Riki-Oh



Created by Masahiko Takajo and Saruwatari Tetsuya, Riki-Oh was serialized in the magazine Business Jump from 1988 to 1990 and later published in 12 volumes. The manga starts off very much like a Fist of the North Star rip-off. It eventually takes its own pace and voice after the first story arc.

It is the near future, around the 1990s most likely, in a hellish world. Saiga Riki-Oh is in a privatized prison where might makes right. He soon becomes an enemy of the Four Emperors, four powerful prisoners made head guards, and the mysterious warden. The first storyline ends much the same way as the infamous film adaptation ends.

But the manga doesn't end there.

Riki-Oh begins an adventure where he tries to find his brother, and find clues towards his past for it seems as though somebody is pulling the strings. Thus Riki-Oh's journal is full of combat where the action never ends. Bodies pile up as the super power martial artist punches and kicks through armies of freaks, robots, androids, monsters, martial artists, ferocious animals, and more!

Very, very violent. You know you love it.


 * Adaptation Distillation: Despite its horrendously low budget, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky remains surprisingly faithful to its source material. Whether this is a good or bad thing is debatable.
 * Adolf Hitler:
 * A Nazi by Any Other Name: The ultimate Big Bad,, and his high-ranking henchmen, are essentially just Nazis who use martial arts. And Riki's own brother, "Nachi" is a deliberate pun n the word "Nazi". He even has a swastika tattoo on his hand.
 * And Now for Something Completely Different: There are roughly five story arcs in the manga: the Tokyo State Prison arc (chapters 1-13), the Cape arc (14-30), the Return to Tokyo arc (31-41), the Palace of Eternal Youth arc (42-62) and the Antarctica arc (63-75). The Prison Arc has some weird stuff but it's mostly weird martial artists. Then the Cape has some of the weirdest stuff, from elephants to "power readings", to android workers, to cyborgs, to an underground fighting arena, with the big bad being a super psychic. The third arc tones it down and has a more noir feeling with villains more like super-powered freaks than martial artists. The final two arcs are when things truly get insane. Each arc different? Yes. Each Arc awesome? Yes.
 * Arc Words: Chris.
 * Awesome McCoolname: In Japanese, Riki-Oh means "Strength King". Doubles as a Meaningful Name.
 * Badass: Riki-Oh. He punches lions and kicks the heads of giants, how is that not bad ass?
 * Big Bad: Each arc has one. Prison - The Warden; The Cape -, and so on.
 * But Not Too Foreign: Riki-Oh is part Jewish, which is a key point in the story.
 * Cannibal Clan: The Disciples of the Wolf Commandments. Granted, they see themselves as wolves, but are basically completely human.
 * Catch Phrase: "I'll send your karma to hell!"
 * And for the villains: "DIIIIEEE, RIKI-OHHHHH!"
 * Charles Atlas Superpower and Made of Iron: Oh so many. Buried alive for a week at one point; when he was unearthed, he effortlessly shattered his chains and somersaulted to his feet. He also had his arm sliced, and stitched it mid-fight without being hampered by the injury at all. Overcame an instant-death technique through sheer willpower. After defeating the big bad, he single-handedly put a massive hole through the prison wall and walked to freedom.
 * There's more. The arm slice cut his tendons, which he tied back together. He's stitched his own wounds with a length of a chain link fence.
 * Cliché Storm/Troperiffic: Its got a nearly boring invincible hero with a catch phrase, massive hordes of mooks, complete monster villains, stockpiles of improbable weapons, bizarre deathtraps, none-stop gloating bad guys, various freaks of nature, yep its a Japanese comic book!
 * Crapsack World: In a world where Tokyo cannot be repaired from earthquakes, heavy depressions all over the place, wild gangs, drugs are everywhere, chemical and nuclear waste is unchecked, and worse - there's a powerful hidden group of upper class that is TRYING to destroy the world. Believe it or not, there is still hope.
 * Cursed with Awesome: Sure Riki-Oh may hurt his family but he gets to punch people's brains out!
 * Deceptive Disciple:
 * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Eisaku may look like a gorilla, but he's a real mama's boy.
 * Expy: Saiga Riki-Oh is basically Kenshiro by a different name.
