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Entry tags:
RYSLIG APP;
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Ashley
Contact: owl_like @ plurk
Other Characters: None!
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Ryouta Kawara
Age: 17
Canon: Hatoful Boyfriend HolidayStar
Canon Point: After escaping The King’s illusion, just about to answer Yuuya.
Character Information: Ryouta’s unfortunately lack luster wiki page.
Let’s back this up with a little bit more info. The Hatoful Boyfriend world is one where birds are the dominant species following the outbreak of a kind of H5N1 virus devastating the human population in 2068. To try and stop themselves from dying off, humanity decided to exterminate the carriers of this virus, birds. Humans unleashed a virus of their own deadly to birds, many species died off, bad things all around. Except something happened with the survivors -- remaining birds adapted to the virus. They evolved. Their brains got bigger, they themselves started increasing in size, and a war started between birds and humans, only ending in 2100 after thirty-five years of fighting and 4.6% of the human population remaining.
...And so here we are. This is the world Ryouta lives in. He lives in Littledove Hachiman City, Japan and attends St. Pigeonation’s, the world’s leading bird school, which is for birds. His best friend is the main character of the game, a human girl named Hiyoko who saved his life when he was a baby, having fallen out of his nest. The wiki does a good job talking about this as well as info necessary to his route in the main game, as well as the main storyline called Bad Boys Love, a follow-up to the dating sim portion of the game that is literally a survival mystery VN, wherein “Hatoful Boyfriend” becomes “Hurtful Boyfriend.” In Ryouta’s own words, I thought ‘hatoful’ just meant heartful! We all did, Ryouta.
As the wiki explains, in Bad Boys Love, Ryouta is turned into a walking biological weapon and accidentally kills Hiyoko and a lot of unpleasant, unhappy things happen. But that’s not the story Ryouta comes from. No, Ryouta here is from HolidayStar, the sequel to Hatoful Boyfriend. ...Well, more like another story/alternate universe. The first two stories are rather Ryouta-lite, involving the theft/destruction of Christmas trees around town. Ryouta, Hiyoko, and another bird, a noble named Sakuya, team up to try and stop whoever’s ruining the holiday, and through various hijinks they eventually do. It’s a murderless, mostly lighthearted mystery adventure, with our heroine actually alive this time.
The second story takes place shortly after the New Year, involving a selfish publishing bird, Tohri, who wants to destroy St. Pigeonation’s because of an old rivalry with Shuu. Hiyoko and Anghel, an over-the-top bird who speaks as if he lives in a fantasy world, take the main roles as heroes this time, but Ryouta does help save the day by transforming into a magical girl, Pretty Coore Grey, along with Hiyoko and their teacher Kazuaki, via channeling Anghel’s strange mystical thoughts and the school’s belief!
It’s all rather silly.
The main story of HolidayStar, taking place around the end of the school year, exists in a world where Hiyoko has grown close to Nageki, the freshman mourning dove who spends all his time in the library...because he can’t exactly leave it. He’s a ghost. In his route, revealing this - and that he loves Hiyoko - causes him to disappear, but in this story, he decides he wants to stay longer, to fully recover his memories and make new ones as well!
As HolidayStar is the holiday game of the series, naturally this is all a fun, relaxing sequel to the taxing original, right?
No. Dating pigeons is still nothing but madness and suffering.
The school’s opened up at night so the students can see a total lunar eclipse, and 2-3, Ryouta’s class, attends, along with some other datable birds in the game - Nageki (who can ascend to the roof because it’s above the library) and Shuu Iwamine (the rather frightening medic partridge), - and two strange birds-with-hands, Miru and Kaku, who now live with Shuu. It’s complicated and upsetting.
Hiyoko and Nageki end up on a train in outer space, quickly deduced as a dream, which takes them to a little star, the Holiday Star, a village run by a being who is only known as The King. While they are there, The King asks them to help him with keeping his kingdom peaceful, like investigating the weird restaurant where his citizens keep disappearing. (It involves cannibalism, of course.) After each completed errand, they receive a pretty gemstone for their troubles. The two discover the rest of the eclipse-viewing party are in this dream as well throughout their errands. Ryouta is around a place called Mount Pudding, a mountain made of. Well. Pudding. With strange pudding-enthusiast Okosan. In the dream world, Ryouta is a Votaress of the Pudding, complete with his own nun costume. Ryouta in girls’ outfits is a theme. At his first appearance in the dream world, he’s rather conscious of the fact that Hiyoko and Nageki have been going everywhere together. The group, along with a bird who can’t remember who he is (later revealed to be Kazuaki) keep rain from falling in the kingdom,
as ordered by The King.
The world is revealed to be not a simple dream, however, when Hiyoko and Nageki realize that after predawn, time simply loops back around to midnight. The group cannot awaken -- they are trapped in the Holiday Star.
