Who is Rize Kamishiro in Tokyo Ghoul? An In-Depth Guide

In the vast lore of Tokyo Ghoul, where does Rize Kamashiro fit in? Well, for starters, she’s a super important character—and the reason protagonist Ken Kaneki becomes a ghoul in the first place! We talked to an anime expert to help us do a deep dive into Rize’s character and her role within Tokyo Ghoul’s story. We’ll also take a look at Rize’s powers and why they’re significant. Keep reading to learn more about this iconic character from Tokyo Ghoul!

An Introduction to Rize in Tokyo Ghoul

Anime expert Ishaan Kausal says that Rize is one of the first characters we meet in Tokyo Ghoul. She’s one of the strongest ghouls in Tokyo, with an insatiable appetite that earned her the nickname “Binge Eater.” She tries to kill Ken Kaneki, only to end up being the reason he’s transformed into an artificial ghoul.

Section 1 of 7:

Who is Rize Kamishiro in Tokyo Ghoul?

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Rize Kamishiro was one of the strongest ghouls in Tokyo. Rize may not be a main character in Tokyo Ghoul, but she’s more or less the catalyst for the events of the entire series! So, clearly, she’s a character worth knowing. Rize is a ghoul—one with the nickname “Binge Eater” (due to her voracious eating habits). She’s dangerous enough to threaten Tokyo’s human and ghoul populations, and her kakuhou was ultimately used to turn Ken Kaneki into an artificial ghoul.
- Japanese name: 神代利世
- Birthday: October 8, 19 BSBI
- Age: 18 (beginning); 23 (Tokyo Ghoul:re)
- Height: 5 ft, 5 in (164 cm)
- In Japanese, Rize’s name means “benefit” (ri) and “world” (ze). Her surname, Kamishiro, means “god” (kami) and “generation” (shiro).
Meet the wikiHow Expert

Ishaan Kaushal is an anime expert and content creator based in Washington, D.C. He’s a part of the TikTok established creator program, and his content mainly focuses on analyzing anime, TV, and movies.

Section 2 of 7:

Rize’s Personality in Tokyo Ghoul

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Rize is mysterious, independent, and sadistic. She’s self-sufficient and hedonistic, not really caring about anything except her own desires—specifically, her bloodlust and love of violence. Though she puts on a sweet, harmless mask, truthfully, Rize is ruthless, vicious, and takes pleasure in hunting humans. She also doesn’t care for other ghouls, invading their territory and risking their exposure as well as her own for the sake of hunger.
- Rize is definitely a femme fatale-type character; she cultivates an attractive and gentle appearance to lure humans in—then unleashes the predator within.
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Despite her sadism, there are other facets to Rize’s personality, too. Her independence is something she had to fight for as a child by escaping from a family that wanted to control her in terrible ways. In that sense, Rize’s refusal to be bound by anyone else’s rules is understandable (even if her behavior is inexcusable). She’s fiercely self-reliant, which is why she chooses to wander Tokyo on her own and follow her whims.
- In a moment where Rize and Kaneki read “The Black Goat’s Egg” together, she’s even shown to enjoy the act of reading—something you might not associate with a ferocious ghoul.
- Rize does have emotions, even if she doesn’t show them often. For instance, when reduced to a frenzied, mindless state after a period of captivity, Rize reacted with fear and called out to her foster father for help.

Section 3 of 7:

