Namine Ritsu

Ritsu in Deep Sea Lily.

**Namine Ritsu** is a major antagonist in *Silylily - The Story*.

Introduced as the first recurring villain of the series, Ritsu serves as a consistent opposing force to Lily from anim.o.v.e, regularly hindering the progress of her career and putting her down at every opportunity. Over time, she grows to respect Lily more, but remains adamant about opposing the vocaloid.

## Summary

### History

As a child, Namine Ritsu befriends a young Lily and Gumi. They share a passion for music and agree to become rockstars together. Being friends with Lily, the two go on to have music careers of their own. Lily and Gumi become vocaloid singers while Ritsu becomes an UTAU singer. Out of respect, Ritsu covers many of Lily's songs, but her covers become far more popular than Lily's originals. This leads to Ritsu's friends, mostly Kasane Teto and Yokune Ruko, praising Ritsu and insulting Lily on behalf of her. Ritsu is ashamed at first, so she replaces her shame with arrogance and proceeds to belittle Lily and antagonize her whenever she has the chance.

At a Christmas concert, Ritsu is selected to perform while Lily is not. Ritsu uses this as leverage to torment Lily and her "loser" friends kokone and Cocorobo. She later gives a toxic fruitcake to Sonika, telling her to give it to Lily, which in turn knocks Lily out. Ritsu takes the opportunity to offer Cocorobo, Lily's maid, a large supply of cash to abandon Lily for her instead. When Lily later shows up, Cocorobo turns Ritsu away, enraging the UTAU. Ritsu is then blasted by a laser from Otomachi Una's laser-shooting katana, which she received for Christmas.

### Hunting Lily

After being mistakenly arrested, Lily and kokone escape from jail, so police officer Yuzuki Yukari requests Ritsu's help to find them. Ritsu is able to locate Lily, but she is knocked out from behind by kokone. Even after lookalikes are arrested in place of the criminals, Ritsu is able to get kokone arrested for attacking her. "Evil" fairy Merli later grants kokone a wish by making the police pursue Ritsu instead of her and Lily, so kokone is released once more. Ritsu is then recruited by Merli's "good" sister Aoki Lapis, who erases her criminal record. Like Ritsu, Lapis is also targeting Lily, wanting to make her confess to a dark secret that she confides in Ritsu. She also presents Ritsu with VY2, a powerful sword blessed by the goddess LUMi.

Using Lily's secret as blackmail, Ritsu approaches Lily's ex-girlfriend Luna and tells her to go to a dance with her. Luna goes along with it, upsetting Lily, but she tells the truth to kokone, who then tells it to Lily. Lily confronts Ritsu and the two duel with swords, Ritsu wielding VY2. They battle onto a balcony and Lily knocks Ritsu over the edge with a strategic sword throw. Ritsu falls unconscious and develops amnesia, so Lily is able to convince her that she is a friendly UTAU who seeks to spread happiness. With this mentality, Ritsu returns to Lapis, who chastises her for it. After Kagamine Rin and Kagamine Len also fail in the mission Lapis hires them to do, she decides to pursue Lily's friends instead, hoping to strike Lily where it hurts. She sends Ritsu to execute these captures.

### Catching Lily

During Gumi's birthday party, Ritsu, along with Lapis' other minions SpongeBob SquarePants and Scourge, attempts to kidnap her. Instead, they kidnap Sonika, a Gumi lookalike. For her next task, Ritsu tricks Lily by anonymously booking her band with kokone and Cocorobo to perform in the accursed Execrated Forest. They are driven there by Luna, but with help from Suzune Ring, who also affiliates with Lapis, she is quickly captured. Ritsu watches Lily's band rehearse from afar, but the noise knocks her out of a tree, blowing her cover. She confesses to tricking the band into going out there, which results in a violent argument between her and Lily. Ring is able to kidnap Cocorobo and kokone while this is going on. Ritsu and Lily are then left supposedly stranded alone together.

Insisting Ruko will come for her, Ritsu taunts Lily about how she will soon be on her own, but a sudden storm forces them to take shelter in a cave together. They are quickly chased out by a swarm of potential Indefinable Shadow Beasts, which leads to them becoming hopelessly lost. To ease her stress, Lily attempts to take the stimulating honeydew, but Ritsu smacks it away from her. She calls back to a friend she once had that died from honeydew and mentions that as much as she hates Lily, she refuses to let her go down the same path. This leads to Ritsu admitting Lily is not a bad person and does not deserve such a nasty fate, showing sympathy toward her for the very first time.

Continuing to a cliffside, Ring startles Lily and knocks her over a cliff. She grabs onto a branch and Ritsu attempts to pull her back up. Lily is forced to put her trust in Ritsu, who convinces her to take her hand. Ritsu pulls Lily back up, solidifying a semblance of trust between them. That night, they build a campsite and make peaceful conversation. When Lily asks Ritsu why she hates her so much, Ritsu replies with "Because I want your life." Ritsu explains that, despite her fame, her friends do not care about her and every single move she makes is watched by the public. She envies Lily's niche lifestyle and hates how she spends her life being compared to her, even in a positive way. She admits to feeling guilty about her success coming at Lily's expense, which has caused her to revel in it to avoid feeling the guilt. To refrain from getting any sappier, Ritsu goes to lay down, but she overhears Lily singing the song ERROR. She slowly joins in and sings with Lily before admitting that she always preferred Lily's rendition of the song to her own.

