Ryuhei Sasagawa

Ryuhei Sasagawa (笹川竜平 "Sasagawa Ryūhei") is a character in the novel "Battle Royale", and the film and manga of the same name. In the film he was played by Shirou Gou.

Sasagawa has O-type blood.

Pre-Program

Ryuhei Sasagawa is one of the class of third-year students at the fictional Shiroiwa Junior High School in the fictional town of Shiroiwa (Shiroiwa is in Kagawa Prefecture in the novel and manga and in Kanagawa Prefecture in the film).

In the novel and manga, Ryuhei was a member of the gang headed by Kazuo Kiriyama, which he joined after Kazuo helped Ryuhei's brother avoid a shoplifting charge. Ryuhei was known for bullying his other classmates, in particular Yoshio Akamatsu. Often, Ryuhei would beat Yoshio routinely. Although Shuya then defended Yoshio and Ryuhei left him alone afterwards. In the novel, Shuya mentions that Ryuhei picked a fight with Shogo Kawada only to go crying back to Kazuo Kiriyama, who merely did nothing.

In the manga, Ryuhei admired Kazuo Kiriyama and was in pure awe of him. He was often seen hanging around with Hiroshi Kuronaga and Mitsuru Numai. He often taunted Yoshio Akamatsu calling him "Man Tits". Whenever Yoshio is being harassed, it is almost always Ryuhei being the culprit.

During The Program

In the novel and manga, Kazuo Kiriyama tells Ryuhei, along with the other gang members, to meet him at the Southern tip of the island when they were released from the school. Ryuhei follows the instruction, only to be stabbed by Kiriyama on his arrival (in the manga, he is gunned down by Kiriyama's MAC-10).

In the film, Ryuhei is a part of a group of students headed by Mitsuru Numai who try to accost Kiriyama. Ryuhei, along with Numai, Hiroshi Kuronaga, Sho Tsukioka, and Izumi Kanai, accuse Kiriyama of being a spy for Kitano. Kiriyama kills the entire group with Ryuhei's Uzi.

Although Ryuhei's weapon is never explicitly revealed in the novel, it is assumed that he was issued with Kazuo's infamous machine gun, as all of Kazuo's victims up to Ryuhei were stabbed, and after killing Ryuhei, Kazuo has the machine gun. In the manga, his weapon is never revealed, as Kiriyama began with the machine gun.