Description

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. 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. 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 as 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 drift 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. 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. 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. It was somewhere during this time when Ryosuke visited the gas station where Takumi works to inform him about a new racing team he is going to create, and he tells Takumi that he wants him to be a part of it. While Takumi was hesitant at first, he tells that he will decide about it later on. Sometime afterwards, Takumi 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.