The next day, Lily and Ritsu continue their venture through the forest, making idle conversation. Ritsu confesses to knowing about Lily's crush on Gumi, claiming she makes it obvious. She also suggests that kokone has a crush on Lily, but Lily does not fully register this. They soon spot Sukone Tei carrying the body of Len, but she insists he is not dead. Realizing the pair is lost, Tei offers to show them back to civilization. She guides them to a small village called Lilytown, where many vocal-synth singers gather to worship Lily. Lily is hailed as a queen and consistently praised, which makes Ritsu feel left out. After being ignored for the rest of the day, Ritsu storms away and leaves Lily behind. Shortly after her departure, Lilytown is attacked by Rin, who is looking for her twin. Hearing the commotion, Ritsu returns to see the village in flames and Lily about to be beheaded. She knocks Rin out from behind with Lily's guitar, saving Lily and the other villagers.

Tei thanks Ritsu for saving their village and Ritsu officially apologizes to Lily for everything she put the vocaloid through. She explains that she finally knows what it feels like to be neglected on behalf of someone else. Tei then gives her a map that leads out of the forest, so Ritsu and Lily set off on their adventure once more. The whole time, Ritsu does not let Lily look at the map, as she plans on taking her to a different location. Going her own way, Ritsu brings Lily to Lapis' secret castle, where she pitifully knocks Lily out and brings her to the good fairy.

### Fighting Lily

Keeping Lily detained, Ritsu watches Lapis reveal herself and her intentions to the vocaloid. Both Lily and Ritsu are heartbroken by Ritsu's betrayal, the UTAU explaining that no matter how she feels toward Lily, she cannot stray from the path of good. Before Lapis can make Lily confess to her dark secret, Merli arrives and blasts Ritsu away with a magic spell. She takes Lily and flees the castle, but Lapis swears she will catch both of them. By limiting Lily's reach to the world by magically cutting her off from social media, Lapis sends a silent declaration of war. Merli, Lily, and Nekomura Iroha show up with Lapis' friend Violet and break into the castle. A fight breaks out and Ritsu is able to corner Iroha when Violet rejoins her and Lapis. During this, Lily frees her captured friends, who are then able to join the battle.

During the fight, Lapis loses VY2, and all of her minions are rendered unconscious. This causes her to flee with them, planning to pursue LUMi's other artifact, VY1, instead. They set up a castle in the abyssal plain underwater, bent on finding it. When Lapis senses Merli's presence in the ocean, Ritsu wonders if Lily is with her, showing reluctance to pursue her. Ring and Ritsu are soon sent out to search for VY1 and capture Merli's teammates, working alongside the fish being manipulated by Lapis. Ritsu travels in a small submarine and encounters Meiko, Yukari, flower, and MAYU traveling as a group. She chases them and captures Yukari after she is tripped by MAYU. She brings Yukari to the castle where she is held along with the other captured team members.

Ritsu later confronts MAYU directly and offers her the chance to betray her teammates. MAYU complies, leading them to a shipwreck where Ritsu is able to kidnap Meiko. She and MAYU then team up and travel together, eventually finding Gumi with VY1. They capture her, but VY1 is teleported away by Solaria. MAYU goes on to stalk Lily and flower, but is killed when she attempts to fight them. This acts as a diversion and allows Lapis, Violet, and Ritsu to capture flower. Lily is left as the only member of her team alive and free.

### Betrayal and Death

Back at the castle, Ritsu reflects on her decision to oppose Lily. When she informs Lapis that Lily is still free, Lapis brainwashes kokone into hating Lily by filling her mind with bad memories. Ritsu deems this as excessive and decides to betray Lapis. She is then confronted by Prima, a demigoddess who has been helping Lily. She advises Ritsu on how to go through with the betrayal.

Once Lily is able to cure kokone, Ritsu gives them both the key to the side of the castle their friends are being held in. She then locks Violet in an iron maiden before talking to Lapis as a diversion. This gives Lily enough time to save everyone. Violet then escapes her confinement and tells Lapis what Ritsu did, so Lapis deems Ritsu a traitor. With her last breath, Ritsu denounces Lapis with a promise that the fairy would not win. She wishes Lily luck before being killed by Lapis.

## Conceptualization

Prior to her debut, silylilyanimove's admin was reluctant to include Ritsu on the Twitter account in any capacity. Knowing conversations involving Ritsu and Lily often led to conflict, they chose to avoid risking it. Over time, as the vocal-synth community changed, the admin grew more comfortable with mentioning the character every so often. After the establishment of the silylilyanimove series continuity, they considered adding Ritsu to act as an enemy for Lily. This would keep the character true to her "bully" personality. She officially debuted in A Vocaloid Christmas Carol, where her depiction received appreciation from readers. At the time, she was referred to as a man, the most commonly accepted gender for the character. As time went on, female interpretations of Ritsu grew in popularity, so the admin decided to change Ritsu's gender to avoid making every male character an antagonist.

While being introduced as a more bully type villain, Ritsu took a more sinister turn when she returned in the second season of the series. She actively sought to hurt Lily, hunting her down and assisting the malicious Aoki Lapis. Ritsu was intended to remain an antagonist until Lily Needs a Date, where the character would develop permanent amnesia and change her personality, then Lapis would take over as the series' villain. This was changed when the admin came up with an alternate direction for the character. Ritsu went on to develop a more sympathetic personality, but remained a primary antagonist in the series.

## Trivia

* According to Cocorobo, Ritsu is a Republican.
* In Lily's New Maid, Ritsu is the first person Lily asks to take Cocorobo's place as her maid for the weekend. Ritsu turns her away.
* It is unknown how long Prima and Ritsu were in contact for.
* It is unknown how much of Ritsu's plan to capture Lily was actually intended. She might have only saved Lily from falling over the cliff in order to gain her trust.
* Ritsu's dress goes from long to short after A Vocaloid Christmas Carol. This is because Una tattered it.
* Ritsu was initially introduced as a man, but this was later changed due to there being too many male antagonists.