Ryo Hazuki

Ryo Hazuki is the main protagonist of the Shenmue series.

Ryo 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.

Appearance
Ryo is a tall young man with a lean build. He has a black brushed-back hair, he has black eyes and a white bandage on his left cheek. He wears a brown leather jacket over a white shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.

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 Harasakifeels 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. 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.

Abilities
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 Blowfrom 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.

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.


 * In ESPN NFL Football, Ryo is an unlockable free agent player (being #26), along with other Sega characters including Beat from Jet Grind Radio, and Jeffry McWild and Kage Maru from Virtua Fighter.
 * Although Ryo was a playable character in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing he did not initially return in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed. Sumo Digital made petitions for people to vote for the Sega characters they want to be future Downloadable Content. Ryo was one of the characters to choose from and he had the most votes. Ryo later appeared in the game as a playable character via DLC, but only in the PC version.
 * Ryo appears as a character in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2 as a solo unit.
 * In Sega's mobile game in Japan called Kotodaman, Ryo would be given a cameo in the game if a sufficient number of registrations of interest were received. Ryo's cameo has been achieved on February 15h, 2018 as fans across the world responded.