Character Name: Shuu Tsukiyama Series: Tokyo Ghoul Timeline: Chapter 108 Canon Resource Links: Tokyo Ghoul on Wikipedia Shuu Tsukiyama at the Tokyo Ghoul wiki
Personality: The word "eccentric" seems to have been made for people like Shuu Tsukiyama: attractive, cultured, athletic and well-read, upon first meeting he seems to be the ideal son of a well-to-do family. His words are generally polite, if a bit flamboyant, and he seems very dedicated to presenting a good image; he's multilingual, good at sports and martial arts, and generally the sort of guy you wouldn't mind meeting for coffee once in a while at one of those high-end cafés he seems to like so much.
Granted, he's not without his quirks, either, and that's where the eccentricity comes in – for all his high-class mannerisms, he doesn't have much of an indoor voice, and he doesn't seem to have worked out how much personal space is "enough" and at what point he's actually standing directly in somebody's face; he has a tendency to circle people while he's speaking to them, to study them a bit too intently, and if he likes what he sees it's not unusual for his words to slip into something almost uncomfortably overfamiliar – suddenly there are pet names and far too many awkward instances of flirtation in languages that you may or may not understand, and after a moment his hand will likely be on your shoulder or reaching out as though to touch your face. He's entirely aware of what he's doing, and he does all of this while offering little to no actual openings for anyone to find something relevant out about him; even the supposedly "personal" information he offers is incredibly generic, the sort of thing that could be attributed to just about anyone.
His wardrobe is also terrible. Like, "the 1990s anime protags called, they want their ugly sweaters back" levels of terrible.
But again, at best he's nice enough and at worst he's entirely too well-off to be called a damn weirdo to his face, so "eccentric" will just have to do; taking another look at his social situation may also help explain why he is as he is. At the age of 21, he's already a fourth-year university student, so he's likely far younger than the rest of his class; in fact, a lot of his stranger behaviors seem more rooted in immaturity and a lack of experience than anything. He's not terribly good with intimate emotions, no matter how overfamiliar he may seem, and if anything the overfamiliarity is likely an attempt to assert himself so that he doesn't need to deal with them properly; it puts him in control of the situation rather than subjected to it, and closing his personal life off is another way for him to remain on top of things both emotionally and conversationally.
When looked at that way, it's entirely possible that his behavior is the result of him trying to assert himself, to make a name for himself among his peers; granted, most of his peers don't know that he's already got quite a well-known name for himself, it's just not well-known in circles that one would find terribly flattering – it's the sort of name that's given to you by law enforcement and the media when they don't know how else to refer to you but they need to get word out anyway.
Tsukiyama is a serial killer. That's what this comes down to.
The story of Tokyo Ghoul takes place in a world where there's a dominance struggle for the role of apex predator: there are humans, who are people like you and me, and then there are ghouls – creatures that appear human but most definitely are not. Despite their name, ghouls aren't undead; they're a different species entirely, with enhanced strength, speed, regenerative abilities and weapons that can be drawn out of their bodies at will. They're also designed by nature to specifically hunt humans – in fact, the only things they can consume are human meat, water, and for some reason coffee. Humans have taken to hunting down that which hunt them, forming organizations specifically to find and kill ghouls; Tsukiyama is an S-ranked ghoul, known for being difficult to fight, even more difficult to capture, and an all-around pain in the neck with feeding habits so unusual and bizarrely fixated that even other ghouls tend to avoid him. He's very particular and obsessive about his food, and the methods he uses in selecting and eating his victims have earned him the name of "Gourmet" among the organization in charge of eliminating the ghouls' presence in Tokyo.
…So perhaps "serial killer" was a bit too kind of a description earlier.
Saying that Tsukiyama is obsessed with food is a bit like saying that the ocean is a bit wet or the Pope is a practicing Catholic: it's entirely true, but it's a tremendous understatement. In fact, he prides himself on his status as a predator and his ability to assess and hunt down prey, and he would go so far as to claim that if he has the power to hunt someone down and eat them, then he also has the right to do so. It's that sort of entitled logic that pervades his thinking as a whole – the thought that because he can have something, then he should, and anyone who tries to assert otherwise is "taking away" what he already considers his. This is the genuine reason behind all of his overassertion and overfamiliarity with everyone, rather than the more socially-acceptable answer of "immaturity" – this line of thinking extends not only to his prey but also to locations, property, possessions and people that he happens to like. If he wants something and feasibly can take it, then it's "his," and in canon he tends to act out when people try to take his belongings from him – his usually calm demeanor breaks rather violently, and he resorts to screaming, physically lashing out, and generally throwing something resembling a tantrum while he attempts to get it back.