After the eclipse started, everyone fell into a deep sleep. Yuuya, Sakuya’s half-brother, and a colleague of him attempted to wake them up, but to no avail, despite how simple it should be. Even with the eclipse ended, the group still remain asleep. If the birds stay asleep for too long, the disconnect between their brain and body will take a toll on them, and they will die, a consequence of their recent evolution. Thus, Yuuya enters the dream to wake them forcibly by connecting to the brainwaves of his half-brother while those outside attempt to remove clouds blocking the moon, as that may have something to do with everyone’s deep sleep. As Hiyoko and Nageki learn, Holiday Star is essentially a land of the dead. Occasionally, some arrive there early, and The King keeps them “comfortable” until they die properly. Yuuya meets up with them and they learn that the citizens of Holiday Star are lost souls that The King has trapped and absorbed, and the group from St. Pigeonation’s - well, they are his next targets. No one arrives here naturally - The King lures them in. When it look as if everyone might awaken due to the moon being unblocked, he traps each of them in their own rooms, giving them picture books about their lives, each one ending tragically. It’s meant to demotivate them and make them want to stay in the Holiday Star.
Hiyoko, Nageki, and Yuuya receive a little help from a migrant traveler, having been put in a room together and lacking a picture book. They find a path to search for the missing birdies, so they split up (Yuuya going one way, Hiyoko and Nageki going another) to search for them and keep them from falling to despair, so they can all escape the Holiday Star. With each soul that wants to escape, they grow more powerful and The King’s hold on them weakens.
Hatoful Boyfriend is a very confusing, complicated series.
So this long set-up leads us to: What does this mean for Ryouta? The book Ryouta is given is called The Black and White Picture Book. This book details the story of two rock doves, one black and one white, who had been friends with a sunflower their whole lives. The sunflower one day met a star, and it started staying out only at night. The sunflower didn’t send time with the doves anymore, and without its light, the day seemed dark and dreary. The white dove, knowing that the star was kind, cried and cried, knowing there was nothing he could do. The black dove, meanwhile, wanted the star to turn into a shooting star and disappear, so things could be as they were. Both doves, however, froze and died.
Poor doves.
Poor doves.
This is one big metaphor for Ryouta’s relationship with Hiyoko (the sunflower), wherein both doves represent his conflicting feelings about Nageki (the star) being the person who Hiyoko spends all her time with. Out of all the birds, Ryouta is the most difficult to convince, leading into a multiple choice battle where the player (playing as Yuuya) can lose and get a Game Over wherein everyone is assimilated. He’s even being spoken to by The King when Yuuya finds him. Though denying that he has any claim on Hiyoko and disagreeing with The King’s assertions that Nageki’s a bad bird, Ryouta becomes more and more depressed as The King talks to him, and he nearly becomes one with The King himself. There’s even an image from the creator herself detailing this possibility.
Breaking through The King’s illusion does not automatically create cracks in HolidayStar, which had been the signal that others wanted to leave. Yuuya must ask Ryouta again, and it’s implied - as the scene cuts off - that it takes him a little bit of time on his own to fully come to grips with the reality that he wants to leave and for life to resume outside the dream. (This is the point Ryouta will be snatched from, before he gives his answer to Yuuya.)
As an aside and last bit of information -- the birds in Hatoful Boyfriend are, of course, birds, .they have a human appearance as well. That is what Ryouta will look like in Ryslig, but he will also retain his wings...because what other way to horrify a bird than have something awful happen to his wings when he starts to transform?
Personality:
It is important to note for the HolidayStar route: I discuss below Ryouta’s feelings in regards to his mother’s death in his normal route in the main game, but it is heavily implied in HolidayStar, though it takes place toward the end of the school year (March) and his mother died before that (February), she is still alive in this world. Therefore, the discussions have to do with his potential and what each event reveals about him. This is similarly seen with my discussions of Bad Boys Love and other events that do not happen in his canon. Unless it was detailed in the character information above (ie. the tree-napping, the magical girl event, and the visit to Holiday Star), it is an event that is being talked about to reveal personality, not necessarily something that’s happened to Ryouta.
One of Ryouta’s most important and profound traits is his sense of responsibility. Coming from a household where he’s only had a rather sick mother to support him, Ryouta’s grown up with a great understanding that he must pull his own weight. He takes on multiple jobs, one at a maid cafe, one at a regular cafe, one as a shrine maiden, one promoting Pretty Coore (in costume of course), and others the reader never learns about. He’s diligent and focused on helping his mother, and he doesn’t complain about having to work; even with his own sickness weighing him down, as he’s always had a very weak stomach, he continues on. He puts on a smile at work and enjoys it. Though he sometimes comments on it in gag manga, he tends to be rather comfortable crossdressing. He has the most “outfits” in the series that way, from a maid to a magical girl to a nun. In fact, in another gag manga, he defends his profession as a maid, saying maids are “the new ninja.” He gets very passionate about what he does for a living, that Ryouta. He’s going to put his all into the jobs he works. A very professional, hard-working bird.
The fact that he works so much likely leads to his practical, realistic way of thinking. He worries about those around him and is aware of future possibilities, even if that leads him to a grim state of mind (see paragraphs on his insecurities and his mother’s death). This can lead to something positive, though - when Hiyoko is reckless and ill-prepared, he always offers his help, be it sharing his lunch when she has a lackluster one, or talking her down from confronting Shuu, which given his menacing nature could lead to some bad things. Nothing good can come from that, he often reminds her, thus keeping a better grip on the immediate situation at hand. He’s a bird you can depend on, even if he doesn’t have a lot of faith in himself. In a more everyday sense of the word, he’s practical as well because when something bizarre happens, he often is the bird to comment on it, especially when Anghel starts sprouting off fantasy nonsense. He is the straight bird to many of the more...colorful characters in Hatoful Boyfriend.
