Ryosuke Takahashi

Ryosuke Takahashi (高橋 涼介, Takahashi Ryōsuke; known as Ry in the Tokyopop version) is the founder, and leader of both the Akagi RedSuns and Project D. Famously nicknamed Akagi's White Comet (赤城の白い彗星, Akagi no Shiroi Suisei), Ryosuke created the RedSuns with the purpose of dominating the street racing scene all over Japan, recruiting his brother Keisuke and others local to Mount Akagi to achieve this goal. Alongside Keisuke, they're both given the nicknames of the 'Rotary Brothers'. He is a very skilled racer who can predict the racing outcomes by his theories, something that Keisuke (his brother) has been unable to understand and/or replicate. He drives a White Mazda FC3S RX-7.

His real aim is to figure out the 'Fastest Racing Theory', and this is where Takumi Fujiwara fits in almost perfectly.

Past
Before forming a racing team, Ryosuke was a lone racer, who earned the title 'The White Comet of Akagi' due to his fast driving on his white FC RX7. He never lost any battle with anyone. Soon he created the 'Akagi RedSuns', a racing team with highly skilled drivers and mechanics such as Fumihiro, Kenta Nakamura and others.

In between all this, Ryosuke attended a medical college as he was sent by his parents with hope of becoming a doctor. Ryosuke then met a senior in his college, named Kaori. She was a sweet looking and caring woman, and they both liked each other a lot. She was the one who insisted Ryosuke on following his true dreams, which for Ryosuke was to train street racers to become the best and conquer the entire Kanto region. But at that time, Ryosuke was not very open about it. However as their relations went on, Kaori's parents planned an arrange marriage with Rin Hojo, whose family had good connections with Kaori's in terms of businesses. Rin Hojo was apparently also Ryosuke's senior as well, and he was the one who taught Ryosuke about touge street racing and drifting, but he was not aware of Ryosuke's affair with Kaori. Later on, when Ryosuke told her that she should tell he parents the truth about her relation with him, Kaori explained to Ryosuke that things are not that easy for her to open up, especially to her parents. While Rin Hojo did love her, but the same was not true for the other way around. Kaori resisted her parent's wish, which caused conflicts between her parents and even Rin. Rin tried to persuade Kaori into liking, even asking her who she actually is in love with, so that he can speak to him, but Kaori did not say anything, as her mind and heart was set for Ryosuke. It soon went that far that Rin even tried to blackmail her with the fact that he will make her father's business and life tough if she does not marry him. Caught up in the midst of too much pressure from her family and her fiancé, Kaori decided to end it all by committing suicide, but not before calling Ryosuke for one last time about her motives. After her death, Rin Hojo moved away from Gunma to Kanagawa, and Ryosuke decided to move on from her, trying to keep his past away.

Somewhere in between of it, Ryosuke realized his younger brother Keisuke was creating a headache for his family and was heavily involved with the biker gangs. Keisuke at that time was not interested in cars as he saw them as an obstacle for bikes. However all this changed when one day he took him on his FC and raced downhill at high speeds. Keisuke, who initially thought Ryosuke wanted to end it all with Keisuke, realized his brother was trying to teach him about street racing in the touge and its wonders. He soon began to train with his Mazda FD3S RX-7.

