- "I don't like 'fighting'. I like 'one sided domination'!!!"
— Raian Kure[4]
Kure Raian (
Appearance
Raian is a muscular man of above-average height. He has short, spiked light blond hair with a small widow's peak and a notch on his hairline's right side. As a member of the Kure Clan, he has dark scelera eyes. He bears a passing resemblance to the current clan patriarch, Kure Erioh, during his youth.
His combat attire during the Kengan Annihilation Tournament consisted of a dark pair of fighting shorts a white cross. In the Kengan Association VS Purgatory Tournament, he wears a similar pair with its colors inverted.
In regards to casual wear, Raian developed a preference for sportswear-based fashion two years after the Annihilation Tournament, wearing unzipped track jackets with a tank top undershirt and matching track pants underneath.
Personality
Raian is a violent and psychopathic man who cares for little more than domination, violence, and killing. He does not seem to bear any remorse for his violent actions, and in fact, appears to relish in it. He speaks aggressively and often with profanity. He also does not seem to enjoy or care for camaraderie or festive social events, seeing as how he derisively dismissed his clan's farewell party for Ohma Tokita as "kumbaya shit."
In his first appearance during the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, Raian was testy and hostile towards just about everyone around him, even his own clan's patriarch. Raian often went out of his way to provoke fellow tournament participants Lihito or Mikazuchi Rei. He always made it clear that he would kill all of the tournament participants to prove that he was the "strongest".
Raian never hesitates to taunt, insult, and provoke people to get a rise and stir conflict, such as when he ambushed Lihito in the restroom and when he mocked and derided Mokichi Robinson throughout their match in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament.
According to Kure Karura, Raian is considered the black sheep of his clan, most likely because of his psychopathic and ruthless attitude. Erioh himself said to Katahara Metsudo that Raian is "irregular" among his fellow clan members and described him as a "demon who slaughters as many people as he wants".
Despite this, Raian can act level-headed and composed to a degree, especially two years after the Annihilation Tournament, demonstrating a more condescending side of his personality that contrasts his indiscriminate brutality that tends to come out when he is sufficiently motivated — or provoked.
He also likes to test his strength against strong opponents that interests him, such as Edward Wu. Right after his fight against Alan Wu, Raian chased Edward until he finally found and provoked him to fight to the death.
Plot
Kengan Ashura
Alongside Erioh, Raian observed Ohma's first Kengan match against Lihito.
On the S.S. Kengan, Raian found the situation audibly humorous when Kure Karura returned and revealed she had a crush on someone. With Erioh incensed by her falling for Ohma, Raian laughed his head off before telling his grandfather to calm down as he was releasing his "restraints". Later, Erioh confirmed with the group that Raian would represent Under Mount, Inc. in the upcoming tournament, causing Raian to exclaim excitedly that he would kill everyone.
On the first day of the Kengan Annihilation Tournament, just before it was time for him to go out for his match, Raian physically harassed Lihito in the toilets. Covered in blood, Raian came out to face Mokichi in the first round. Despite being evenly matched at the beginning of their fight, Raian soon used the secret Kure Clan technique "Removal", inflicting a no-holds-barred beatdown upon Mokichi, before ruthlessly breaking the priest's neck.
After that fight, he encountered Rei, and the two had a very brief altercation until Erioh arrived and persuaded Raian to rein in his savagery.
In the second round of the tournament, Raian fought against Ohma. Despite seemingly being on the ropes initially, Raian quickly turned it around and began dominating Ohma, demanding that he used his Advance or he'd kill him. Eventually, Ohma activated it and began to overwhelm Raian with his unleashed power. Satisfied, Raian then released his full strength, and the two clashed ferociously with the fight on even terms. However, Ohma's Advance abruptly ended, and Raian knocked him away, satisfied with the fight. Readying to end it, Ohma suddenly returned to his feet and began overwhelming Raian with his Niko Style, eventually defeating Raian.
During Katsumasa Hayami's revolution, Raian single-handedly took on a large group of Guardians, ecstatic that he'd be able to go on a slaughter-spree. In the process, he managed to kill Moro and Morooka, two high-ranking Guardians.
After the foiling of Hayami's coup, Raian continued to watch the rest of the tournament in the stands by himself. During Ohma's fight against Cosmo Imai, he aggressively told off belligerant audience members to stop complaining and watch the fight closely. He then watched the rest of the tournament unfold, with Gensai Kuroki becoming the victor of the tournament.
Kengan Omega
Ever since the Annihilation Tournament, Raian remained in the Kure Village for most of his time. After Ohma recovered to his physical peak, both he and Raian fought almost every day, with Raian holding more victories over the former. However, Ohma's victories steadily grew as he recovered and regained strength.
At an undisclosed point in time, Raian was present when Erioh reported the death of Kure Rikuto, the Kure Clan's successor head. Announcing the Westward Faction's betrayal, Erioh ordered the end of the Westward Wu's leader, Edward Wu.
Upon setting up the Worm, Ohma, Raian and Katahara Retsudo dealt with the Worm that blocked the area. Eventually, both Raian and Ohma intervened Yamashita Kazuo's imminent execution. Raian, to Ohma's chagrin, went on a murder spree against those who were unfortunate enough to face him, including the fake Kashio Toru. Approaching Xia Ji, Raian promptly punched him in the gut, cutting off whatever taunts he had in store. With Xia Ji desperately trying to trick Ohma into sparing his life, Raian inadvertently stopped it by punching him with the intent to kill. Stopped from further attempts to kill him by Ohma , Xia Ji escaped with Retsudo's arrival.