Ryouta is a very kindhearted bird, willing to lend his assistance to those in need. This is most seen with Hiyoko, as she’s the protagonist whose eyes we see through, but in Bad Boys Love he interacts with Nageki as well and seems to make some kind of friends with him. The only ones who can see Nageki are the pure of heart, and this confirms that Ryouta is a good soul. Even as Kazuaki is trying to carve him open in Bad Boys Love, as he’s slowly losing his grip on reality from grief, Ryouta tries to talk him down, seeing him as his trusted teacher instead of a mad-bird. He considers the snooty Sakuya his friend, even when given no reason to, and they come to trust each other in Bad Boys Love after working alongside each other. He countless times tries to calm Okosan when he’s in a furious rage about pudding (don’t ask), and generally he gets along with most of the cast...even Shuu when the partridge isn’t in a murderous mood.
If he is friendly with someone, he sticks with them - he is a loyal bird, especially towards Hiyoko. Though he’s not seen as much on other routes, HolidayStar shows in the end, despite his worries and fears, he will support Hiyoko no matter what she chooses for her life, even if it could possibly lead her away from him. Ryouta’s the kind of bird who also could try to protect her, but it doesn’t always work out for him (see: Bad Boys Love). Despite his failures at keeping her safe, he still refuses to leave what’s left of her in Bad Boys Love; he can’t leave the underground containment area for fear of killing any humans he gets near anyway, but one of his reasons for staying there in cold storage is he will not leave Hiyoko alone. He is The Heart, encouraging and true. To Sakuya as well, in the end of Bad Boys Love, he has faith that the aristocratic bird will do what he can to help him and Hiyoko; his faith in that moment even overtakes his pragmatism. Though the situation is grim, his loyalty to those around him leads him to believe that they will one day make it so he can walk outside again and Hiyoko can live once more.
Oftentimes the games remind the player that Ryouta is fantastic at cooking. He makes anything and everything and it’s a trait mentioned time and time again; it’s one of the first things he says to Hiyoko when you begin the game, after all! Ryouta Kawara is going to grow up to be a wonderful homemaker, complete with an apron.
Ryouta is incredibly insecure, and those insecurities manifest most of all in HolidayStar’s main story. He is afraid of change, and afraid of being left all by himself, the latter built off of from his route when worrying about his mother dying. He worries very intensely in this way, thinking about what could or might happen...but usually when there is a shred of truth to worry about, such as Hiyoko outliving him due to their different life-spans or the two of them growing apart after he sees her spending so much time with Nageki. It’s this fear that almost leads him to give up his individuality to The King - and in effect doom everyone else as well, as without all of them, they’re unable to break out of the Holiday Star. Ryouta, essentially, has very intense abandonment issues, to the extent that it could potentially keep him from living his life. Even with Yuuya talking him through it, he is unsure if he wants to keep going or not. His insecurities play into his fear of change. Ryouta talks himself down quite a bit, saying in his route that he is not handsome or rich or good enough for Hiyoko at all, so naturally when he fears that she will find someone else and leave him - not just romantically but leave him for good - he can’t keep himself from fearing the worst.
In his route ending, he is very much affected by the death of his mother, not just because she was his only living family, but because it reminds him that one day he too will pass on, and though he is deeply in love with Hiyoko (and at that point she is in love with him too), he refuses to put her through that sort of pain, as it is assured that she will outlive him. It’s only through much convincing that Hiyoko can make him stay with her. Ryouta is, in this way, self-sacrificing. Though he fears being alone and he fears change -- losing Hiyoko -- more than anything else in the world, his first thoughts after his mother dies are that he can’t let Hiyoko experience that as well. In his right mind, he refuses to let his selfishness hurt others. The white dove in the picture book backs this up; that dove, representing Ryouta’s insecure, self-deprecating side, knows that Nageki is better for Hiyoko than he is, and he can do nothing but cry about it.
Something seen few times in the Hatoful Boyfriend series is the aspect represented by the black dove, however. That is the selfish side of Ryouta, the side that wants what he wants and will not let it go. It can be argued that the idea of King Ryouta plays into this side. As he dooms all of them in that ending, it could very much be that this is the black dove seen; Ryouta has, at least, the potential for cruel things, when he’s driven by his despair and pain, though he never reaches that point in-story. In Bad Boys Love, this idea is also present when he learns that he is the reason that Hiyoko is dead, and it’s compounded by the fact that what’s left of her - her brain, placed inside a Frankenstein monster - had just been shocked, rendering any bits of her memory and personality unlikely to recover...and he was the one to shock her. It’s no wonder after this that Shuu, behind turning him into a biological weapon, was able to essentially brainwash him into going along with his plans to kill humanity and die himself. It’s only through a combined effort of the rest of the characters and Hiyoko’s ghost that he comes back to his senses. Despair, loneliness, and the world changing and collapsing around him - that deadly combination leads Ryouta to a very dark and unpleasant place. He admits to the King that there are two birds in his heart - the black and white doves - and the conflicting thoughts from them make him fear he’ll tear apart. Ryouta’s insecurities and indecisiveness do not bode well for him.
