Ryo Akiyama

Ryo Akiyama (秋山 リョウ Akiyama Ryō) is a fictional character in the Digimon Tamers anime and manga series, as well as a main character in many Digimon video games. He also makes a brief appearance in Digimon Adventure 02. Ryo is voiced by Steve Staley in the English dub and Kanemaru Junichi (金丸 淳一) in the original Japanese version.

The only human character to span two continuities, Ryo is the human partner of Cyberdramon. He originates from a series of games for the Wonderswan game system, appeared in a few cameos, then was retired in Digimon Tamers.

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game
He was among the kids who had indirectly helped the DigiDestined out in their fight with Diaboromon.

Digimon 02
He made a cameo appearance to explain Ken's first adventure in the Digital World.

Digimon Tamers
Known as the Legendary Tamer, Ryo is considered to be the greatest Digimon Tamer in the world, but he disappeared ten months before the start of the show, and had been in the Digital World ever since. He revealed himself to Rika Nonaka (Ruki Makino in Japan) and her group when they were being attacked by a Megadramon. He came and went as he was needed. He has five device cards, though only two of them were used by him on the show. A third was given to Suzie Wong.

It turned out Ryo was the only person who ever defeated Rika in a Card Tournament, previous to the one where she won. He has a positive attitude.

Digimon Tamers: Runaway Digimon Express
Ryo showed up as Justimon during the Parasimon fight, after Rika, Henry Wong (Jenrya Lee or Li Jian-liang in Japan), and Takato Matsuki (Takato Matsuda in Japan) Biomerged with their Digimon. However, there are too many Parasimon to fight off and they were losing until Gallantmon Crimson Mode destroyed the hole the Parasimon were coming out of. Afterwards, Ryo and Cyberdramon attended Rika's birthday party.

Many fanfiction writers ship Ryo with Rika, although this is not canonical. Others include Ryo with Ken, Ryo with Osamu, Ryo with Millenniumon, and Ryo with Cyberdramon.

Digimon Video Games
The games give more insight on Ryo and his battles with Millenniumon.

Digimon Adventure: Anode/Cathode Tamer
Ryo is a boy roughly the same age as the older Chosen Children (i.e. Digidestined), which is about 11. He lives with his parents in a comfortable two-story house (hinting that Ryo's family is at least well-off due to high house prices in much of Japan and the fact that Ryo got a laptop for Christmas). On December 31, 1999, while chatting online a blackout occurs and Ryo's mother asks him to check the fusebox. Before he can do so, however, a voice calls out to him from his computer, which is displaying a machine he's never seen before. The voice pleads to him to touch the device, which Ryo (rather naively) does.

The next thing he knows, he's suddenly in the middle of a forest and confronted by Agumon, Tai's Digimon partner. After Agumon explains that Ryo was summoned because a powerful evil Digimon called Millenniumon captured the DigiDestined, then warped the very essence of time and resurrected previously defeated evil Digimon such as Devimon and Myotismon, Ryo quite understandably finds it all hard to believe and thinks he's having a nightmare from too many video games.

He quickly realises he has no choice but to help, however, and thus begins his quest to rescue the DigiDestined and defeat Millenniumon. Along the way, he befriends a number of Digimon allied to the DigiDestined, including Leomon, Andromon, Piximon and many others. He also encounters villains previously defeated by the Chosen Children beginning with Devimon, then Etemon, Myotismon and the Dark Master Piedmon before confronting Milleniumon. (Depending on which game, he takes on the form of one of his two components, either Machinedramon or Kimeramon). After a fierce battle, Ryo and his Digimon comrades are able to vanquish the villain and rescue Tai, the last of the DigiDestined being held prisoner. His task done, Ryo bids his new friends a tearful farewell and returns home, where his parents note he seems to have grown up a bit.

''Some events that take place in this game contribute to Ryo's apparent mental breakdown in a later game. For example, each of the evil Digimon are very clear as to what they want to do (for example, Etemon threatens to rip Ryo to shreds while Vamdemon intends to cut off his head and offer it to Millenniummon). Also, unlike the Chosen Children who were able to draw strength from each other, Ryo was alone for the most part (not including the Digimon he recruits). When he realizes during Digimon: D-1 Tamers that the Chosen Children and Sovereign/Holy Beasts were using him as a tool, lying to him in order to train him to defeat Moon-Millenniumon once and for all, he proceeds to emotionally shut himself out and refuses to speak to anyone after that. This is observed by Tai immediately after the betrayal is exposed and later Monodramon, who observes how cold Ryo is towards him.''

