Issei Ryuudou (柳洞 一成, Ryūdō Issei?) is a supporting character in Fate/stay night. He is the Student Council President of Homurahara Academy.
Profile[]
Background[]
His father is the head priest of Ryuudou Temple, and his brother Reikan Ryuudou was a classmate of Taiga Fujimura and Otoko Hotaruzuka.
He first became acquainted with Shirou Emiya two years prior the events of Fate/stay night and soon became his friend.[2]
He is a student in Homurahara Academy and he travels two hours on foot every single day to attend school.[2] He is in Class 2-C, and the student council president.
Appearance[]
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.jpg "Issei Ryuudou stripped 15th commemorative art (pako).jpg (89 KB)")
Personality[]
He has a straight-laced and serious personality. As the youngest child of Ryuudou Temple, it seems he has his heart set on one day becoming a Buddhist monk. Though, he will be the first to tell you that his ability to sense the supernatural is weak. He looked up to Souichirou Kuzuki as a mentor, and on holidays they would often perform paired kata together. If he had not gone into the student council, it's a safe bet that he would have enrolled in the karate club instead.[2]
Issei is a friend of Shirou, and his favorite dishes are the lunches that Shirou makes.[2] Issei often asks Shirou to fix broken equipment for the Student Body to try and save money on the school's bill. Issei and Shirou often have lunch together in the Student Body's office where they talk about what ever comes to mind.[3]
He dislikes Rin Tohsaka, who served as his student council Vice President in Junior High for four years, a period after which they decided they could no longer get along. His distrust toward women probably stems from the behind-the-scenes feud they have been engaged in for the past two years. However, as much as it pains him to admit it he still recognizes Rin as a human being.[2] Despite this, Shirou claims that Issei may actually like her as a rival due to giving his job reason.
Though he seems to have a fear of women, he instantly takes a liking to Saber, explaining that "even he can tell" that Saber was a good person. Issei also seems to hold a great respect for Ayako Mitsuzuri as both a fellow friend of Shirou's and the captain of the archery dojo. In the adaptations and the manga, Issei does not have a fear of women at all and instead claims to soley not like Rin. In the manga adaptation, Issei is utterly paranoid of Rin; calling her whole "existence" pure evil (as well as referring to her as a "demon in the form of a harmless cat") and that he possessed an "obligation" to protect the whole school from her "malevolent influence". In the anime adaptation, Issei states he simply does not care for her; that his dislike has nothing to do with her specifically and that it is just solely not feeling accepting of her.
As the student council president, he is someone who embodies the role, having been noted as the next in line during his freshman year. He performs admirably and lives up to all expectations, likely to carry the title among his peers even at future reunions. Due to this, it is hard to find a successor, and his vice-president even jokes about him staying back a year to continue to fill the spot. Others consider his "student council aura" to be too great, having won by overwhelming majority simply due to that. He wishes for reformation in the school,such as changing how club allowances are distributed, improving clubs, and amending the school regulations.[4]
Role[]
Fate/stay night[]
Issei in the Fate/stay night [Unlimited Blade Works] anime.
He was first seen in the prologue when Rin encounters him when Shirou was repairing an equipment with his Magecraft. Issei becomes suspicious of Rin arriving to school early when she is not involved in any club.
Rin suspected Issei to be a Master of Caster as he resides in Ryuudou temple. Shirou decided to investigate this matter, he strips Issei and search for any signs of Command spell. Issei informs Shirou and Rin that Souichirou has been living in the temple and brought a fiancée. Issei unknowingly tells Shirou that Caster is at the Temple.
In the Fate route, He comes over to the Emiya residence to check on Shirou, who's pretending to be sick from school, and to return the bicycle he left at the temple when he went to retrieve Saber from there. After Shirou apologizes for leaving his bike there, Issei notices Saber standing behind Shirou. Saber introduces herself as a distant relative of Shirou, saying that she was treated kindly by Shirou's father when he came to her country and she is now staying at the Emiya residence thanks to relation with him.
Accepting her story, Issei believes that Shirou being sick is just a ruse to show Saber around Fuyuki, then he asks for some tea as a token of appreciation for bringing Shirou's bike back to him. Joined by Saber, Shirou and Issei talk about school as they all have tea, and afterwards, as he leaves the house, Issei is told by Shirou that he'll be skipping school for the week to be with Saber. Accepting his reasons, Issei comments that Shirou should be just fine if he's with Saber, having taking an instant liking to her as he can tell that she's a good person. He is then told Shirou that she's a little anti-social as she hasn't laughed yet and always looks troubled even while they talking and laughing about Taiga. Issei however refutes this by saying that Saber was smilling quite a lot, but Shirou doesn't believe him as he can't imagine her bursting out in laughter. But, Issei corrects him by saying that she was smiling when she saw him smile, though this only confuses Shirou, who asks if Saber is making fun of him. Issei merely laughs off Shirou's question, saying that he interprets things oddly and should torment himself on that subject as he leaves.
