Ryoko Takamachi

Nihongo|Ryoko Takamachi|高町亮子|Takamichi Ryōko is a fictional character from the popular manga series "Spiral" and its spin-off "Spiral: Alive" created by Kyou Shirodaira and Eita Mizuno. She is voiced by Hitomi Kato in the Japanese version and Laura Bailey in the English version.

Biography

Spiral: The Bonds of Reasoning

Ryoko is one of the Blade Children and is friends with Eyes Rutherford and Kousuke Asazuki. She is a good athlete, excelling at both marathon running and dodge ball. She is also capable of using a gun, though she despises them. Ryoko detests killing due to a traumatic experience that occurred in the past and possibly resulted in her leaving the Blade Children. Since then, she has been living as a normal high school student and enjoying a relatively peaceful life, though all the while asking herself how long her happiness will last. Her dream is to run in the Olympic Games.

In the Kanone Hilbert arc, Eyes requested her to join their ranks again. Ryoko refused, saying that his recruitment of Kousuke into his, Eyes', group 'turned him into a murderer'. She then challenged Eyes to a dodge ball match; saying that if she won he would have to leave her alone, and that if she lost she would agree to rejoin the Blade Children. She ended up losing, and kept her deal with Eyes by rejoining the rest of the Blade Children.

One of the most down-to-earth people of the Blade Children; Ryoko is a clever and athletic person, likely the most athletic of all the Blade Children. She is a natural-born runner and can outpace just about anyone. She is a childhood friend of Kousuke Asazuki and, unlike the other Blade Children, despises killing.

The manga reveals that Ryoko is proficient when it comes to using a gun, as are the other Blade Children, however she dislikes using one. She is shown to have a strong intuition, being able to determine that Kanone Hilbert was going to attempt to kill Rio Takeuchi.

Ryoko cares deeply for Kousuke, though she has a tendency to use him as a punching bag and make him buy her food. Her strong hatred of Eyes stems from the fact that she sees him as being responsible for turning Kousuke into a vicious murderer. She has a strong relationship with Kousuke throughout the anime and manga, and is often concerned for his safety when the two are in imminent danger.

Ryoko's apparent romantic feelings for Kousuke are made more explicit in the manga. She becomes incredibly jealous of Rio when Kousuke stands up for her, and she snaps at Kousuke for allowing himself to be thrown out of a window and then blushes and cries as she hugs him after he wakes from a brief coma.

Kousuke appears to return the feelings, like in the hospital afterwards. Ryoko visits him in his room, asking him why she couldn't call him "big brother," and he replies with, "I can't make a move on my little sister," and he squeezes her hand, causing her to blush deeply and respond violently when Ayumu barges in.

In the end, she remains with Kousuke and hopes to participate in the Olympics.

Spiral: Alive

In "Spiral: Alive", Ryoko is known for having no patience for boys and being kind to girls, which cause people to think she's a female gang leader. She has her own Fan Club (mainly girls) and her own "legend," which are just exaggerated stories told by her teammates, like when she "killed" a bear. She is adored by girls whom always want to go on a "date" with her and who really hate it when men get to close to her. For example, they push off Shirou Sawamura when he grabs her hands.

"Note": in "Spiral: Alive", it is revealed that Ryoko was born in November.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/ayakakanah14/Ryouko Good Morals – Ryoko Fanclub]