On top of being generally disturbed in terms of logic and how he handles both his prey and his possessions, Tsukiyama is also deeply self-serving; even when he's acting under the service of someone else, he'll only do what he perceives as benefiting him if he's not particularly close to them. He's not entirely sociopathic, however, and he's perfectly willing to make sacrifices for someone else if he believes the reason behind the sacrifice to be important enough; in canon, he chooses to side with one person above about eighty others that range from "vague acquaintances" to "friends" in his interpersonal sphere, because he's decided that that one individual's trust means more to him than his friendships with the rest do.
Of course, he's also very bad with feelings, as was mentioned above, so it's not like he ever expressed that too well; he doesn't seem used to caring about people very much, if at all, and when he does find someone that he happens to like (in canon, this would be the protagonist after literally a hundred chapters of character development) he doesn't seem able to put it into words, instead preferring to hang back awkwardly while others do the initial emotion-laden discussions for him. He becomes far more subdued in emotionally wrought situations (well, ones that don't require some sort of tantrum to be thrown); he'll only speak up well after everyone else has, and even then his usual flamboyance and verbosity are toned way, way down.
Just because he's bad at expressing his own feelings, however, doesn't mean that he's not good at using the feelings of others to get what he wants; early on in canon, he's shown to be shrewd and manipulative, able to sort out what will get the most favorable reaction out of someone he's targeting and using that to his advantage. He's quick to single out the protagonist and cold read him easily, working out that he's lonely and desperate to gain information about his situation, and plays up traits of his own that are either similar or encouraging a favorable reaction – Tsukiyama claims that he's easily misunderstood and uses books as an escape from the real world, acting sensitive and vulnerable in order to gain the protagonist's sympathy because that's what would resonate best with him. He shows that particular interpersonal skill set off multiple times, combining an ability to cold read a specific person and shift demeanor at a moment's notice depending on what's required of him: when dealing with a psychopathic assassin, he becomes far more aggressive than usual, yelling out orders and plans in a way that will make him look like he's in charge of the situation and win the guy over with his confidence; when the group he's working with has to leave their information-gatherer behind, he's quick to become assertive and surprisingly helpful, relaying as much intel as possible about their situation as rapidly as he can without sacrificing clarity and filling in gaps in the group's collective knowledge as best he can; when talking to other powerful ghouls who are considered the leaders of their ward, he shifts easily into being the resident negotiator and mitigator. This is contrasted rather sharply with how he acts when he's on missions with nothing in particular to do; when he doesn't have a role to fill, he's...well, he's himself, which means that he's openly taunting everyone in his immediate vicinity, sizing up the enemy's potential to be preyed upon later, singing to himself about nothing in particular, offering running commentary on everything he's doing, or just complaining that he doesn't like the assignment he's on and/or he hasn't had enough to eat lately. In other words, the best way to keep everyone's sanity intact (and Tsukiyama's face unpunched) is to keep him busy – otherwise he'll find his own role to fill, and that role is "pain in everyone's ass."
Granted, he's entirely convinced that everything he does is fine and everyone else should be grateful for getting to work with him at all, but he's always been a bit of an unreliable narrator like that; outside of generally just thinking he's the greatest thing ever, he's always had a tendency to genuinely believe that everyone else thinks so as well. For example, in one of the light novels he seems convinced that his "charming demeanor" and "airs of sophistication" are the reason why people stop arguing with him in one of his classes, when in reality it's far more likely that they just don't want to deal with Tsukiyama's weirdness first thing in the morning; he also tends to miss instances of being genuinely picked on or insulted unless the insult is both completely obvious and stated directly to his face, and even then he's more likely to brush it off as teasing as opposed to something truly vicious.
...At least he's optimistic.
Either way, however, Tsukiyama is certainly an experience; when it comes to gauging whether he's a good or a bad one, he'd surely argue that that's the decision of whomever he's interacting with. After all, negative experiences can't possibly be his fault – since he's cultured, intelligent, and reaching Mary Poppins levels of "practically perfect in every way" and all.
