Differences between Elfen Lied and Tokyo Ghoul

There are subtle yet fundamental difference between two.

World views Lucy as a threat and wants to contain her. She views world as an enemy. She eventually gets attached to Kouta who was somewhat consistently nice to her.

Lucy does not have any self-doubt or self-acceptance like Tokyo Ghoul does.

Overall Elfen Lied characters are written as much more selfish and self-interest driven.

That makes them easier for me to understand.

Kaneki in contrast struggles with various psychological challenges since being a ghoul contradicts with his idea of being a human. 

Most other characters in Tokyo Ghoul also have a similar problem.

A lot of other characters hurt Kaneki for emotional reason and rather irrational hatred. It is hard to understand why for example Jason has some beef with him. Or even Nishio.

Overall Tokyo Ghoul seems runs on emotions I do not understand.

Lucy gets attached to people who are nice to her. Be that Kouta or that girl who was killed when Kurama and his agency captured her.

In contrast she keeps score and takes revenge against those who wronged her in some way. Like Kurama.

Sometimes she kills innocent if she has something to gain from it.

Overall, she judges people on individual merits and not as a collective. She does not generalize.

Others view her as a different species and view her mostly from that perspective. However, she actually does not divide the world into humans and dicloni.

She got attached to Kouta precisely because he was able to see and like her and an individual and not just look at her from humans vs diclonious perspective. 

That makes sense to me. For example, it is natural to value people who are nice to you. Since their effort benefit you and you will benefit more if they stay around. It makes sense to try and surround yourself with people who are nice to you.

In contrast Kaneki and Tokyo Ghoul overall not only see things from humans vs ghouls. Anteiku in particular tend to value all human lives irrespectively of each person individual merits. Because of that they have overriding guilt for being ghouls, refusal to accept their nature. These psychological contradictions affect their lives in peculiar way.