Ryo Sakazaki

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Ryo Sakazaki
Ryo Sakazaki in King of Fighters NeoWave
Game series	Art of Fighting series Fatal Fury series King of Fighters series SNK Vs. series
First game	Art of Fighting
Voice actor(s)	Masaki Usui
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Japan
Blood type	O
Fighting style	Kyokugenryu Karate

Ryo Sakazaki (リョウ・サカザキ, Ryo Sakazaki^?, sometimes written as 坂崎亮 or Sakazaki Ryo) is the main character in Art of Fighting, and one of the main characters in The King of Fighters, both fighting game series from SNK. His name is most often written in kana, however, in some games kanji is used to write parts of his name.

1 History
- 1.1 Art of Fighting
- 1.2 The King of Fighters
2 The Second Mr. Karate
3 Trivia
4 Related games
5 Related Characters
6 External links

[edit] History

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[edit] Art of Fighting

The story of Ryo begins in the first Art of Fighting in a traditional damsel in distress story. Yuri is kidnapped by Mr. Big, a local criminal mastermind. With the help of best friend and rival Robert Garcia, Ryo manages to confront Mr. Big, leading him to a karate dojo where a mysterious man (originally unnamed in the game, but was named "Mr. Karate" by fans, and officially named as such in later games) challenges the two to a fight. When Ryo prevailed, he threatens to kill Mr. Karate unless he knew that Yuri was alive. As Ryo prepared to kill him, Yuri appears, telling Ryo to stop, for Mr. Karate was their father.

During this journey, Ryo met a bouncer named King, a Muay Thai expert. There has been some unspoken romantic tension between the two.

The realization that Mr. Karate was indeed Takuma was not in the original Art of Fighting ending (except for the Super NES port of the game, where it was clearly shown), but was merely speculation that was made official in the introduction to the second game, when Takuma was formally introduced. In the second game, Takuma reveals how he became Mr. Karate: when Geese Howard wanted Takuma to kill Jeff Bogard, adoptive father to Andy and Terry Bogard. Takuma refused, and in order to force Takuma to cooperate, Yuri was kidnapped. Takuma was forced to do things that were against his moral standards through repeated threats to kill Yuri, including fighting his two students. With the Sakazaki family reunited, the family, along with Robert, focused on exacting their revenge on Geese, and providing justice to all others who were wronged by him. Part of this preparation included, to Ryo's initial opposition, teaching Yuri the Kyokugen techniques.

Although their plan was successful to an extent, their victory was short-lived: Geese had managed to escape, and had ordered the killing of Jeff (but had killed Jeff by himself later). This ending effectively closed out the Art of Fighting series and brought forth the beginning of the Fatal Fury story, one that does not directly involve Ryo.

Although Art of Fighting had a third game to the series, Ryo's role in that game was largely insignificant, as he acts as a supporting character to Robert. However, one plot thread from Art of Fighting 3 that carried over into the King of Fighters series was the introduction of Kasumi Todoh, the daughter of Ryuhaku Todoh, whom Ryo fought and defeated in the first Art of Fighting.

[edit] The King of Fighters

The appearance of Ryo in Fatal Fury Special as a secret final boss was perhaps inspiration to SNK's most notable fighting game series, The King of Fighters. Indeed, much of the appeal of the first KOF game, The King of Fighters '94, was that characters from Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury could fight alongside and against each other. However, Ryo (and his Fatal Fury counterpart, Terry) would only play supporting roles in the series. For the series, much of the details were retconned so as to make the characters of Art of Fighting coexist with the Fatal Fury ones while keeping their ages similar, but it's now currently accepted that the KoF timeline is separate from that of other series.

Although the King of Fighters tournament has its roots in Fatal Fury, the 1994 tournament was the first tournament in the story to use a team fighting system, which was essentially the gimmick that was used to sell the series: three fighters could form a team, and when one fighter was knocked out, a new fighter could replace the fighter that was knocked out, continuing until one team was out of fighters. Ryo was the core of the Art of Fighting Team in this first game, one that was composed of Ryo, Robert, and Takuma (much to the displeasure of Yuri, to which Ryo was opposed to letting her even join the tournament, although she would find her own team).

Throughout the series, the Kyokugen style was depicted as a struggling family business, funded almost entirely by prize money earned from KOF and Robert's vast wealth. Each year, at the conclusion of KOF, the Kyokugen dojo would often have many applicants due to the strong performance of the team, but most of these applicants would later quit, due to either the strenuous training regime (much of which were thinly-veiled disguises to do work around the Sakazaki house) or mysterious people who appear and trash much of the dojo, creating the impression that the Kyokugen style was an inferior one. Despite all this, the family manages to keep two gyms running, one in South Town (setting of many SNK games), and a second in Mexico.

Before the events of The King of Fighters '96, however, Takuma decided to retire from competitive fighting, and thus allowing Yuri to join the Art of Fighting Team. In this game, as well in The King of Fighters '97, the Kyokugen trio would always find themselves after the tournament facing Takuma disguised as Mr. Karate, telling them to train harder for the following year. In short, for much of the first storyline of KOF, nothing of consequence happens to Ryo.

In the second storyline to KOF, however, fans were led to believe in an increased role for Ryo and company. Due to a new rule allowing teams of four in The King of Fighters '99, and Takuma's coincidental "sudden urge to fight again", the Art of Fighting Team, for the first time, involved all four members of the Kyokugen family. In the rubble that had ultimately killed Krizalid, it had appeared that Takuma had died. The only trace of him that was found was the tengu mask that was once the trademark of Mr. Karate. Takuma had somehow survived [1], and the next year, as Yuri left to join another team, King would join the Art of Fighting Team.