The White Ghost of Akina
After creating the Akagi RedSuns, Ryosuke Takahashi planned to conquer the entire Gunma prefecture by defeating all the top street racers and setting new time records there. However their group plan was put on hold following Keisuke's defeat and the emergence of Takumi Fujiwara in Akina, the mysterious 'White Ghost of Akina', the driver of the Toyota AE86. On realizing how Takumi defeated Keisuke, Ryosuke sets aside his Gunma conquering plans in order to finish off Takumi Fujiwara first. Later on Ryosuke learns that Takeshi Nakazato of Myogi NightKids was planning to defeat Takumi, as Ryosuke finds out in their impromptu battle. When Nakazato and Takumi began their battle, Ryosuke along with Keisuke as passenger chased them from behind to get a better view of the battle. Ryosuke comments on how flawlessly Takumi executes his four wheel drift, saying even he cannot control his car as great as Takumi. He predicts when Takumi is about to overtake Nakazato, which he correctly predicts as Takumi uses the gutter technique, which he uses on Keisuke earlier, on Nakazato, which causes the latter to spin out, making Ryosuke dodge him with his flawless drift. It was later on known that Ryosuke was invited to a professional racing team but he passed because "his only interest was street racing". After learning about Takumi's several other battles with other teams and calculating his skills and speed, Ryosuke finally decided to battle with Takumi. Before the battle started, Ryosuke mentions to Keisuke that if he loses this battle, he would give up on street racing, and lead the team as a captain, which shocks Keisuke initially. Then during their battle, Ryosuke chases Takumi from behind, while copying his driving technique, while constantly making Takumi under enormous pressure. Soon Ryosuke takes the lead s Takumi botches up on a hairpin on his corner entry, but by that time, Ryosuke already wore down his front tyres a lot. Takumi soon catches up with him on the final corners, during which while they both corner around it, Ryosuke with his heavy tyres gives out the inside while Takumi takes the lead once again, winning the battle and ending Ryosuke's winning streak. Ryosuke states to Takumi that he is a gifted racer and should not stop racing.

The Emperor
After his defeat, he temporarily retired from racing until making a comeback to race against the threat of Team Emperor and their leader and rival Kyoichi Sudo. Kyoichi was Ryosuke's biggest rival ever since he became a street racer. After Ryosuke defeated him at Akagi back when he was the 'White Comet of Akagi', Kyoichi was practicing his skills and theories ever since so that he can have a proper rematch with Ryosuke. After the Emperor's Gunma sweep stopped since Takumi defeated Seiji Iwaki at Akina, Kyoichi wanted to compete against Takumi before he battles against Ryosuke at Akagi. As he wished, Takumi came to battle him after he was enraged about finding out Natsuki's illicit relations with an older man. Ryosuke and the other RedSuns members spectate the battle taking place in Akagi as Kyoichi mentions to Ryosuke that this was his battle invitation to him, if he defeats Takumi. Ryosuke meanwhile explains about the 'Misfiring System' and other features of Kyoichi's car to Keisuke, who was spectating the battle with others. As the battle carried on, Takumi blows up his engine as Kyoichi pulled away from him on a corner. Ryosuke is left with no choice, but to fight against Sudo Kyoichi for saving the Gunma from Emperor's Lan Evo sweep. During his battle with Kyoichi, when the latter takes the lead, Ryosuke notices one flaw with Kyoichi's driving technique - His flaw in making some particular right turns. When Kyoichi turns right on a corner, Ryosuke turns left slightly and traps Kyoichi in the corner, and when a left corner came up next, Ryosuke took advantage of his cornering position and overtakes Kyoichi before the final corners, winning the battle. When Kyoichi requested for the reason why he lost, Ryosuke explained that since Kyoichi trains at race tracks and his home course at Irohazaka where it is one way road, he didn't have to worry about oncoming traffic, whereas in Akagi, it was two way road, so Kyoichi was not able to, or rather overlooked his fear of making right turns as he had to worry about possible oncoming traffic cars.

New Eight Six
Ryosuke exclusively in the anime spectates both Takumi's race against Wataru Akiyama, and later on in Irohazaka, his battle with Kai Kogashiwa, during both battles he discusses about the battle, the driver's vehicles and their tactics. Takumi earlier asks Ryosuke for Kyoichi's home turf, so that he can have a rematch with him, which later on after their battle, Takumi wins the race, atleast according to Kyoichi. Ryosuke then disbanded the RedSuns and created a new racing team called 'Project D ' with a similar goal to dominate the street racing scene in the entire Kanto region, but for one year before he goes back to medical college. Exclusively in the anime, Takumi asks Ryosuke for a special rematch in Akagi, just so that he can test out his skills against him, before he finally accepts his new racing team's invitation.