So really, if you don't see it that way, it's entirely your fault. But it's not like he expected much more from prey, anyway.
this got super-long I'm so sorry
Name: Shuu Tsukiyama
Series: Tokyo Ghoul
Timeline: Chapter 108
Canon Resource Links:
Tokyo Ghoul on Wikipedia
Shuu Tsukiyama at the Tokyo Ghoul wiki
Personality:
The word "eccentric" seems to have been made for people like Shuu Tsukiyama: attractive, cultured, athletic and well-read, upon first meeting he seems to be the ideal son of a well-to-do family. His words are generally polite, if a bit flamboyant, and he seems very dedicated to presenting a good image; he's multilingual, good at sports and martial arts, and generally the sort of guy you wouldn't mind meeting for coffee once in a while at one of those high-end cafés he seems to like so much.
Granted, he's not without his quirks, either, and that's where the eccentricity comes in – for all his high-class mannerisms, he doesn't have much of an indoor voice, and he doesn't seem to have worked out how much personal space is "enough" and at what point he's actually standing directly in somebody's face; he has a tendency to circle people while he's speaking to them, to study them a bit too intently, and if he likes what he sees it's not unusual for his words to slip into something almost uncomfortably overfamiliar – suddenly there are pet names and far too many awkward instances of flirtation in languages that you may or may not understand, and after a moment his hand will likely be on your shoulder or reaching out as though to touch your face. He's entirely aware of what he's doing, and he does all of this while offering little to no actual openings for anyone to find something relevant out about him; even the supposedly "personal" information he offers is incredibly generic, the sort of thing that could be attributed to just about anyone.
His wardrobe is also terrible. Like, "the 1990s anime protags called, they want their ugly sweaters back" levels of terrible.
But again, at best he's nice enough and at worst he's entirely too well-off to be called a damn weirdo to his face, so "eccentric" will just have to do; taking another look at his social situation may also help explain why he is as he is. At the age of 21, he's already a fourth-year university student, so he's likely far younger than the rest of his class; in fact, a lot of his stranger behaviors seem more rooted in immaturity and a lack of experience than anything. He's not terribly good with intimate emotions, no matter how overfamiliar he may seem, and if anything the overfamiliarity is likely an attempt to assert himself so that he doesn't need to deal with them properly; it puts him in control of the situation rather than subjected to it, and closing his personal life off is another way for him to remain on top of things both emotionally and conversationally.
When looked at that way, it's entirely possible that his behavior is the result of him trying to assert himself, to make a name for himself among his peers; granted, most of his peers don't know that he's already got quite a well-known name for himself, it's just not well-known in circles that one would find terribly flattering – it's the sort of name that's given to you by law enforcement and the media when they don't know how else to refer to you but they need to get word out anyway.
Tsukiyama is a serial killer. That's what this comes down to.
The story of Tokyo Ghoul takes place in a world where there's a dominance struggle for the role of apex predator: there are humans, who are people like you and me, and then there are ghouls – creatures that appear human but most definitely are not. Despite their name, ghouls aren't undead; they're a different species entirely, with enhanced strength, speed, regenerative abilities and weapons that can be drawn out of their bodies at will. They're also designed by nature to specifically hunt humans – in fact, the only things they can consume are human meat, water, and for some reason coffee. Humans have taken to hunting down that which hunt them, forming organizations specifically to find and kill ghouls; Tsukiyama is an S-ranked ghoul, known for being difficult to fight, even more difficult to capture, and an all-around pain in the neck with feeding habits so unusual and bizarrely fixated that even other ghouls tend to avoid him. He's very particular and obsessive about his food, and the methods he uses in selecting and eating his victims have earned him the name of "Gourmet" among the organization in charge of eliminating the ghouls' presence in Tokyo.
…So perhaps "serial killer" was a bit too kind of a description earlier.
Saying that Tsukiyama is obsessed with food is a bit like saying that the ocean is a bit wet or the Pope is a practicing Catholic: it's entirely true, but it's a tremendous understatement. In fact, he prides himself on his status as a predator and his ability to assess and hunt down prey, and he would go so far as to claim that if he has the power to hunt someone down and eat them, then he also has the right to do so. It's that sort of entitled logic that pervades his thinking as a whole – the thought that because he can have something, then he should, and anyone who tries to assert otherwise is "taking away" what he already considers his. This is the genuine reason behind all of his overassertion and overfamiliarity with everyone, rather than the more socially-acceptable answer of "immaturity" – this line of thinking extends not only to his prey but also to locations, property, possessions and people that he happens to like. If he wants something and feasibly can take it, then it's "his," and in canon he tends to act out when people try to take his belongings from him – his usually calm demeanor breaks rather violently, and he resorts to screaming, physically lashing out, and generally throwing something resembling a tantrum while he attempts to get it back.