It says something that Ryouta keeps (in different continuities) stumbling upon mysteries. It’s not a defining trait, but when put into the situation where he has to snoop around, he won’t sit idly by, as long as he has friends to help him out. In a serious mystery situation, he’s all business, but he’s more laid back in HolidayStar’s tree-napping case. This could also show some of a trait that’s mentioned but not really seen - his mischievous side. Hiyoko introduces him by saying he’s “a bit mischievous, but hard working and kind,” but besides his occasional deadpan comment on Kazuaki sleeping standing up or Anghel crashing through another window or Hiyoko being a rather ridiculous hot-blooded human, he’s not exactly mischievous. Throughout the Christmas tree mystery, however, he and Hiyoko joke to one another, commenting every time Sakuya sets off a “flag” signalling some new event will happen and then following up when, like clockwork, something unfortunate happens. He and Hiyoko are the two who break the fourth wall most of all, so maybe that’s where his mischief lies!
Additionally, though a small note, Ryouta’s the dependable birdie who often hosts the supplemental material, like a radio show in HolidayStar where the cast answers questions. Another point where he is a dependable, diligent bird. In these moments when personal potentially embarrassing questions are asked to him - such as color of underwear (?!) - he is calm and matter-of-fact when answering - he doesn’t wear any in his bird form, but he answers about his human appearance simply.
Last but not least, Ryouta’s somewhat defined by how sickly he is. The poor bird can’t catch a break; he’s often in the infirmary, and that definitely influences how he sees himself. When listing off reasons why Hiyoko shouldn’t be with him, one of them is that he’s not healthy enough. Though not as much as other birds (cough, Nageki), he does believe himself a bit of a burden.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
1. Responsible
2. Practical
3. Insecure
4. Great at cooking
5. Compassionate
6. Loyal
7. Incredibly sickly
8. Self-deprecating
9. Afraid of change
10: Hard worker
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Either!
Opt-Outs: Vampire, Harpy, Arachne, Werebear,
Roleplay Sample:
The worst part of walking home alone, Ryouta reflects, is the moment right after he leaves the school building. In that moment, he reflects, despite his better judgement, he always raises his head to look back and, like clockwork, find the library. Sometimes, he just see a shadow of a human girl, busy already. Other times, he doesn’t see anything. The worst times, however, the times like now, he catches her eye and her face lights up, and he can see his name on her lips, Ryouta! and she waves, and he has to smile and raise a wing back.
“See you tomorrow, Hiyoko,” he says even though she can’t hear him, and she keeps on waving until he starts walking again. It should do wonders for his self-esteem that she doesn’t look away, even with a job to do in the library and undoubtedly a much more interesting bird to do it with--
No, Ryouta, stop. He chides himself -- he can’t think like that, those bitter thoughts. Nageki is a very nice bird. Hiyoko should enjoy her time with him.
Mourning doves live at least a few more years longer than rock doves, after all.
Lost between his latest worries and the quiet nagging wonders of how many more jobs he has time to apply for with the changing season, Ryouta doesn’t realize he’s walking again and on auto-pilot until a sudden bunch of feathers and a haughty scoff interrupt his familiar commute, complete with an unpleasant tumble to the ground.
“Watch where you’re going!” Ryouta looks up to see the arrogant fan-tail Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane, dusting off his feathers with his beak turned high. “I thought commoners paid at least a little attention to where they walk, Kawara.”
Of all the birds… Ryouta bites back a sigh - no need to stir things up. “Sorry Sakuya. Won’t happen again.”
His classmate sniffs. “Not exactly a fitting response to a bird of my stature.”
That sigh is very difficult to hold in. “I’m sorry, Sakuya. I wasn’t looking where I was going. I’ll do better next time. Is that good?” Ryouta stands up in a hurry and all of a sudden is caught with a wave of dizziness. His stomach? Now? He has two jobs to do before the night comes…
“Well, that’s more like it… Kawara, don’t sway like that, it’s not… You look pale.” The closest he’ll likely ever get to concern from Sakuya, he’s aware.
Ryouta waves him off; if Sakuya’s worried about him, Ryouta knows he must look bad. “I just need to eat something. I’ll stop off for some seed before work. Don’t worry.”
At first it looks like Sakuya will fight him on that, don’t worry, as if- but he replies with a huff, “Of course not, why would- if a commoner collapses with me, a Le Bel around, and I don’t do anything, what sort of aristocrat am I? Ridiculous… I will make sure you reach your place of employment safely.”
And again, Ryouta almost shrugs him off; he shouldn’t have anybirdie go out of their way to help him...but if he plays it cool and relaxes, he’ll cause less trouble. Besides, maybe a little goodwill will do something for Sakuya too -- character development spawned from helping a fallen classmate?! Despite his uncomfortable feelings, he knows Hiyoko would comment that this sounds like a flag.
“I’m honored,” Ryouta replies, quirking the corner of his beak into a small smile. Sakuya does nothing but click his beak into a tut and try to straighten up higher - impossible - and insist that Ryouta get a move on and lead the way.
