"Wooden Sword" Ryu

Ryunosuke Umemiya (梅宮 竜之介 Umemiya Ryūnosuke), usually called "Wooden Sword" Ryu (木刀の 竜 Bokutō no Ryū), is a character in the anime and manga Shaman King. In the English anime, his name is Rio.

Appearance
He usually wears exaggerated 1970s fashion: white suits and dark shirts with oversized collars, cuffs and lapels, plus pointy shoes (he is a fan of Elvis Presley). His battle outfit consists of a vest-styled shirt that exposes his stomach and pants that occasionally puff out above the ankles. His crowning glory is a foot-long pompadour, which keeps getting lopped off by Yoh Asakura and others. Ryu's nickname comes from the fact he carries a wooden sword, or bokutō. In the English anime, he has a Hispanic accent.

Abillities and Powers
Ryu is a verry capable fighter using both kick boxing and regular boxing to fight his opponent. He is always seen carrying a bokuto (wooden sword) with him and is quit capable using it even cleaving a stone in two with one hit. After becoming a shaman, he uses this as his primary weapon while fighting alongside Tokagero.

Spirit

 * See More: Tokagero

He gains the power to use Oversoul with training from Master Yohmei and Mikihisa, also learning a power called Yamata no Orochi. Later, Ryu achieves Giant Oversoul, called Yamata no Orochi Go and Armor Oversoul, called Sashimi Bouchou Susanorou(Sashimi Cleaver Susanorou). He gets a new bokuto carved from the god wood Shin-Boku in Volume 12 and demonstrates this while fighting Boris Tepes Dracula. It is named Ame no Murakumo.

So far Ryu has shown only two moves. These attacks are a powerful sword slash named Hell Dragon, Crimson Lizard which cleaves the opponant in half and Ultra Sabaki a more powerful version of the previous more in which he slashes his opponant in half vertically then proceeds to slash then several times horizontally all in the blink of an eye thus leaving them in pieces.

In the Manga, Ryu exhibits a "Big Thumb" oversoul, somehow magically calling a trucker named Billy to give the group a ride in the american midwest. In the Anime, the oversoul is used often, and Billy and Ryu develop a relationship of "Road Brothers". Billy remarks that Ryu resembles the "Legendary Hitchhiker" from local legend.

Meeting with Yoh
Ryu in the beginning of Shaman King is a gang leader who is always on the lookout for the Best Place (The Happy Place in the English manga and The Sacred Hang in the English anime; His gang is known as the Dead Enders in the English anime).

Meeting with Tokagero
In the manga, he is seen to first have a grudge against Yoh for slicing his hair off (this is a running gag throughout the first part of the series) and then discovers that Yoh has a fiancee, after trying to 'woo' Anna Kyoyama. He goes off to his gang's new 'Happy Place' which is the run down Funbari Bowl, where he breaks down and believes the 'Headphones Kid', is ruining his life. He gets possessed by Tokageroh who offers him a chance for revenge and kill Yoh. At the same time, Tokageroh is wanting revenge on Amidamaru. The possessed Ryu breaks into the museum, and steals Harusame, at the same time kidnapping Manta.

He confronts Yoh and Amidamaru, and orders Amidamaru to integrate with his master so they can fight. He tricks Amidamaru into attacking Harusame and fights back with a technique called Tokage Kenpo (Lizard Style). Tokageroh mocks Amidamaru saying that the same blade that killed him will take his life instead this time. After remembering how much Harusame was important, Amidamaru breaks Harusame and Tokageroh is surprised. Yoh says that Tokageroh had already lost, because of Amidamaru's long life commitment to his friend Mosuke. He tells him that he should rest in peace and move on. Tokageroh refuses and says he'll die and Amidamaru with him. Ryu's gang then attack him, and say that they don't want Ryu to become a scumbag, and they'll always be friends with Ryu no matter what happens.

Soon after, Tokageroh pulls out a knife and tries to kill Ryu, but the painful stress of two souls in one body, he leaves Ryu's body. Having no other option, Yoh offers Tokageroh to possess him, which he does. After saying it was foolish, Tokageroh tries to kill Yoh, but is lectured again on how important friendship is and being alone was painful for him, and admits that he can't kill Yoh. This ends this struggle, and later Tokageroh becomes Ryu's guardian ghost.

Training in Izumo
After Manta wanted to see Yoh, he forgot his money and eventually ran into Ryu, who in turn drove to Izumo. There they met with Tamao who at first saw them as an enemy, because of a misread prophecy.

Funbari no Uta
In the sequel manga Funbari no Uta, he accompanies Hana Asakura (the son of Yoh and Anna) to look for legendary warriors.

Anime/Manga Difference
The anime generally follows the first part of Ryu and Yoh's first confrontation, but Ryu becomes friends with Yoh after he saves his life from Tao Ren, then repays the debt by taking him to the hospital to treat his injuries. Ryu then later moves in to Yoh's home, and starts doing chores for Anna. After seeing Yoh train so hard, Ryu thinks to himself that he isn't worth much to the house, and leaves the place. In the same scene in the abandoned bowling alley, he is possessed by Tokageroh, who offers to help him become a better shaman. The confrontation is the same in the manga, with some scenes toned down and changed a little.

Ryu comes off as being not too bright, and really thinks more about girls and his "'do" than anything else; however, he is quite deep and philosophical and turns out to be a magnificent shaman after awakening his latent abilities. He later gets a spirit ally, Tokageroh. Ryu's goal in the English anime is to be Shaman King so he can get a 'First Lady' or 'Shaman Queen' to call his own. In the manga and the Japanese anime, Ryu's goal is simply to support Yoh Asakura in becoming the Shaman King. He also has affection towards young Lyserg Diethel, always looking out for him even after he leaves Yoh's group to join the X-Laws.

Trivia

 * A direct translation of his nickname reads "Dragon of the Wooden Sword".
 * A running gag in the first part of the series is that he constantly gets his hair "amputated". In the manga it becomes five times before he combs it back to his original style.
 * By Yoh during there fight in the cemeterry
 * By Ren to scare him away.
 * By a Jiang Shi cleaving it in half midway
 * BY Horohoro, taking of the top, to awake him while dropping down over America
 * By Boris, taking of more of the top, surprise attack