Several days later, when Kirei Kotomine activated the Grail at Ryuudou Temple, Issei and the monks were passed out.[5]
In Ufotable anime adaptation of Unlimited Blade Works scenario, when Shirou, Saber and Lancer were on their way to the Einzbern castle to confront Archer to rescue Rin, Issei, Reikan Ryuudou and the other fifty-one residents of Ryuudou Temple were attacked by Gilgamesh who consumes their mana to strengthen himself after his battle against Berserker and Illya. They were left unconscious and to be taken to hospital.
In the anime adaption of the Heaven's Feel (route), Issei ends up at the hospital following the attack on Ryuudou Temple by True Assassin. Issei is shown weeping over the loss of Kuzuki, who had been killed by True Assassin.
Fate/hollow ataraxia[]
Issei appears in the prologue, where Rin, Sakura Matou, Ayako Mitsuzuri, Shirou, Kaede Makidera, Kane Himuro and Yukika Saegusa are telling horror stories to each other in Ryuudou Temple past midnight in October 11.
Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA series[]
Issei is student council president and a friend of Shirou Emiya. He becomes in charge of the beach party vacation when Shirou asked him to help out. Suzuka Kurihara questioned the relationship between Issei and Shirou, Suzaka started taking notes for her YaoiWP inspiration. Issei was suspicious with Rin and Luvia, he speculated that the constructed building was related to Luvia as it says Edelfelt construction. Both Rin and Luvia pointed out he was acting like a sister-in-law and he was very observant. Afterwards there is an argument about the incident with Moriyama Nanami, Issei complains about the cleanup and the action which Luvia and Rin were involved in. When the females were fighting over Shirou, Issei commented that he refused to hand over Shirou to some woman and only a man from Ryuudou temple can take care of Shirou. When Shirou was injected with a truth serum by Magical Ruby, he calls Issei a chicken. Issei was later injected with sedative and Magical Amber brain washed everybody to forget about the whole incident.
Carnival Phantasm[]
In Carnival Phantasm, Issei is one of three central characters of Episode 7, where he tries to uncover Caster's real, wicked personality to Kuzuki.
Today's Menu for Emiya Family[]
Issei makes brief appearances in Today's Menu for Emiya Family. In Episode 4, he returns to Ryuudou Temple in time to discover Shirou had made sandwiches. In Episode 10, Issei is in charge of preparing for the school festival, and personally rejects or passes any ideas presented by other students. To his delight, Shirou makes him and the student council some food.
Other appearances[]
True Ending in Capsule Servant.
He makes a brief cameo appearance in the true ending of Capsule Servant.
In the Fate/EXTRA universe, SE.RA.PH used the information of Moon Cell to generate a NPC Issei Ryuudou based on this Issei.
Development[]
Reception[]
- In the first Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2004, Issei was ranked 16th.
- In the second Popularity polls of Fate/stay night in 2006, Issei was ranked 29th.
- In the Type-Moon's 10th Anniversary Character Poll, Issei was ranked 109th.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
[] Fate/complete material II: Character Material - Characters: Issei Ryuudou, p.106-107 Issei Ryuudou -
Character Data 019
Affiliation: Homurahara Academy, 2 Year class C
Gender: Male
Height: 170cm
Weight: 58kg
Image Color: Orange
Talents: Zen meditation, Karate
Likes: , Crosswords
Dislike: Females, Trendy thing
Worst enemy: Rin Tohsaka
Origin: Fuyuki City Ryuudou Temple
Nasu Kinoko & Takeuchi Takashi Discussion
>The catalyst for Issei Ryuudou's birth
Nasu: Issei was created simply because I wanted to flesh out the school part of the story. I had a similar character as the student council president in old "Fate", and he was the apprentice of the Master who was essentially that story's Kuzuki. While Issei remains a normal human for the entirety of this "Fate", the equivalent character in old "Fate" actually underwent a drastic change midway through the story. The memory of this old character inspired me to include Issei as the student council president in this iteration of "Fate", but since adding more combat characters would just crowd the battlefield, I decided to keep him as a normal human who could flesh out the school scenes. I left the design completely in Takeuchi's hands, so I merely waited for him to finish the design and wrote up Issei's part of the script accordingly. I particularly emphasised the fact that he is the son of the temple family.
>Regarding Issei Ryuudou's design
Takeuchi: My first take on Issei was an athletic kid with a shaved head, but Nasu rejected this design.
Nasu: That design was simply too similar to a friend character we had in "Tsukihime".
