Ryo Hazuki

**Ryo Hazuki** (Kanji: 芭月涼, Rōmaji: *Hazuki Ryō*) is the main protagonist of the Shenmue series . He is an 18 year old Japanese teenager who lives in Yamanose, Yokosuka, Japan.

His mother died of an illness when he was three years old. Ryo has been taught martial arts by his father, Iwao Hazuki, since he was seven.

After his father was killed by Lan Di and the dragon mirror was stolen, Ryo swears vengeance for his father.

## Personality

Ryo was a naive high school senior until he witnessed the murder of his father at the hands of Lan Di and has vowed vengeance. Ryo investigated into events leading to his father's death, but the more he investigated, the greater the mystery as he's pressed into the shadow world of martial arts and gangsters. With the limited clues and combat techniques he acquired, his quest began in his hometown and took him deep into China for answers.

As Ryo is only 18 years old, he is a bit naive at times and does not have all the sensibilities of an adult. He can be blunt with his language, such as when he accidentally offends Fangmei Xun by telling her she has eyes that remind him of a cat. Rather stubborn and competitive to a fault, he tends to act impulsively rather than think through a situation logically (i.e. when being contacted for the first time after performing the Chawan Sign, he unquestionably dives into the situation despite the signs that one would otherwise feel is dangerous and shady). As seen multiple times in the series, if Ryo feels he has been wronged, he does not give up easily until he is satisfied, such as when his ticket is stolen. He is very risk-driven.

Although sometimes dense around people with bad intentions, Ryo is also quite intelligent and inquisitive in order to find leads. He also knows when surrendering is the better option instead of fighting. He shows that he can adapt remarkably when it comes to driving forklifts and motorcycles.

Ryo has put any resemblance of a love life on hold until his revenge is complete. He knows how Nozomi Harasaki feels about him, but he hides his feelings and acts indifferently towards her.

   Ryo has well-intentions and wants to protect his friends and loved ones. This is especially true in *Shenmue III*, in which he must protect Shenhua Ling at times. He also knows how to act properly around children and does not like seeing them being bullied. He can also be merciful to strangers who've done horrible things; he saved the life of Chunyan Xu who murdered a man (although it is implied that he agreed to be murdered if he lost a fight with her), which stunned her and she could only ask "why?" He can also be interpreted as caring for animals, as he can care for an orphaned kitten in the first game, and can obtain a pet duck in the second, although it is unclear if Duck's inclusion is canon.

However, Ryo is prone to emotions like rage, revenge and anger, often putting himself in morally ambiguous positions. Xiuying views him as impulsive and impatient. Many people throughout the series try to dissuade Ryo from his path of revenge due to the danger involved. It could be said that Ryo's strong desire for revenge is his entire motivation for the series. A bit of his hot-headed and perhaps immature/childish nature could be seen as overlapping with his desire for revenge, as he even goes so far to quit high school and confront gangs just to pursue his father's murderer, while it could be argued that a sane adult would call the police instead of going on a long journey to hunt them down physically just so the revenge can be "personal".

Initially, Ryo is hesitant to fight women, saying, "No way... I'm not fighting a woman." However, he becomes more comfortable with the idea when confronted by Xiuying Hong, which makes him willing to challenge Guixhang Lee, Eileen M. Edelweiss, Chunyan Xu, etc.

Hobby-wise, Ryo seems to enjoy video games to a degree, as he can often play them via arcades, and he also owns a Sega Saturn. He could also be interpreted as a food aficionado of sorts, as he also seems to enjoy experimenting with food, as the player can often try and collect many types throughout the series. The same goes with a perceived hobby of collecting capsule toys. He may have a slight gambling addiction, evident by the fact that he will sometimes say that he should "get another" when using the Gashapon machines, and likes going to the small casino in town.

For combat, Ryo is the heir to the Hazuki Family Combat Style (a mix of Jujitsu and Karate). He has been trained by Iwao since a child and haven't fully mastered his training to succeed the school. Due to his martial arts foundations, he was able to pick up new techniques quicker than most people, but haven't reached to the rank of master yet. In his hunt for Lan Di, he encountered several martial artists (mostly kung-fu masters) that taught him a few moves of their respective styles. In Japan, he picked up the Tornado Kick from Tom Johnson, Double Blow from Shigeo Yamagishi, Shadow Step and Cross Charge from Shozo Mizuki, Swallow Dive from Guizhang Chen, and Swallow Flip (from Master Chen). In Hong Kong, Ryo picked up various Tai Chi combat techniques from Master Xiuying Hong, Jianmin Tao, and Guixiang Lee. Through is adventures, he also picked up other martial art moves from various people, books, and scrolls, evolving Ryo into a mixed martial artist of various styles.

## History

### Early days

At age 7, Ryo began to seriously study the martial arts under his father's tutelage. Around this time, he was dubbed "Suede headed Ryo" by Setsu Abe, the owner of the Abe Store, and was often scolded for being bratty.

