Ryou Narushima

**Family** | Natsumi Narushima (Sister)Kenji Kurokawa (Former Master)Roushi (Former Master)Gosaku Tengenji (Former Teacher)Pero (Pet)

**Ryou Narushima** (成嶋亮, *Narushima Ryō*) is the main protagonist of Shamo. As a child, Ryou was considered a genius and many believed he had a bright future ahead of him, until one day he snapped and brutally murdered his parents. After being arrested, he was sent to juvenile prison, where he learned karate in order to defend himself.

During the China Arc, Ryou came to be known as the "**Devil of the Orient**" (東洋鬼, *Tōyō Oni*) whilst in the first martial arts tournament in the Grand Cross Arc, his nickname was the "**Karate Kid**" (空手小僧, *Karate Kozō*).

## Personality

Ryou's personality transforms practically throughout the entire manga series. At first, when he was sent to the reformatory, he was terribly depressed, scared and had no faith in himself. He remembered little of the crime he'd committed, but seemed to regret it greatly, while not fully understanding why it happened; his face usually showed uncertainty and fear. His bad condition was regularly aggravated by other young prisoners who abused him for the crime he'd committed, stating that his crime was a terrible exaggeration. Ryou was hated by practically every person he met there. Additionally, he was shocked by a visit from his sister, Natsumi, who told him that after the whole incident she had to become a prostitute in order to survive. She also told him that she felt hatred for him, that she never wanted to see him again and that it was all his fault. Despite her bitter words, Ryou still cared deeply about her and felt guilty for everything that had happened, promising to find and take care of her once he finally got out of the reformatory. Ryou was mentally broken, but something inside of him wouldn't let him give up so easily, and so he happened to be capable of slightly bolder acts and showed little signs of his wild nature.

Sometimes he was able to stand up to his tormentors, but unfortunately every such attempt usually ended badly for him anyway, the reason being mainly his physical weakness and the numerical superiority of his opponents. Things slowly began to change when Ryou met the prison karate teacher, Kenji Kurokawa. He soon began to learn more and more intensely from him the martial arts, in which Ryou seemed to see his only chance of survival in that unforgiving world. Kurokawa noted almost at the beginning that there's a "God or Devil" in Ryou's fists, though the young man clearly disagreed, regularly calling himself weak. Eventually, Narushima devoted himself unreservedly to training, which made him not only a strong fighter, but over time, he also became more and more ruthless person and it was easier for him to deal with adversities. He has learned that the reality around him is a place where he must do anything to avoid being killed. All the events that happened to him there had a great influence on him and changed him a lot. A minor theme throughout the manga is society's morally based stratification, how it condemns young criminals like Narushima, and how that condemnation forces Narushima to the fringes of society making his chances of true reform and redemption even more remote.

After leaving the prison, Ryou was a cold-blooded brute with almost no morals, who earned his living by beating people on the street or having sex with women. Both in battle and in his relationships with others, he could be extremely harsh, ruthless and easily carried away by his emotions. Nevertheless, he hated the mention of what he had done to his parents and often reacted aggressively in such situations. Despite his rotten life and great anger directed at the world, he felt a desire to make his life better. He began to feel a tremendous amount of frustration and he could not allow himself to live this lifestyle forever. It all started when he saw a match on television in a professional martial arts ring featuring Naoto Sugawara. Ryou began to obsess over him and took him as his target. He tried to show that he could be better than him. Ryou was very stubborn and followed the rule: do anything just to get your way. He even went so far as to rape Moemi Funato (Sugawara's girlfriend) just to provoke the karate master into fighting him. Unfortunately, despite everything, Narushima has always been taken by everyone only as a "parent-killer" and a dishonorable savage who uses foul tricks in match. The audience always let him know that when he fought in the ring. Eventually, he managed to gain a reputation as a dangerous and ruthless fighter.

Sometimes, however, it could be seen that he had a tenderness and some gentleness inside. For example, this feature was shown in his relationship with a randomly met prostitute, Megumi Harada, for whom he was nice and even managed to smile at her. From their relationship it could be inferred that Ryou felt more closeness with people who were also rejected by society in some way. Unfortunately, reality taught him to keep people at a distance rather than get close to them, as his relationship with this prostitute ended tragically for her because of the company Ryou was dealing with at the time. A sphere of interpersonal relationships in Ryou's life slowly began to change for good when Toukichi appeared. He in time became Ryou's possibly first and true best friend. Toukichi was willing to make the greatest sacrifices for Ryou, who appreciated it greatly, though he certainly didn't always show it properly. There were only few people Ryou appreciated, including, for example, Master Kurokawa, whom Ryou respected despite his cold approach and with whom he seemed to feel some sort of bond, even if they definitely couldn't be called friends later on. Ryou's relationship with Naoto Sugawara was also very unusual. At first Ryou hated him and only saw him as his enemy and target. However, their battles made him feel respect for Sugawara and Ryou began to treat him as a rival. Ryou was severely panicked when he thought he killed him during their second clash and even carried him to the hospital. The most important person in Ryou's life is his sister Natsumi. He repeatedly tried to find her after he left the reformatory, but only really succeeded when she was hospitalized by a drug overdose that destroyed her brain to some degree. He then left to earn money for her and for Toukichi, who decided to take care of Natsumi. Ryou has lost almost all the people in his life with whom he has made a deeper connection, such as an old Chinese martial arts master and his student En, for whom Ryou even decided to play the violin. Master Kurokawa and the old doctor who often helped him also died later. His hidden tenderness and suffering is shown very well at the very beginning during the scene in which he solitarily bursts into tears at the sight of the great Christmas tree.