On top of being generally disturbed in terms of logic and how he handles both his prey and his possessions, Tsukiyama is also deeply self-serving; even when he's acting under the service of someone else, he'll only do what he perceives as benefiting him if he's not particularly close to them. He's not entirely sociopathic, however, and he's perfectly willing to make sacrifices for someone else if he believes the reason behind the sacrifice to be important enough; in canon, he chooses to side with one person above about eighty others that range from "vague acquaintances" to "friends" in his interpersonal sphere, because he's decided that that one individual's trust means more to him than his friendships with the rest do.
Of course, he's also very bad with feelings, as was mentioned above, so it's not like he ever expressed that too well; he doesn't seem used to caring about people very much, if at all, and when he does find someone that he happens to like (in canon, this would be the protagonist after literally a hundred chapters of character development) he doesn't seem able to put it into words, instead preferring to hang back awkwardly while others do the initial emotion-laden discussions for him. He becomes far more subdued in emotionally wrought situations (well, ones that don't require some sort of tantrum to be thrown); he'll only speak up well after everyone else has, and even then his usual flamboyance and verbosity are toned way, way down.
Just because he's bad at expressing his own feelings, however, doesn't mean that he's not good at using the feelings of others to get what he wants; early on in canon, he's shown to be shrewd and manipulative, able to sort out what will get the most favorable reaction out of someone he's targeting and using that to his advantage. He's quick to single out the protagonist and cold read him easily, working out that he's lonely and desperate to gain information about his situation, and plays up traits of his own that are either similar or encouraging a favorable reaction – Tsukiyama claims that he's easily misunderstood and uses books as an escape from the real world, acting sensitive and vulnerable in order to gain the protagonist's sympathy because that's what would resonate best with him. He shows that particular interpersonal skill set off multiple times, combining an ability to cold read a specific person and shift demeanor at a moment's notice depending on what's required of him: when dealing with a psychopathic assassin, he becomes far more aggressive than usual, yelling out orders and plans in a way that will make him look like he's in charge of the situation and win the guy over with his confidence; when the group he's working with has to leave their information-gatherer behind, he's quick to become assertive and surprisingly helpful, relaying as much intel as possible about their situation as rapidly as he can without sacrificing clarity and filling in gaps in the group's collective knowledge as best he can; when talking to other powerful ghouls who are considered the leaders of their ward, he shifts easily into being the resident negotiator and mitigator.
This is contrasted rather sharply with how he acts when he's on missions with nothing in particular to do; when he doesn't have a role to fill, he's...well, he's himself, which means that he's openly taunting everyone in his immediate vicinity, sizing up the enemy's potential to be preyed upon later, singing to himself about nothing in particular, offering running commentary on everything he's doing, or just complaining that he doesn't like the assignment he's on and/or he hasn't had enough to eat lately. In other words, the best way to keep everyone's sanity intact (and Tsukiyama's face unpunched) is to keep him busy – otherwise he'll find his own role to fill, and that role is "pain in everyone's ass."
Granted, he's entirely convinced that everything he does is fine and everyone else should be grateful for getting to work with him at all, but he's always been a bit of an unreliable narrator like that; outside of generally just thinking he's the greatest thing ever, he's always had a tendency to genuinely believe that everyone else thinks so as well. For example, in one of the light novels he seems convinced that his "charming demeanor" and "airs of sophistication" are the reason why people stop arguing with him in one of his classes, when in reality it's far more likely that they just don't want to deal with Tsukiyama's weirdness first thing in the morning; he also tends to miss instances of being genuinely picked on or insulted unless the insult is both completely obvious and stated directly to his face, and even then he's more likely to brush it off as teasing as opposed to something truly vicious.
...At least he's optimistic.
Either way, however, Tsukiyama is certainly an experience; when it comes to gauging whether he's a good or a bad one, he'd surely argue that that's the decision of whomever he's interacting with. After all, negative experiences can't possibly be his fault – since he's cultured, intelligent, and reaching Mary Poppins levels of "practically perfect in every way" and all.
So really, if you don't see it that way, it's entirely your fault. But it's not like he expected much more from prey, anyway.