He experienced his first feelings of love for a girl during this time, but when a friend of his teased him about it, Ryo started a fight with him. Since then, he has shied away from any involvement with girls.

He joined his high school's karate club, as mentioned in a conversation regarding Nonaka-san.

### *Shenmue*

   On November 29, 1986, Ryo returns home to find a mysterious black car outside. After finding his housekeeper Ine Hayata and friend Masayuki Fukuhara injured, he enters his family dojo to find his father, Iwao Hazuki, battling with a man dressed in a green silk Chinese suit known as Lan Di. Lan Di demands Iwao hand over an item known as the "Dragon Mirror", though Iwao refuses to reveal where it is. Ryo intervenes in battle after his father is felled, but is injured by a blow from Lan Di. He then lifts Ryo from the ground and threatens to kill him with a final blow, which prompts Iwao to reveal its location underneath the cherry blossom tree. After Lan Di leaves, Iwao dies in Ryo's arms. Ryo swears vengeance for his father. After this incident, Ryo decides to drop out of Yokosuka High School.

As he collects information around Yamanose, Sakuragaoka, and Dobuita, Ryo is led to the New Yokosuka Harbor District and to "Master Chen" who was mentioned in the Chinese written letter addressed to Iwao. The meeting gives Ryo some new information, there is a another mirror called the Phoenix Mirror. Ryo finds the mirror in the Hazuki Residence basement.

    While this is going on Ryo gets a job at the harbor driving a forklift as he has learned a gang operates there called the Mad Angels, who may have contact with a "Chinese Big shot" who Ryo presumes to be Lan Di. The Mad Angels and Ryo come to fights a few times at the New Yokosuka harbor, and as a result, they kidnap Nozomi Harasaki, one of Ryo's friends from school. Ryo comes to rescue her and he and Terry Ryan, the leader of the Mad Angels make a deal. Terry will take Ryo to Lan Di if Ryo beats up Guizhang Chen, who has been causing the Mad Angels problems with their plans at the harbor. Ryo confronts Guizhang and asks for him to lose explaining that Terry will take him to Lan Di if he beats him. During the fight Terry tries to kill them both, leading the two of them to fight the entire Mad Angels gang, 70 men.

Master Chen believes that Lan Di has left Yokosuka, heading for Hong Kong, so Ryo decides he will head there next as it is his only lead. Guizhang says that he will accompany Ryo to Hong Kong, but a fight between Ryo and Chai leaves Guizhang with an leg injury meaning he is not able to travel with him. Ryo leaves Yokosuka heading for Hong Kong, taking the Phoenix Mirror with him and an introduction letter from Master Chen telling him of a martial arts master named Lishao Tao who should be able to help him locate Yuanda Zhu, the writer of the warning letter sent to Iwao.

### *Shenmue II*

    Ryo arrives in Aberdeen, Hong Kong and sets about trying to find the Yan Tin Apartments in Wan Chai where Lishao Tao is supposed to live. He runs into a woman riding a motorcycle named Joy and later has his bag stolen by three men Sam, Larry, Cool Z and a child named Wong. He chases Wong, fights Sam and Larry, and gets his bag back.

He stays at the Come Over Guest House which Wong and Joy mentioned. He soon finds that the address he has been given for Lishao Tao is no longer valid as he doesn't live at the Apartments anymore. Eventually Ryo manages to find Man Mo Temple in Scarlet Hills, where Lishao Tao is said to be and discovers eventually that Lishao Tao is a woman named Xiuying Hong. Xiuying is willing to aid Ryo with the information he needs to continue his journey, because she believes he is falling onto the wrong path.

Ryo continues his journey without her help by asking people about Yuanda Zhu in Wan Chai. He comes into contact with Shuqin Zhang Yuanda Zhu's aid, but even he doesn't know his whereabouts as he has gone into hiding. He tells Ryo there is something he can do, and that is to find Ren of Heavens, the leader of The Heavens a gang in Aberdeen, but warns him that Ren is a dangerous person. Ryo is eventually able to find Ren and finds out how dangerous he can be, but through his perseverance and Ren's thought that large sums of money must be involved in what is going on, Ren tells Ryo that Yuanda Zhu is in Kowloon.

Ryo heads to Kowloon with Ren where they encounter Dou Niu, the leader of the Yellow Heads gang that operates in Kowloon who are also looking for Yuanda Zhu. Ryo and Ren barely manage to escape and wind up handcuffed, but are freed by Wong. Eventually, Ryo manages to find Yuanda Zhu but before he can even ask him anything he is kidnapped by Dou Niu and taken to the Yellow Head Building.

Ryo soon learns that the only way to get inside the Yellow Head Building is to be scouted as a possible new member of the Yellow Head gang, so to draw attention to himself he competes in street fights in Kowloon. Eventually a scout for the Yellow Heads arranges a meeting between himself and Ryo. Ren decides to follow him and he knocks the scout out, the two of them now have access to the Yellow Head Building.