Rize’s Background & Story in Tokyo Ghoul

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Rize was born an illegitimate daughter of the Washuu ghoul clan. The Washuu Clan planned a gruesome fate for her: they wanted to use her as a “womb” to breed more children and preserve the clan’s bloodline. Refusing to accept that fate, Rize narrowly escaped (with the help of Kichimura Washuu, then known as Souta Washuu-Furuta) and was taken in by another ghoul, Shachi, who became her foster father.^{[1]
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- Shachi cared for his surrogate daughter, but her ghoulish appetite strained things. Craving human flesh, Rize started overeating and wouldn’t stop; this caused a CCG raid that ended in Shachi’s capture.
- After Shachi’s capture, Rize lived a nomadic life in Tokyo’s wards, following her whims and continuing to binge-eat all the while.
- During that time, she attracted the attention of the ghoul investigators and ended up killing Hagi, the leader of the 11th ward’s ghouls.
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Rize attempts to kill Ken Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul’s prologue. Her role in Tokyo Ghoul starts immediately in the prologue, when Rize notices Ken Kaneki’s crush on her and approaches him in a cafe. The two chat about books and plan a date, spending a nice day together—but, when Kaneki escorts her “home,” Rize lures him into a deserted area and reveals her ghoulish nature, attempting to kill him.^{[2]
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- They fight, with Rize taking a bite of Kaneki’s shoulder and stabbing his abdomen with her kagune. Despite Kaneki’s attempts to fight back, Rize easily overpowers him, demonstrating her strength.
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Rize inadvertently turns Kaneki into a ghoul.^{[3]
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Expert Interview} During their struggle, several steel beams from an overhead construction area fall onto Rize, seemingly crushing her. A passerby finds the pair of them and gets both Rize and Kaneki sent to Kanou General Hospital. This is where Kaneki’s transformation begins: at the hospital, Professor Akihiro Kanou pronounces Rize too far gone and decides to transplant her organs into Kaneki.^{[4]
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- After this procedure, Kaneki becomes an artificial one-eyed ghoul; Kanou’s goal was actually to use Kaneki as a prototype of sorts for ghoulification surgery.
- Additionally, despite declaring Rize dead, Kanou secretly keeps her alive—and, later, it’s revealed that he has experimented on her.
- It’s later revealed that the accident (called the “Steel Beam Incident”) was actually orchestrated by Kichimura Washuu.
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Kaneki later sees hallucinations of Rize while being tortured. While the prologue is the last Rize is seen for a while, her presence—and the ramifications of her attack on Kaneki—are still felt. In the Aogiri arc, when Kaneki is tortured by Yamori, he hallucinates a version of Rize that pushes him to embrace the ghoulish side of himself. And, because of this, Kaneki is able to beat Yamori.^{[5]
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- While hallucinating, Kaneki also remembers his mother’s death from over-exhaustion and debates morality with Rize; ultimately, Kaneki chooses Rize’s strength over his mother’s way of living.
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Rize is discovered alive in Kanou’s lab. It’s revealed that, ever since the prologue’s Steel Beam Incident, Rize has been kept in a container—restrained and starved to the point of mental instability. Kanou kept her alive for her uniquely regenerative kakuhou cells, wanting to use them for experimentation. Kaneki finds her like this, and she’s left to the care of Nishiki Nishio and Renji Yomo.^{[6]
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- Shachi (Rize’s foster father) visits her while she’s in Nishiki and Renji’s care. Nishiki asks him why he still cares for Rize, to which Shachi answers that it’s a stupid question; caring for her was his “duty as a parent.”
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Rize later turns into a monster, forcing Kaneki to kill her. At the end of Tokyo Ghoul, Rize is merged into the core of a monster with apocalyptic power called “Dragon.” Kaneki takes her on in battle; upon discovering that Rize’s merging with the beast is permanent, he promises to kill her and end the Dragon’s destructive rampage. In striking the killing blow, Kaneki helps Rize to find peace in death, ending her torturous existence.
- Ultimately, Rize’s story in Tokyo Ghoul is a slow tragedy—one that’s entwined with Kaneki’s own journey.
- In the end, as Rize dies, Kaneki hears her voice saying that she was always watching over him.

Section 4 of 7:

What does Rize look like?

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She’s slender and fair-skinned, with purple hair that runs down to her chest and side-swept bangs. She generally wears dresses, choosing outfits that help her fit in with human society unnoticed. Once she moves to the 20th ward, she’s shown to wear a pair of red-framed glasses and clothing that’s slightly more revealing, presumably to help her attract prey.

Section 5 of 7:

What powers does Rize have in Tokyo Ghoul?

