Riki-Oh

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Riki Oh, Violence Hero Riki-Oh, Kirinji, New York Dust

Japanese: 力王

Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 12

Chapters: 77

Status: Finished

Published: 1988 to 1990

Genres: Action, Adventure

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Business Jump

Authors: Saruwatari, Tetsuya (Art), Takajou, Masahiko (Story)

Statistics

Score: 6.77¹ (scored by 1,485 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #12255²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #4299

Members: 4,736

Favorites: 51

Resources

Wikipedia

6.77

Ranked #12255Popularity #4299Members 4,736

MangaBusiness JumpSaruwatari, Tetsuya (Art), Takajou, Masahiko (Story)

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Volumes: /12

Chapters: /77

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Synopsis

In the late 1990s, with society descending into totalitarianism and anarchy, comes Saiga Riki-Oh, a lone wolf devoted to rooting out people's evil karma. To reconnect with a long-lost brother and solve the mystery behind the separated family and its relation to the Star of David on his hand, he punches through gangsters, corrupt martial artists, and more, all while drawing an equal number of hotblooded supporters and insane enemies.

(Source: unami)

Included one-shots:
Volume 11: Kirinji
Volume 12: New York Dust

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Background

In 1991, the series was adapted into the live-action Hong Kong film Riki Oh: The Story of Ricky.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Riki-Oh: Toukatsu Jigoku, Riki-Oh 2: Horobi no Ko

More characters
Characters

Saiga, Riki-Oh

Main

Aneyama

Supporting

Kitamakura

Supporting

Nachi

Supporting

Krueger, Hans

Supporting

Asa

Supporting

Narumi

Supporting

Iwata

Supporting

Bandou

Supporting

Imura

Supporting

Reviews

Dec 28, 2016

berserkersoul

Recommended

"even God needs salvation"

Riki-Oh is a young kid with great intelligence and an ungodly amount of strength who finds himself in a max security prison serving out his 3 year sentence for assault. unbeknownst to the reader, this prison will be a very large hint into finding out the true secrets about his long lost biological family. Thats about as much story i can really give without spoiling too much because any other hints gives away the greatness. Its a classic shounen manga from the 90s so the story is a little generic and repetitive as Riki-Oh goes through the same process of endless ... searching and hardship to find each family member. It looses points on the creative aspect of things but the very end is definitely worth it because it ends up taking a left turn into some pretty meta topics about religion and spiritualism and why humans act the way they do. (the quote about really give you an idea about how hardcore this manga it)

the art is definitely appealing but most panels are nothing to write home about. The very large scenery panels are gorgeous and the fighting scenes are pretty rad and can get REALLY gorey and heavily detailed which kinda reminded me of Berserk at some moments (which is AWESOME for those really into that kind of stuff).

The characters were definitely unique. The "good" characters were kinda bland and were usually never seen of again. Theres a point where this one semi-major bad guy's daughter falls in love with Riki-Oh and she was literally in maybe two chapters and was never mentioned or seen of again. Riki-Oh's material arts teacher was a stereotypical character that is kinda important to progress Riki-Oh's story but he also was barely in the manga at all and only had one lame fight scene. The villains are a totally different story! Every single "mini boss" Riki-Oh meets are all interconnected in non obvious ways which is good because being able to guess the plot correctly takes the fun out of reading. These mini bosses are also cleverly woven into the plot and they are all really different and they all have individual backstories that all give hints to Riki-Oh's heritage and the fate of his family. The "main bosses" he encounters are WILD! the fight scenes are also a pleasure to read and theres always so much drama involved

be warned though, Riki-Oh is still a manga geared towards a younger male audience so the beginning will come off as really brash and appealing to the lowest denominator, but thats only to make sure that the target audience is hooked. As the story progressed and the mysteries are turning up more questions than answers is when things really reach a whole new level. The story as always had some root in religion and spiritualism (spoiler: if you havent noticed that theres a star of david on his hand). the beginning introduces it but keeps it vague, however as the plot thickens, that star begins to represent more than just the power Riki-Oh possesses. Without giving too much away, the story goes into jewish refugee settlements into china during WWII, figuring out the meaning of life and why humans do what they do, it touches on the extremist views of judo-christian religions as well as the nazi agenda and so on. It does reach a point where there are literal bible scriptures and stories played out.

All i can say, to rap things up as short and sweet as humanly possible: the beginning starts of slow but hold out because it is SO worth the ending. some people might think that the ending was mellow-dramatic but i personally didnt. I feel very satisfied with it and would recommend to anyone who is in the mood to have some mindless fun while also psychoanalyzing nazis and wondering about how the world was created

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May 22, 2015

ratchet573

Recommended

Most people will know Riki-Oh from the early nineties flick that has garnered quite the cult following, especially after some of the ridiculously over-the-top fight scenes appeared on the internet years ago. Since then, I only ever hear about the movie, never about the manga on which it is based. So I strapped myself in for a testosterone laden 75-chapter romp, and boy was I in for a surprise.

Most people drop Riki-Oh after the first ten or fifteen chapters because the story goes from crazy to fucking insane. Riki-Oh begins as what appears to be a prison drama, where our titular character is a huge ... badass who kills those who hurt the innocent, in turn pissing off the warden and those the warden keeps as subordinates. Riki-Oh is in search of his brother, Nachi, who bears a swastika on his hand. Riki-Oh has the Star of David on his and together the brothers are known as the Brothers of Destruction.