Project D - Tochigi
During his time in Project D, he took upon a mentor role giving Takumi and Keisuke sometimes cryptic advice on how to win their matches. He was the one to give advice on particular 'Wheel Lifting/Weight Shifting gutter technique in Takumi's battle against Toru of Seven Star Leaf.

During their battle with Todo School, he asks Takumi not to look at his rear view mirror as he concentrate more on the road easily and keep his rev below 9000 while he chases Daiki. This creates a confusion with Daiki as now, when he is in the lead on the second run, Takumi can now use all his other revs to create a counterattack against Daiki who had underestimated Takumi's car.

When Tomoyuki Tachi, a pro driver from Todo School challenged Project D for a rematch, Ryosuke came prepared for it. He had especially upgraded Takumi's 86 in case of the battle. Ryosuke chose Takumi for the battle as for everyone's surprise. Keisuke was more of confused and a little angry at first on why Ryosuke didn't pick him for the battle as Keisuke would have an upper hand with his much powerful car, but he soon realized it was not about the car, but something which he missed out. Ryosuke believed Takumi had that particular instinct or natural skill to come up with a plan when he is under pressure. Just before the battle, Ryosuke took Takumi for a ride in his FC around the course so that he can show the parts of the course he can utilize for his benefit. During the battle, as Ryosuke predicted, Takumi learnt a new technique called 'Blind Attack', in which he surprises his opponents with his headlights while overtaking. Although Tomoyuki took the lead, Takumi regained it when an animal jumped in front of the road, giving Takumi space to overtake, winning Project D once again.

Saitama - Ibaraki arc
When Keisuke was about to battle with Kyoko Iwase, a female racer of the Northern Saitama Alliance, who also has a crush on him, Ryosuke advices Keisuke to remember that her car is a single turbo. Keisuke initially did not understand what Ryosuke meant, but as he battled her, he realized that since her car was a single turbine, any disruption on the throttle can lead to heavier loss in turbo boost, while his double turbo did not suffer from the same weakness. As the battle went on, Keisuke nudges her side, causing a lost in her boost and acceleration, giving him space to overtake her from the outside by the next corner. As Keisuke won that match, Ryosuke gives Takumi advice to wait until the first hairpin to pass Nobuhiko on their battle, which he does with less pressure.

When Project D faced Sakamoto, a rally driver who would face them in the downhill as a part of the Saitama Alliance, Ryosuke gave Takumi the advice of remembering Takumi's past tough battles and remember the opponent's techniques they used against him, as he uses Kyoichi Sudo for an example. During their battle, while Takumi was chasing Sakamoto in a Suzuki Cappuccino during heavy rain, Takumi tried to counterattack Sakamoto using Kyoichi's way of counterattack in his battle with him. However that ended up in nearly totaling Takumi's car as he lost control and nearly crashed into a ditch. After a failed attempt on overtaking, Takumi decided to end the battle using blind attack on a straight where Sakamoto couldn't block Takumi from overtaking. After Takumi overtakes and wins the battle, Ryosuke congratulates Takumi for overtaking him on that instant and not waiting for a second round as that could have gave away the battle to Sakamoto. After Keisuke's battle with Wataru Akiyama, which resulted in Keisuke winning the battle after Wataru spun out on the lead, which led to Project D's victory over the Northern Saitama Alliance, Nobuhiko asks Ryosuke on why he waited for the first half of the downhill battle until he overtake him, as he imagined if Ryosuke was trying to humiliate him. However, Ryosuke responds by saying that he only did that because he had no other choice, and he planned to defeat his opponents without humiliating them, and he only put his drivers in a rather 'tough' position so that he can train them for the upcoming battles in a longer run.

