Reiji Suwa

**Reiji Suwa** (諏訪 怜治, *Suwa Reiji*) is one of the main characters in Prince of Stride: Alternative. He is a third year student at Saisei High School and the stride club's captain as well as a runner, predominantly an anchor (final runner).

He is voiced by Mamoru Miyano (Japanese) and Justin Briner (English).

## Appearance

Reiji is a handsome young man with short violet hair as well as matching violet eyes.

In **Prince of Stride**, Reiji wears a blue dress shirt with a white shirt underneath and brown pants. He also wears a black watch.

He wears a red jersey (with the left arm covered in black, Saisei's emblem on the left and "Valentine Records" written in the middle) with a white t-shirt underneath. He wears it with short white leggings, black track shorts, socks and red running shoes.

His school uniform consists of the dark green school blazer with a pale sweater over a white dress shirt and red tie. He wears it with the dark red uniform pants and black dress shoes.

When performing he wears a grey jacket with dark purple feathers attached on his right shoulder and Galaxy Standard's emblem. He wears has a slightly unbuttoned black dress shirt underneath and grey pants. He also wears one fingerless sequin glove, a silver ring, bracelet and necklace.

## Personality

On the outside, Reiji fits his moniker to a T - the Perfect Prince of the Galaxy who is often seen with a relaxed and charming smile while his countenance is cheerful but confident. He is not afraid to dish out compliments to males and females alike, being able to charm girls almost effortlessly and put people at ease during conversations. It is stated in the visual novel that he is the main reason for Galaxy Standard's popularity; all the other members have average popularity. However, there is a certain distance that Reiji puts between him and other people. Despite his friendly outward appearance, it is difficult to get him to talk about himself, and he doesn't trust people easily. He conceals his true emotions under a veneer of what an ideal idol and leader should be - it is difficult to tell what he really feels about any situation.

As a person gifted with exceptional intelligence as well as wit, Reiji uses this to maximum advantage by supplementing it with hard work. He is an ambitious person, juggling his familial duties, stride and idol work all at the same time with efficiency, often pushing himself to stay awake and focus by force of will alone. He sleeps less than the average student, and by the latter parts of the visual novel still continues with his responsibilities despite having collapsed from sheer exhaustion multiple times. Shizuma Mayuzumi comments that he is an extremely determined person, and nothing will dissuade him from his goals once he sets his mind to them. Even if his decisions seem reckless, he has already considered their risks and are willing to shoulder the responsibility in case they fail. Tied to this, he has somewhat of a self-blaming tendency when his plan does go wrong, and is liable to fall into brooding without intervention.

Despite this, Reiji does know how to have fun, often organizing events and spontaneous meetups if he thinks it will make everyone involved happy. He also has a tendency to collect small things that catch his fancy, such as Nana Sakurai's Melonko-chan phone strap in the visual novel.

In the visual novel, he is either the foil for Kyosuke Kuga or Takeru Fujiwara, depending on the route chosen. In the anime, both him and Tasuku Senoo are the foils for Takeru, but Senoo only accentuates Takeru's single-mindedness to Stride and that they are introverted, while Senoo is also the foil for Heath Hasekura due to physical abilities.

## Skills

Reiji is stated in canon to be some sort of prodigy. In the visual novel, he has high stats in all stride specialties save for gimmicks and he is Saisei's anchor runner as well as team captain. He is also the main vocalist for Galaxy Standard in addition to being its leader who often speaks for the team in public televised appearances. He also has excellent academic grades to round out his school performance. Of course, this comes also because of his hard work and exceptional willpower, often working himself to the point of exhaustion to keep up with all his duties.

In addition to this, he also has a good sense of aesthetic and is a master of Japanese traditional dance.

In the anime, Saisei nearly loses to Honan in the exhibition match, but only because the Saisei team were not going all-out for the race. In the visual novel and the light novel, Honan only becomes on par with them after months of training.

## Etymology

* The name **Reiji** means "wise" (怜) (**rei**) and "cure/heal, reign, be at peace, calm down, subdue, quell, govt, rule, converse" (治) (**chi**/**ji**).
* Reiji's surname **Suwa** means "consult" (諏) (**su**) and "call on, visit, look up, offer sympathy" (訪) (**wa**).

## Trivia

* Reiji was voted tenth place in the category of 'Most Ideal Boyfriend' in Dengeki Girls' Style's 2015 Otome Game Polls.
* The limited edition EOS Fan Guide rates Reiji at 5/5 in speed, 4/5 in stamina and 4/5 in technique. This makes him one of the runners with the second highest score (at 13 points total), tied with Kazuki Satta and only one point behind Kaoru Shishibara and Tomoe Yagami.
* Reiji's family, the Suwas, have an actual real-life counterpart. The Suwa clan rose to prominence during the Sengoku period in Shinano Province, first serving under Takeda Shingen and then all three Great Unifiers. The Suwa clan are historically caretakers of Shinto shrines around central Japan, which may explain the in-game status of the family as deeply rooted in tradition.
* The patrilineal Suwa line died out around 2000, which is coincidentally (or not) the year of Reiji's birth.