[Meeting…] Riki-Oh

There are many works from the 80s that described a relatively near future, where the world is totally devastated (generally by a war) and its weak society is controlled by large companies that use violent gangs of criminals to extort and frighten the population. A world without justice, without an educational or health system and with an extreme and hostile climate, where the most disadvantaged have no chance of surviving for long.

That eighties pessimism flourished in cinema, comics, manga and video games, demonstrating that this unfortunate future (and relatively close in more ways than one) was tremendously attractive to the public.

There are many cult sagas that were created based on that taste for the post-apocalyptic, such as Hokuto No Ken (Fist of the North Star), Mad Max or the video game saga Double Dragon (which originally took place in a world devastated by a nuclear war, a detail that was lost when making the first ports to consoles and in almost all of their sequels).

On this occasion I am going to talk about Riki-Oh, the protagonist of a story with the same ingredients as those mentioned above, although with some very interesting additions, which at no time distance the work from a feeling of desolation and cruelty, words that perfectly define the world that we will find in this manga.

A miserable future where everything can get worse

The world where Riki-Oh lives has lost any trace of humanity or social logic as a result of wars, economic crises, struggles for power and handing it over to greedy or fanatical people.. Likewise, nature does not seem to have recovered from the treatment received by humans, so the climate is extreme in some areas due to global warming and it is advisable to avoid some meteorological elements such as rain, because the water that falls is usually contaminated or radioactive.

The cities are in constant ruin (both economically and materially) and the few workers who try to make a living suffer constant abuse from the mobster on duty who generally obeys a big shot who owns some corporation.

This doesn't just happen to poor merchants or other types of workers, it also affects institutions. For example, Medicines that are contaminated are used in hospitals and can be harmful or lethal to patients, because This is how they favor the business of the corporation that manufactures it. In the same way, any attempt at rebellion would be useless since the local mafia would be in charge of killing and torturing anyone who wanted to play the hero or their most defenseless relatives.

Prisons are privatized and prisoners are used as free labor, again any attempt to rebel will be punished by one of the prisoners who act as guards of the different parts of the prison.

The powerful have everything tied up and controlled within their small kingdoms and they enjoy their position while the unfortunate will never see the opportunity to improve. There is nothing that can change events due to the enormous difference between them and that is why a character like Riki-Oh is something as necessary as it is unexpected.

Riki-Oh is a young boy who is often mistaken for a homeless man (partly because he is usually scantily clad or covered in a camouflage blanket). He doesn't seem to have a home, a job, a family, or any kind of motivation, except to punish what he considers unfair. Although Riki He is not a vigilante in the most literal sense of the word., you cannot look the other way when you consider that someone who does not deserve it is being punished or when you see abuse or excessive cruelty.

With that mentality, it is a matter of time before this character ends up attacking the local mafia and ends up locked up in one of the worst and cruelest prisons in the world, where all the prisoners will know and fear (or chant) his name.

Physically Riki-Oh is tall and strong (by Asian standards) but what makes him fearsome is the enormous power he possesses in terms of brute force. Riki is able to cut a human being in half using the edge of his hand with the same ease as a knife would cut butter.. Likewise, their fists and legs can shatter any piece of the human body they collide with. That exaggeration of strength can also be applied to the ability to withstand pain that Riki-Oh displays during some of his fiercest battles.

The secret of Riki-Oh's power seems to come from a six-pointed star-shaped birthmark (the Star of David) on his fist and the training he received from his teacher Chou Zenki, who conveniently appeared in Riki's life when he was considering suicide.

The origin of Riki-Oh

Although the injustices experienced by those close to him were what motivated the beginning of Riki's adventures, what made him continue traveling through the punished world where he had to live was the need to know his origin.

The only memory that Riki has of his childhood is that while he was playing with his little brother (Nachi) a man offered to be his father and took him as an adopted son. That man gave Riki an education and a good life that led him to live in a comfortable position within society, which he finally rejected shortly before graduating from university, at which point he disappeared without a trace.

When trying to find out his past, Riki began by looking for his brother, knowing that he would not wait for him with open arms after abandoning him and that this could be dangerous, since the power that Riki-Oh possesses also exists in Nachi, although in a different way, since he can cure diseases or move and destroy things (and people) with his mind.

Una de las incógnitas de Riki es saber que sucedió con su madre, la cual fue sentenciada a muerte poco después de dar a luz a sus dos hijos y en cuya tumba aparece el símbolo de la estrella de David con una esvástica dentro, símbolos que Riki y Nachi obtuvieron como marca de nacimiento respectivamente. Todo lo relacionado con el nacimiento de ambos niños parece estar rodeado por un secretismo absoluto, de manera que la única manera que tiene Riki de saber la verdad es encontrar a su verdadero padre.

Conclusion and Recommendations

Riki-Oh puede parecer el típico héroe de Shonen, pero afortunadamente no cumple con muchos de los tópicos del género (no es tonto, no es comilón, no es compasivo con todo el mundo, no crea un grupo con amigos o antiguos enemigos que le acompañen y no tiene absolutamente nada de gracioso o humorístico).

Pese a estar desarrollada a base de combates (cada vez con gente más poderosa) su historia es muy cruda y el mundo donde sucede lo es todavía más. Toda esa crueldad que impregna su historia está a la par con la explicita violencia de sus combates (el gore es notable) así como con algunas de las tramas tratadas (que incluso tocan el tema de la guerra fría y el nazismo) lo cual deja claro que esta obra está enfocada a un público adulto en todos los sentidos posibles.

Riki-Oh fue recopilado en 12 tomos que lamentablemente solo se publicaron en Japón y posteriormente en Hong Kong (con algún que otro cambio). Gracias a internet existen traducciones no-oficiales a varios idiomas (entre ellos el español) lo cual facilita que muchos puedan disfrutar de este manga y puedan admirar el exageradamente detallado dibujo, sobre todo en lo que se refiere a plasmar los escenarios donde sucede la historia.

Existen también un par de OVAS (relativamente fáciles de encontrar con subtítulos) que se basan en las primeras historias del personaje (su etapa en la cárcel y la búsqueda de su hermano) y una película de imagen real llamada La Historia de Ricky que casualmente es la más accesible para todos, pues es lo único que se ha editado en español oficialmente y debido a que goza de cierta popularidad dentro del cine gore, ha sido reeditada en DVD y Blu-ray.

La historia de Ricky trata de la estancia en la cárcel del personaje, y aunque en gran parte es muy fiel a la historia original en lo que se refiere a acción, no conserva casi nada de la crítica social del manga original y por algún motivo tampoco parece interesada en contar nada del origen del personaje, que incluso carece de la marca de nacimiento en su mano.

Personalmente recomendaría primero el manga, luego los OVAS y finalmente la película de imagen real, pero tal y como he dicho, es más fácil encontrar el material en el orden inverso, además la película de imagen real es un espectáculo indescriptible por lo chocante de algunas escenas.