The two make small talk on their way there, about Professor Nanaki’s lessons and the warming weather, and not a pretty human girl who spends most of her free-time with the reclusive mourning dove in the library.
Name: Ashley
Contact: owl_like @ plurk
Other Characters: None!
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Ryouta Kawara
Age: 17
Canon: Hatoful Boyfriend HolidayStar
Canon Point: After escaping The King’s illusion, just about to answer Yuuya.
Character Information: Ryouta’s unfortunately lack luster wiki page.
Let’s back this up with a little bit more info. The Hatoful Boyfriend world is one where birds are the dominant species following the outbreak of a kind of H5N1 virus devastating the human population in 2068. To try and stop themselves from dying off, humanity decided to exterminate the carriers of this virus, birds. Humans unleashed a virus of their own deadly to birds, many species died off, bad things all around. Except something happened with the survivors -- remaining birds adapted to the virus. They evolved. Their brains got bigger, they themselves started increasing in size, and a war started between birds and humans, only ending in 2100 after thirty-five years of fighting and 4.6% of the human population remaining.
...And so here we are. This is the world Ryouta lives in. He lives in Littledove Hachiman City, Japan and attends St. Pigeonation’s, the world’s leading bird school
As the wiki explains, in Bad Boys Love, Ryouta is turned into a walking biological weapon and accidentally kills Hiyoko and a lot of unpleasant, unhappy things happen. But that’s not the story Ryouta comes from. No, Ryouta here is from HolidayStar, the sequel to Hatoful Boyfriend. ...Well, more like another story/alternate universe. The first two stories are rather Ryouta-lite, involving the theft/destruction of Christmas trees around town. Ryouta, Hiyoko, and another bird, a noble named Sakuya, team up to try and stop whoever’s ruining the holiday, and through various hijinks they eventually do. It’s a murderless, mostly lighthearted mystery adventure, with our heroine actually alive this time.
The second story takes place shortly after the New Year, involving a selfish publishing bird, Tohri, who wants to destroy St. Pigeonation’s because of an old rivalry with Shuu. Hiyoko and Anghel, an over-the-top bird who speaks as if he lives in a fantasy world, take the main roles as heroes this time, but Ryouta does help save the day by transforming into a magical girl, Pretty Coore Grey, along with Hiyoko and their teacher Kazuaki, via channeling Anghel’s strange mystical thoughts and the school’s belief!
It’s all rather silly.
The main story of HolidayStar, taking place around the end of the school year, exists in a world where Hiyoko has grown close to Nageki, the freshman mourning dove who spends all his time in the library...because he can’t exactly leave it. He’s a ghost. In his route, revealing this - and that he loves Hiyoko - causes him to disappear, but in this story, he decides he wants to stay longer, to fully recover his memories and make new ones as well!
As HolidayStar is the holiday game of the series, naturally this is all a fun, relaxing sequel to the taxing original, right?
No. Dating pigeons is still nothing but madness and suffering.
The school’s opened up at night so the students can see a total lunar eclipse, and 2-3, Ryouta’s class, attends, along with some other datable birds in the game - Nageki (who can ascend to the roof because it’s above the library) and Shuu Iwamine (the rather frightening medic partridge), - and two strange birds-with-hands, Miru and Kaku, who now live with Shuu. It’s complicated and upsetting.
Hiyoko and Nageki end up on a train in outer space, quickly deduced as a dream, which takes them to a little star, the Holiday Star, a village run by a being who is only known as The King. While they are there, The King asks them to help him with keeping his kingdom peaceful, like investigating the weird restaurant where his citizens keep disappearing. (It involves cannibalism, of course.) After each completed errand, they receive a pretty gemstone for their troubles. The two discover the rest of the eclipse-viewing party are in this dream as well throughout their errands. Ryouta is around a place called Mount Pudding, a mountain made of. Well. Pudding. With strange pudding-enthusiast Okosan. In the dream world, Ryouta is a Votaress of the Pudding, complete with his own nun costume. Ryouta in girls’ outfits is a theme. At his first appearance in the dream world, he’s rather conscious of the fact that Hiyoko and Nageki have been going everywhere together. The group, along with a bird who can’t remember who he is (later revealed to be Kazuaki) keep rain from falling in the kingdom,
as ordered by The King.
The world is revealed to be not a simple dream, however, when Hiyoko and Nageki realize that after predawn, time simply loops back around to midnight. The group cannot awaken -- they are trapped in the Holiday Star.
After the eclipse started, everyone fell into a deep sleep. Yuuya, Sakuya’s half-brother, and a colleague of him attempted to wake them up, but to no avail, despite how simple it should be. Even with the eclipse ended, the group still remain asleep. If the birds stay asleep for too long, the disconnect between their brain and body will take a toll on them, and they will die, a consequence of their recent evolution. Thus, Yuuya enters the dream to wake them forcibly by connecting to the brainwaves of his half-brother while those outside attempt to remove clouds blocking the moon, as that may have something to do with everyone’s deep sleep. As Hiyoko and Nageki learn, Holiday Star is essentially a land of the dead. Occasionally, some arrive there early, and The King keeps them “comfortable” until they die properly. Yuuya meets up with them and they learn that the citizens of Holiday Star are lost souls that The King has trapped and absorbed, and the group from St. Pigeonation’s - well, they are his next targets. No one arrives here naturally - The King lures them in. When it look as if everyone might awaken due to the moon being unblocked, he traps each of them in their own rooms, giving them picture books about their lives, each one ending tragically. It’s meant to demotivate them and make them want to stay in the Holiday Star.
