Ryuu Kanzaki

**Ryuu Kanzaki** (神崎竜) is a professional football player who went through the Blue Lock system and currently plays as forward for FC Barsha.

Although he played football as a way to kill time, it was his older twin brothers’ who inspired him to take the sport more seriously. However he did not start out as a striker, but instead started as a goalkeeper for his high school team. He got his time to shine when he went outfield in a match and was able to score two of the four goals that his team won. Repeating this for a few matches got him to being noticed and be placed in Blue Lock’s Team V-1 (Team V, Stratum 1).

He is also the younger brother of professional twin footballers, Ryoma Kanzaki and the late Roma Kanzaki, who currently plays for rival club, Royal Madrid.

## Appearance

Ryuu has fairly average height, with an athletic build with slight muscles building up. He has bright yellow eyes and short length hair that is always disheveled, with the hair colour being scarlet with black streaks growing out from the crown. Back in Amanogawa High, he wore the #20 goalkeeper jersey, which had wavy design by the side of the body.

In Blue Lock, Ryuu wears the standard-issued body suit (black with gray stripes) and tracksuit. During the first selection, Ryuu wore the specific jersey of Team V-1 with #25. During second selection, he wore Team Red’s #16 jersey, and remained till the end of the it.

At FC Barsha, Ryuu wears their blue and garnet striped jersey, while donning #9. While playing, he wears a wrist tape on his right hand, due to a weak wrist as he suffered an injury during his Blue Lock days.

For casual clothing, Ryuu prefers to wear anything comfortable. From hoodies, oversize t-shirts to the even ridiculous onesies, Ryuu will wear anything to make himself comfortable. He also wears a kaleidoscope-patterned locket necklace that contains two pictures. When opened, on the right shows a picture of his late brother and on the left shows his whole family.

## Personality

Ryuu has a carefree demeanour, yet is prone to have his awkward moments for most of the interactions that he makes. Despite his happy-go-lucky personality, Ryuu is quite strong-willed and is gentle to whoever he cares for, friend or or foe. He is always on alert for anything, which makes him a reliable person for any of his teammates to go to when in need.

However, behind his easy-going nature hides a heavy burden that Ryuu almost always carry with him, as a result from his older brother’s death. He had always thought that his brother’s death was a result of his own carelessness, hence why he has taught himself to be vigilant so that maybe one day it would prevent others from suffering the same fate. Yet Ryuu has sometimes doubt that he is overly alert and thought he was maybe too ‘paranoid’ for the littlest things.

In an actual match, he is no less different when playing on the field. He is always energetic, competitive and cunning, using his smarts to try and evade opponents from stealing the ball. His usual tactics would be pressuring and charging through the opponent’s defensive line without a single plan in mind. He has a penchant to always win, thus is easily angered if things do not go his way. He tries his best to remain calm when he makes small mistakes, but the built up anger may result with poor performance on the field. Despite this, he tries to maintain his professionalism, and does his best on the pitch.

## Abilities

### Archetype

* **Poacher:** Also known as the Fox in the Box, they are those opportunistic strikers with great ball timing, positioning and specialization in close-range finishing. They are usually the team's top scorers and make up for their lack of technique with courage, opportunism and the will to score goals no matter what. They are the masters of the penalty area, knowing very well how to compete for space.
	+ **Pressing Forwards:** This sub-type indicates a rare breed of complete forwards and can be considered both a Poacher and a Dynamic Dribbler. They form the first line of defense, making a high pressure on the opponent's defensive line, in order to force errors and steal the ball in the offensive sector, maximizing the chance of score. They are usually very strong physically, but equally fast, vigorous and talented in 1v1 plays.

## Etymology

* The name, Ryuu (竜) is the alternate transcription of Japanese Kanji (竜) or (龍)*,* meaning "dragon"
* His surname, Kanzaki (神崎 is from Japanese Kan (“God”)(神) and Saki (“Cape, Peninsula”)(崎)
* Therefore, Ryuu’s name, **Ryuu Kanzaki**, can be interpreted as ‘The Dragon God’s Peninsula”.

## Quotes

* *Hm. Now I see why we are placed in here…*
* *Tsk. Three years being a goalkeeper with a chance to finally shine… Yet I am back to where I am miserable the most.*
* *Heya Octopus…. Guy? Wait, are you eating octopus?! Why are you eating your family?!*
* *I’ll become the best… I will win… And I’ll do so, by killing this match.*
* *I am not a little kid anymore, Ryoma. I don’t care, if you hate me. I don’t care, if you think that I am not good enough to play this sport. But I know that I have people who will be there to help me improve, and even if I would have to selfishly discard them to make it to the top. In this field, we are no longer brothers. From now till the end of the match, we’re rivals, Ryoma Kanzaki.*
* *Well, I have one or two things that I have learnt from my time there. Waltz of the Gentle Dragon!*
* *Huh. Looks like I do have a chance to go in for an attack. Damn them, looks like I have to do this myself.*
* *If only my older brother is here. No, not Ryoma, but his twin. My other, older brother, Roma. I don’t know, ever since he passed, my relationship with Ryoma kinda went downhill. If only Roma was still alive, my sure he would be proud with what I went through and where I am today.*
* *I am Ryuu Kanzaki. Remember that.*

## Trivia

* His Zodiac sign is Cancer Crab.
* His hometown is Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture.
* His favourite colour is Purple.
* If Ryuu could be anything in his next life, he would rather be a rock.
* His favourite inanimate object is a rock.
* Ryuu considers himself pretty diverse in terms of liking things such as food, movies or songs.
* However, he hates bugs. Cockroaches especially.
* Ryuu roughly sleeps 5 hours each night.
* The last time he cried was he watched a video of a Hawk snatching a Butterfly just after it was released. He spent 2 days crying about it.
* He started playing football as a hobby at age 9 before taking it seriously at age 12. Before that, art was his main passion and is still is to this day, though now is just a hobby.
* Although he has never met his mother who had passed shortly after she gave birth to him, all Ryuu know is that he sort-of look like her and she was from South-East Asia.
* He could speak Japanese (of course), a rather acceptable level of understanding, knowledge and speaking English and is still learning Spanish.
* His favourite footballers is Luis Suarez, Federico Velverde, Diego Forlan, Lionel Messi, Marc-Andre Ter Stegen and Sergi Roberto.
* If Ryuu did choose to go down the football path, he would most likely have pursued to be a mangaka
* If he ever got 100 million yen (~$739,000), Ryuu would give a part to his father and brother. The remaining would go to his bank, his mother’s family and be spent on buying toys, despite being an adult.
* If it was last day of Earth, he would go back to his family home and spent time with his father, and maybe his brother if he ever bothered to show up.
* Despite the harsh treatment from his older brother, Ryoma, Ryuu still loves him very much. Even if his brother does not feel the same way.
* If he could be granted a wish, his wishes would be that his other older brother, Roma, is still alive to see how far he has gotten and be proud of it.

### Author notes:

* And of course, this character is based off of the real life player, Luis Suarez. At least, more or less his skills and appearance and jersey numbers. Because hey, the author likes this player.