Later on, while Project D was practicing for their battle at Tsuchisaka to face the final racing team on Saitama, Keisuke crashes his FD in an oil slick set up by the Lan Evo team in order to increase their chances of winning easily, as they race for money. Keisuke was extremely angry at this, but Ryosuke blames Keisuke for not knowing how to deal with oil slicks. He though tries to arrange a substitute car for Keisuke as his FD's front right suspension was damaged heavily and cannot corner properly, but Kyoko's arrival on time and lending her car to Keisuke gets an approval from Ryosuke. Keisuke easily defeats his Aikawa despite initially having to struggle with a different car. Ryosuke did not give Takumi any advices as he knew that Takumi had already defeated better AWD opponents before. Takumi overtakes him as Ichijo slips on the same oil slick he kept for Keisuke, giving Takumi the lead, which he wins by a braking battle near the end of the course. Angry at their defeat, the Lan Evo team calls the Bosozoku gang; which turned on them after realizing one of their former gang member was in Project D, who was none other than Keisuke Takahashi.

Ryosuke later gives his FC to Keisuke so that he can take Kyoko for a date as her treat for helping him give her FD. Meanwhile Ryosuke asks Fumihiro to modify his FD for a new body kit.

After winning the Saitama Region, Project D heads to Ibaraki where one of the toughest opponents remains, the Purple Shadow. Ryosuke realizes their toughness, and gives each of them their advices - For Keisuke, he told him to make a gap of seven seconds when chasing, due to Kozo Hoshino's car being more powerful, and so that he can conserve his tyres for downhill and for the next round. Keisuke does this, and he makes it for their second round. Then after Hoshino's bizarre and daring move against Keisuke at the top U turn, Keisuke with all his grip beats Hoshino at the final corner, winning their battle. As for Takumi, he told him that his opponent is a 'ghost', and can be very tricky. Six rounds pass, On the seventh round, Ryosuke tells him that something could happen in this round, so he has to be aware. Just as predicted, Dr. Joshima overtakes Takumi that round unexpectedly for Takumi. Takumi realizes Ryosuke mentioned earlier that this course exhibited some kind of gutters to perform a gutter technique against. Takumi uses that and a blind attack to retake his lead. On the eighth round, Joshima pulls away from Takumi completely and Takumi snaps his suspension from all those gutters, but Dr. Joshima feels sick and stops for vomiting, making Takumi cross the finish. Though Takumi won technically, both Dr. Joshima and Takumi and Ryosuke agreed it was not a win for them.

Sometime before the the expedition to Kanagawa prefecture, Ryosuke and Fumihiro meet up at Akagi to take a break from Project D, when suddenly Fumihiro gets a sudden stomach ache. Ryosuke, as a medical student, identifies the symptoms and rushes Fumihiro to a hospital in his FC. On the way they pass a Porsche 964, with its driver who was stunned by the speed of the FC, he tried to hide the fact to his girlfriend that the car was probably a six figure Italian sportscar, but she read the 'Mazda' logo. Meanwhile Fumihiro began to feel better as Ryosuke sped downhill.

Kanagawa Expedition
After realizing some imposters were faking Project D and giving a bad image, especially to Takumi, Ryosuke and Fumihiro upgrades Takumi's 86 and Keisuke, along with Wataru and Takumi scare the imposters with their skills and by exposing them.

Ryosuke realizes Team Spiral's team, who they will face off in the final rounds, was timing Project D's racers when they were practicing around Kanagawa, which makes Ryosuke aware of what is happening. After Project D's quick victory against Team 246, even though Ryosuke did not have to give much advice to both Keisuke and Takumi, Ryosuke calls Matsumoto to secretly upgrade his FC3S, as he feels he will have to face off with someone he thought he never had to.

