Ryūzo Sakuma

**Ryūzo Sakuma** (佐久間 龍造 *Sakuma Ryūzo*) is one of the main characters of Cheer Boys!! series by Ryō Asai. He is a first-year student in Meishiin University and a member of the male cheerleading club, Breakers.

## Appearance

Ryūzo has light pink hair from his roots that goes even darker as they reach to the tips, grey eyes, he has a rather feminine body shape and he is the smallest out of the Breakers.

## Personality

Ryūzo comes off as a very open character and when he has something he has a passion for he goes all out for it; even having to go through Hisashi Mori's workout plan.

When someone tries to bring others down, or judge other's, he will have no problem to jump right in and speak his mind. He even managed to surprise the rest of his team members when he went against Mori's words.

Ryūzo is very high spirited and will never leave anyone behind. He is a bit bubbly and always gushes over their team captain, Kazuma Hashimoto.

## Background

Ryūzo grew up around 3 older sisters who all had different passions. As a child he took part in ballet, which explains why he's so flexible and lightweight; though behind his small smile he really hated himself. As a young boy he would compare himself to the other boys in his class, who were more "man-like" "body-built" "tough" while he was there looking like a girl.

Eventually, he realized that looks didn't matter and that no one should ever have to feel bad about themselves for it and so continued on with a smile on his face. During an event that took part in school he met Kazuma Hashimoto by bumping into him by accident. You could say it was like a "love at first sight" moment, he saw their performance, looking at them all in awe. From then on he decided to join the cheer team and has been happy ever since.

## Plot

Ryūzo is a feminine boy who doesn't have much strength, someone who has to fight and work hard for everyone else on his team. Having to work along side Takeru Andō, who he does share the "broccoli" joke with.

He has to build his core strength up and has his eyes on Kazuma Hashimoto, who he does fawn over quite a bit. It's shown that he has a crush on him, most likely starting from the moment Kazu helped him up.

## Relationships

### Kazuma Hashimoto

Ryūzo gets along remarkably well with Kazuma as he is shown to look up to him right from the beginning and we see him being able to pick up on Kazu's mood changes when no one else is able to overtime.

## Quotes

* "I used to hate how little and girlish my body looked, but then I joined the cheer club and realized it was those features that made me a great flier, like Kazu!!"

## Etymology

* The name **Ryūzo** means "dragon" (龍) (**ryū**) and "construction" (造) (**zo**).
* Ryūzo's surname **Sakuma** means "help, aid" (佐) (**sa**), "long time" (久) (**ku**) and "while, time, interval, space" (間) (**ma**).

## Trivia

* Other notable characters that Ayumu Murase (Ryūzo's seiyū) has voice included:
	+ Shōyō Hinata from *Haikyū!!*
	+ Joker from Mysterious Joker
	+ Allen Walker from D.Gray-man Hallow
	+ Chuuta Kokonose from ēlDLIVE
* Ryūzo is the only member of the Breakers who goes by his last name as he is embarrassed that part of his first name **Ryū** means "dragon" (龍).
* In the original manga, Ryūzo calls Kazuma 'Kazu-kun', which mirrors the way shojo protagonists refer to their love interests. However, Ryūzo drops the suffix in both the second manga and the anime.