The King of Fighters 2000 had South Town (named "Southtown" in later games) destroyed by way of the Zero Cannon, a space-based satellite weapon. In an effort to not get caught in the Zero Cannon's blasts, Takuma saved King's life by using his Haoh Shikou Ken projectile attack to redirect the Zero Cannon's attack. Although Ryo and Robert were surprised at Takuma's ability to redirect the Zero Cannon's blast, they were more surprised at Takuma's reason to save King: Takuma claimed that he could not afford to lose the heir to the Kyokugen style, a statement that shocked the other three team members, as this implied that King and Ryo would perhaps be parents to an heir to the Kyokugen style, a conclusion as of yet is unknown.

It is not known what had happened to the Kyokugen dojo that had brought forth the livelihood of the Sakazaki family after the destruction of South Town. However, it is well known that the Sakazakis kept two dojos in operation, and Takuma had retired, allowing Ryo to take charge of the family business. This is supported by the fact that Ryo takes over the Mr. Karate mantle that his father once held on Fatal Fury Wild Ambition and Neo Geo Battle Coliseum.

[edit] The Second Mr. Karate

Ryo Sakazaki as the second Mr. Karate in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum

Ryo is also a central character in Buriki One, a game for the short-lived Hyper Neo Geo 64. In this game, he appears in his older persona, and fighting in a grappling tournament without many of the flashier moves he is known for, as these defy physics and the game took some novel approaches to a more realistic fighting system. His look in the game is similar to Takuma's in the KoF series, only with his traditional spiked hair dyed blonde and a dark grey gi instead of white or orange.

In Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, a port of the Arcade game with for the PlayStation featuring some new characters, he (and not Takuma) uses the title of Mr. Karate (without a mask), as an aged and more powerful Ryo. Aesthetically, other than looking somewhat older but still with blonde hair, he's unshaved and isn't wearing the top of his orange gi, showing instead the black t-shirt underneath. The reason behind Ryo being older than Terry Bogard in this game is that Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition assumes that the retcon to the Art Of Fighting timeline did not happen.

Although he has appeared in no other unrelated games, he is often referenced indirectly in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, he has his own student, Khushnood Butt (a.k.a. Marco Rodriguez). In King of Fighters XI, Ryo indicates that Marco is currently a green belt.

More recently, in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum, Ryo goes by the name Mr. Karate (specifically, the 2nd Mr. Karate), while his look is the one used for Buriki One. There he retains many of his classic moves, along with using some of Takuma's, and one of his supers appears to be a homage to Buriki One's unique control system, since the player has to input a sequence of joystick directions (instead of button presses) after a specific command in order to attack. He is joined there by an older Robert, previously unseen in other games. He also has a special ending artwork if the player finishes the game with Robert as his partner. [2]

In KOF: Maximum Impact, Ryo's alternate costume is similar to that of his Buriki One costume. If you complete the game with him, you are able to use his "Rigging Model", a few additions to his costume include a Tengu Mask similar to Takuma's. In Maximum Impact 2 he also has the Buriki One costume as a secondary but still plays similar to KoF Ryo.

In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Ryo has two 'versions': his traditional KoF one and his Mr. Karate version, the primary costume of which comprises a Tengu mask slightly different from his father's, that Ryo is seen using for the first time. This Ryo however plays much like Takuma and his Neo Geo Battle Coliseum form, and caries the same stance in Neo Geo Battle Coliseum.

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

Ryo is the first KOF champion in AOF-FF timeline, as Akihiko Ureshino has confirmed this in his blog.

In the SNK vs. series, Ryo is often being mistaken for Dan Hibiki, as Dan's fighting style parodies that of the Kyokugen style. Like the KOF games, he enters the competition to obtain prize money for keeping the struggling gym afloat. It is unclear which version of Ryo is used in the series; the Capcom versions use the older, Art of Fighting version of Ryo, while the SNK games use the younger.

In latter KOF and the Capcom vs. SNK series, Ryo's throw is a Death Valley Driver instead of a Back Roll Toss as before.

Ryo, along with Geese Howard, seems to be one of more recurring characters in the SNK universe, even if not as famous as others like Terry Bogard; he's present in the earliest part of the Southtown saga in the first Art of Fighting, and is still mentioned in the latest, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, while making an appearance in the AoF, FF and KoF series as well as all of the Capcom crossover games. Also appeared in Buriki One, representing Karate discipline in this tournament.

Ryo's Kyokugenryuu title is still a subject of discussion to this day, as many people believed it has been "The Raging Tiger", which would match many of his special moves' name - but actually, since the first game, Art of Fighting, SNK always referred to him as "The Invincible Dragon" (Muteki no Ryuu). Despite this most fans prefer nicknaming Ryo "The Raging Tiger" mainly due to the fact that all his special moves have the character 'Ko' in them (which means "tiger") and that his gi's color is orange. Also, Ryo clearly says "Tiger Bash!" when his voice is changed to English in KOF: Maximum Impact

When Ryo was young, he was a dragon style user, but in order to make him push past his limits and complete the way of Kyokugen, Takuma forced him to use tiger style moves. After all the training was done, Ryo seemed to like the tiger style moves more.

Akihiko Ureshino stated in his blog that 2nd Mr.Karate in King of Fighters Maximum Impact 2 is 49 years old, because Ryo is 14 years older than Wild Wolf Terry in AOF-FF timeline.

Ryo is constantly looking for new students to partake of Kyokugenryuu Karate, extending many an invitation to his dojo towards those he defeats.

Considering he is the official heir to the style, Ryo prides himself on his fighting style of Kyokugenryuu Karate. This is likely to explain his most famous and most recurring victory quote, a staple of his vernacular: "Kyokugen rules!"

In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, Ryo's Normal Costume E has him cosplaying as Haohmaru from Samurai Shodown, and his Another Costume E has him set to the color pallete of Yuri.