Digimon Adventure 02: Tag Tamers
The game started off with Ryo visiting Ken in his room. They witnessed Diaboromon's defeat by Omnimon on the Internet, and Veemon (at a later point in time to be Davis's Veemon) appeared from the computer with a D-3 for Ryo. There was an extra Diaboromon loose in the Digital World, and Ryo was called in to defeat it. Ken followed along, only to be left behind in Primary Village with Taichi and Agumon to wait for Ryo's return. The Diaboromon, hiding out where Devimon used as his base, was easily defeated with just Veemon's strength. Millenniumon showed up soon after to reveal that he was waiting for Ryo and that the Diaboromon was simply a lure used to draw Ryo back into the Digital World. He blew up the mountain, and in doing so, ripped the Digital World into two. From then on, the story's point of view switched between Ryo and Ken.

Ken woke up in a forest clearing to meet his digimon partner, Wormmon. Ken searched for Ryo at first, but Wormmon took him to Gennai, who told him that Ryo was on the other half of the world. During this, Gennai said that they must set up a mirror site, and that Ken is a Chosen Child. But he doesn't want to be a Chosen Child, Ken says. Only after Wormmon guilt-tripped him did Ken accept. Ken was then told to clear out the beach side of the continent, where he picked up the pieces of digimentals, cleared several dungeons taking the form of a ziggurat, an Egyptian pyramid, a Mayan pyramid, and a Black Ship. Once he returned from his mission, Gennai and Piccolomon set up a Reload Machine that would allow Ryo and Ken to contact each other and share items. The scene switched to Ryo, who must follow on Ken's path and jump ahead to another dungeon to clear. Thus the name, Tag Tamers.

After many battles, jogresses, and archaeological digs for digimental pieces to rebuild, Ryo eventually arrived at Millenniumon's floating continent. Millenniumon, speaking in archaic Japanese, chuckled and said that he could not be defeated by just one power. The key to his power cannot be unravelled, and the door will never be opened. He then disappeared, and a single locked door turned up outside of Primary Village. Back at base, Piccolomon said that Millenniumon still had several traps on Ken's side of the world, so the scene switched to Ken.

Along the route to Millenniumon's dungeon, an Elecmon told Ken that the locked door led to Millenniumon's heart, then wonders if Millenniumon has a heart at all. In a sharp contrast to his more polite interaction with Ryo, Millenniumon was outright rude to Ken and insulted him before disappearing.

The keys to the locked door was the Digimental of Desire and only reacted to Ryo. Once it opened, Ryo, Ken, and their digimon were absorbed in darkness and taken to Millenniumon's world: a barren wasteland with a gigantic metallic sphere hovering over it. The sphere was Millenniumon's castle. Millenniumon welcomed Ryo warmly to the world created from his mind. To Ken, his voice dropped coldly as he said that everything that happened there happened also within him. Ken's power is limited there. Then he turned again to Ryo, chuckled, and invited them to challenge him, even though they trembled in despair.

The battle that ensued destroyed Millenniumon's body, even as he laughed in his defeat. With Millenniumon's defeat, Taichi and Agumon returned to their normal non-petrified state. Then Millenniumon returned only to disperse his Dark Seeds. Ken shoved Ryo out of the way of one, only to get it in Ryo's stead. Millenniumon's spirit chuckled. He can never die, he said, and as Ryo's power is eternal, so is his. He then disappeared.

In the scene afterwards, Wormmon said that Ken became sick and increasingly cold to him. The epilogue was meant to show Ken's eventual fall into the Kaiser persona a year later, and in it Ken said that he was different from Millenniumon. He was the Digimon Kaiser.

Digimon Adventure 02: D-1 Tamers
Ryo continued to look after Ken after Millenniumon infected him with a Dark Spore. Ryo received an e-mail from Gennai and was taken into the Digital World to compete in a tournament held by the Digimon Sovereigns, three of whom had been corrupted. Ryo fought against the DigiDestined of the world such as Tai, Willis and Izzy. After winning, Ryo learns the entire tournament was a lie - in fact, it was just a training exercise put on by the Chosen Children and Soverigns to make Ryo capable of defeating Moon-Millenniumon. This realization causes Ryo to cease speaking for the rest of the game, as well as the next game. Regardless of the treachery, Ryo teamed up with the uncorrupted Sovereigns to stop Millenniumon. However, before victory was claimed, MoonMillenniumon opened a time portal and thrust himself into the future while hurtling Ryo into the Digital World's past.

Digimon: Brave Tamer
In the past, Ryo met his new partner Monodramon. He then discovered that Millenniumon is in fact his true partner. Monodramon forces a jogress between himself and Millenniummon, resulting in Cyberdramon.