Sugiyama Tokuzou

## Manga

Sugiyama is the administrator of the prison that Riki-Oh starts the series in, and is often referred to by his title rather than his name. During chapters 2-5, he is in charge of the prison due to The Warden being on vacation in Hawaii, functioning as the primary antagonist. It was Sugiyama's idea to have the prison moderate itself by having the four strongest prisoners be in charge of the others, forming the "four emperors". He tries to deal with Riki-Oh through the use of the four emperors before the Warden's return, setting him up to be fought by the four emperors. The four emperors fail Sugiyama multiple times, leaving Sugiyama desperate when he gets the sudden news that the Warden will be returning to the prison sooner than expected. Since Riki-Oh has burned down the poppy field, the prison's main source of income, Sugiyama floods the prison with quick drying cement to erase the evidence and kill Riki-Oh. This also endangers the four emperors, several other prisoners, and even some guards, but there are no casualties from prison employees which are the only lives he in any way values.

While Sugiyama can be cowardly at times, it is only natural given the nature of his profession and how directly he interacts with the prisoners, as his life is always at risk. Sugiyama's loss of his left hand and eyeball to the prisoners has given him plenty of justification for paranoia and to treat the prisoners as harshly as he does. He would have been killed were he not saved by Nachi, whom he kept imprisoned for an unknown time period before Riki-Oh's sentence. This gruesome experience has definitely helped to harden Sugiyama into the strict authority figure he is today, with zero pity for the prisoners. When Narumi fails Sugiyama, he has the skin on his back with his signature tattoo on it cut off and mounted on the wall as an example to show what happens to any prisoners who fail him.

Sugiyama wears a fake eyeball in place of the eye he lost to the prisoners. He carries mints inside of his eye for his personal enjoyment, and sometimes deadly glass shards which he gives to Narumi to use in his fight against Riki-Oh. When eating, Sugiyama places his fake eye in his drink, presumably using the mints within it to flavor the water. Sugiyama got a hook attached to his left arm in place of his lost hand, and he has grown very accommodated to it, even using his hook as a fork while eating.

Sugiyama's hook is used as his primary weapon when dealing with the prisoners, and he has impaled several prisoners with it, even Riki-Oh himself. He has even managed to impale the giant Kuwabara with his hook, showcasing that he's no pushover. While not as large as some of the later antagonists in the series, Sugiyama is significantly taller and larger than the other guards, only being outsized by Kitamakura and Bandou within the prison, enabling him to lift up the prisoners he's impaled on his hook with impressive strength. As the prison administrator, he also obviously has access to guns where the prisoners don't, easily enabling him to act as a competent enforcer.

While he cannot fight against Riki-Oh directly, the cement trap he prepared manages to successfully subdue him, and he is able to get in several direct hits on Riki-Oh to humiliate him during their first meeting. The Warden and Sugiyama decide to punish Riki-Oh by burying him alive for a week, while forcing all of his friends that he fights so hard to protect to shovel in the dirt to bury him. When Riki-Oh is buried up to his neck, Sugiyama urinates on his face to show what he thinks of him after all of the trouble he's caused him, thinking he will get the last laugh.

While Riki-Oh is buried underground for a week, Sugiyama is tasked by the Warden to figure out about Riki-Oh's past. He encounters a mobster by the name of Kuwabara who has had his life ruined by Riki-Oh, and figures out how one of Riki-Oh's friends was killed by the drug trade that was traced back to the poppy fields. While this information was a bonus for Riki-Oh, he primarily came to get information about his brother Nachi, whom saved Sugiyama in the distant past. Riki-Oh only bothers questioning the Warden rather than Sugiyama, who ends up being killed in the crossfire in the final fight.

Sugiyama enters Riki-Oh's cell after another prisoner managed to smuggle in some food by sliding it under the door to find that he's gone. Riki-Oh is waiting on the ceiling of the cell, and pounces down before grabbing him in a brutal chokehold that has him vomit up massive amounts of blood. He is taken along with Riki-Oh as a hostage on his way to the warden, and he is smashed through a wall with his head sticking out the other side. He still remains conscious throughout all of this, and along with him having lost his eye and hand in the past it definitely showcases his high tolerance for pain.

As Riki-Oh approaches the Warden, he attempts to shoot him with his super compressed gas bullets, but misses and instead hits Sugiyama. The bullet causes Sugiyama to swell up like a balloon before exploding, finally resulting in his death. Given how Sugiyama is already very fat, he inflates to ridiculous proportions before finally exploding. Sugiyama begs for the Warden to help him as he inflates, but even if the Warden wanted to help him there is nothing that could stop his death after he was shot. The Warden responds to Sugiyama by saying to "take responsibility for the rebellion he allowed", implying that he deserves to die. While Sugiyama was incredibly loyal to the Warden and the shot was accidental, given how insanely evil he is it's also very possible he would've killed him anyway after dealing with Riki-Oh.

