![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
( INFO POST )
ritsu sakuma
canon
ensemble stars!
canon point
post-operetta, pre-!! main story
played at
jigoku-cho
summary
age
18 (09/22)
height
170cm (5'7")
weight
54kg (119lbs)
faction
sutoku
job
performer
living situation
w/chongyun
A young man with a vampire-like constitution. He finds it difficult to be out during the day and thus is nocturnal by nature, but he's been working hard to overcome this. A very my-pace type of person—not unlike a stray cat who might be yearning for affection.
impressions(click to expand)
impressions
(click to expand)
sight
Mid-length black hair, with bangs that frame his face; he has red eyes, fair skin, and an expression that could be mistaken for a pair of sleepy bedroom eyes. He tends towards comfy, layered clothing, and things that are easy to take off and put on. When his apathetic and aloof expression disappears, it's easy to take notice of his vampire-like fangs.
sound
A gentle, sleepy voice that tries its best to coax you into taking a nice little catnap. He's voiced by Daiki Yamashita; here is a small sample of his voice.
scent
The outside or other people, due to his tendency to sleep wherever he finds quiet.
personality
(click to expand)
personality
(click to expand)
• lazy / analytical
Beneath his sleepy and unassuming personal image - something that disappears on stage, naturally, given Knights' image of a chivalrous fanservice unit, especially once they begin to restore their image after the DDD - lies an incredibly smart mind. It isn't like he isn't genuinely lazy though; between work and sleep, he'd probably choose the latter by a landslide unless it was actually important, and he finds the most efficient ways to deal with problems without expending too much energy and effort in the process. Call it playing smart or being deceitful, Ritsu fully believes those that work hard and slow are total idiots - fast and with as little energy spent as possible is the way to go... Not that he doesn't love people who are that type of idiot though, given he counts people such as Mao and Knights as his "family." Aside from inventing new, exciting ways to do more in less effort, Ritsu also puts his analytical skills to good use in forming strategies for Knights; he covers their weaknesses and figures out the best course of action to help them proceed as effortlessly as possible, for as clean a win as possible - whether or not that win is actually through clean methods.
• poor people skills / importance on bonds
Ritsu was born with a more severe form of their family's condition; this is stated by Rei (who's traveled outside of the country to try and find something to remedy it), and is evident in Ritsu's being a foil to the other local sickly rich kid, Eichi. Similar to Eichi, Ritsu grew up staying mostly inside and not attending school - though where Eichi found resolve in his life-threatening condition and strove to climb mountains beyond his reach, Ritsu decided his condition - his being a vampire - was just something he had to live with. It was only natural he wouldn't be able to go outside and enjoy things like a normal kid, or attend family gatherings, or be understood by anyone; essentially, using his excuse of being a "vampire" as a defense mechanism and emotional crutch. As a result, his people skills are lacking to the point he's plain unsociable, claiming not to like dealing with others despite his desire to live out in the sunlight. For people who do manage to form a bond with him though, he becomes fiercely protective of them; he casually comments about hurting or killing people who've hurt them more than once, and genuinely seems to mean it - he doesn't flinch in saying it. He makes promises he intends to keep with people he loves too, and feels outright betrayed when those are forgotten or broken, turning childish and throwing a fit because he has no idea how else to express how frustrated and hurt he is at such a slight. It's the main reason he has a fight with Mao in Band Ensemble (and later again in Horror Night Halloween), and it's the main reason why he has such a complicated with his older brother Rei - who promised he wouldn't leave, but left him alone anyway.
