ryo narushima: bastard, dick, or badass?

[master of read]

i need to get a better handle on this guy. so here's a quick bio on ryo.


ryo narushima is the main character for the manga shamo. ryo was just a normal honor roll student with nice parents, and kid sister who adored him. then one day, for apparently no reason and no warning at all, ryo viciously stabs his parents to death, with his sister crying in a corner.

because he's a minor, he's sentence to two years at the roughest boy's reformatory in japan. on his first night, ryo is gang raped by the elder boys. the next night, they force him to blow one of the top dogs of the campus. in a moment of desperation, he bites off the guy's junk, nearly killing him from blood loss. ryo, being a weakling, is entered into the school's karate program, headed up by kurakawa, a master martial artist who was serving life in prison. due to his guidance and ryo's solo training, he becomes a feared opponent in the school.

three years after he leaves, ryo is a street fighter for hire for the yakuza and a part time male hooker for women. soon, his interest in the world of karate takes him to the ganryukai, the top karate organization in the world. they snub him due to his past and his rough fighting style. even winning a big time tournament doesnt make him more accepted by the ganryukai or the general public who see him as a demon.

finally ryo has a shot at the ganryukai's number 1 master, naoto sawamura but in the match before it could happen, he accidentally blinds his opponent in a match and the match is voided. in order to get sawamura to agree to the fight, ryo tracks down his girlfriend and rapes her. he even called sawamura and taunted him while he raped her.

ryo and sawamura face off and in a close fight, sawamura wins by knocking him out but ryo remained on his feet all the while. sawamura then challenges him to a rematch but in a lone death match. the fight is brutal but ryo wins when he lands a shot on the back of sawamura's skill, crippling him and putting him into a coma.


ryo is highly skilled but very dirty fighter, willing to bite, uses weapons and even use low blows. he wont hesitate to hit women as well. ryo is a master in karate, kung fu and most recently, MMA. he;s very tactical in his thinking, adapting his fighting style to survive, regardless if its legal or not. in one match, he beats a guy by choking him with his white belt. ryo also has a lethal temper, brutally attacking anyone who crossed him. for example, ryo and taikichi, his best friend, were talking down the street when a car almost hits ryo. the driver, a businessmen, cusses them out, saying he could ruin them if he wanted. ryo smashes the window, drags him out and savagely beats him near to death.

it also seem that people who are connected to ryo seem to suffer grave misfortune.

his sister, who looked up to him, was forced to became a prostitute and got hooked on drugs. her mind is a mess now as she can barely remember her own name, let alone her brother.

taikichi, ryo's best friend, wanted the yakuza boss to whom the both worked for, to allow ryo to fight sawamura. the boss said that he would if taikichi cut off his own arm, to which he did.

ryo's first girlfriend, a prostitute he ran into while looking for his sister, was kidnapped, raped and slashed by his enemies. she later killed herself due to drug induced hallucinations.

probably the saddest one is the old man. while in china, ryo was pit fighting for money when a mysterious masked fighter named son goku challenges him. the fighter, who only has one arm, easily defeats ryo and nearly kills him until a old man, who ryo gave a bowl of noddles to, steps in and saves his life. turns out the fighter, real name liu, was once a student of his and he offers to train ryo to fight him. ryo travels with the man to his mountain top school where he meets a girl named yan, who starts to see more to ryo than his rough persona. liu and his two students arrive at the school and kill the old man. yan kills her self after realizing she cant beat him.

a reporter doing a story on ryo's journey in the world of martial arts begins to dig into his past and tries to find the reason why he murdered his parents. his only clue is a drawing ryo did when he was in 2nd grade. its unclear what exactly he drew but it was apparently so dark and so disturbing that the reporter retired and was driven nearly insane.


so what do you guys think? is he a dick, a bastard or a bad ass?

[Guy1]

Raping the dude's girlfriend for the sake of a fight is bastardy, flat out.

[FistofIron]

Cool a Shamo reader.

Honestly Ryo can be considered all three.

[Wjowski]

Sounds like a Garth Ennis character.

[Nik Hasta]

I need to get up to date with Shamo.

Where I last got to he was firmly in the "Massive arsehole," catergory.

[master of read]

Originally Posted by Nik Hasta

I need to get up to date with Shamo.

Where I last got to he was firmly in the "Massive arsehole," catergory.

he pretty much still is. but hopefully toma will be able to do something about it.

[kane]

I like shamo and i sort of like Ryo. He is a bastard, but also a badass, who never gives up. It is refreshing to read a comic book, where the character is a bastard and stays a bastard, instead of starting to whine how terrible it is to be evil (i am looking at you Jackie Estacado).

[FistofIron]

Originally Posted by kane

I like shamo and i sort of like Ryo. He is a bastard, but also a badass, who never gives up. It is refreshing to read a comic book, where the character is a bastard and stays a bastard, instead of starting to whine how terrible it is to be evil (i am looking at you Jackie Estacado).

I agree with what you're saying. Its refreshing to read about a character like Ryo.

I also agree about Jackie. That really ticked me off but he's still cool.