Ryūko Matoi

* School uniform
* Casual clothes
* Senketsu form
* Senketsu Kisaragi form

Ryuko Matoi doesn't own any mecha, or even a super soldier. She only gained strength from Kamui - Senketsu, her special type of clothing that uses the blood of a girl.

## Appearance

Ryuko is a 17-year-old girl of average height, with blue-black hair of medium length with a single red streak combed to the left in her bangs, and blue eyes with peculiar gear pupils with eight grooves along the edges. Her outfit at the beginning of the series is a white collared shirt with a red bow tie worn under a black and white varsity jacket with rolled up sleeves, along with a black skirt and white sneakers. As a child, she wore a red collared shirt, a white skirt, and white shoes.

Revealing her shoes, her attire is later replaced by a Senketsu, a living dark blue sailor uniform. Her shirt (Senketsu's upper jaw) is a dark navy sailor uniform with medium sleeves that exposes her belly with a red striped collar and is tied with a multi-colored scarf that also serves as Senketsu's left eye, however his "right" eye is covered by a black an "eye patch" with an X-shaped mark over it (possibly imitating her father's right eye patch). Her skirt (Senketsu's lower jaw) is held up by suspenders attached to her belt. Aikuro Mikisugi later hands her the Seki Tekkō (Japanese, lit. "Red Gauntlet"), a red fingerless left-handed glove with a built-in syringe designed for Ryuko to conveniently draw blood and give it to Senketsu.

Ryuko's appearance changes even further when using Life Fiber Synchronize with Senketsu. Her hair becomes even more fluffy and is accentuated with bright red hues and horn-like barrettes. Senketsu himself also undergoes a significant change in appearance after being synchronized; his "eyes" turn into wing-shaped crests protruding from Ryuko's shoulders, and his upper and lower body turns into black, skin-tight armor with red stripes. The top of the armor covers Ryuko's neck, lower jaw, arms, and upper chest, and has a red triangular vent in the center of Ryuko's upper back. The top of the armor is connected to her skirt by three red garters/braces (two in the front, one in the back), leaving anything between her lower chest and waist exposed. Her legs are also shod in thigh-high boots with heels.

When Ryuko puts on Senketsu Kisaragi, Senketsu's eye patch comes off revealing his hidden eye, his color scheme changes to reddish orange and yellow, his headdress becomes more intricate like rabbit ears, yellow energy bands form a skirt that looks like jaws all around Ryuko's waist, and her hair turns blonde.

## Personality

Ryuko has a relatively simple personality: fierce and stubborn. She has little fear of anything, which is shown when she directly and disrespectfully addresses Satsuki Kiryuin, demanding answers to her questions, and when she fights Takaharu Fukuroda, although she is clearly defeated. And it happens that he often quarrels with Ryoma for any reason. She is later shown to be quite embarrassed when forced to fight in a very revealing alternate Senketsu form, though she gets over her embarrassment in episode 3 by revealing that while she is not afraid to fight to the death, she is somewhat shy.

Although most of the time she is seen as stubborn and fierce, she can sometimes be shown as calm, polite, contented, and genuinely flattered. She admires the way Mako's mom cooks and her kind manners. She is later seen telling Senketsu how fun their dinner was because her mother died when she was young and her father sent her to boarding school, never knowing what a family dinner was like. She took it easy on the intention to fight, criticizing how street punks didn't suit him and how stupid his gang was. After defeating them, she gives up, not fighting people who cannot fight back. This is also seen in most of the opponents she faces, where she frequently states the obvious.

She shows fierce determination in finding her father's killer. Her stubbornness reached a ridiculous level when she managed to free herself from Rage's mind control by simply punching herself. In the same episode, however, there is one of the few shows of shock on her part when Rage defeats Satsuki, rips out Ryuko's heart and reveals herself to be her mother.

When Ryuko is brainwashed after being forced by Rage to wear the Junketsu, her personality changes, becoming wild and sadistic, destroying everything around her for no reason. After being released, she returns to her normal personality, but becomes somewhat more calm and mature. She also makes peace with Satsuki and is able to fight her as a comrade, but still has difficulty recognizing her as her sister. Although, after Satsuki catches her as she falls back to the ground and warmly welcomes her home, Ryuko calls her "sis" in response.