Anyway, the prison thing doesn’t go anywhere and Riki-Oh finds his brother at a secret nuclear base where lots of fighting ensues. This is followed by Riki-Oh searching for his father and learning more about his mother. And then finding his father and beating a bunch of people up…so on and so forth.

The story is, let’s face it, stupid. It gets stupider the closer you get to the end with random Nazis, random undead guys, and even an appearance from an out-of-place science fiction idea that shows up in chapter 74 when none of the other chapters ever established any sort of science fiction anything.

I can see why people quit because the beginning is self contained and feels like it will keep being a prison drama of some sort. Once Riki-Oh gets out, things fall apart and those not in the market for a plot that is almost more ridiculous than the deaths of the enemies will want out.

That said, I don’t think Riki-Oh cares and that’s what made it so enjoyable for me. It’s one of those eighties manly-man manga where the plot comes second to huge dudes saying cool things and then proceeding to turn people to bloody puddles with their fists. Riki-Oh has some of the best frames of idiotic violence I’ve ever seen in all my years of reading manga (which I’ll be posting at the end of this review). If nothing else, you’ll find yourself reading this just to see how someone dies in the next chapter.

The art is also really good. Every frame is detailed just enough to bring a very nice realness to it all.

I know this review is short, but I can’t say too much about Riki-Oh because there isn’t much here. The plot is absolutely batshit. By the end there’s all this religious symbolism being thrown around and an idea about killing all humans to become a one true God. It’s a convoluted mess of “DOOOWHAAAA?” moments that compound to create an endearingly strange and exceptionally violent experience. The characters are all weak, the art is fantastic (as is the violence), but other than that, there’s nothing.

It’s not refined in the least, nor is it technically good, but Riki-Oh is the kind of dumbass fun you ask for on a boring winter day. For me, this is appealing for a very niche crowd and that crowd will gobble it up. So if you didn’t find Fist of the North Star or Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure to be your thing, you’d be best skipping this one. But if you did, this is even more ridiculous than . And I can’t believe I just said that.

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May 24, 2021

Shellshock123

Mixed Feelings

oh boi where to begin

This is the kind of series you have to shut your brain off. Any attempt to understand the story will simply backfire on you.

There are 5 main arcs in this series. Every arc feels like the last one. Everytime your like ok now this is the end. turns out there is a bigger bad waiting for you.

The story changes per arc. Mostly because the information isn't revealed then. At first its prison break. Than its underground fighting, than its something, than its something else. You think this series is crazy now? Wait till you read the next chapter. There is ... so much bullshit in this series im astounded that i thought for even a moment that this series can't get crazier.

The first 2 arcs of this series are a bit mundane but thats because the series doesn't accept itself for what it is. The series is very stupid with a lot of over the top bullshit. But it takes itself seriously. As such campy moments aren't that fun, and the emotional moments in the series have 0 impact. It kinda sucks it takes so long for the series to get together.

Though there are still crazy ass moments that are enjoyable there are just spread too thin in the first 2 arcs. Also the fact that there is supposed to be the emotional tone that doesn't really work.

I did enjoy the last 3 arcs. They weren't spectacular or anything. But it seems like the author accepted the fact that this is a stupid series and as such should go crazy. Though i do believe that he went absolute batshit in the last arc. I'd say it in more detail but that would be spoiling the ending.

As far as the action, its as crazy as you'd expect from the 80's. Its absurdly violent and there is so much blood you think everyone is holding a ketchup bottle. The main character Riki is absolutely ridiculous. He punches characters and the other side of there body explodes. The MC gets shot and is fine 5 seconds later because he missed all his vitals and only scratched his heart. His powers are also absolutely inconsistent. He can break steel and bend iron yet he can't handle a couple punches.

There is this Ki thing which is basically this manga's Ex-machina. Enemy too strong? Just use Ki. You need some sort of extremly specific power that won't be mentioned ever again? Use Ki to channel it. and so on, and so on. I mean at least it looks cool.

The story falls apart (Even more so than it already had) at the end but by then i don't care. Like who gives a shit about the story when you have a characters that chokes people by using his own intestines that he brought out from his own stomach in the heat of battle. This is one of the calmer scenes before it turns into dragon ball z.

If the art reminds you of the Fist of the North star thats because the artist was an assisstant for HARA Tetsuo. No doubt he picked up a few tricks

Despite the campy fun for the later half of the series. It just isn't good enough. I think they wasted too much time on exposition and other uncessary components for it to be enjoyable as a whole.

TLDR: The tone of the series kept changing from serious to campy ruining the flow. Amongst other issues. 5/10

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why is the score so low if the ratings are so high? Neostorm-X - Jan 25, 2020	7 replies	by Kunii »» Apr 7, 2022 8:38 PM
Included one-shots: Kirinji and N.Y. Dust EterTC - Jun 15, 2020	0 replies	by EterTC »» Jun 15, 2020 8:47 AM
Poll: Riki-oh Chapter 75 Discussion ZetaZaku - Sep 24, 2012	3 replies	by solar901 »» Sep 9, 2016 4:07 PM
Poll: Riki-oh Chapter 71 Discussion ZetaZaku - Sep 24, 2012	1 replies	by solar901 »» Sep 9, 2016 2:55 PM
Poll: Riki-oh Chapter 69 Discussion ZetaZaku - Sep 24, 2012	1 replies	by solar901 »» Sep 9, 2016 2:40 PM

Riki-Oh
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