Hiyoko, Nageki, and Yuuya receive a little help from a migrant traveler, having been put in a room together and lacking a picture book. They find a path to search for the missing birdies, so they split up (Yuuya going one way, Hiyoko and Nageki going another) to search for them and keep them from falling to despair, so they can all escape the Holiday Star. With each soul that wants to escape, they grow more powerful and The King’s hold on them weakens.
Hatoful Boyfriend is a very confusing, complicated series.
So this long set-up leads us to: What does this mean for Ryouta? The book Ryouta is given is called The Black and White Picture Book. This book details the story of two rock doves, one black and one white, who had been friends with a sunflower their whole lives. The sunflower one day met a star, and it started staying out only at night. The sunflower didn’t send time with the doves anymore, and without its light, the day seemed dark and dreary. The white dove, knowing that the star was kind, cried and cried, knowing there was nothing he could do. The black dove, meanwhile, wanted the star to turn into a shooting star and disappear, so things could be as they were. Both doves, however, froze and died.
Poor doves.
Poor doves.
This is one big metaphor for Ryouta’s relationship with Hiyoko (the sunflower), wherein both doves represent his conflicting feelings about Nageki (the star) being the person who Hiyoko spends all her time with. Out of all the birds, Ryouta is the most difficult to convince, leading into a multiple choice battle where the player (playing as Yuuya) can lose and get a Game Over wherein everyone is assimilated. He’s even being spoken to by The King when Yuuya finds him. Though denying that he has any claim on Hiyoko and disagreeing with The King’s assertions that Nageki’s a bad bird, Ryouta becomes more and more depressed as The King talks to him, and he nearly becomes one with The King himself. There’s even an image from the creator herself detailing this possibility.
Breaking through The King’s illusion does not automatically create cracks in HolidayStar, which had been the signal that others wanted to leave. Yuuya must ask Ryouta again, and it’s implied - as the scene cuts off - that it takes him a little bit of time on his own to fully come to grips with the reality that he wants to leave and for life to resume outside the dream. (This is the point Ryouta will be snatched from, before he gives his answer to Yuuya.)
As an aside and last bit of information -- the birds in Hatoful Boyfriend are, of course, birds, .they have a human appearance as well. That is what Ryouta will look like in Ryslig, but he will also retain his wings...because what other way to horrify a bird than have something awful happen to his wings when he starts to transform?
Personality:
It is important to note for the HolidayStar route: I discuss below Ryouta’s feelings in regards to his mother’s death in his normal route in the main game, but it is heavily implied in HolidayStar, though it takes place toward the end of the school year (March) and his mother died before that (February), she is still alive in this world. Therefore, the discussions have to do with his potential and what each event reveals about him. This is similarly seen with my discussions of Bad Boys Love and other events that do not happen in his canon. Unless it was detailed in the character information above (ie. the tree-napping, the magical girl event, and the visit to Holiday Star), it is an event that is being talked about to reveal personality, not necessarily something that’s happened to Ryouta.
One of Ryouta’s most important and profound traits is his sense of responsibility. Coming from a household where he’s only had a rather sick mother to support him, Ryouta’s grown up with a great understanding that he must pull his own weight. He takes on multiple jobs, one at a maid cafe, one at a regular cafe, one as a shrine maiden, one promoting Pretty Coore (in costume of course), and others the reader never learns about. He’s diligent and focused on helping his mother, and he doesn’t complain about having to work; even with his own sickness weighing him down, as he’s always had a very weak stomach, he continues on. He puts on a smile at work and enjoys it. Though he sometimes comments on it in gag manga, he tends to be rather comfortable crossdressing. He has the most “outfits” in the series that way, from a maid to a magical girl to a nun. In fact, in another gag manga, he defends his profession as a maid, saying maids are “the new ninja.” He gets very passionate about what he does for a living, that Ryouta. He’s going to put his all into the jobs he works. A very professional, hard-working bird.
The fact that he works so much likely leads to his practical, realistic way of thinking. He worries about those around him and is aware of future possibilities, even if that leads him to a grim state of mind (see paragraphs on his insecurities and his mother’s death). This can lead to something positive, though - when Hiyoko is reckless and ill-prepared, he always offers his help, be it sharing his lunch when she has a lackluster one, or talking her down from confronting Shuu, which given his menacing nature could lead to some bad things. Nothing good can come from that, he often reminds her, thus keeping a better grip on the immediate situation at hand. He’s a bird you can depend on, even if he doesn’t have a lot of faith in himself. In a more everyday sense of the word, he’s practical as well because when something bizarre happens, he often is the bird to comment on it, especially when Anghel starts sprouting off fantasy nonsense. He is the straight bird to many of the more...colorful characters in Hatoful Boyfriend.