## Story

It was originally assumed that Ryuko's mother died after her birth, and her relationship with her father, Isshin Mata, was strained and distant. Ryuko spent her early childhood living in the dormitory at Ox Elementary School as her father was solely focused on her studies. Due to a lack of guidance and bullying from others, Ryuko became a juvenile delinquent, constantly getting into fights and even going so far as to join a gang. Six months before entering Honnōji Academy, she received a message from her father, and when she returned home, she found him bleeding with a red scissor blade stabbed into his chest. Isshin had told her beforehand that if she wanted to live a peaceful life, she should get up and leave, but if she wanted to "fight" instead of him, she should take the blade, since as long as she had it, she would surely be able to find his killer. Before Isshin could provide more information to Ryuko, she caught a glimpse of a dark female figure holding the other half of the Scissors blade out of the corner of her eye. Ryuko ran out of the house, but was unable to stop the fleeing woman. Before she could return, some kind of explosive went off and the house caught fire. Ryuko watched in horror, calling for her father, but to no avail. Vowing revenge, Ryuko became a drifter looking for clues about the killer's identity and whereabouts.

Ryuko's search for her father's killer leads her to Honno City, where she enters the academy as a transfer student. On her way to school, she meets Mako Mankansoku, whom she finds herself next to in class. Mako informs Ryuko about the student council that runs the academy under its president, Satsuki Kiryuin. She immediately confronts Satsuki, showing her the red blade of the scissors that killed her father, and from Satsuki's surprised reaction, she is convinced that she knows something about it. Ryuko is intercepted by council member Takaharu Fukuroda, who overwhelms her with the power of his two-star Goku uniform.

Shortly after being adopted into the Mancasoku family, she finds a certain person, Remu, who was wrecked after the events of the fight with the Lord of Nightmares. The strange thing is that he was also accepted as a member of the family, already together with the Black Getter, after which they both even fought with each other.

## Abilities

Ryuko's strength, speed, and abilities are far superior to that of a normal human. Right from the start, Ryuko could handle several one-star students on her own without the need to wear senketsu, although one could hardly still call her a super soldier. Her strength was given by the very clothes, Kamui. Ryuko is revealed to be the second youngest child of the Rage Kiryuin, whose body was injected with the Life Fibers (in theory also the Getter Rays), despite Rage seeing it as a failure at the time.

### Scissor blade

Ryuko's signature weapon is half a giant scissor, which she wields as a one-handed, single-bladed longsword. The blade is able to cut Vital fibers that are otherwise indestructible. Ryuko also uses it as a makeshift tennis racket during his match against Omiko Hakodate. She receives the other half of the Scissors blade after Nui Harime is killed by Shin Dragon's Getter Beam.

### Absorption ability

In addition to the standard Life Fiber Clothing abilities, Senketsu has the ability to absorb the Life Fibers of the defeated in Goku and Kamui's uniform, increasing his strength. Additionally, Senketsu possesses more than one Banshee, which may be a consequence of his absorption ability. This absorbing power led to Rage's downfall as Senketsu absorbed her Ultimate Subjugation Power in order to use it for himself.

### Engines

Both the back side of the crest and back and Senketsu's activated form have grille-like vents that are visible when Ryuko is fully synchronized. Originally acting as heat vents to warn her that she had reached her limit, its true functions were revealed once Ryuko was in full sync with Senketsu, with them acting as thrusters to increase her speed, cushion her landing, or strengthen herself.

### Grappling hook

As shown in the fight against Gamagori, the spikes on the skirt of Senketsu's activated form can be used to pin her to the ground.

### Beserker Mode

As Ryuko's anger at Nui boiled in her blood, Senketsu turned into a bloodthirsty monster. It also caused its armor form to change into a chaotic, bleeding version of itself, turning its wearer into a jagged-toothed green-skinned creature.

### Senketsu Kisaragi

The highest form of Senketsu and the most powerful. It combines the powers of junketsu and Goku's uniform to create the strongest form with enhanced performance. In this form, she was already capable of fighting in space without any gadgets, even with huge Invaders or the Z-Master.