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Rize’s ghoul powersRize is abnormally strong, even for a ghoul. Her rinkaku kagune (a predatory organ and weapon used by ghouls) has an especially fast and powerful ability to regenerate, allowing her to recover quickly in battle. Her kagune can also summon up to six tentacle claws, each one sharp enough to cause fatal injuries. And, like all ghouls, Rize has superior physical capabilities (strength, speed, and endurance).
- Despite her uncanny regeneration, Rize isn’t immortal. It’s explained that enough damage could still overpower her regeneration capabilities—as seen when she’s crushed by a steel beam after attacking Kaneki.
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Rize’s Dragon form powersIn her “Dragon” form, Rize controls a mass of huge tentacles that mimic a hydra’s heads (each with a mouth and razor-sharp teeth). She’s also capable of unleashing a “ghoulification” toxin across all of Tokyo, causing humans exposed to it to transform into ghouls.
- Physically, Rize also looks quite different; her hair is long and white, her face has markings around it, and her body is attached to Dragon’s core.

Section 6 of 7:

How do Tokyo Ghoul fans feel about Rize?

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Fans have complicated, split opinions on Rize and her role in Tokyo Ghoul. Kaushal says that Rize is an interesting character that fans respond to. “She is someone that haunts the narrative,” he says, adding that she’s the “voice of all of the events that lead up to the series.”^{[7]
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Ishaan Kaushal
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- Kaushal says that as we learn more about Rize, we discover that she was “essentially born and raised to be an allegory for factory farming,” or having more children to create Ghouls.^{[8]
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- Kaushal adds that Rize’s death is symbolic of Ken’s journey in accepting his half-ghoul, half-human identity.^{[9]
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- Rize’s terrifying, bloodthirsty persona definitely makes her interesting to Tokyo Ghoul fans, who enjoy the idea of a femme fatale ghoul with an endless appetite. On the other hand, some fans argue that Rize was more of a plot device than a fleshed-out character, and could’ve used some more development.
- The main criticism is that Rize had a lot of potential as a character, but spent most of her time as a captive or as the “Dragon” monster; she was deprived of her agency.
- Regardless of the different opinions surrounding her, Rize is undeniably an iconic character in the lore of Tokyo Ghoul!

Section 7 of 7:

Rize’s Relationships in Tokyo Ghoul

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Ken KanekiIt shouldn’t be surprising to hear that Kaneki and Rize’s relationship is a complicated one; they don’t spend a ton of time together in person, but their connection lasts for the entire series. In the beginning, they share a mutual attraction (Kaneki’s being innocent, and Rize’s being predatory). And, after Kaneki is ghoulified with Rize’s organs, a hallucination of her essentially becomes the voice of Kaneki’s ghoulish half.
- In the anime—especially early on, as he’s still learning about life as a ghoul—Kaneki tends to see the hallucination of Rize when he’s hungry and craving human meat.
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Matasaka “Shachi” KamishiroRize considered Shachi her father as a child; he took her in and gave her a home after she escaped from the Washuu Clan. The two began to argue as Rize got older and grew into adulthood, mainly over her binge-eating habits. Shachi presumably wanted her to curb her appetite, and Rize did not—to the point that she caused his capture, seemingly not caring about his safety so long as she could continue eating.
- Despite their strained relationship, Rize does apologize to Shachi—albeit while she’s in her unstable, maddened state after being Kadou’s test subject. And, during that same interaction, Shachi is shown to still care for her as a father.
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Kichimura WashuuKichimura—or Furuta, as Rize knew him—was a child of the Washuu Clan along with Rize. They knew one another and had a good relationship, with Kichimura helping her escape from the clan. However, Kichimura’s affection for her twisted into something deeper, and he cared for her more than she did him. Angered by Rize’s lack of appreciation and hedonistic lifestyle, Kichimura orchestrated the “Steel Beam Incident.”
- In dropping steel beams on her, Kichimura wanted to “keep [Rize] close at hand.” He also admitted his desire to have children with her.
- The creation of “Dragon” was also Kichimura’s way of resurrecting Rize into a new body.
Kanou is the scientist who captured Rize for his experiments, wanting to use her to create more artificial one-eyed ghouls like Kaneki. He picked Rize (over other ghouls) because of her abnormally strong kagune and regeneration abilities. It’s unknown if the two had a history before Kanou captured her, but her treatment in captivity was utterly barbaric.