Kotone Mitsuba

Kotone is a strikingly lovely young woman whose auburn hair falls in pigtails above a pair of green eyes. On stage she dons the frills and decorative ribbons expected of her profession, but off duty she slips into plain, casual clothes that let her move through crowds without notice.

Quiet and earnest, Kotone stands in contrast to the bubbly image an idol is meant to project. She rarely asserts herself and is easily swept along by those around her. The disappearance of her family weighs on her constantly, and she pours herself into pursuing the idol dream that once belonged to her sister, carrying that grief beneath every performance.

At a Tokyo festival, Kotone is photographed by Chie Hori, who becomes eager to capture a proper portrait of her. When Shuu Tsukiyama spots those photos, he grows obsessed and announces his wish to devour her, sparking a rivalry with Chie over who will reach her first. Chie tracks down Kotone's apartment, douses the place in cheap perfume, and hauls her out just as Tsukiyama breaks in and recoils from the overpowering smell. Warned that a ghoul is hunting her, Kotone goes into hiding with Chie in the 23rd Ward.

In their shelter, Chie learns why Kotone chose the idol path. Her elder sister had dreamed of the same career, but constant fights with their mother drove the sister to run away. The parents then quarreled over the vanished girl, and a year later the mother disappeared too; the father eventually remarried and moved abroad, leaving Kotone on her own. She took up idol work hoping fame might draw her scattered family back to her.

With help from Ikuma Momochi, their search connects to the news surrounding Yuujirou Utsumi and his ghoul daughter, who preyed on young women. A housekeeper named Otokaze, revealed to be Kotone's own mother, had stabbed her employer and attempted suicide. Ambushed again by Tsukiyama, the group escapes when Chie plays her trump card, showing that she has been corresponding with Ken Kaneki. Forced to back down, Tsukiyama even escorts Kotone safely to the hospital, where she reunites with her mother and learns her sister was among the Utsumi victims. Since her mother's memory has failed, Kotone gently pretends to be her sister Kiyone and resolves to carry that name forward, letting Chie finally capture the determined portrait she had wanted all along.