 * M. Bison/Vega from Street Fighter is an expy of the villain Washizaki, who himself is an expy of the Big Bad Yasunori Kato from Doomed Megalopolis/Teito Monogatari.
 * Umibozu, a fat Giant Mook who appears at the of Vol. 3, is the manga's version of Mr. Heart from Fist of the North Star (only taller), right down to his ability to absorb Riki's punches with his fatness. Riki-oh is even forced to defeat Umibozu the same way Kenshiro defeated Mr. Heart; by using a technique which slices through flesh.
 * The Disciples of the Wolf Commandment are a gang that patterned themselves after a pack of wolves, just like the Fang Clan also from North Star.
 * there is a Giant Mook that is Conan the Barbarian, the mech from RoboCop with Deadlock from the ABC Warriors rideing it
 * Full-Frontal Assault: Mukai in his first confrontation with Riki. This would be the "unconcerned with human expectations" variety, not the "raging primordial beast" variety.
 * Gorn
 * Ki Attacks: Riki-Oh's Naike Kenpou specializes in this.
 * Kamehame Hadoken: "KANTSUU REPPA!!!"
 * I'm a Humanitarian: Mizuguchi is notable for having a killer/chef mook dedicated only to this, and some of his comments suggest that he's quite the gourmet, raising his own food to pick the right moment to eat it.
 * The warden tried to feed some of the prisoners to other prisoners as mincemeat, much to their horror. He's heavily implied to have done it regularly without them being aware of it.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Several instances, but Barakido's remote-controlled pitchfork kite takes the cake.
 * Made of Plasticine: Pretty much every death in the series involves someone being ripped/sliced/exploded into at least four distinct pieces.
 * Person of Mass Destruction: When Riki-Oh and Nachi touch their marked hands together, it creates a natural disaster, i.e. tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.
 * Mind Over Matter: Nachi.
 * Red Right Hand: Nachi's swastika birthmark. Also Riki-Oh's Star of David birthmark, though to a lesser degree.
 * Say My Name: Riki-Oh does this to his brother throughout the second story arc. Villains do it to Riki-Oh constantly.
 * Shoot the Dog: Err, by kicking the dog. In half.
 * Super Strength: Riki-Oh grows exponentially stronger when he's pissed off. Since he can already punch holes in people without trying, this is saying something...
 * What Happened to the Mouse?: Two of the four head prison guards were still alive at the end of the Prison Arc.
 * Wife Husbandry: Mizuguchi attempts this with Iwato's daughter, more for rape and other reasons than for marriage.
 * You Fail Biology Forever: Many, many examples. Notable ones are a mook still talking, and trying to kill Riki-Oh after having his brain punched away, and another one being completely operative after his heart was torn from his chest, with seemingly no ill effect, only to die immediately when Riki-Oh finally crushes the heart, still in his hand. It should be noted that this is not even handwaved as magic or superpower. It just... kinda happens.
 * You Fail Religious Studies Forever: Apparently the swastika is a symbol for atheism and the six-pointed star is a symbol of theism. Oh, and they also represent the universe collapsing and exploding into existence respectfully (destruction and creation). Oh, and God gave the world 6000 the years, and if the Earth isn't destroyed year 2000, it means "his plan" didn't succeed according to the Holy Bible. There are just so many egregious examples of the manga not doing the research on Christianity that it's almost hilarious. It doesn't even get the message of the "sacrificing of Isaac" story right.
 * Your Head Asplode: One of the more common ways to die in Riki-Oh's world.
 * You Fail Religious Studies Forever: Apparently the swastika is a symbol for atheism and the six-pointed star is a symbol of theism. Oh, and they also represent the universe collapsing and exploding into existence respectfully (destruction and creation). Oh, and God gave the world 6000 the years, and if the Earth isn't destroyed year 2000, it means "his plan" didn't succeed according to the Holy Bible. There are just so many egregious examples of the manga not doing the research on Christianity that it's almost hilarious. It doesn't even get the message of the "sacrificing of Isaac" story right.
 * Your Head Asplode: One of the more common ways to die in Riki-Oh's world.