Tokyo Ghoul is not meant to be a happy story and the author makes it clear from the start.
Tokyo Ghoul’s first volume starts with an introduction of what ghouls are. They describe them as beings who must live by eating human flesh. Then it jumps to Ken Kaneki and Hide Nagachika inside of a cafe called the Anteiku. It is here when we get to see the personalities of both characters, who are nearly polar opposites.
Kaneki is an introvert who loves reading, whereas Hide is an extrovert who loves social activities. Throughout the beginning scenes, there are references to a "binge" eating ghoul in the area. Kaneki and Hide begin discussing what they think ghouls are like, how they blend into society, and even make drawings of what they would imagine them to look like. Kaneki’s drawing looks like a typical monster, while Hide draws Kaneki as a joke.
It is here that we are introduced to Touka Kirishima and Rize Kamishiro. Also, there is an emphasis placed on the book that both Kaneki and Rize are reading called the “Black Goat’s Egg.” This book is about the son of a serial killer who rejects his mother's murderous lifestyle but then begins to develop those same desires himself.
Rize and Kaneki go on a date and all seems well. However, she tells Kaneki that the recent ghoul attacks that have been on the news took place near her neighborhood and asks him to walk her home. This would prove as a life-altering and nearly fatal mistake on Kaneki's part. For when they arrive at her home, she bites into his shoulder and reveals that she is a ghoul.
She begins to toy with him by stabbing him with her kagune (tentacle-like appendages that sprout from her lower spine). As she moves in to finish him off, they enter a construction site where steel beams are dropped onto Rize. Kaneki fades in and out as he hears doctors and nurses argue. Kaneki is then saved by an emergency organ transplant.
However, these organs came from Rize. Therefore, Kaneki has become a half-ghoul. During the surgery and Kaneki's awakening, there is a monologue given by him, which states that if his life was made into a story it would be a tragic one.
Kaneki begins to discover that he can no longer eat human food and struggles to figure out what is wrong with him. He is discharged from the hospital and tries to go back to college shortly after. Hide picks up on Kaneki's stress and tells him to start eating and take care of himself. The two of them go to their favorite restaurant but Kaneki can’t stomach the food.
While Kaneki is at home, he learns from an interview of a ghoul expert on television that ghouls can't stand the taste of human food and that one human body can last a ghoul for one to two months. Therefore, a binge eater like Rize doesn't eat for nourishment, they eat for sport. Kaneki then frantically starts taking bites of various foods. To his horror, he violently vomits every bite. This causes Kaneki to begin questioning if he has become a ghoul.
Kaneki steps outside into the night and witnesses an older man try to harass Touka in an alleyway. Touka responds by slicing the man’s face and killing him. This is the first time that Kaneki realizes that she is a ghoul. She notices him and offers him a severed hand. Though she notices his one ghoul eye and asks why he survived that night with Rize. Kaneki responds by running away.
The next nightly stroll that Kaneki embarks on leads him to the Shibuya crossing where he is increasingly distracted by the dozens of people. He finds himself biting down on his knuckles and drooling over the thought of human flesh. He then runs home and decides to forcibly remove his own transplanted organs with a kitchen knife, in the hopes that this will reverse his problems. However, the knife cannot penetrate his skin and bends in half.
With all hope lost, Kaneki goes to the Anteiku cafe and asks Touka for help. She refuses to help him and begins to chastise him for being a former human who has never been hunted and who was able to enjoy normal food. Then the owner of the cafe, Yoshimura, stops Touka and offers Kaneki a package of human flesh. Later Yoshimora explains to Touka about Kaneki’s situation and how it was brought about due to the death of Rize.
Kaneki is at home once again. Though he stubbornly refuses to eat what Yoshimura gave him. However, he discovers that he can still enjoy coffee. He goes to a convenience store and buys a large number of coffee supplies. He has a short interaction with Nishiki Nishio.
On his way home, Kaneki is enticed by a strong scent that causes him to run down an alleyway and come across a ghoul who is eating off of a corpse. Kaneki drops to his knees in disbelief. The ghoul tries to tell Kaneki that it’s his kill and that he won’t share when all of the sudden he is decapitated by a kick from another ghoul.
The reader is then treated to some crude analogy from the ghoul, Nishiki Nishio, about being caught with your pants down and denying it. As he is being choked, Touka appears from the shadows and attacks Nishiki both verbally and physically.
After Nishiki flees, Touka offers the corpse to Kaneki. He refuses and states that it is immoral as a human to eat his kind. Touka realizes that he hasn’t eaten the meat that was given to him by Yoshimura and violently shoves a piece of the corpse into his mouth. He forces himself to vomit and begins to yell at her, calling ghouls monsters, and considers himself as a human still. Touka strikes him and tells him that his no longer human and he is not a ghoul either, he has no place in either world.
Kaneki finally goes back to college and is excitedly greeted by Hide. Hide asks Kaneki to accompany him to retrieve a DVD from an upperclassman. As they walk, Kaneki wonders if he and Hide will ever be able to walk together again. Hide remarks that Kaneki isn’t looking healthy and that he should eat more. Hide has always been sensitive to those around him and notices even the slightest details.
In the next scene, Kaneki and Hide barge in on the upperclassman while he is being straddled by a female. The female screams and runs out of the room. It is at this moment that Kaneki realizes that it is Nishiki Nishio. Nishio recognizes Kaneki as well and has several bandages over his cuts from Touka. Nishio convinces Hide and Kaneki to follow him to his home to look for the DVD.
Along the way, they grab some food. Kaneki notices that Nishio can eat the food without puking. This shows Kaneki how ghouls can blend in. While they come to a dead-end, Nishio kicks Hide and he goes flying. He grabs Kaneki by the throat and says that he smells like a female ghoul.
He makes claims that Kaneki was saving Hide as a food source. Kaneki rejects these claims and attempts to attack Nishio with his book bag but is stabbed through the stomach by Nishio’s hand. He then pukes up the human food he ate earlier and begins stomping on Hide’s head.
Nishio injures Kaneki while revealing his kagune. He aims to deliver a killing blow to Hide. Kaneki’s love for his friend and his overwhelming hunger takes over and his Kagune is revealed. Nishio is impaled several times while noting that his kagune was the same as Rize’s. He pleads for Kaneki to stop.
Afterward, Kaneki begins to relent to his hunger and thinks about eating Hide. Touka stops him by stating that he will regret it before fighting him into submission. Kaneki wakes up in the Anteiku and tastes blood in his mouth. Yoshimura appears and explains what happened to Kaneki. They both stand in front of a room where Hide is resting and bandaged.
Kaneki expresses his concerns about not belonging to either the ghoul or human worlds. Yoshimura explains that this is false and that the opposite is true. Kaneki is the only person who belongs in both worlds. The volume ends with Hide opening his eyes, revealing that he heard everything.
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