Ryou Hazuki

Ryou Hazuki, also known as Ryo Hazuki, is the main protagonist from the Shenmue series.
== Charactah Account ==
Ryou is an 18-year old Japanese high school student, a skilled martial artist and heir to the Hazuki dojo. Outgoing and part of a generation of a changing culture, Ryou is more interested in living his independent life than inheriting the legacy of the family dojo. His life is forever changed when a mysterious stranger by the name of Lan Di breaks into his home to steal the Dragon Mirror and take revenge on his father's life for supposedly killing a man in China. Seeking answers in a quest to avenge his father's death, Ryou embarks on a journey not knowing his role in a prophecy that has been predetermined since ancient times.
Determined, stubborn, impulsive and reckless, Ryou is unrelenting in his quest of vengeance but is a good person who is always willing to help those in need and unable to defend themselves. 
== Appearance ==
=== Anime ===
* Shenmue the Animation
* Shenmue: The Movie
=== Comics ===
* Shenmue Side Story
=== Video Games ===
* ESPN NFL Football
* Kotodaman
* Project X Zone 2
* Samurai & Dragons
* SEGA Heroes
* Segagaga
* Shenmue
* Shenmue II
* Shenmue III
* Shenmue Online
* Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
* Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing
* Sonic Transformed
== Trivia ==
* Ryou's zodiac sign is Sagittarius, year of the monkey, and he has a O blood type.
* Ryou's birthday is November 29th. His father was murdered on his birthday.
* Originally, Shenmue was supposed to be a Virtua Fighter RPG game, so Ryou was originally supposed to be Akira Yuki from Virtua Fighter.
** In Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, Akira can be customized to look similar to Ryou, and also in the offline DLC mode you can fight Akira with a brown leather jacket and blue jeans under the name "RYO".
* In the What's Shenmue? demo, Ryou has the ability to crouch while in free roam by pressing the X button. This was removed in the actual games of the series.
* As seen in beta footage of Shenmue, Ryou was originally supposed to have the ability to travel around Dobuita and Hong Kong with the Push Bike. The feature was likely taken out as Ryou was able to run everywhere faster.
* Yu Suzuki reveals how Ryou got his bandage on a Twitter event called "#YouAskYu". "It didn't appear in Chp.1, but there was a martial arts event. The scar is from the final match."
** In Shenmue the Animation, this was changed so Ryou got the scar on his cheek from Lan Di while he was trying to attack him after he hurts his father in the first episode.
* Ryou, being Japanese, goes to China and is inexplicably able to communicate with everyone in Chinese, even with a villager like Shenhua. In the first game, Ryou even needs assistance reading Chinese. When asked about this plot hole, Yu Suzuki simply said, "Let's not go there..."
* In a video interview, Suzuki said, "Because it's a game."
** Although not stated, it seems Ryou learned a decent amount of Chinese to communicate. In between his quest from Hong Kong and China, he was able to converse with Chinese people fluently of southern and northern dialects. Suggestively, he somehow picked up Cantonese and Mandarin before the events of Shenmue II and III. One could theorize that Ryou may be adept at picking up other languages, and practiced Chinese during unseen time. For example, Ryou consistently wakes up at 8:30 am, and since an average human needs about 8 hours of sleep, it can be assumed he goes to bed around midnight, and if a player goes to sleep at 9pm, that would give him 3 hours to study, perhaps through books or the people who can speak the language around his hometown. Shenmue II also canonically begins late February, giving Ryou about 3 months to practice during unseen time.
** In the anime adaptation, to help explain this plot hole, it is mentioned Ryou has learned enough Cantonese for basic communication, and that he still has a Japanese accent. He is seen carrying around a small translation book.
* A common joke in the fandom is Ryou being "murder-sexual" or "revenge-sexual". He travels around Japan and Hong Kong, all the while being constantly assaulted left and right with female flirtations and innuendos, but almost always ignores them and shows little to no interest back. Even when Nozomi tries to tell Ryou she has a crush on him, he replies, "I... I don't really know how I feel."
* In the official strategy guides for the fist game and in the Shenmue Passport disc when it could be connected online, they explain how Ryou once expressed his love for a girl when he was a kid, was teased, got into a fight with the kid who teased him, and has shied away from girls since then. The guide also mentions Ryou "hides" his feelings and "acts" indifferently around Nozomi.
** It should be also noted however that Ryou was driven/focused only by revenge so his primary goal was to kill Lan Di and avenge his father, trying not to get distracted too much along the way. He even can admit to his co-worker at the harbor, Mark if he talks to him on one of his lunch breaks, that he doesn't want girls he likes to get involved in his problems when he asks if Ryou has got a girlfriend. His problems do end up causing problems for women he cares about, like Nozomi, Joy and Shenhua getting kidnapped by gangs he was causing trouble for.
** Yu Suzuki said in a video interview, "Ryou is a character who doesn't care about anything else, so he probably doesn't like girls much." When asked if Ryou liked guys, Suzuki made an "mmm" sound with slight head nods, raising the possibility of Ryou being bisexual. Although he could have just been joking, as Ryou seems to like guys just as friends and not in a sexual way.
* In the English version of Shenmue, when Ryou intervenes when Goro Mihashi and Tetsuya Nagashima are mugging a fisherman, he says "Don't you know that blackmail is way uncool?". This is a popular quote among fans and it actually is a mistranslation from the original Japanese line. In Japanese, he says "Extortion's not in style these days.", which makes more sense since they aren't blackmailing the man. 
** Shenmue the Animation used the original Japanese line for this scene in both the Japanese and English versions.
* Initially in Shenmue, there was a hidden secret where Ryou could finish Goro off with a move resembling Ryu's Shin Shouryuuken move from Street Fighter during the QTE battle with him by inputting certain commands and boosting the kitten's affinity score. However it was unused, but the code to trigger it is hidden within the game's files and can be enabled through modding the game.
* As seen in early screeshots for the first game, there initially was going to be a free battle with some members of the Mad Angels in Yamanose, but this was cut in the final version of the game. In the actual game, there are no free battles in Yamanose.
* Yu Suzuki said in an interview that by the end of the Shenmue saga, Ryou does eventually overcome and lets go of his desire to get revenge on Lan Di. However, this does not necessarily mean Lan Di never dies, as there is a possibility of Lan Di accidentally dying somehow, or by being killed by someone else (such as Ziming Hong). All this means is that Ryou accepts Xiuying Hong's philosophy.
== Gallery ==
File:Ryou Hazuki Render 01.png
File:Ryou Hazuki Render 02.png
File:Ryou Hazuki Render 03.png
File:Ryou Hazuki 01.png
File:Ryou Hazuki 02.png
File:Ryou Hazuki 03.png
File:Ryou Hazuki 04.png
== External Links ==
* Ryo Hazuki at Shenmue Wiki
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Category:Shenmue