While facing off R.T. Katagiri, Ryosuke explains to Matsumoto about the 'Fujiwara Zone', a feature Takumi exhibits when he is in full concentration with his 86, as if he was controlling it with his own body, which gives Takumi an extraordinary ability to make corner exit as quick as an AWD car. He states Takumi had exhibites this way before, but became refined ever since his battle with Dr. Toshiya Joshima of Purple Shadow, All this while Takumi faces off Kai for a rematch on that team. Soon after Takumi pulls away from Kai after the latter spins out, and during Keisuke's battle, Ryosuke explains to Matsmoto about how his daily training about accelerator works made a hige improvement in Keisuke. Also how Keisuke is now able to face fully traditionalist motorsports opponents unlike earlier back in Tochigi. Keisuke wins by conserving his tyres, while Minagawa couldn't.

Later on, Team Spiral's leader Ryuji Ikeda was ambushed in Hakone Turnpike by the 'Shinigami', who was none other than Rin Hojo in his BNR32 GT-R terrorizing the region. Ikeda backs off from the battle, as he had to save his car for the upcoming battle against Project D, but vowed revenge against the 'Shinigami' some day.

When Project D came to face off against Team Spiral, Ryosuke realizes Ryuji Ikeda's Zero Theory was almost similar to his 'Fastest Racing Theory'. After Keisuke wins his battle against Ikeda, Ryosuke advices Takumi to let Okuyama follow him until first third of the course and finish him off, much similar to his advice he gave to Takumi on his battle against Nobuhiko back in Saitama. Takumi does so and wins the round.

After the battle, Ryosuke arrives with now completely modified FC at Hakone to finally meet up with Rin Hojo. It was the 2nd anniversary of Kaori's death, and the timing couldn't be better, Ryosuke had to take the risk to battle, or rather, help Rin Hojo to remove his old haunting memories about Kaori, which he carries around aa the hatred against Ryosuke, for which he believes Ryosuke was the reason Kaori was now dead. Rin gives the condition that of Ryosuke makes it out by one round, on Hakone downhill, he wins the match. As they both start the battle, Ryuji Ikeda joins it with the help of his team member spotting them. As Ryuji watches in on complete terror and awe, Rin tries to shunt and side press Ryosuke into crashing many times, to which Ryosuke escapes each time he is presented with. Ikeda realizes Ryosuke is a near perfect example of his 'Zero Theory', and states Ryosuke is a more natural downhiller than Takumi Fujiwara. As the battle goes on, Rin realizes that Ryosuke is no easy target, and he miscalculated about the battle, making his brakes wear down until it was near dead. Rin soon comes to a realization that his verbal abuse on Kaori may have been a role on her death. As he slowly accepts the truth and his fate, going for an all out suicidal attack, Ryosuke brakes and tries to connect with Rin's car, trying to slow him down on the final sections of the downhill since Ryosuke sensed Rin's brakes were out. But he miscalculated as they still were not stopping as they were racing downhill to the toll booth at extreme speeds, Ryuji Ikeda, watching this battle unfold, decided to help them by joining the formation and braking together, stopping all three of them from crashing. Rin Hojo and Ryosuke decides to share their pain and let go off the painful history. After the battle, Matsumoto, who was waiting patiently for Ryosuke to return, noted that his FC was now full of scratches, but was happy that he is at least safe and now more relived.

Soon the final battle with the Sidewinder started off, with Rin returning back to normal, meeting his brother Go Hojo properly after a long time, who also happened to be the uphiller of the team. He gives Go some advice before their battle. Soon after Keisuke wins his battle, Ryosuke advices Takumi to finish off the battle in the first round itself, noting that Shinji will be the toughest opponent he ever faced. After hearing about multiple changes in position of the racers, Ryosuke realized that the conventional tactics of a race is not applicable with this one. After Shinji overtakes Takumi near the final corners, Takumi remembers when Ryosuke adjusted his engine to a case that he can rev much further than originally placed, giving an edge whenever your opponent will be shifting his gears. Takumi tries this with a blind attack, and as he overtakes Shinji and reaches the final corner, he realized he revved too much, causing the engine to blow up immediately. however due to experience, Takumi spun around a 180, holding the clutch, making him go reverse over the finish. Ryosuke congratulates him for winning the final battle, despite the loss of his car.

