Ryo Hazuki

is a fictional character in the Sega video game series Shenmue created by Yu Suzuki as the main protagonist of the games. In Japan, he is voiced by Masaya Matsukaze, who also did motion capture. In the English version, he is voiced by Corey Marshall.

Shenmue
Ryo Hazuki lives in a small home in Yamanose, a suburb of the larger Dobuita, in Yokosuka. His father, Iwao Hazuki, master of the Hazuki-style of Martial Arts, was killed by a man named Lan Di - a practitioner of a powerful, mysterious martial art. Lan Di was searching for the Dragon Mirror, a powerful mirror that seemingly holds the jewels of the kingdom. Ryo, after witnessing the death of his father, takes it upon himself to exact revenge upon Lan Di. The Chiyou-men hold a base in the harbor near Ryo's hometown. It is there that Ryo first encounters the vicious gang, the Mad Angels, a group working with the Chiyou-men.

As his life progresses, Ryo meets many characters. An important character he meets in the first game is Gui-zhang, another martial artist. Gui-zhang is the son of Master Chen, an old friend of Iwao's. Iwao Hazuki also appears in a number of flashbacks, giving guidance to Ryo along his journey.

Throughout the story, Ryo Hazuki learns that his father may have been involved in a murder. Ryo does not believe that his father would ever kill another person, but Lan Di believes that Iwao was responsible. This raises the question: "Is Lan Di really so different from Ryo?" because they both sought out revenge for similar reasons.

Ryo wears a brown leather jacket with a tiger and dragon insignia on the back, a blue pair of jeans, and has spiky black hair. He has a signature band-aid over his left cheek, which is never actually addressed or acknowledged by any characters in the games.

There are two distinct polygonal models for this character within the game: the model with which the player plays throughout the adventure and a facial model found in the Passport GD of the game whose purpose is to introduce the player to the game. Since the latter is merely a face and shoulders, the level of detail is substantially greater than the in-game model.

Shenmue II
Once Ryo learns where the Chiyou-men are stationed he travels to Wan Chai in Hong Kong. After arriving in Hong Kong, he meets a young woman named Joy, daughter of a wealthy foreman on the local piers, who becomes a rather large help to him. She introduces him to people around Wan Chai, most notably of which is the "Heavens" gang lead by Ren. Together, Ryo and his newly found allies Ren, Joy, and members of the Heavens gang, discover that the Chiyou-men have an operation in Kowloon headed by Dou Niu, who is a minion of Lan Di's. Ryo searches Kowloon for answers concerning Dou Niu and his organization, eventually leading him to the Yellow-Head Building in Kowloon. After several battles, Ryo and Ren eventually made their way to Dou Niu's location, on the roof of the Yellow-Head building. This is where Ryo sees Lan Di for the first time since the murder of his father. Ryo defeats Dou Niu but is too late as Lan Di leaves the scene via helicopter.

It is unknown as to where Lan Di was heading, but it is suggested that his destination may have been Guilin, a village in the Chinese forests that holds the secrets of the Dragon Mirror. Through fortunate events, Ryo arrives in Guilin as well, meeting a young woman named Shenhua.
Ryo understands that she knows information that is vital to locating Lan Di, so he asks Shenhua for assistance. She leads him to a small village called Bailu, which is well-known for its river stones, used in the making of "mirrors", similar to the one Lan Di had stolen from Iwao Hazuki. Shenhua shows Ryo a photograph that displays herself standing with her parents. She wants to take food to her father who is working in a cave somewhere. Ryo arrives at the cave to find the Dragon Mirror already placed in a hole inside the wall. Ryo places the Phoenix mirror in the empty space next to the dragon mirror and something magical happens with a sword. It shows that Lan di has already been here and now gone to find Ryo for the Phoenix mirror to receive ultimate power.

Martial Arts Style
Ryo Hazuki uses a martial arts style known as Hazuki Style, which was created by his father, Iwao Hazuki, though he has gradually switched from Jujitsu to Kung Fu throughout the games. Iwao taught Ryo Hazuki the style since he was a little boy.
Ryo Hazuki can be seen practicing the Hazuki Style of Martial Arts in the flashbacks. Also, Fukuhara has trained in the style, as he was a fellow student of Ryo's father.

The Hazuki Style features many strikes and techniques of other martial arts, such as Karate, Tai Chi, and Bajiquan. Hazuki Style does include grappling (joint locks, throws, takedowns and some ground moves) and some of the grappling techniques resemble ones in Judo, Aikido, and Jujutsu.

Throughout the series, Ryo Hazuki has the opportunity to learn techniques from other martial artists in the series.

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See Also

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