Ryouta is a very kindhearted bird, willing to lend his assistance to those in need. This is most seen with Hiyoko, as she’s the protagonist whose eyes we see through, but in Bad Boys Love he interacts with Nageki as well and seems to make some kind of friends with him. The only ones who can see Nageki are the pure of heart, and this confirms that Ryouta is a good soul. Even as Kazuaki is trying to carve him open in Bad Boys Love, as he’s slowly losing his grip on reality from grief, Ryouta tries to talk him down, seeing him as his trusted teacher instead of a mad-bird. He considers the snooty Sakuya his friend, even when given no reason to, and they come to trust each other in Bad Boys Love after working alongside each other. He countless times tries to calm Okosan when he’s in a furious rage about pudding (don’t ask), and generally he gets along with most of the cast...even Shuu when the partridge isn’t in a murderous mood.
If he is friendly with someone, he sticks with them - he is a loyal bird, especially towards Hiyoko. Though he’s not seen as much on other routes, HolidayStar shows in the end, despite his worries and fears, he will support Hiyoko no matter what she chooses for her life, even if it could possibly lead her away from him. Ryouta’s the kind of bird who also could try to protect her, but it doesn’t always work out for him (see: Bad Boys Love). Despite his failures at keeping her safe, he still refuses to leave what’s left of her in Bad Boys Love; he can’t leave the underground containment area for fear of killing any humans he gets near anyway, but one of his reasons for staying there in cold storage is he will not leave Hiyoko alone. He is The Heart, encouraging and true. To Sakuya as well, in the end of Bad Boys Love, he has faith that the aristocratic bird will do what he can to help him and Hiyoko; his faith in that moment even overtakes his pragmatism. Though the situation is grim, his loyalty to those around him leads him to believe that they will one day make it so he can walk outside again and Hiyoko can live once more.
Oftentimes the games remind the player that Ryouta is fantastic at cooking. He makes anything and everything and it’s a trait mentioned time and time again; it’s one of the first things he says to Hiyoko when you begin the game, after all! Ryouta Kawara is going to grow up to be a wonderful homemaker, complete with an apron.
Ryouta is incredibly insecure, and those insecurities manifest most of all in HolidayStar’s main story. He is afraid of change, and afraid of being left all by himself, the latter built off of from his route when worrying about his mother dying. He worries very intensely in this way, thinking about what could or might happen...but usually when there is a shred of truth to worry about, such as Hiyoko outliving him due to their different life-spans or the two of them growing apart after he sees her spending so much time with Nageki. It’s this fear that almost leads him to give up his individuality to The King - and in effect doom everyone else as well, as without all of them, they’re unable to break out of the Holiday Star. Ryouta, essentially, has very intense abandonment issues, to the extent that it could potentially keep him from living his life. Even with Yuuya talking him through it, he is unsure if he wants to keep going or not. His insecurities play into his fear of change. Ryouta talks himself down quite a bit, saying in his route that he is not handsome or rich or good enough for Hiyoko at all, so naturally when he fears that she will find someone else and leave him - not just romantically but leave him for good - he can’t keep himself from fearing the worst.
In his route ending, he is very much affected by the death of his mother, not just because she was his only living family, but because it reminds him that one day he too will pass on, and though he is deeply in love with Hiyoko (and at that point she is in love with him too), he refuses to put her through that sort of pain, as it is assured that she will outlive him. It’s only through much convincing that Hiyoko can make him stay with her. Ryouta is, in this way, self-sacrificing. Though he fears being alone and he fears change -- losing Hiyoko -- more than anything else in the world, his first thoughts after his mother dies are that he can’t let Hiyoko experience that as well. In his right mind, he refuses to let his selfishness hurt others. The white dove in the picture book backs this up; that dove, representing Ryouta’s insecure, self-deprecating side, knows that Nageki is better for Hiyoko than he is, and he can do nothing but cry about it.
Something seen few times in the Hatoful Boyfriend series is the aspect represented by the black dove, however. That is the selfish side of Ryouta, the side that wants what he wants and will not let it go. It can be argued that the idea of King Ryouta plays into this side. As he dooms all of them in that ending, it could very much be that this is the black dove seen; Ryouta has, at least, the potential for cruel things, when he’s driven by his despair and pain, though he never reaches that point in-story. In Bad Boys Love, this idea is also present when he learns that he is the reason that Hiyoko is dead, and it’s compounded by the fact that what’s left of her - her brain, placed inside a Frankenstein monster - had just been shocked, rendering any bits of her memory and personality unlikely to recover...and he was the one to shock her. It’s no wonder after this that Shuu, behind turning him into a biological weapon, was able to essentially brainwash him into going along with his plans to kill humanity and die himself. It’s only through a combined effort of the rest of the characters and Hiyoko’s ghost that he comes back to his senses. Despair, loneliness, and the world changing and collapsing around him - that deadly combination leads Ryouta to a very dark and unpleasant place. He admits to the King that there are two birds in his heart - the black and white doves - and the conflicting thoughts from them make him fear he’ll tear apart. Ryouta’s insecurities and indecisiveness do not bode well for him.
