Rio

**Rio** is a human male in *Lilin* who is one of Lilin's friends in university. Eventually he reveals that he's interested in dating her, causing her to spiral into questioning her morality as well as her identity.

## Appearances

### Appears in

Episode 3: “Temptation”, Episode 5: "Enemy", Episode 6: “Clash”, Episode 8: "Yumi", Episode 9: "Shattered", Episode 10: "Change", Episode 11: "Rio"

## Appearance

Rio has short black hair with bangs and gray eyes. He's usually seen in his kendo uniform, with traditional indigo keikogi and black hakama. However, when not practicing his attire is more casual, which includes a dark red shirt, grey pants, and a white zip hoodie.

## Personality

Rio is incredibly disciplined when it comes to his kendo training, and takes it very seriously. This carries over into his level-headed and calm demeanor, even if his observations teeter from purity or honor to bordering on naivety. In spite of this, he's well-trusted by those around him and is honest to a fault, though Lilin can sense a tiny spot of darkness deep within him.

While usually reserved, as Lamia is his best friend from high school, he has a tendency to open up to her more easily, and tends to be more willing to put up with her teasing and pet names. She is also aware of his tendency to have poor eating habits when caught up with his craft or studying, as like any college student, has sustained himself solely with instant ramen on occasion.

## Biography

Rio is a rising kendo star and is able to attend Ima University via full scholarship. Both he and Lamia have mentioned to Lilin that he experienced trouble in his past relationship, and while cautious in pursuing something new, still has expressed interest in Lilin and accepts her past despite not knowing what trauma she's hiding herself. Upon her initial advances towards him, his strong reaction of fear implies that the trouble likely stemmed from sexual abuse. He periodically sees a therapist (Yaz) for help, going by the alias "Shinji".

Lamia has also expressed to him that she views him as more than just a friend, though he politely but firmly turned down reciprocating. As he doesn't fit the archetype for her to Corrupt, their history together as friends has still kept their relations close, and Lamia is often the first to inform him if any potential mates are bad news for him, such as when she found Lilin flirting with another guy at the beach.

Upon finding this out, he confronts her about it and cuts ties with her, spiraling him into the first steps of Corruption to her disadvantage, with his eyes turning red or glazed over periodically. Later in *Episode 11: "Rio",* it's revealed that he actually had been experiencing Lilin's enchantments since their first date, and up until recently had done his best to hide them away. Compared to past targets like Genji, the sexual taunting and hallucinations only trigger Rio's past trauma and therefore puts him in a state of guilt and shame. After seeking help with Yaz again to no avail, Lamia comes to his aid and successfully bridges the gap for the sake of their happiness and for his nightmares to end.

## Trivia

* In *Episode 3, "Temptation",* when Rio defeats Lilin in a fighting game match at their arcade date, she exclaims that he was able to "do the pretzel", a notoriously difficult command motion in fighting games.
* A Nintendo Switch can be seen in Rio's room in *Episode 11: "Rio".* The fantasy game he's playing, *"Last Knight",* was also briefly shown on Yumi's TV in the beginning of *Episode 8: "Yumi".*
* According to *Minisode #2: "The Customer is Always Right",* Rio hates onions in his burgers.
	+ The line he says in the burger restaurant, *"...the burgers are 'so fresh that you can hear the cows whenever you take a bite.'* " was inspired by the dinner scene featuring Keanu Reeves in *Always Be My Maybe,* which soon after became a meme upon its release. His apology while eating the burger was also inspired by this scene.
	+ According to Daggertail100 in the Cast Commentary for the minisode, the "burnt noodle special" was based on true events.
* Rio's karaoke minisode *"I've Been A Fool"* are references to the in-game karaoke song *"Baka Mitai (ばかみたい)"* from Sega's *Yakuza / Ryu ga Gotoku* video game series. While the track has existed in previous games for a number of years, only recently has it also become a meme.
	+ The ending scene the same minisode is the same bar used in stills for the Commentaries, as well as A/B scene eye catches in earlier mainline episodes where Lilin is singing at a lounge.