Ryu Kumon

Infobox animanga character
color = OliveDrab
name = Ryu Kumon
series = Ranma ½


caption = Ryu Kumon
first = Volume 28; Viz Volume 26
last =
creator = Rumiko Takahashi
voiced by = Mitsuru Miyamoto (Japanese)
alias = Ranma Saotome
age = 16
born =
occupation = None
relatives = Father (Deceased)
divider = yes
aux1 name = Curse
aux1 =
aux2 name = Fighting style
aux2 = Yamasenken

nihongo|Ryu Kumon|リュウ|Kumon Ryu is a fictional character in Rumiko Takahashi's anime and manga series "Ranma ½". "Kumon" is translated as "anguish", the existing name "Ryuu" means "dragon".

Story

Ryu is a wandering martial artist and expert of the Yamasenken. When he was 6 years old, he and his father were a very poor family that owned the shoddy Kumon Dojo. One day Ryu's father had an encounter with Genma Saotome. After Genma found out about the Kumons' financial problems, he gave Ryu's father a scroll containing the techniques of the deadly secret art of Yamasenken, a.k.a. Fist of One Thousand Mountains. This led Ryu's father to believe he could use the Yamasenken to restore his dojo, but when he practiced its attacks indoors he ended up destroying the building, causing it to fall on top of him which led to his death. With his last moments of life, he gave Ryu the scroll and told him to find the scroll containing the companion Umisenken. Since then Ryu has traveled alone without any family or friends which led to his harsh and untrusting nature.

Ten years later, he comes across Genma's wife Nodoka, when saving her from a rampaging bear, she tells him that he is her long lost son, Ranma, since the scroll he is carrying has Ranma's name written on it. While somewhat surprised by his coincidental good fortune in encountering the wife of Genma, Ryu immediately takes the opportunity to play along, in order to find the Umisenken scroll, and takes up residence within her house. Ranma discovers that Ryu is misleading his mother, and after being beaten and threatened to be exposed if he interfered, decides to learn the deadly Umisenken technique from his father in order to counter Ryu's Yamasenken. Once Ranma mastered the Umisenken, he finally managed to defeat Ryu after a harsh and difficult battle.

After the fight, Genma informed Ryu that the Umisenken & Yamasenken were created for stealing and breaking into peoples houses. He gave it to Ryu's father so that he could steal enough money to be able to afford to rebuild his dojo. After learning this, and being told that even this represented a way to live, while all he was using them for was empty destruction, Ryu was saddened with regret over having wasted all those years in an empty pursuit. He sealed the scroll in a hole covered with dirt together with the Umisenken and (temporarily) Genma himself, possibly forswearing to personally use them as well. Although Ryu knows about Ranma's dual identity, he finally refrained from telling Nodoka, and used his parting words to tell her that Ranma may be closer than she thinks, in order to provide some comfort. He remains fond of Nodoka, and seemingly turned into a nicer person from the combination of her motherly kindness, and the conclusive cathartic revelation.

Personality

Ryu Kumon is a ruthless martial artist and was willing to go to extremes in order to restore his family's dojo, including pretending to be Ranma, attempting to rip the latter's heart out when he was distracted by his mother, gladly threatening to expose the latter if he interfered, and briefly planned to torture Nodoka for information, but couldn't go through with it. The deaths of his parents, and his harsh lonely life have turned him fierce, cold and independent, seemingly preferring killing to stunning strikes (against the bear and during his initial confrontation with Ranma). Ryoga, and Konatsu, are the only character in the series at least as miserable as himself. However, he was very touched by, and grateful for, Nodoka's motherly love, and reevaluated his misspent life after learning the truth of his school. So, much like them, he seemed very positively affected from being treated with consideration.

Special Techniques

"See also Ryu's techniques."

Ryu practices the Yamasenken, one of two secret and forbidden styles of martial arts that Genma developed when he was younger. This one is based upon burglary, specifically the movements and techniques of a noisy bandit who smashes through the front door of a house. Canon translates this style as "Noisy Thief" or "Mountain of 1000 Fists." Thanks to his unorthodox and ruthless fighting style, Ryu was one of Ranma's most dangerous adversaries, and defeated him twice, though the first time through cheating. It is an incredibly unrestrained and merciless style based on intimidation, incapacitating grappling, and crippling or killing blows, vaguely reminiscent of the pragmatic Krav Maga.

Other appearances

Despite Ryu being a one time only character in the manga, he did make an appearance in the Ranma ½ video game "" in which he was voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto. There was a planned dubbed version where he was voiced by Matt Smith, but it was never released for unknown reasons. Fact|date=September 2008