Narumi

## Manga

Narumi is one of the four emperors who watches over the prison that Riki-Oh starts the series in, being in charge of the north block. He is always seen without his shirt on, and is largely defined by the incredibly tacky tattoo on his back of Kintarō wrestling a giant carp.

Narumi first appears in the bathroom after Riki-Oh kills Iwata and Bandou, but only spectates the fight and leaves afterwards. Later on, one of his underlings, Imura, is seen trying to kill another prisoner with a meat cleaver. Narumi stops him and takes the cleaver from him, saying that he is not allowed to kill anyone in the north block without his approval. Imura foolishly decides to push his luck further, and says that there have rumors going around about Narumi that he is a coward due to not fighting Riki-Oh within the bathroom, claiming that he was afraid of him after he killed the other two prisoners. Outraged, Narumi goes to cleave Iwata's head open, cutting halfway through his head and knocking him to the ground.

Administrator Sugiyama appears after this and commends Narumi on his cruelty. The conversation gives him an idea, and he impales Iwata on his hook and takes him out of the room, surprisingly having survived the attack. Sugiyama suggests that they use Imura as bait to lure out Riki-Oh, as he's such a goody goody that he can't restrain himself from trying to save him, and he is chained to a cross. Sugiyama reveals here that Narumi was apparently supposed to kill Riki-Oh in the bathroom, but didn't for whatever reason, showcasing that Imura's claims actually did hold some water. Sugiyama lost some face because of Narumi failing to do this since it was Sugiyama's idea to come up with the "four emperors" system, and demands that Narumi kill Riki-Oh here or else he'll lose face in a more literal sense. Sugiyama gives Narumi some glass shards to make it easier to kill Riki-Oh before the fight begins.

Riki-Oh eventually arrives and the prisoners begin their fight. Narumi makes use of the glass shards to blind Riki-Oh, throwing them in his eyes, and is also able to make use of his sword to cut the tendons in Riki-Oh's arm, making it unusable. Riki-Oh is able to wash out the glass shards with some water, though, as well as directly reattach his tendons together in order to repair his arm. Riki-Oh goes on to knock out one of Narumi's eyes, which crows immediately feast upon. Narumi comments that he's now just like the administrator with only one eye.

Desperate, Narumi attempts to trick Riki-Oh by stabbing his sword into his gut and slicing through it, appearing to be committing suicide. Riki-Oh, being as good natured as he is, runs over to Narumi's side and tells him not to do it. When he approaches, Narumi grabs Riki-Oh and takes out his own intestines through the hole he cut in his body, restraining Riki-Oh with them. While Riki-Oh manages to escape this last ditch technique with relative ease, this is easily his most character defining moment. After this fails, Riki-Oh easily manages to finish him off given how much damage he's done to himself.

Sugiyama and the other three emperors later cut off the skin with Narumi's back tattoo off and place it on the wall to shame him, as well as placing the rest of his corpse on public display. One of Narumi's loyal followers, Asa, appears and is told to avenge him and kill Riki-Oh by the other emperors, pointing over at his corpse. When he refuses, Yomi peels off his skin like an orange and kills him.

Narumi is the least evil of the four emperors, saying that he has nothing against Riki-Oh but has to fight him anyway rather than reveling in it. It is doubtful that the original reason he didn't fight Riki-Oh in the bathroom was actually cowardice, more likely being he simply didn't want to kill him. While he uses dirty and extremely immoral tricks in his fight, he is largely desperate at that point and has little choice but to make use of them, given how much stronger Riki-Oh is than him. The fact that Asa thinks so highly of him is another sign that he isn't an especially bad person by the prison's standards, especially compared to Yomi who kills him without a second thought.

## Riki-Oh: The Wall of Hell

Narumi is significantly redesigned in the ova, appearing much more masculine, being much taller, and having a far less tacky tattoo on his back. A significant amount of his material is cut, most notably being that he doesn't try to trick Riki-Oh by faking a suicide and using his own intestines. This is presumably cut due to the lack of gore in the ova and the heightened realism. The scene where his corpse is displayed does not happen either, again presumably due to the omission of gore, which also means that his loyal follower, Asa, survives.

## Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

Narumi is known as Oscar in the live action film, and the four emperors are known as the gang of four. His role is nearly identical to the manga, being one of the single most accurate adaptions, though his tattoo is unique rather than being the tacky one from the manga. When he comes out to fight Riki-Oh in the courtyard, a random prisoner in the background says that "Oscar has to kill anybody who sees his tattoo." This is very obviously untrue, given countless people see his tattoo within the film and he doesn't have any desire to kill them. When Narumi goes to strangle Riki-Oh with his intestines, the Administrator says "You've got a lot of guts, Oscar!" in one of the most hilariously cheesy lines of dialogue in the film.

Narumi's tattooNarumi cleaves ImuraNarumi blinds Riki-OhNarumi slashes Riki-Oh's tendonsNarumi tricks Riki-OhNarumi strangles Riki-Oh with his own intestinesNarumi becomes just like the administratorNarumi diesNarumi's corpse mounted on the wallNarumi in the movieNarumi sitting on Imura's crossNarumi blinds Riki-Oh in the movie"You've got a lot of guts, Oscar!"Narumi dies in the movieNarumi's corpseNarumi's skin mounted on the wallNarumi in the ovaNarumi's tattoo in the ovaNarumi's size showcased in ova