## Riki-Oh: The Wall of Hell

Sugiyama is even fatter than usual in the ova and has no comedic elements left in his character, being entirely serious. Rather than threatening Riki-Oh's girlfriend when he first meets Riki-Oh at his dinner table, Sugiyama receieves a letter from his adoptive parents with a picture of them included inside. Sugiyama threatens Riki-Oh's parents, saying he'll question them if Riki-Oh doesn't talk. Given Shiragami does not exist in the ova, Sugiyama is the one to torture Riki-Oh in the torture chamber with a large machine he's hooked up to, zapping him with electricity.

Sugiyama is still grabbed in a chokehold as he's forced to bring Riki-Oh to see the Warden, like in the manga. Rather than smashing Sugiyama's head through a wall in the prison kitchen, it is instead smashed through the door to the Warden's office. The Warden attempts to shoot Riki-Oh, but he ducks the bullet and instead shoots Sugiyama. The killing bullet is 100% accidental in this version, and the Warden is horrified of his mistake rather than saying a snarky comment about how Sugiyama deserved it. In addition, the bullet that kills Sugiyama is a normal one rather than the compressed gas bullet, making his death generic rather than swelling up and exploding.

## Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

Administrator Sugiyama is referred to as "Assistant Warden Dan" in the English dub of the live action film, having largely the same role as his manga counterpart. While still extremely comedic given the campy nature of the movie as he is given several puns in his dialogue, he is taken more seriously in his role as one of the primary antagonists. When Narumi (Oscar in the dub) brings out his intestines to strangle Riki-Oh, the dub has him exclaim "You've got a lot of guts, Oscar!" When Riki-Oh is being buried by the other prisoners, they all come up to him and exclaim how sorry they are for having to shovel the dirt on him. When Sugiyama comes up, he sarcastically says "Ricky, REAL sorry about this!" before laughing as he forcefully sends a full shovel's worth of dirt at him.

When Riki-Oh is first brought to meet Sugiyama in his office, there is a massive wall of pornographic video tapes lined up on the wall behind him which he presumably makes use of. There are two shelves filled with the porn on either side of the room, and they are clearly visible in many of the camera angles. Instead of Sugiyama being tasked with figuring out about Riki-Oh's past, it is simply shown to the viewer directly. Nachi doesn't exist in the continuity of this film, so Riki-Oh is motivated exclusively by his girlfriend rather than anything Sugiyama discovers. The Warden shoots Sugiyama deliberately rather than accidentally here, with the prisoners using him as a shield from the Warden's gunfire.

The flashback where Sugiyama loses his hand and eye to prisoners before being saved by Nachi do not occur in this film. As such, he has less excuse for his cruelty compared to his manga counterpart, coming across more evil. The events of Sugiyama losing his hand and eyeball are instead done in the present time rather than a flashback. Riki-Oh punches out Sugiyama's eyeball, while the prisoners remove Sugiyama's remaining normal hand, causing him even worse pain than in the source material. There is a small continuity error where Sugiyama's remaining physical eyeball is the one that is cut out during the scene where he loses it, but in scenes after this it is his fake eyeball that was cut out, meaning he still retains the ability to see.

Sugiyama eating his steak dinnerSugiyama drinking from a glass with his fake eyeball in itSugiyama inserts his fake eyeballSugiyama takes mints out of his eyeballSugiyama impales Riki-Oh's handSugiyama beats up Riki-OhSugiyama impales the giant Kuwabara in the mouthSugiyama impales a prisoner in the mouthSugiyama pisses on the face of the buried Riki-OhHow Sugiyama lost his eyeHow Sugiyama lost his handNachi saves SugiyamaComic relief with SugiyamaRiki-Oh grabs Sugiyama in a chokeholdSugiyama is shot by the Warden's compressed gas bulletsSugiyama explodesSugiyama in his officeSugiyama's gigantic feastSugiyama uses his hook as a forkSugiyama drinks from his mint flavored eyeball glassSugiyama takes mints out of his eyeRiki-Oh threatens Sugiyama in front of his porn collectionAnother view of Sugiyama's porn collectionSugiyama and the guards fall asleep because the Warden is taking so long to arrive"Ricky, REAL sorry about this!"Sugiyama after having blood spat in his face by Riki-OhSugiyama impales Riki-Oh's handSugiyama impales Riki-Oh's handSugiyama after having lost his eye to Riki-OhSugiyama gets his arm cut offThe prisoners carry Sugiyama to the WardenSugiyama after having been shot by the Warden's compressed gas bulletDummy of Sugiyama shown for a few frames before he explodesSugiyama in the ovaSugiyama in chokehold in the ovaSugiyama eating with his hook hand in the ovaSugiyama impales Riki-Oh's hand in the ovaSugiyama's head impaled through the door to the Warden's office