The building is very tall and through many fights with members of the gang, they make it to the roof. By this point Joy and Wong have accompanied them and on the roof they find Dou Niu with Yuanda Zhu who he is about to deliver to Lan Di who is flying skyward in a helicopter. Ryo fights Dou Niu and eventually, remembering what he has been taught by Xiuying, he is able to defeat him and save Yuanda Zhu. Lan Di takes off and they all head back to Ren's Hideout.

At Ren's hideout they finally get to ask Yuanda Zhu some questions. Yuanda Zhu explains that the reason Lan Di killed Iwao was because Lan Di believes Iwao killed his father Sunming Zhao. Yuanda Zhu doesn't know if this is true but he does know that Zhao did die. Yuanda Zhu explains the Dragon and Phoenix Mirrors and that when they are brought together they form a key. Yuanda Zhu also tells them that Lan Di has probably went to Bailu Village in Guilin, so Ryo heads on to Guilin alone.

Once Ryo arrives in Guilin he starts the long journey towards Bailu Village, where on the way he meets a girl, Shenhua Ling, who offers to show him the way to Bailu Village as it is near where she lives. They walk for two days and eventually arrive at Shenhua's house where she lives with her adoptive father. In the house Ryo finds some artwork of the Dragon and Phoenix Mirrors, so the next day Shenhua and Ryo go to see her father in the stone pit where he is working but he is gone. He has left behind a letter and a sword, and on the wall two giant editions of the Dragon and Phoenix Mirrors. The letter encourages Shenhua to follow Ryo to "find proof" and says that the "time of destiny" has come.

### *Shenmue III*

    Ryo makes his way into China and continues his search for Lan Di.

For the first time in the series, Ryo is actually seriously physically injured in a fight and is left covered in bruises.

## Trivia

* Ryo's zodiac sign is Sagittarius, year of the monkey, and he has a O blood type.
* Ryo's birthday is November 29th. His father was murdered on his birthday.
* Originally, *Shenmue* was supposed to be a *Virtua Fighter* RPG game, so Ryo was originally supposed to be Akira Yuki from *Virtua Fighter*.
	+ In *Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown*, Akira can be customized to look similar to Ryo, and also in the offline DLC mode you can fight Akira with a brown leather jacket and blue jeans under the name "RYO".
* In the *What's Shenmue?* demo, Ryo has the ability to crouch while in free roam by pressing the X button. This was removed in the actual games of the series.
* As seen in beta footage of *Shenmue*, Ryo was originally supposed to have the ability to travel around Dobuita and Hong Kong with the Push Bike. The feature was likely taken out as Ryo was able to run everywhere faster.
* Yu Suzuki reveals how Ryo got his bandage on a Twitter event called "#YouAskYu". "*It didn't appear in Chp.1, but there was a martial arts event. The scar is from the final match.*"
* Ryo, being Japanese, goes to China and is inexplicably able to communicate with everyone in Chinese, even with a villager like Shenhua. When asked about this plot hole, Yu Suzuki simply said, "Let's not go there..." In the first game, Ryo even needs assistance reading Chinese.
	+ Although not stated, it seems Ryo somehow mastered Chinese. In between his quest from Hong Kong and China, he was able to converse with Chinese people fluently of southern and northern dialects. Suggestively, he somehow picked up Cantonese and Mandarin before the events of *Shenmue II* and *III*. One could theorize that Ryo may be adept at picking up other languages, and practiced Chinese during unseen time. For example, Ryo consistently wakes up at 8:30am, and since an average human needs about 8 hours of sleep, it can be assumed he goes to bed around midnight, and if a player goes to sleep at 9pm, that would give him 3 hours to study, perhaps through books or the people who can speak the language around his hometown. *Shenmue II* also canonically begins late February, giving Ryo about 3 months to practice during unseen time.
* A common joke in the fandom is a theory that Ryo is asexual, "murder-sexual" or "revenge-sexual". He travels around Japan and Hong Kong, all the while being constantly assaulted left and right with female flirtations and innuendos, but almost always ignores them and shows little to no interest back. Even when Nozomi tries to tell Ryo she has a crush on him, he replies, "I... I don't really know how I feel."
	+ Apparently, according to the Prima Official Guide (non-vertbatim): "It tells you why Ryo is the way he is with girls. Apparantly when he was a kid he used to be a bigshot with the ladies in his school but ended up getting into a fight with someone. This turned him into the guy we know now and he prefers not to get involved as much as he did in his youth."
	+ It should be also noted however that Ryo was driven/focused only by revenge so his primary goal was to kill Lan Di and avenge his father but as the time passed Ryo slowly began to leave his quest for revenge behind and he is now embarking on a quest for self-enlightening and to protect the world.