Riku

### Likes

Sora, winning, excitement, Spirits, Mickey, learning about new worlds, peace, Kairi, finding balance, controlling his own darkness

### Dislikes

Losing, being bored, being insulted/teased, Ansem, Maleficent, Xehanort, being used by darkness, evil, deception, his friends in danger, his past mistakes

## Professional Status

### Affiliation

The Realm of Light
Villain Council (Formerly)

### Powers and abilities

Darkness manipulation
Light manipulation
Keyblade summoning
Heartless summoning abilities

### Paraphernalia

Soul Eater (Formerly)
Way to the Dawn Keyblade (Formerly)
Braveheart Keyblade

## Relationships

### Other relatives

Lucrecia Crescent (Grandmother)
Professor Hojo (Grandfather)

## Voice Actors

### Japanese

Mamoru Miyano
Eiji Shima (Young)

### English

David Gallagher
Ty Panitz (Young)

**Riku** (リク, *Riku*) is a major character in the series.

He is a teenager from Destiny Islands and is Sora's rival and best friend, later boyfriend.

## Description

### Appearance

Riku is a tall, handsome and muscular teenager with fair skin, striking cyan eyes and silver hair.

He wears a black, hooded jacket that he keeps unzipped, with short sleeves, gold buttons, and a checkered pattern at the hem. Underneath, he wears a white shirt with a V-neck. He wears blue cropped trousers that are hemmed with the same checkered pattern as the jacket, black gloves on each hand, and black high-top boots.

### Personality

Riku's personality is as strong as the land for which he was named. He is extremely strong-willed, confident and even arrogant at times. He values his friends deeply and puts protecting them above all else.

Riku is extremely competitive and spent his childhood playing games, play-fighting and racing with Sora. This competitiveness also made him easy to become jealous, where he becomes very irked that Sora received the powers of the Keyblade while he did not, though he is not immediately vocal about it. This jealousy led him to behave aggressively to the people most important to him, and he began to act recklessly and harshly in an attempt to prove himself. He loses this childish jealousy streak entirely as he grows older.

He has had an intense curiosity about the world he lives in (and what lies beyond it) ever since he met the foreign Terra as a child. His desire to know more began to consume him somewhat negatively over time. He has no qualms with going through the unknown to earn this knowledge, willingly stepping into a dark portal with an unknown destination simply because he knew it may be his only chance to leave. After he does finally see other worlds, this desire subsides and he finds comfort in his once-restricting island homeworld.

Later on, Riku becomes more humble, learning from the reckless mistakes he had made and seeks to make amends. He becomes much more affable and mellows out. He has learned well from his mistakes in siding with darkness and becomes wise and well-versed enough to become a Keyblade Master that Yen Sid can rely on.

## Etymology

His name is derived from the Japanese word for "land", as part of the name theme he shares with Sora and Kairi. Together, their names make up "Land, Sea, Sky".

## Trivia

* It is revealed that Riku told Sora not to believe in Santa Claus.