Ryo Hazuki



Ryo Hazuki ( 芭月涼) is the protagonist of the Shenmue series. He is an 18 year old martial artist living in Yokosuka, Japan.

Appearance
Ryo is a young Japanese man with short spiked black hair, brown eyes wearing a brown bomber jacket with a design, a white t-shirt underneath. He wears a brown belt, blue jeans and white sneakers. On his face he has a bandaid from an injury he recieved in a martial arts tournament.

History
At the age of seven, Ryo began to train in martial arts under his father, Iwao Hazuki's tutorage. Martial arts were a great outlet for Ryo and helped he and his father bond.

At the age of 18, Ryo returns one snowy day to his family dojo only to see a mysterious black car outside his home. As he approaches the dojo, his friend and training partner Masayuki Fukuhara is thrown from the dojo doors covered in injuries just as Ryo arrives.

Ryo opens the dojo doors and stares in disbelief as his father is attacked in front of him by a Chiyoumen leader named Lan Di. Lan Di asks Iwao about the location of a certain item, the Dragon Mirror. Iwao refuses to tell Lan Di where it is located, and is struck down with a fatal blow as a result. Ryo attempts to intervene in the fight but is easily ovecome and injured. Realising Ryo is Iwao's son, Lan Di threatens to kill Ryo if Iwao doesn't reveal the Dragon Mirror's location with his dying breath.

Iwao, not wishing Ryo to meet the same fate as him, agrees to tell Lan Di the location it is hidden(beneath the cherry blossom tree) before dying in Ryo's arms, as Ryo howls in despair.

Ryo, consumed with vengeance, drops out of high school and dedicates his life to trying to avenge his father, searching his local city of Yokosuka for any clue he can find to find Lan Di, and put a stop to him, eventually leading him to attempt to get to Hong Kong and later China.

Other appearances

 * Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing: Ryo borrows his friend, Naoyuki Ito's motorcycle to compete in the races, but swaps it for his forklift truck for his All-Star Move. PS3 and Xbox 360 DLC allow him to use his forklift truck as his main vehicle instead.
 * Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed: Ryo returned as DLC for the PC version. Of all the missing racers, Ryo recieved the most votes to return to the race track.
 * SEGA Heroes: Ryo alongside his friends Shenhua Ling, Ren of Heavens and Tom Johnson appeared as recruitable heroes.
 * Project x Zone 2: Ryo is a solo unit in the game.

Trivia

 * Shenmue started out being planned as a Virtua Fighter RPG, with Ryo originally being a young Akira Yuki.
 * The band aid on Ryo's face is never explained in game, but Yu Suzuki explained via Twitter that Ryo obtained it from a martial arts tournament, Ryo recieving a scar in the final match before the events of Shenmue begin.
 * In Shenmue the Animation however, the scar is recieved from Lan Di during their initial confrontation at Hazuki Dojo. We also see the final match Ryo has in the martial arts tournament.
 * Ryo's least favourite food is carrots.
 * Ryo's birthday was the same day his father was murdered; November 29th.