Ryusei Shido

* Manga
* Anime

**Ryusei Shido** (士 (し) 道 (どう)  龍 (りゅう) 聖 (せい) , *Shidō Ryūsei*?) is a contender of the Blue Lock, who currently plays as a center forward for France's Paris X Gen.

Shido, unlike most forwards, has no concrete dream of becoming the world's best striker. He instead seeks to enjoy life to the fullest by playing football.

Out of the original 300 forwards chosen to be a part of the Blue Lock Project, Shido is an ideal candidate for the type of striker Ego strives to create. After the match against the Japan U-20 team, Shido ranked as one of the top players in Blue Lock.

## Appearance

Shido is a tall, tanned young man with spiky blond hair with fading pink at the tips, having two strands falling on both sides of his face. He has pink colored irises with white silted pupils in them like a cat, and he is of similar height and body building to Rin Itoshi. He is very expressive and is often seen with a joker-like grin or smirk.

During the second half of the Japan U-20 match, Shido dons the #13 U-20 jersey with a black shirt under it and shorts.

Volume Cover 12Team White uniformTeam A uniformJapan U-20 uniformBlue Lock player icon
## Personality

Shido is an eccentric player in Blue Lock who has a strong penchant for violence or, more specifically, physical altercations. At the core of Shido's personality is a drive to play football because it is a biological phenomenon that makes him feel complete. Shido scores goals to pass on his genes and leave his mark on the world; it is his sole focus. He gets excited from playing high level football with other high-level players and is bored if people cannot make him "explode" or don't "explode" themselves.

He can be considered a polar opposite of Rin Itoshi, being completely self-sufficient and instinctive in his football. A noticeable trait of Shido's has been his propensity for violence to get what he wants, often being unwilling to work with most people (if anybody at all). He seems completely aware and content with the toxicity of his behavior and only feels slight remorse once he is electrocuted and locked up for being overly aggressive and threatening serious bodily injury onto others.

He seems to get over such feelings when he is released from his behavioral captivity by Sae Itoshi who asks him to join him in playing high level football and is cleared to act however he wants as long as it's for Sae's sake. When released from Blue Lock under Sae's supervision he seems to be even more openly violent and causes frequent quarrels with the Japan U-20 team's ace player Shuto Sendo, who initially doesn't respect Sae.

Shido can be openly friendly and even affectionate towards others such as Sae Itoshi who gave him the opportunity to play with him and evolved his level of play in the process, showing him a type of football he has never experienced before. Shido can also be overtly and unnecessarily sexual at times and though he is prone to violence, he also learns how to control his violent rampages in exchange for playing high level football longer. Shido is able and willing to acknowledge other people's skills, praising Isagi for making the "best play" of the first game of the Third Selection (when Rin wouldn't) despite Isagi stealing a goal from him. By the time of the Neo Egoist League, Shido is able to control his anger and violence enough to share the field with his most hated rival, Rin Itoshi.

## Abilities

### Archetype

* **Goal Poacher**: Goal poachers are forwards who wait in the six-yard box or the penalty area for a cross, pass or loose ball and pounce to try to score a goal. The "poaching" refers to the fact that they will often score a goal out of the slightest of opportunities, i.e., steal a goal. Goal poachers usually play as center forwards or second strikers.
Shido, with his sharp reflex and monster instinct, has an uncanny ability to position himself at a critical point in the penalty box and score goals that most players wouldn't even think to attempt. His self-sufficient play style revolves around him positioning himself perfectly towards the goal as he waits for the ball and scores goals. Shido also has tendencies to take shots in midair and can even do so without looking, a testament to his skill as a poacher. He is an expert at producing monstrous goals from inadequate positions.

### Skills

* **Superior Football Technique**: Shido is one of two players in Blue Lock who have top tier stats, along with Rin Itoshi. During the Third Selection, he scored an average 2 goals a game, the highest of any player besides Rin. His physical dominance, ball control, power, and kick accuracy are only rivalled by a handful of players. Though Rin can be described similarly, what separates the two is Shido's confidence in scoring goals alone, even causing a physical altercation if his experience of the game is hampered in any way, whilst Rin combines with his environment to score. Shido's skill and ego are so advanced that he was recognized by Sae, a genius of the professional world, and asked to join him on the Japan U-20 team. With Sae's guidance, Shido is able to evolve his level of play to new heights, scoring outrageous goals and forming a deadly duo that the Blue Lock Eleven struggled to deal with.