The thread of the parents' murder was never completely explained. Throughout the series, Ryou has consistently avoided this topic and there were really only a few scenes where he said anything more about it. It can be inferred that he did it "in his own defense", but not because of the physical attack from his parents, but more because of their constant attempt to "kill" his personality, dictating literally everything on him and probably not even noticing how the young boy suffers a lot during such a life. In the series, it was said that unexpectedly something "broke" in him during his supposedly normal and good life. At the time of the murder, Ryou seemed to go temporarily insane due to the amount of frustration he'd accumulated. What he did is undeniably a horrific and cruel act, however at the same time, the series shows that even if young Ryou did something he didn't understand, he never got any chance to live a normal life from almost anyone and society has always looked at his crimes only in black and white without looking for any reason why something like this could happen.

Ryou has very gradually changed throughout the series. At some point his changes started to become a little more apparent. He was still rough, cold and extremely unsympathetic, but he had softened gently. Getting close to other people and showing them warmth was something he found immensely difficult, but nonetheless he even proved capable of taking care of an abandoned dog, which again refers to his sense of greater closeness to individuals rejected by society. Later, Ryou met a supposedly homeless girl, Sakiko Wakui, and even took her home for the night. She later became his friend and eventually he even let her live with him, Natsumi, and Toukichi. He seemed to understand Sakiko far more than anyone due to her loneliness and desperate attempt to escape from her own father, with whom she had a very unclear relationship, but what was certain was that he had hurt her badly in some way. Ryou was less likely to get carried away with his emotions and cared for those closest to him above all else. It could be said that at some point he gained his new family, which even included the aforementioned dog. He finally stopped being lonely, but unfortunately it was then that Sakiko's father hired Dobu-Gumi to defeat Ryou and lead Sakiko back to him. Ryou died after finishing the final battle with Dobu-Gumi. It could be said that he died defending his loved ones, paradoxically dying quietly at a distance from everyone and being completely alone again. Due to being a type of individualist and outcast, defying social norms, living in conflict with the surrounding reality and constantly fighting with his sufferings related to his past, he is definitely a Byronic hero.

## Appearance

He is rather average height and not very muscular man (1.72m and 76kg, at his first fight with Naoto Sugawara). Ryou, being Japanese, has naturally black hair. He had his head shaved bald in the reformatory because of the requirements there. Later, he grew his hair a bit and dyed it blonde after he left this place. The length of his hair changed regularly, which added realism to the world depicted and to Ryou's character. He often wore his hair longer and spiky, but he also shaved his head bald many times. His eye color is brown. Because of intense steroid taking, a vein in his left eye ruptured, making one white of his eyes turn red. This happened before the ring fight with Naoto Sugawara and then continued for a short time, but eventually his white's color returned to normal. At the end of the manga, during the fight with the brothers, the white of his left eye turned red again due to the blood.

Ryou's outfit isn't particularly unusual. He often wears dark hoodies, under which he usually wears a simple t-shirt. His pants are usually some sort of jeans or shorts, depending on the weather and season. He usually comes out to the ring in black or dark coats. During "Cross Fight", he came out to the ring wearing a black coat with a bird skeleton painted on it. Later, he wears also the t-shirts with this design.

## Abilities

Ryou's a very skilled martial artist, his primary fighting style is Banryuukai Karate, but he also studied other styles such as Chinese Kenpo and mixed martial arts. He began his training at the reformatory where he met his first master, Kenji Kurokawa, who saw from the beginning that Ryou had potential and his fists had a "God" (or maybe a "Devil") inside them.

In such a violent and rough place as the reformatory, Ryou slowly but surely transformed into a strong fighter, eventually becoming a fighter who'll do *anything* in order to survive and bring down his opponent. Therefore, he'll often uses whatever means necessary to win a fight, such as performing deadly and/or cheap moves on his opponents like attacking their eyes.

He is also skilled in use of tonfas as demonstrated in his second fight with Sugawara and later at the end of the manga when he fought against the brothers.

## Gallery

Ryou as a child.Young Ryou Narushima.Ryou Narushima wearing karate gi.Ryou before his first battle with Sugawara.Ryou during his first match with Sugawara.Ryou during the second battle with Sugawara.Ryou's image during the China Arc.Ryou's appearance during the China Arc.Ryou's appearance in the Touma's mind.Ryou as the "Karate Kid".Ryou's initial hairstyle in the Grand Cross Arc.Ryou wearing his black coat.Ryou during his match with Touma.Ryou during his last battle with Dobu-Gumi.
## Trivia

* Ryou Narushima is modeled after two different real-life people:
	+ "Boy A" (or "*Shounen A*") from the Kobe child murders of 1997.
	+ Ryuu Narushima (成島竜, Narushima Ryū) of Kyokushin whose name is pronounced similarly as the main character's name.