Shuu Tsukiyama
From Tokyo Ghoul
Shuu Tsukiyama is a supporting character in Tokyo Ghoul, the Gourmet, a flamboyant ghoul epicure who treats hunting as theatre and becomes obsessed with tasting Kaneki's unique half-human scent. His dramatics hide a dangerous, lonely aristocrat. He is voiced by Mamoru Miyano in Japanese and J. Michael Tatum in English.
About Shuu Tsukiyama
Shuu Tsukiyama is the Gourmet, a flamboyant ghoul epicure who treats hunting as theatre and rare flesh as art. Kaneki's unique scent, half human, half ghoul, turns Tsukiyama obsessive, staging elaborate dinners to taste him. Beneath the comedy of his dramatics sits a dangerous, lonely aristocrat, and his later loyalty to Kaneki's group, flamboyant as ever, becomes unexpectedly genuine.
Appearance
Tsukiyama is a tall, elegant man with styled purple hair, refined features and a wardrobe of flamboyant suits that would stand out anywhere in Tokyo. He performs his life, sweeping gestures, French phrases, poses held a beat too long, and his ghoul mask, a crescent-moon design, is as theatrical as the man. His koukaku kagune forms a spiralling blade around his arm, beautiful and sculptural, exactly as he would insist it be.
Personality
Tsukiyama is flamboyant, cultured and completely self-absorbed, a connoisseur who experiences other beings as flavours, textures and presentations. He is funny precisely because his dramatics are sincere: the ecstasy over a scent, the despair over a spoiled dish, the French. Underneath the performance sits a lonely aristocrat raised in hiding, and his arc across both series, from predator to a flamboyant but genuine ally of Kaneki's people, is one of the story's strangest redemptions.
Background & Story
Tsukiyama is the heir of the wealthy Tsukiyama family, ghouls who have lived hidden at the top of human society for generations. Bored by safety, he became the Gourmet of the 20th ward, a fixture of secret ghoul restaurants where rare flesh is theatre, and a hunter who treats people as vintages. Kaneki's scent, half human, half ghoul, utterly unique, hits him like a revelation, and Tsukiyama stages increasingly elaborate schemes to taste him, from rigged bookshop meetings to a formal dinner where Kaneki is the main course. Defeated and humiliated, he retreats, and his obsession slowly, strangely, matures into something closer to loyalty.
Powers & Abilities
- Koukaku Kagune: Tsukiyama's koukaku forms a spiralling blade around his arm, a hard, heavy kagune type built for powerful close combat and defence.
- Keen Scent: His sense of smell is refined to a connoisseur's instrument, able to identify individuals, species and rare qualities like Kaneki's unique half-ghoul scent at a glance.
Key Relationships
- Ken Kaneki: His obsession, first as the rarest dish in Tokyo, eventually as the leader Tsukiyama follows with theatrical, genuine loyalty.
- Touka Kirishima: An Anteiku ghoul he has clashed with since long before Kaneki; their mutual contempt slowly thaws into wartime alliance.
- Hinami Fueguchi: Part of the extended circle Tsukiyama attaches himself to, his flamboyance bewilders the quiet girl he ends up fighting beside.
Quick Answers
Why is Tsukiyama called the Gourmet?
Tsukiyama is known as the Gourmet because he treats hunting as fine dining, seeking out rare 'flavours' of flesh and staging elaborate meals in Tokyo's secret ghoul restaurants.
Who voices Tsukiyama?
Mamoru Miyano voices him in Japanese and J. Michael Tatum voices him in English.