* **Dominant Physicality**: Shido is physically one of the strongest and most dominant players in Blue Lock. His physical strength alone was enough to make Gurimu Igarashi feel like his skull was getting crushed. For a more objective demonstration, Shidou was able to kick back Rensuke Kunigami, himself a physically imposing player. Shido is able leverage his superior physical ability over opponents (such as the more technique-focused Reo Mikage) and break past them in an off the ball fight. He does this in a variety of ways, using his body and his opponent's to create momentum to break past them, or even jumping over them altogether.
	+ **Aggressive Dribble**: Shido uses his physical strength to move across the field erratically, either with the ball at his feet or without it. These movements can confuse even his teammates, along with his opponents.
* **Extreme Spatial Awareness**: Shido's main ability is his extreme spatial perception. As opposed to other types of spatial awareness that take into account player's positions and weapons, Shido's spatial awareness is geared towards the goal at all times. This is the key to his perfect scoring ability within the penalty area, since Shido is able to "see" the goal whenever he is in the penalty area, even without physically facing it. In addition to this, when he is in Flow, Shido is able to perceive he location of the goal even outside the range of the penalty area.

* **Reflex**: Shido is able to reflexively take into account his position and his opponents to leverage his weapons for an ideal shot. His reflexes and speed grant him the ability to get to any point on the field faster than others could and his natural ability to use all of his body parts optimally allows for him to perform incredible physical feats that are uncommon even to those at Blue Lock. He has shown this multiple times, but most notably when he scored a goal in the Japan U-20 match, instantly reacting to Sae's high-speed pass. It is Shido's unrivaled instincts that make him such a potent scorer in and around the penalty area, establishing him as one of the most dangerous strikers in Blue Lock.

* **Drive Shot**: An accurate and powerful shot that is usually used from range, serving as Shido's main method of scoring. Shido is able to perform a drive shot from a multitude of positions, whether it is unfavorable or not. Shido is able to avoid having to reset his positioning by using his superior physique and immense reflex to make the Drive Shot.
	+ **Bicycle Kick**: An acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. Bicycle kicks can be used defensively to clear away the ball from the goalmouth or offensively to strike at the opponent's goal in an attempt to score. Shido firstly performs this move in his debut match against Kunigami and Reo and scores an effortless goal on Kunigami, breaking down his defense completely.
	+ **No-Look Goal**: A skill that few strikers in the world can pull off; Shido jumps for the ball while turned away from goal and instinctively takes a shot without looking. This shot is incredibly fast and unpredictable, making it hard to react to.
	+ **High-Spin Drive Shot**: When receiving the ball with his back to goal, Shido backs into an opponent and uses his physical strength to hold them in place, using their body weight to rotate on the spot and rising into an incredibly quick shooting motion.
	+ **Dragon Drive**: A shot made possible when combining his extreme reflexes with Sae's. While running at top speed, Shido leaps around an opposing defender and executes a jumping volley while using his signature kick, the Drive Shot. This shot was powerful and fast enough to score from outside the penalty area with little reaction from the other players on the field.

* **Flow State**: Flow, as described by Ego, is the state of "total immersion" or "being in the zone". It is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.
Shido entered Flow in the middle of the Japan U-20 match, being inspired by the passes he received from Sae and being pressured by the Blue Lock Eleven defense. This led to him pushing his physical and perceptive abilities to their extremes and scoring a super goal.
	+ **Big Bang Drive**: When he enters Flow, Shido is able to push his spatial awareness past its limit, 'feeling' the location of the goal and performing a long-range bicycle kick, which lands directly in the goal. He used this to score directly from a clearance without having to reset his positioning in the U-20 match.

