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Ryo Sakazaki (リョウ・サカザキ) is one of the main characters in Art of Fighting, and one of the supporting characters in The King of Fighters, both video 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. He is voiced by Masaki Usui in many of the games he has appeared in.
Biography
There have been two birthdates to Ryo. The first, and the one used in Art of Fighting, was August 2, 1957, and the second, apparently a retcon for the purposes of integrating Art of Fighting to the King of Fighters storyline, is on August 2, 1971. Ryo is the son of Takuma Sakazaki and Ronnet Sakazaki, and brother to Yuri Sakazaki. He is considered to be the heir of the family's fighting style, Kyokugen-ryuu Karate, although he remains a student that has not learned all of its techniques. Tiger Style is the style of Kyokugen-ryuu Karate that he uses. According to his official biography, he stands at about 1.79 meters (5 feet 9 inches). He weighs 75 kg (163 lbs), but stated that he weighs 67 kg (150 lbs). His blood type is O. His hobbies are D.I.Y. carpentry and home gardening. His treasured possessions are the motorcycle he fixed up on his own, and his horse Tatsumaki. His favorite foods are rice cakes and fermented soy beans. His favorite sport is sumo wrestling. He dislikes pickles and bugs with a lot of legs.
Art of Fighting
The story of Ryo Sakazaki begins in the first Art of Fighting game, a traditional damsel in distress story where Yuri is kidnapped by Mr. Big, a local criminal mastermind. With the help of best friend Robert Garcia, Ryo manages to confront Mr. Big, leading him to a karate gym 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 who despised men due to past experiences with discrimination based on gender. Ryo's indifference to King's gender had led to a romance between the two.
The realization that Mr. Karate was indeed Takuma was not in the original Art of Fighting ending, but was merely speculation that was made officially true 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, father to 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, which had only been taught to males (Yuri Sakazaki uses a lighter variation of Kyokugenryu Karate, Raiou Ken being one of Yuri's trademark moves).
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 Bogard. This ending effectively closed out the Art of Fighting saga and brought forth the beginning of the Fatal Fury story, one that does not 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.
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 Bogard) would only play supporting roles in the series. For the series, much of the details were retconned so as to make the events of Art of Fighting at the same time and independent of the Fatal Fury storyline.
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 as its sequel, The King of Fighters '97, the Kyokugen trio would always find themselves after the tournament facing a senile 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, 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-borne laser weapon. In an effort to not get caught in the Zero Cannon's blasts, Takuma saved King's life by using his Haou 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 move 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 yet 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.
Other games
Ryo Sakazaki is also a central character in Buriki One, a game for the short-lived Hyper Neo Geo 64 system. In this game, he appears in his older persona, and fighting in a grappling tournament without many of the fighting moves he is known for. In Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, an enhanced remake of the original Fatal Fury, he (and not Takuma) dons the mask of Mr. Karate.
Although he has appeared in no other unrelated games, he is often referenced indirectly in Fatal Fury: in Garou: Mark of the Wolves, he has his own student, Khushnood Butt (a.k.a. Marco Rodriguez).
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-style Ryo, while the SNK games use the younger, KOF-style Ryo.
Related Characters
Related Disciplines
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