Rize Kamishiro was a ghoul who appeared out of the blue in the 20th ward one day and began binge eating. Her sudden appearance and subsequent actions would later act as a catalyst for the events that unfold in Tokyo Ghoul. Rize and her past are a major mystery at the beginning of the series. This makes Kaneki set out in search of answers.

However, there is a major doubt revolving around binge-eater in the minds of the readers and anime watchers. What happened to Rize in Tokyo Ghoul after the Steel Beam incident? Who killed her? Is she alive? 

Well, we shall try to answer these questions today. The events in Tokyo Ghoul and Tokyo Ghoul:re anime do not provide much clarity regarding the status of Rize in the series. And hence we shall be referring to the manga to explain what happened to her. 

Who Killed Rize in Tokyo Ghoul?

It is implied that Nimura Furuta, who was disguised as the clown Souta, was responsible for the death of Rize. His goals and ambitions are explained in this post here! He was the one who was behind the Steel Beam incident which crushed Rize.

Her Kakuhou was later implanted into Kaneki by Kanou, to turn him into a one-eyed ghoul. 

The organ transplant was done as a part of Kanou’s ghoulification experiment. Kaneki was the prototype for the ghoulification surgery (also known as kakuhou transplant surgery) that Kanou had pioneered. Rize served as the ghoul organ donor in this surgery.

However, later in Tokyo Ghoul, we come to know that Rize has not really died. 

Is Rize still alive in Tokyo Ghoul?

Everyone assumed that Rize had died in the Steel Beam incident. But that was not the case. Rize was alive in Tokyo Ghoul all the way till the end of the series. Albeit she was a captive and a lab-rat for most of this part. She was actually put out of her misery by none other than Ken Kaneki. 

Years after Kanou had parted with the CCG, he was looking for a test subject and a ghoul donor to experiment his ghoulification process on. That’s when he gets his hand on a mortally injured Kaneki and Rize. So Kanou goes on to perform the ghoulification surgery on Kaneki. Seeing that it was a success, he repeats the same thing on the Yasushina twins. All this time he kept Rize alive and as a captive using her as the ghoul donor. Rize had definitely not died in the steel beam accident. Her kakuhou was farmed to transform test subjects into one-eyed ghouls.

Later during the raid on Kanou’s lab, Rize was rescued by Yomo. She was under his care till Shachi took her back. This happened sometime after the raid on Anteiku by CCG.

Rize’s time with Yomo was not so good either. She was kept restrained by chains in a container where Yomo lived. Kept in a constant starving state and only fed enough to survive, Yomo made sure Rize was not able to regain her strength. This made her mentally unstable and unable to recognize her surroundings.

Rize’s status in Tokyo Ghoul: re

Shachi took her back from Yomo as per the agreement he had with Yoshimura. He wanted to care for her genuinely as a parent. However, as soon as Shachi gets possession of Rize, he is defeated by Kishou Arima. This leads to Rize being captured again (probably by Furuta). 

Later we see Furuta using Rize’s kakuhou to make the oggai. We see her being held in some kind of a tank, being experimented upon. Thus her life took a turn for the worse after the steel beam incident. Being held captive and experimented on, made her lose her sanity. She was barely alive and was in a state of constant misery and agony.

Though we see Rize emerge from the dragon’s nucleus towards the end of Tokyo Ghoul:re, there are many who speculate this was a different Rize from the one we see in the tank. She is considered as a revitalized version formed because of the dragon cells and kakuhou that was implanted in the oggai and Kaneki.

Well, leaving aside the question of whether there were two Rize’s by the end, we can confirm that the one who kills the Rize we see at the end and puts her out of misery is definitely Kaneki. And that’s how the life of one of the most powerful ghouls in the Tokyo Ghoul universe took a turn for the worse before coming to a pitiful end.