Takeuchi: So in my next attempt, I went in the opposite direction. The concept for Issei was a male moe character who was more into literature and culture than sports. I felt like I might have taken the whole "moe" thing a bit too far... The early drafts in particular are all but dripping with sex appeal. The other design was used as a base for Issei's brother, and since their father is pretty macho, I imagine Issei got his looks from their mother.
>Issei Ryuudou's residence
Nasu: Issei's only mission was to live a normal school life, though it's true that he was unwittingly in a very dangerous position in Ryuudou Temple, which Caster had turned into her headquarters. As a normal human being who got dragged into the Holy Grail War, the danger surrounding Issei was quite different from the dangerous situations the main characters always found themselves in. Personally, I feel like normal people do not usually get intimately involved with superhuman entities like mages. This is because the kind of stuff mages are mixed up in will generally get normal people killed.
>The difference between Shinji Matou and Issei Ryuudou
Nasu: Where Shinji was a natural genius, Issei was more of a book-learned genius. Having grown up in a temple environment, Issei learned discipline at a young age. He understood early on the value of working hard to live a life that would not bring shame to his accomplished brothers. Issei is a pretty attractive guy, but he will have to shave his head in order to become a monk after he graduates... not that it matters to Issei, as he holds no particular attachment to his looks. Issei became friends with Shirou after meeting him at Homurahara Academy, but has known Rin since middle school.
柳洞一成
Character Data ０１９
所属：穂群原学園 ２年C組
性別：男性
身長：１７０ｃｍ
体重：５８ｋｇ
イメージカラー：オレンジ
特技：座禅、空手
好きな物：詰め碁、クロスワード
苦手な物：女性、流行もの
天敵：遠坂凛
出身：冬木市 柳洞寺 - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4
[] Fate/side material - Encyclopedia: Ryuudou Issei [Person's name], p.077 [T] Issei Ryuudou [Person's name]
A male student in Class 2-C, and the student council president.
He first became acquainted with Shirou two years ago, and soon became his friend.
Though he has a straight-laced and serious personality, that doesn't mean he's stubborn or inflexible.
As the youngest child of Ryuudou Temple, it seems he has his heart set on one day becoming a Buddhist monk.
Though, he'll be the first to tell you that his ability to sense the supernatural is weak.
He travels two hours on foot every single day to attend school. Apparently engaging in ascetic training in the mountains makes you a good walker.
He's been acquainted with Rin for quite a while, and his distrust toward women probably stems from the behind-the-scenes feud they've been engaged in for the past two years. However, as much as it pains him to admit it he still recognizes Rin as a human being.
He looked up to Kuzuki Souichirou as a mentor, and on holidays they would often perform paired kata together.
If he hadn't gone into the student council, it's a safe bet that he would have enrolled in the karate club instead.
His favorite food is Shirou's boxed lunches.柳洞一成【人名】
2年C組の男子生徒。生徒会長。
二年前に士郎と知り合い、友人となった。
堅物で遊びのない性格だが、融通がきかない訳でもない。
柳洞寺の末っ子で、行く行くは僧侣になりたいらしい。本人も口にしていたが、霊感は薄い。
何気に、毎日二時間の道のりを踏破して登校している。お山で修行するお坊さんは健脚なのだ。
凛とは随分前から知り合いで、一成の女嫌いは二年間に凛る凛との暗闘が原因と思われる。南無。でも人間として凛を認めているあたり、本人も困っていたり。
葛木宗一郎を師と仰ぎ、休日は組み手をしていた。
生徒会に入っていなければ空手部に在籍していただろつ。
好物は土郎の弁当。 - ↑
[] Fate/complete material III: World material - FAQ with Nasu: Characters, p.134-135
Q: Issei’s favorite dishes are the lunches that Shirou makes... but it’s not like he has any delicate feelings for Shirou that extend beyond friendship, right?
Q: Issei’s favorite dishes are the lunches that Shirou makes... but it’s not like he has any delicate feelings for Shirou that extend beyond friendship, right?
A: I definitely won’t talk about something hopeless like that. But Issei's feelings are purely as male friends. The bonds between men are STRONGEST! - ↑ Fate/hollow ataraxia - The student council chairman is still going strong.
- ↑
[] Fate/complete material III: World material - FAQ with Nasu: General Questions about Fate, p.130
Q: When Kotomine activated the Grail at Ryuudou Temple, what happened to Issei and the rest of the monks? Were they all sleeping?
Q: When Kotomine activated the Grail at Ryuudou Temple, what happened to Issei and the rest of the monks? Were they all sleeping?
A: They were passed out quite cheerfully. [note: Nasu says they all “batan Q’d” together quite cheerfully. It’s an expression that you use when you’ve worked/played until you collapse from exhaustion.]Q：セイバールートにおいて、言峰が柳洞寺で聖杯を起動した時、寺の僧侶や一成たちはどうなっていたのでしょうか？ 眠らされていたのでしょうか？
A：みんな仲良くバタンQ。