Ryoma Sakamoto

Ryoma Sakamoto is one of the main characters in Bakumatsu Rock. He is an aspiring rocker who is full of passion and eagerness whose ambition is to be as famous as the Shinsengumi; however, his quest to be famous often gets him into a lot of awkward situations where he either gets booted or ostracized by the public for being a nuisance. The electric guitar he has was entrusted to him by Shoin who has seen his passion and the so called "Peace Soul" that he possesses.
He got into a confrontation with Shinsaku and Katsura where the two asked him as to how he got into possession of Shion's guitar and soon enough they formed a rock band. He is one of the five people who has a Peace Soul.
==Personality==
Ryoma is a very blunt and straight-forward person, whom has a deep passion for music. He is considered loud by the general public, and often ostracized because of playing rock n roll instead of soft, gentle pop music sung by Heaven’s Songs.
==Overview==
Ryoma works at the restaurant Albergo di Terada during the day and at night he goes outside to play his music on the street. However nobody acknowledges his music and most people gets angry with him.
One day, Yataro shows him a paper that said that the government is recruiting "Heaven's Song" singers and if someone passes the audition the government will grant them permission to sing. At first, Ryoma refuses because he doesn't want to sing songs that he doesn't like, but Yataro tells him that if the government grants him the permission to sing then later on he can sing his own songs on a big stage. After thinking about it, Ryoma decides to take the audition. But it seems like you need an invitation from a "Heaven's Song" master in order to audition, so Ryoma goes in search for his master Shoin. While he was searching he meets Kogoro and Shinsaku. They discover that Ryoma has the Peace Soul and after a couple of arguments they become friends. Ryoma, Kogoro and Shinsaku later on form a band and practice together.
They hold a lot of concerts together and battle against the Shinsengumi. He knows the Shinsengumi also practice a lot to be this good and he doesn't particularly dislike them. But after Kondo was killed, Ryoma started to grow a new hatred for Heaven's Song.
A couple days after Kondo's death, Yataro comes and tells them Shoin will be giving a concert tomorrow. At the concert Shoin really appeared, but the music he plays isn't his usual rock and it's starts hurting the bands ears. Katsura suggests it must be an impersonator, but Kaishu tells them it really is Shoin. Shinsaku climbs on the stage and sees it confirms it really is Shoin. Then the shinsengumi appears and they start to attack the band. But Hijikata comes and protects them and says the music Shoin is playing is the Heaven's Song and Ii is behind this. The music is getting worse, but Soji appears and he starts singing his song. Then the band hears Shoins inner voice asking the band to release him. Shoin is being forced to sing Heaven's Song. The band decides to release Shoin's soul with their song, and Soji and Hijikate help them. Shoins soul leaves together with his body and says his last words "Good bye, my beloved apprentices". At the end Hijikata and Soji join the band.
After everything went well for a while and other new rock bands started to appear. Yataro came with some bad news. The government arrested a bunch of rockers all at once, but that wasn't the only thing. The government destroyed their instruments and even those who supported rockers had their homes demolished.
The next day while Ryoma was walking towards the place where they would practice he meets some people who got into troublethe past couple days because of rock. When he arrived at the place of practice he told them what he saw and he didn't wanted rock to continue like this. At that moment Kaishu appeared and told them Ii was finally making his move. The government got their hands on a speaker and Ii went away to get  the speaker. While Ii isn't here right now it's the perfect opportunity to use rock to start a revolution is what they thought, but Ryoma was hestitating about this way of doing. At the end they decided to go to the concert where Justice would perform (the new idol group of the shinsengumi) and they would perform there.
At the concert while they were playing, Ryoma thought he didn't wanted to continue like this and stopped playing. This wasn't the rock he wanted to play. He thought to himself that they were just opressing people just like the way they were opressed once. That's when the Shinsengumi came and they had to run away.
After they ran away, Shinsaku got angry at Ryoma. He asked where Ryoma's passion for rock went, but it seems like Ryoma can't see his passion right now and he doesn't know what rock is, anymore. After hearing that Shinsaku walked away saying: "I can't play with you any more". Ryoma was lost for a while and didn't know where his passion went, but after after hearing the encouraging words of Kaishu and seeing how people still continued singing rock even after they got beaten up by the government, Ryoma found his passion for rock again and went to the concert where the other members of Ultra Souls were fighting desperatly against the government.
There he also helped with getting the old Shinsaku back since he was under the control of Ii's magic. Afterwards they started playing all together again and got the people who were under the control of Ii's magic, back. Although Ii tried to get in their way with his magic, Yoshinobu stopped him with even greater magic. The castle turns into a big speaker and Yoshinobu makes his official appearance as the 15th shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate. He was first seen as a boy who helped out Ultra Souls from time to time.
When Katsura asked why he helped them he answered: "I was unable to do anything I wanted and was bored. I wanted to see the Ultra Soul which is said to have the power to change the world. I wanted to see if it could change my monotonous and borind days." After Ryoma saw that Yoshinobu was crying he knew he had to help him.
Thanks to Katsura they managed to get into the castle, although they had to leave him behind. In the castle Soji, Hijikata and Shinsaku were also left behind to make an opening for Ryoma.
At the top, Ryoma found Yoshinobu, crying. He also meets Ieyasu, who was controlling Yoshinobu. When Ryoma was about to lose Ryoma starts to sing and touches Yoshinobu's heart. Together with the other people from the whole country. At the end everybody was still alive and a new era of rock started.
==Trivia==
*His favorite food is pizza margherita.
*He is blunt and straight forward.
*He is likely named after Sakamoto Ryōma, a samurai vital to the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate in the mid 1800s.
Category:Characters