Kai (魁 Kai?) (known as Ryo in the anime), also known as M2 (M-2号?), is a human and a student underneath the martial arts master Mitamura, as well as a former member of Team Ichigaki during the Dark Tournament Saga, where he was brainwashed by Dr. Ichigaki. He is now an ally of Yusuke Urameshi during the Dark Tournament finals in the Dark Tournament Saga. He is called Chris in the Filipino dub of the anime.
Appearance[]
Kai was an older-looking man with a braided ponytail and a mustache who appeared to have been of Chinese descent. He wears a Chinese Mandarin-style pink buttoned cheongsam with yellow lines, pants, and black shoes.
History[]
Kai, along with En and Ryo, were students under the martial artist master Mitamura. At one point in time, Mitamura contracted some sort of disease. Not having the seven million necessary to treat him, the students were helpless until they were approached by Dr. Ichigaki. Ichigaki promised to cure him for free in exchange for them being guinea pigs in his scientific experiments. However, unbeknownst to them, Dr. Ichigaki's true purpose was to brainwash them and use them as mindless slaves to fight for him.
Synopsis[]
Dark Tournament Saga[]
He made his debut alongside the rest of his Team in the Dark Tournament, facing and killing a member of an unnamed team in the early rounds of the tournament. Alongside En and Ryo, he partook in a three-on-three battle royal against Yusuke, Kuwabara, and the Masked Fighter. In the anime, the three brainwashed students' teamwork is flawless, putting pressure on Team Urameshi and soundly landing blows on them (this is not the case in the manga). The trio would come to cause severe damage to Kuwabara, who refused to kill them since he knew they were innocent humans (before the actual fight, Kuwabara had a dream about their ordeal). Ultimately, he and his teammates' lives were spared when they were returned to normal by Genkai's energy attack, finally freeing them from Dr. Ichigaki's control. He & his teammates had a tearful reunion with their master, who had been healed by Kurama.
He also appears alongside En, Ryo, and Mitamura during the final battle between Teams Urameshi and Toguro as part of the audience since he and his teammates are now allies of Yusuke. In the manga, his soul starts to be awoken by Younger Toguro's soul absorption technique for consumption, much to the horror of both En and Ryo. Whether he actually dies from this is unknown.
Trivia[]
- Ryo's overall appearance greatly resembles fighting game series Virtua Fighter character Lau Chan (mostly in the earliest games). He vaguely resembles Dragon Ball character Mercenary Tao and Mobile Fighter G Gundam character Master Asia as well.
- In the manga, he is called “Kai” while in the anime he is called “Ryo”. Back during Round two of the tournament, it was established that these three guys are named “Kai”, “Ryo”, and “En”, but it wasn’t clearly established who was who aside from Kai. Most likely, the anime decided back then that Ryo was the one with the staff, and decided to stick with that in spite of the manga. The Spirit World Who’s Who guidebook identifies “Kai” as the one with the staff (in keeping with the manga version), “En” as the one with the throwing discs, and “Ryo” as the one with the claw attack.
- The subtitles call Kai’s staff attack “Swing Crush” in the Japanese version of episode 33, but in episode 35 it is “Swing Crash”.
- Despite not haven known about Urameshi at all (like En) until the Dark Tournament's Finals episodes of the Dark Tournament Saga, he became an ally of Yusuke, supporting and cheering for Team Urameshi.