Yukinori Shinohara

Broad and heavily built, Shinohara cuts an imposing figure with a prominent nose and a squared jaw. He keeps his black hair cropped short and wears a beard, usually in the standard investigator attire and a collared shirt when off duty. Years lost to a coma leave him gaunt and drain his hair to grey.

Colleagues see him as a fatherly figure who looks after those under him. Warm and good-humored, he is widely liked, and decades in the field have left him unshakable in the face of nearly anything, the lone exception being Suzuya's brutal impulses. He guided Amon through the academy, and the younger man came to hold him in the same regard as Kureo Mado. Away from the job he is a devoted family man with three young children.

Shinohara learned the trade under Fujishige Iba and worked in a celebrated trio alongside Kureo Mado. Early in his career he brought down the ghoul Demon Yamada, later reforged into his signature butcher-knife quinque, and he helped capture Arata Kirishima, whose kakuhou became the punishing Arata armor he would wear into battle. When Mado died, Shinohara appeared at the funeral to comfort Amon, telling him his late partner had been proud of him.

Assigned with Kousuke Houji and Seidou Takizawa to reinforce the 20th ward, he took up the Binge Eater case. His hunt for the missing Dr. Akihiro Kanou led him to a hidden mansion, where his team found Ken Kaneki devouring experimental ghouls underground. Shinohara donned the Arata in time to blunt Kaneki's assault and even carved through the hybrid's kakuja, but the sheer number of Kaneki's kakuhou wore him down and left him near death. Amon found him collapsed, and afterward Shinohara admitted his invulnerable days were behind him.

He returned for the Owl Suppression Operation, joining Suzuya, Iwao Kuroiwa, Houji, and Koori Ui to subdue Yoshimura. Their celebration was cut short when the true One-Eyed Owl struck, severing Shinohara's leg to mirror the one Suzuya had lost and running him through the stomach. The blood loss and trauma sank him into a vegetative state that stretched on for years, with Suzuya and his new partner Hanbee Abara continuing to visit. Long afterward, medical breakthroughs tied to the Dragon War roused him from the coma. Recovered at last, he stepped back from active duty, kept up his friendships with Suzuya, Marude, and the others, and settled into a quiet life on the outskirts of Tokyo.