| “ | Because whether you care about it or not, I really want you to die. | „ |
| ~ Ryoko Asakura |
Ryoko Asakura is a major antagonist in the light novel and anime series Haruhi Suzumiya. She is a humanoid interface who was sent by the Data Overmind to watch over Haruhi Suzumiya, much like Yuki Nagato. Unlike Yuki, however, Ryoko is a very cold and callous being despite her cheerful exterior, even trying to kill Kyon with the hopes of triggering Haruhi.
She is also the main antagonist of the film The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya.
She was voiced by Natsuno Kuwatani in Japanese and Bridget Hoffman (whom also voiced Namie Yagiri) in English.
Biography[]
Ryoko Asakura was the most popular girl in school according to Taniguchi, achieving her A++ score for her personality, beauty, and athleticism during Grade 11 in his ranking system. She is well-liked among her peers and makes various attempts to reach out the difficult Haruhi Suzumiya. When Kyon starts to befriend Haruhi over the year, Ryoko is ecstatic and encourages him to make her open up more.
Unknown to Kyon, Haruhi, and the entire school, Ryoko, along with Yuki Nagato and Emiri Kimidori, are actually aliens sent by the Integrated Data Thought Entity to monitor and observe the reality-warping abilities of Haruhi. Ryoko quickly grows bored of their normal human interactions and thinks that if she were to kill Kyon, Haruhi would have a reaction she would have never seen before.
In the afternoon, Ryoko pulls out a combat knife to kill Kyon while calmly explaining her intentions. While still attacking Kyon, Ryoko creates a personal dimension in order to kill him with no interruptions. However, Yuki intervenes and later assists Kyon in the battle. Yuki sustains several blows and nearly loses her physical form, but converts a massive amount of her own power into sending a request to her masters that ends with Ryoko being terminated herself. Defeated, Ryoko fades away and congratulates the pair, but promises that her masters may soon change their views through Yuki.
In "The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya" arc, she is the main antagonist, Ryoko is resurrected as a human and acts as Yuki's friend in the alternate universe (which was created when Yuki stole Haruhi's powers and remade the universe into a normal one). She acts just like she did before, but with no malice behind her kindness. When Kyon decides to return things to how they were, Yuki inadvertently summons Ryoko back to protect her, but now with the mindset of her old self. She manages to wound Kyon when he tries to inject the uninstallation program for the human Yuki. Ryoko was about to deliver the death-blow but was stopped by a Yuki from the future when she time-travels back with Kyon and the younger Mikuru. From that point on, Ryoko then declares Kyon as her prey.
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | Expanding data control range. Deploying offensive data. Shifting to Termination Mode. Requesting authorization for localized combat simulation within limited space for the purpose of analyzing specified target. | „ |
| ~ Asakura's requests for combat power. |
Like Yuki Nagato and Emiri Kimidori, Asakura is an Integrated Data Entity humanoid interface.
She has demonstrated a number of powers and abilities:
- Superhuman strength and reflexes: Asakura could throw a knife with considerable force, then use her quick reflexes to catch one flying at her. Asakura could leap incredible distances (once leaping 5 meters when surprised).
- Data jurisdiction: Her specialty, enables Asakura to "cut off" a portion of reality into a "bubble dimension", enabling her to engage in combat without revealing her presence to anyone outside the field. Asakura could request permission from the IDE to expand the field. Yuki Nagato was able to force her way into Asakura's space, explaining that her individual programs were weak. Kuyou Suou was able to escape from the zone, forcing Kimidori to repair the damaged space.
- Property manipulation: In a data jurisdiction space, Asakura was able to create "icicles" from the surrounding structure and use them to attack an enemy. Yuki Nagato could use this ability in "reverse" to counter Ryoko Asakura's attacks. However, Nagato didn't display the ability to counter her more impressive attacks which involved generating metal rods from desks in front of her, then "hurling" them at Nagato. This ability required vocalization, although it appeared that Asakura only needed to vocalize to change their properties, rather than continuously doing so.
- Telekinesis: Asakura could also telekinetically hurl objects such as desks, stop a desk being thrown at her (a visible field appeared to protect her when she did so) and even freeze a human in place. This ability did not require vocalization.
- Knife mastery: Asakura could throw a knife with such force that it would continue to vibrate and attempt to stab its target after being thrown. She could also redirect its path in flight without vocalization, even if the knife was thrown by someone else. The knife dissolved when Asakura used some powers, and could also be dissolved by another humanoid interface.
- Asakura appeared to value her knife, asking for it back when Emiri Kimidori caught it. (When Emiri threw it back, Asakura used her property manipulation ability to redirect the knife at an opponent, then caught it when the opponent dodged.)
- Physical transformation: Asakura can transform her arms into large flexible blades of light. She used these to skewer Nagato during their confrontation.
- Data containment field: By holding onto another being, Asakura could generate a field of geometric shapes which would attempt to capture them. However, Kuyou Suou was able to break the field. To use this ability, Asakura chanted "Initiating offensive data assault." The ground was affected, and her knife dissolved as she did so.
- Time-freezing: When Kuyou advanced on Kyon, Asakura intervened by freezing a large majority of the area they were in so that she could fight her. Time appeared to slow down for Kyon before stopping completely.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Ryoko had a ponytail in her initial character design, but this was later removed due to Kyon's fetish.