• loyal / possessive
Following that line of thought from the point above, Ritsu's loyalty to people he loves - as friends, as family, as more - is an endless devotion... and, on the other side of things, can turn incredibly possessive. In a similar vein to Leo about Izumi, Ritsu's possessiveness comes in the form of something more emotional and raw, born out of a pure love and twisted by trauma and circumstance. The only reason he doesn't act out the same way about Mao that Izumi did about Makoto is because he cares more for Mao than he does for himself, even if early on he did hold the belief that Mao is his; that Mao should focus on him and only him, take care of him, because he (Ritsu) is the only one in the world who won't ever come to hate him. During Horror Night Halloween, he states that if Mao doesn't leave him alone while he's trying so hard to hold back, he'll stab his legs so he can never leave him, period - but prior, he'd been throwing bottles and the like at him, and urged him to just get lost because while it's a sentiment so raw and real in his heart, it isn't something he can do.
• self-centered / self-aware
Which leads nicely and neatly into Ritsu's struggle of his needs and wants, and what he knows is best for his friends. Ritsu is, in a word, a baby; he's needy and clingy and acts much like a spoiled child, with no help from Mao, who (while complaining) keeps spoiling him and doing things for him. At the same time, Ritsu's fully aware that it isn't good for Mao, or for either of them, to keep being so fiercely dependent on each other... and Mao is dependent on Ritsu to the same extent Ritsu is on him - it only takes a different form. There's nothing unclear about this: Ritsu loves Mao more than anything in the world, short of maybe family; but even then, he states he considers Mao the only family he's ever found in his lifetime. His best friend isn't "like" family to him, he is, and... that's why Ritsu begins to change. With the help of his unit becoming more family-like as well, and him more officially adopting them as part of that family, he slowly loosens his grip on Mao; he decides he'll work hard to stand beside him, to stand with everyone he loves, instead of just clinging uselessly. He still struggles though - it isn't easy to reverse years and years of learned helplessness - seen well even in his future interactions with Knights during Repaymentfes, where he freezes at the chance of being "king" and ends up making too safe of a choice of Live, not wanting to let go of the Knights he had found a home in.
Beneath his sleepy and unassuming personal image - something that disappears on stage, naturally, given Knights' image of a chivalrous fanservice unit, especially once they begin to restore their image after the DDD - lies an incredibly smart mind. It isn't like he isn't genuinely lazy though; between work and sleep, he'd probably choose the latter by a landslide unless it was actually important, and he finds the most efficient ways to deal with problems without expending too much energy and effort in the process. Call it playing smart or being deceitful, Ritsu fully believes those that work hard and slow are total idiots - fast and with as little energy spent as possible is the way to go... Not that he doesn't love people who are that type of idiot though, given he counts people such as Mao and Knights as his "family." Aside from inventing new, exciting ways to do more in less effort, Ritsu also puts his analytical skills to good use in forming strategies for Knights; he covers their weaknesses and figures out the best course of action to help them proceed as effortlessly as possible, for as clean a win as possible - whether or not that win is actually through clean methods.
• poor people skills / importance on bonds
Ritsu was born with a more severe form of their family's condition; this is stated by Rei (who's traveled outside of the country to try and find something to remedy it), and is evident in Ritsu's being a foil to the other local sickly rich kid, Eichi. Similar to Eichi, Ritsu grew up staying mostly inside and not attending school - though where Eichi found resolve in his life-threatening condition and strove to climb mountains beyond his reach, Ritsu decided his condition - his being a vampire - was just something he had to live with. It was only natural he wouldn't be able to go outside and enjoy things like a normal kid, or attend family gatherings, or be understood by anyone; essentially, using his excuse of being a "vampire" as a defense mechanism and emotional crutch. As a result, his people skills are lacking to the point he's plain unsociable, claiming not to like dealing with others despite his desire to live out in the sunlight. For people who do manage to form a bond with him though, he becomes fiercely protective of them; he casually comments about hurting or killing people who've hurt them more than once, and genuinely seems to mean it - he doesn't flinch in saying it. He makes promises he intends to keep with people he loves too, and feels outright betrayed when those are forgotten or broken, turning childish and throwing a fit because he has no idea how else to express how frustrated and hurt he is at such a slight. It's the main reason he has a fight with Mao in Band Ensemble (and later again in Horror Night Halloween), and it's the main reason why he has such a complicated with his older brother Rei - who promised he wouldn't leave, but left him alone anyway.
