Raizo Imawano

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Raizo Imawano

Raizo in Rival Schools: United By Fate
School Justice High School
Birthdate October 3
Height 188 cm
Weight 124 kg
Blood type O
Three sizes 165-163-170
Nationality Japanese
Likes Sirloin steak
Dislikes Lying, crabs, lobsters
Seiyu Tomomichi Nishimura

Raizo Imawano (忌野 雷蔵 Imawano Raizo?) is a character from the Rival Schools video game series. He is the founder and principal of Justice High School, and is the first boss of Rival Schools: United By Fate.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early life

Before he became the head of one of the most powerful schools in Japan, Raizo was a member of a powerful ninja clan, along with his brother, Mugen. Unlike his fellow ninja (and his extremely ambitious brother), Raizo had more idealisitic dreams of how he wanted to make an impact with his life - to change the world through education and cooperation. However, he was still bound to the duty he had to his ninja clan, and the only way to realize to his dream was to abandon the clan. It did not come without a cost, though; Raizo had to send his wife, Shizuku, and newborn son into hiding, so they would not be targeted by the clan when it would learn of Raizo's betrayal.

Without his family or clan's support, Raizo would go on to create Justice High School, designed to realize his dream of reforming the world. With its rigorous curriculum and graduation standards, it soon became one of the top schools in Japan.

[edit] Rival Schools

Years later, Raizo would accept his nephew, Hyo, as a student at the school. Noticing the young man's potential, Raizo thought Hyo as the perfect person to replace him as the head of Justice High School and to realize his dreams. However, Hyo's training under his now-dead father Mugen had given the young man a different ideal on how to realize his dream - namely through force. It would be Hyo who formulated the plan to increase Justice's influence through kidnappings and attacks; and with Hyo's twin bother, Kyosuke, working with them, Raizo would be an unwilling particpant in some of these activities; most notably capturing his estranged wife, Shizuku, who was now working at a local school. Soon, Raizo confronted Hyo about his ambitions, but it was in vain, as he was defeated and brainwashed to fight his son, Batsu. It was only through his defeat could father and son be re-united and stop Hyo's mad plans with help from Taiyo High School.

[edit] Project Justice

After the defeat of Justice High, Raizo accepted that working in cooperation with the other schools would better fit his dream. However, a year later, he would be attacked by Kurow Kirishima, a Justice High student who was actually an assassin sent from his old ninja clan, now the Darkside Society, to kill Raizo and his relatives. Though the attack left him incapacitated, Raizo was able to sense that Kurow was being unconsiously led by Mugen's spirit. However, his attempt to warn anyone of this threat came too late, as his brother's spirit had then possessed the body of Hyo, in an attempt to come back to life. All Raizo could do was offer the advice to Batsu and Kyosuke that the only way to drive out Mugen's spirit was to defeat Hyo - an option that ended up killing his older nephew, and causing Kyosuke to disappear.

Despite not being playable in Project Justice, Raizo does make a few cameos. In addition to appearing in the Taiyo High story (as described above), he also appears in the Justice High ending, incapacitated in a hospital bed next to Hideo's. Some players have also noticed that Kurow has most of Raizo's movelist, with a few moves removed and some new ones added.

[edit] Trivia

  • "Raizo" is Japanese for "hidden thunder".