Tsukiyama's obsession with consumption finds its mirror in Chie's obsession with the camera, two different hungers wearing the same face. This OVA does what the main series never quite manages: it makes you understand him before he becomes a villain, which is infinitely more dangerous than fear. Twenty-five minutes is enough to shatter the idea that monsters are born broken.

Shuu Tsukiyama is a ghoul who feeds on human flesh and likes to savor every meal. One night, just as he is about to take the first bite of a victim he killed with care, a camera flash interrupts him. The photographer is Chie Hori, a high school girl whose picture shows a bloody body and a thrilled Shuu, clear enough to reveal what he is. Shuu has to deal with the threat fast, and then he learns that Chie goes to his school and sits in his class. His fixation on her turns from protecting himself into a grim curiosity. As he gets closer to the strange, distracted photographer, he dares them both to learn about each other's very different worlds, and he promises her a better photograph than the one she already holds. This single OVA is a prequel to Tokyo Ghoul, a supernatural horror drama about how the two first met.