Later on, Ryosuke and the rest of the Project D attend a disbanding party at Lake Akina, now that both Keisuke and Takumi began to get offers from professional racing teams.

A few weeks later, Ryosuke is seen attending Kaori's grave, thanking her for giving him the motivation for completing his dream, which was the meaning behind the 'D' in Project D.

Exclusively in the end credits of the anime, Ryosuke is seen as a silent spectator at street races, hoping to find more talented street racers.

Information
Likes: His beloved FC, Rotary engines, R32's, Kaori, Takumi and his instincts

Dislikes: Losing, cheaters

Special skills: Strategy for Touge Racing, Calculating opponent moves & capabilities of their car, training up-and-coming street racers and sound theory.

Relationships
Keisuke Takahashi

His young brother whom founded the Akagi RedSuns together to begin their expedition. Since they formed the RedSuns, he and his brother became the Rotary Brothers due to driving rotary powered Mazda RX-7s. They later rebranded their team into Project D after taking Takumi under their wing and restart their expedition.

Kyoichi Sudo

During his first race against him, Sudo is Ryosuke's biggest rival due to their difference in their own racing theories which often caused him to argue after his victory. After defeating Kyoichi again, he told him circuit racing theories aren't good enough to survive in street racing as he wasn't able to conquer right hand corners due to risk of oncoming traffic which eventually came to his senses. Kyoichi ended his rivalry as he allowed him to watch Takumi race Kai Kogashiwa and share their own theories on how the race would play out.

Takumi Fujiwara

After Keisuke's defeat, he sees so much potential in him during his races and studies his techniques which caused the RedSuns' expedition to come to a temporary halt. After his winning streak was broken in Akina, he acknowledged him as the fastest opponent he ever raced. After Takumi's engine was repaired, he gave him an offer to join the ranks of his rebranded race team in which he eventually accepts. He acts as both a coach and a mentor to him in his races.

Rin Hojo

Ryosuke's former senior at the medical college and who also taught him about street racing, Rin considers Ryosuke as his sworn enemy blaming him for the suicide of his fiancée Kaori. He challenges him in a grudge match in Hakone turnpike and uses dangerous tactics against him. When his brakes were cut out, Ryosuke and Ryuji saved him from crashing after putting both their cars infront of his bumper to help stop his car. He and Rin both set aside their differences but nonetheless can't forget about Kaori.

Kaori

She was Ryosuke's only love. After choosing Ryosuke over her forced marriage with Rin, she committed suicide due to abuses of Rin and torn between the loyalty between the two. Kaori is the reason for Ryosuke to fulfil his dream. After Project D's expedition was over, he visits her grave and thanks her for everything they had.

Tsugumi

She is a female cousin of Keisuke and Ryosuke Takahashi. She is a middle school girl, and has fought with Keisuke before. Her family is not revealed, nor her last name. She is a manga only character

Trivia

 * His name was mentioned in MF Ghost, new manga created by Shigeno.
 * Ryosuke is modeled after the "Drift King" Keiichi Tsuchiya's mentor, retired race car driver Takahashi Kunimitsu.
 * Ryosuke Takahashi had a dark blue hairstyle in the First and Fourth stages of Initial D, but it inexplicably changed to a light brown hairstyle in the Second Stage, then to dark brown in the Third Stage movie. It changes to black in his appearances in Fifth and Final Stage and in the Legend trilogy movies.


 * In both dubs, he speaks with a low pitch accent.
 * In the main series, he was voiced by Takehito Koyasu, who also voiced the character Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, while in the Legend series, he is voiced by Daisuke Ono, who voiced the character Jotaro, also a character from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Jotaro and Dio are mutual enemies.