a child, he composed a song on the piano for his father called "Papa's Glasses."
 * At the Kotobukiya Event, an exclusive pamphlet was made for his official CCG file. The Gourmet is filed under report number 150919-27004.
 * His hair is depicted as an ultramarine violet instead of light blue in the anime.