• loyal / possessive
Following that line of thought from the point above, Ritsu's loyalty to people he loves - as friends, as family, as more - is an endless devotion... and, on the other side of things, can turn incredibly possessive. In a similar vein to Leo about Izumi, Ritsu's possessiveness comes in the form of something more emotional and raw, born out of a pure love and twisted by trauma and circumstance. The only reason he doesn't act out the same way about Mao that Izumi did about Makoto is because he cares more for Mao than he does for himself, even if early on he did hold the belief that Mao is his; that Mao should focus on him and only him, take care of him, because he (Ritsu) is the only one in the world who won't ever come to hate him. During Horror Night Halloween, he states that if Mao doesn't leave him alone while he's trying so hard to hold back, he'll stab his legs so he can never leave him, period - but prior, he'd been throwing bottles and the like at him, and urged him to just get lost because while it's a sentiment so raw and real in his heart, it isn't something he can do.
• self-centered / self-aware
Which leads nicely and neatly into Ritsu's struggle of his needs and wants, and what he knows is best for his friends. Ritsu is, in a word, a baby; he's needy and clingy and acts much like a spoiled child, with no help from Mao, who (while complaining) keeps spoiling him and doing things for him. At the same time, Ritsu's fully aware that it isn't good for Mao, or for either of them, to keep being so fiercely dependent on each other... and Mao is dependent on Ritsu to the same extent Ritsu is on him - it only takes a different form. There's nothing unclear about this: Ritsu loves Mao more than anything in the world, short of maybe family; but even then, he states he considers Mao the only family he's ever found in his lifetime. His best friend isn't "like" family to him, he is, and... that's why Ritsu begins to change. With the help of his unit becoming more family-like as well, and him more officially adopting them as part of that family, he slowly loosens his grip on Mao; he decides he'll work hard to stand beside him, to stand with everyone he loves, instead of just clinging uselessly. He still struggles though - it isn't easy to reverse years and years of learned helplessness - seen well even in his future interactions with Knights during Repaymentfes, where he freezes at the chance of being "king" and ends up making too safe of a choice of Live, not wanting to let go of the Knights he had found a home in.
history
(click to expand)
history
(click to expand)
Character page
The Sakuma clan is a family with an unknown lineage that traces back a while yet; and they all have a vampiric constitution, though without all of the perks of being a vampire. Ritsu and Rei both have it, but Ritsu's is a more severe case, to the point of this year (in game) being the first time he's able to travel overseas for their family's annual meeting in Romania. Additionally, their family is secretive to the point of seeming cult-like, with odd rites and rituals on top of their strange styling after vampires.
Two key points as a result of this condition:
The Sakuma clan is a family with an unknown lineage that traces back a while yet; and they all have a vampiric constitution, though without all of the perks of being a vampire. Ritsu and Rei both have it, but Ritsu's is a more severe case, to the point of this year (in game) being the first time he's able to travel overseas for their family's annual meeting in Romania. Additionally, their family is secretive to the point of seeming cult-like, with odd rites and rituals on top of their strange styling after vampires.
Two key points as a result of this condition:
• Nocturnal.
Ritsu finds it incredibly hard to stay awake in the day, and sunlight is genuinely not that great for him; pushing himself too hard to try stay up can seriously make him sick. He tries anyway, considering most of his idol work takes place during the day and pretty much all of his friends are diurnal too, and with careful effort he can manage to do it for a little while before he passes out. It's still not recommended, but despite his fears and anxiety, Ritsu does want to join everyone in the sun; he doesn't want to stay just a creature of the night forever.
• Drinking blood.
While this doesn't have to be their only source of sustenance, they can drink blood, and Ritsu partakes it in quite often from the transfer student in order to gain "energy"... If it isn't available, however, he can do the same thing from eating roses. Drinking blood is an instinctive thing, but it also just seems to be something Ritsu genuinely enjoys doing and teasing about doing.