## Trivia

* Majority of this information is from the official Egoist Bible.
	+ His birthplace is Tokyo, Japan.
	+ His favorite manga is Chainsaw Man.
	+ His favorite soccer player is Zlatan Ibrahimović.
	+ His favorite music artist is Hide and his favorite song is Hide - Pink Spider.
	+ If he impulsively bought something from a convenience store, it would be a Baby Star *ramen*.
	+ His favorite food is *yukhoe*. His disliked food is beansprouts.
	+ He is the best fighter in the Blue Lock facility.
	+ If he received 100 million yen, he would divide them into 100 domino pieces (like into blocks and play them like dominoes).
	+ His favorite movie is A Clockwork Orange.
	+ His favorite animal is the velociraptor (he finds the way they ate people cute).
	+ His favorite subjects are Physical Education and Art.
	+ He is apparently ambidextrous.
	+ His morning routine consists of: going onto the balcony naked and soaking up the sunlight, dancing however he likes, yell whatever comes to his mind ("stuff like capillaries and flesh rupture!!").
	+ When asked how old he was when he stopped getting presents from Santa, he said: "It's much more fun obtaining presents by yourself instead of receiving them from that red-white-middle-aged-fattie". When asked what was the last thing he asked Santa for, he said: "A world where Santa disappears".
	+ If it were his last day on Earth, he would watch it end.

## Etymology

* His given name, **Ryusei** (龍 (りゅう) 聖 (せい) , *****Ryusei*****?) means "holy dragon."
	+ **Ryu** (龍 (りゅう) , *****Ryu*****?) means "dragon," which can be where the name of his skill, **Dragon Drive**, comes from.
	+ **Sei** (聖 (せい) , *****Sei*****?) means "sacred, holy, divine," contrasting how people often refer to Shido as a "demon."
	+ Phonetically, it can also refer to **流星**, meaning "shooting star."
* His surname, **Shido** (士 (し) 道 (どう) , *****Shido*****?), means "samurai code."
	+ Phonetically, it can also refer to **指導**, meaning "guidance, leadership, direction."
* His name can thus be interpreted as the "samurai code of the holy dragon."

## Quotes

* (To Igarashi, Chapter 88) *Anyone who can't keep up with my explosions, can just die.*
* (To Kunigami, Chapter 89) *What's the word for that again? 'Sportsmanship'? Whatever you call that outdated kumbaya-loving bullshit? You see, to me, football's not just fun and games. It's the very act of living... an explosion of life, you could say. Let's have at it, hero. You won't find anyone as fair or as in love with football as me, you know?*
* *''All humans exist to leave behind a record of their existence. The very act of leaving behind one's genes is the basic programming given to all living things [...] And for me, that act just happens to be 'soccer'. Keep sharpening...to me a goal is fertilization!! A shot is the 'seed' and the goal is the 'egg'!! And the birth of that joy I call an 'explosion'!! There it is! [...] My genes are gonna knock you up!''*

## References

1. ↑ Character profile from *Egoist Bible*
2. ↑ Character profile from *Egoist Bible*
3. ↑ Character profile from *Egoist Bible*
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 246.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 240.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 204.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 170.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 155.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 95.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 88.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 169.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 108.
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 93.
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK\_WM/status/1321064105210499074
15. ↑ https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK\_WM/status/1311995320062996485
16. ↑ https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK\_WM/status/1347909058506854405
17. ↑ https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK\_WM/status/1329344945761599488
18. ↑ https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK\_WM/status/1304098540264726528
19. ↑ https://twitter.com/705point8/status/1581929733121462272?t=W515iv\_m9baNKqGqRZQO4A&s=19
20. ↑ https://twitter.com/BLUELOCK\_WM/status/1430092051446521860
21. ↑ https://twitter.com/705point8/status/1581929733121462272?t=9raSZ3849h42q6oGLs1EXA&s=19
22. ↑ https://twitter.com/705point8/status/1581929733121462272?t=HbrAgfk3ZCOWhxwrT8QXxg&s=19
*Blue Lock* Manga: Chapter 89.
24. ↑ Chapter 130