Uta (Tokyo Ghoul)

Uta is a character from the Tokyo Ghoul anime and manga.

Uta is a ghoul and an old friend of Renji Yomo and Itori. He owns the HySy ArtMask Studio, where he sells masks, whilst also being a member of the Clowns. He is known as No Face to the CCG investigators.

Appearance
Uta is a tall, lanky man with black hair, styled into an undercut. Various tattoos cover his arms, and a sun tattoo covers his entire left pectoral region. At first glance, his kakugan is always activated, but in response to Haise Sasaki's inquiry, he claims that these are scleral tattoos, i.e., black ink was injected into his eyes. Uta typically wears a gray tank top underneath a black wrap sweater, along with harem pants and black sandals. He also wears a black necklace with round, white gems hanging from it. Kaneki describes his appearance as being a little scary. During the auction, he wore an open-collared zebra-striped dress shirt with matching pants, a light colored striped suit buttoned up, and a pair of white gloves. Despite being in the Clown group, he is yet to be seen wearing a clown mask of any kind.

As a teen, his hair color was much lighter, swept back, and at times kept down with a hairband. He did not have any of his tattoos during his younger days. His ghoul mask was an expressionless face with a stitching design similar to a voodoo doll, covering the eyes and the white surface. During the auction after the time skip, Uta wore a mask resembling a bird with a wide beak and four small holes on the side; during the Clown Siege, he was seen wearing a mask displaying a pattern of concentric ovals with a symbol resembling a reticle on it. His most recent mask covers only the upper half of his face and has a horizontal bar running through it, with a vertical one cutting through the right side and another vertical one extending upwards from the left side.

The tattoo on his neck is a Latin quote written in Greek letters which read, "I can live neither with you, nor without you."

Personality
He has a very nice way of speaking and seems to be friendly. Although his expression almost never changes, he has an amusing way of teasing people. Uta seems to be unfazed by most things, and will even go as far as letting someone he respects die in order to respect their will, acting as if nothing major happened afterward.

As an artist, Uta holds exotic aesthetics and is often noted as having ill yet masterful tastes; he holds respect for fellow artists. Uta entertains himself through the search for inspiration and crafting masks based on said ideas.

Uta was sadistic and savage from his youth and appears to have left those ways behind as time passed. However, he has not changed completely yet after his affiliation with the Clowns becomes apparent, and even saw Kaneki's demise as "fun." Like all members of his organization, he may revel in creating chaos and destruction. Despite the hedonistic and sadistic side of his, Uta has on numerous occasions shown genuine concern for others. As the former leader of the 4th ward and a renowned mask maker, his reputation leads others to respect and consult him for advice. He also tends to introduce his fellow acquaintances to each other for their own benefits (e.g. Kaneki, Asa).

This dichotomic character is a result of Uta's violent upbringing in the 4th Ward. The horrendous things Uta has witnessed and heard reaffirmed his belief that the world can only love humans, never ghouls. In such an uncaring world, Uta can only see and feel a cold void for the future. Tired of despairing and to prevent himself from going mad, Uta and the Clowns indulge in manipulating world events as the "fools" and hedonistic slaughter to gain a sense of being "alive". Only after having a heart-to-heart chat with Yomo Uta gained a new perspective on his view of the world.

Uta is someone who does not like change and expressed his inability to change himself in an ever-changing world. Itori has noted that it is only through Yomo's guidance and support that Uta can open himself to change and new possibilities.

Abilities
Ghoul Physiology: Being a ghoul, Uta possesses superhuman regeneration and speed. In his teenage years, his strength led him to become the "peacemaker" of the 4th ward.
 * Unknown Kagune: Uta's kagune takes the form of a tail which can strike opponents from a distance. He can release up to six of these tails.
 * Unknown Kakuja: Uta possesses an unknown Kakuja that takes the form of several large arms sprouting from his shoulders and back with flesh that covers most of his face. Uta is capable of morphing his head into a three sectioned mouth with jaws, akin to that of a venus flytrap, which he can use to devour his enemies whole.
 * Superhuman Agility: He casually avoided Hirako's continuous assaults with his quinque, mocking him while closing in on the investigator.
 * Superhuman Regeneration: Uta has displayed inhuman regeneration feats; without any consumption, he has healed his face after being stabbed by several quinque knives in a short interval in addition to his instant regeneration when his face was injured again by Hirako slashing it in half horizontally.
 * Shapeshifting: Uta possesses the ability to mimic the appearances of others, though the exact means of this are currently unexplained. He has previously imitated the facial features of Kishou Arima, while leaving his overall appearance and hairstyle unaltered. On another occasion, he was able to mimic the physical appearance and voice of Yukinori Shinohara with such accuracy that it momentarily fooled the man's former partner, Juuzou Suzuya. He was also able to mimic the physical appearance and voice of Haise Sasakias well.

Trivia

 * He likes mask-making, music, humans, and art.
 * His name means poem or song.
 * In the first character popularity poll, Uta was ranked fourth. In the latest, he came in as eighth.
 * Sui Ishida commented that he gave many of his own hobbies to Uta.
 * Uta is associated with the number "19," which is a reference to the tarot card The Sun.
 * Tsumugi once commented on his ill taste of masks.
 * He considers human food as artistic due to their colors and arrangement, while Asa and other ghouls remark it as distasteful and revolting.
 * His sense of humor is somewhat strange when he gave Kaneki a Buddha mask in a Volume 2 omake, intentionally misread Renji's name — particularly the Ji character — as hemorrhoid, and passed Yomo a seashell for cover instead of a normal underwear in the "School of Ghouls" spin-off.
 * In Tokyo Ghoul Trump, he is featured as the "Eight of Diamonds."