It says something that Ryouta keeps (in different continuities) stumbling upon mysteries. It’s not a defining trait, but when put into the situation where he has to snoop around, he won’t sit idly by, as long as he has friends to help him out. In a serious mystery situation, he’s all business, but he’s more laid back in HolidayStar’s tree-napping case. This could also show some of a trait that’s mentioned but not really seen - his mischievous side. Hiyoko introduces him by saying he’s “a bit mischievous, but hard working and kind,” but besides his occasional deadpan comment on Kazuaki sleeping standing up or Anghel crashing through another window or Hiyoko being a rather ridiculous hot-blooded human, he’s not exactly mischievous. Throughout the Christmas tree mystery, however, he and Hiyoko joke to one another, commenting every time Sakuya sets off a “flag” signalling some new event will happen and then following up when, like clockwork, something unfortunate happens. He and Hiyoko are the two who break the fourth wall most of all, so maybe that’s where his mischief lies!
Additionally, though a small note, Ryouta’s the dependable birdie who often hosts the supplemental material, like a radio show in HolidayStar where the cast answers questions. Another point where he is a dependable, diligent bird. In these moments when personal potentially embarrassing questions are asked to him - such as color of underwear (?!) - he is calm and matter-of-fact when answering - he doesn’t wear any in his bird form, but he answers about his human appearance simply.
Last but not least, Ryouta’s somewhat defined by how sickly he is. The poor bird can’t catch a break; he’s often in the infirmary, and that definitely influences how he sees himself. When listing off reasons why Hiyoko shouldn’t be with him, one of them is that he’s not healthy enough. Though not as much as other birds (cough, Nageki), he does believe himself a bit of a burden.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
1. Responsible
2. Practical
3. Insecure
4. Great at cooking
5. Compassionate
6. Loyal
7. Incredibly sickly
8. Self-deprecating
9. Afraid of change
10: Hard worker
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Either!
Opt-Outs: Vampire, Harpy, Arachne, Werebear,
Roleplay Sample:
The worst part of walking home alone, Ryouta reflects, is the moment right after he leaves the school building. In that moment, he reflects, despite his better judgement, he always raises his head to look back and, like clockwork, find the library. Sometimes, he just see a shadow of a human girl, busy already. Other times, he doesn’t see anything. The worst times, however, the times like now, he catches her eye and her face lights up, and he can see his name on her lips, Ryouta! and she waves, and he has to smile and raise a wing back.
“See you tomorrow, Hiyoko,” he says even though she can’t hear him, and she keeps on waving until he starts walking again. It should do wonders for his self-esteem that she doesn’t look away, even with a job to do in the library and undoubtedly a much more interesting bird to do it with--
No, Ryouta, stop. He chides himself -- he can’t think like that, those bitter thoughts. Nageki is a very nice bird. Hiyoko should enjoy her time with him.
Mourning doves live at least a few more years longer than rock doves, after all.
Lost between his latest worries and the quiet nagging wonders of how many more jobs he has time to apply for with the changing season, Ryouta doesn’t realize he’s walking again and on auto-pilot until a sudden bunch of feathers and a haughty scoff interrupt his familiar commute, complete with an unpleasant tumble to the ground.
“Watch where you’re going!” Ryouta looks up to see the arrogant fan-tail Sakuya Le Bel Shirogane, dusting off his feathers with his beak turned high. “I thought commoners paid at least a little attention to where they walk, Kawara.”
Of all the birds… Ryouta bites back a sigh - no need to stir things up. “Sorry Sakuya. Won’t happen again.”
His classmate sniffs. “Not exactly a fitting response to a bird of my stature.”
That sigh is very difficult to hold in. “I’m sorry, Sakuya. I wasn’t looking where I was going. I’ll do better next time. Is that good?” Ryouta stands up in a hurry and all of a sudden is caught with a wave of dizziness. His stomach? Now? He has two jobs to do before the night comes…
“Well, that’s more like it… Kawara, don’t sway like that, it’s not… You look pale.” The closest he’ll likely ever get to concern from Sakuya, he’s aware.
Ryouta waves him off; if Sakuya’s worried about him, Ryouta knows he must look bad. “I just need to eat something. I’ll stop off for some seed before work. Don’t worry.”
At first it looks like Sakuya will fight him on that, don’t worry, as if- but he replies with a huff, “Of course not, why would- if a commoner collapses with me, a Le Bel around, and I don’t do anything, what sort of aristocrat am I? Ridiculous… I will make sure you reach your place of employment safely.”
And again, Ryouta almost shrugs him off; he shouldn’t have anybirdie go out of their way to help him...but if he plays it cool and relaxes, he’ll cause less trouble. Besides, maybe a little goodwill will do something for Sakuya too -- character development spawned from helping a fallen classmate?! Despite his uncomfortable feelings, he knows Hiyoko would comment that this sounds like a flag.
“I’m honored,” Ryouta replies, quirking the corner of his beak into a small smile. Sakuya does nothing but click his beak into a tut and try to straighten up higher - impossible - and insist that Ryouta get a move on and lead the way.
The two make small talk on their way there, about Professor Nanaki’s lessons and the warming weather, and not a pretty human girl who spends most of her free-time with the reclusive mourning dove in the library.