Raian then went to the meeting point with Retsudo, leaving Ohma and Kazuo behind. Witnessing the mysterious deaths of the Worms who survived the attack, Raian realized they all drank a poison that would've killed them regardless for failing their mission. The day after, he and Retsudo joined the others at Kure Village.
When Ohma visited Narushima Koga and Gaoh Ryuki in hospital, just before things could get violent between Ohma and Ryuki, Raian promptly made his presence known from the room's window, which is five floors above the ground. Bluntly shooting down Koga's effort to reach their level in half a year, he noted that Ohma said it was too much for Koga "right now" before irreverently declaring his apathy and falling out of the window with little care in the world.
After arriving at Mt. Godslayer, Raian goaded Akoya Seishu into an argument, daring him to do something. When Kaolan Wongsawat took the stage as the first fighter on their side, Raian grumbled in annoyance over a "small fry" taking the spotlight.
After Naidan Mönkhbat's death at the hands of Ryuki and Liu Dongcheng's sudden rampage, Raian entered the ring with Okubo Naoya, Seishu and Ohma to face the enraged gladiator and his allies. As the situation defused, Raian, on a whim for blood, tried to punch Arashiyama Jurota in the face, only to be effortlessly blocked by Lu Tian. Recognizing that Jurota, Lu Tian and Rolón Donaire were incredibly strong, Raian decided to back down, knowing that he'd have fun during his fight.
After Agito's win against Lu Tian, Raian and the other fighters met the Purgatory gladiators in the middle of the ring to explain how the Worm was acting behind the scenes. With the call to end the tournament dismissed by Rolón, both sides went back to their gates; Raian and Alan Wu would jump the gun and become the next match up. Despite their mutual desire to murder the other as brutally as possible, Raian could only pause as Alan declared himself as one of his "parents", confused and unaware that Alan was in truth a vessel for their mutual ancestor, Wu Hei. Alan unleashed his latent strength with Guihun, fighting Raian before the referee could even announce the match's start.
Though Raian handled Alan's blows with ease, just before he could retaliate, Edward and Xia Ji suddenly entered his field of view from one of the arena's entrances. Recognizing his actual target, Raian's shifted his focus towards defeating Alan as quickly as possible, with Alan's assault on Raian proving fruitless. With Alan in a vulnerable position, Raian used his Removal to rip The King of Slaughter in half. Uncaring of the penalty he gave to the Kengan team, Raian rushed to the gates to chase his targets. He was later disqualified, with Alan posthumously declared the winner of the match.
Some time later, after The Other Tokita Niko's appearance, Raian managed to find Edward Wu, with the latter ready to fight him. Facing him aided by his relatives Solomon Wu and Fabio Wu, Raian struggled against them up until the arrival of Erioh and Wu Xing, which allowed him to focus on Solomon.
Power & Abilities
Raian is an absolute physical powerhouse—even for a Kure—and he takes full advantage of it with his ferocious fighting style. He is also one of a handful of Kure clan members in its history to have achieved the rare 100% Removal rating, though Raian is still immensely powerful without it. Kanoh Agito notes that Raian is one of two people that could match Takeshi in terms of strength, the other being Julius Reinhold[6]. His strikes are described to be extremely heavy—his punches in particular—only being outclassed by Wakatsuki's in terms of raw power according to Ohma.
Even without using Removal, Raian is extremely durable and has a staggeringly huge level of endurance, suffering only minor outward damage during his fight with Mokichi Robinson. Later, during his fight with Tokita Ohma, he was able to absorb a truly astounding amount of damage and easily return the favor, even after the latter tapped into Advance. During Hayami Katsumasa's attempted coup against the Kengan Association, he was capable of surviving several direct hits from bladed weapons by the likes of two elite members of Hayami's Guardians. Raian even got pierced in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt, yet none of those attacks significantly damaged him. Tapping into his Removal allows him to absorb even more punishment, seeing how he managed to withstand and even overwhelm Ohma in a berserker state from fully being consumed by Advance. However, Raian would not come out of that slugfest unharmed.
Even over two years after the Annihilation Tournament, his extraordinary durability and endurance is still as impressive as ever, as seen during his fight against Edward Wu and his "spares", Solomon Wu and Fabio Wu. Though Raian was savagely beaten and knocked down several times, he managed to recover quickly each time and turn the tide of the battle with nothing but his psychotic bloodlust and Removal spurning him forward, much to Edward's surprise.
As a Kure, Raian is also a powerful martial artist who has mastered a wide range of martial arts incorporated into the Kure Clan, from Eastern Martial Arts to Western Martial Arts. To that end, he is well aware of the practices, techniques, and capabilities of a vast number of martial arts styles and how to counter and exploit them. However, Raian usually prefers to fight with brute force, largely owing to his violent psychopathy. He is also more than happy to fight dirty, using cheap shots such as splashing blood into his opponent's eyes to limit their vision.[7]
Raian believed that there is no one he cannot dominate with pure physical strength.[8] To that end, he rarely used the Kure techniques he learned prior to his defeat at Ohma's hands, admitting that he was rusty with them during Hayami's coup.[9]
Two years after the tournament, Raian showed remarkable improvement in his fighting strategy, fighting on par against Alan's Guihun at full strength, without using his own removal. He now incorporates the Kure Clan techniques he formerly neglected into his fighting style while retaining his brutality. After Ohma fully recovered, he sparred with Raian nearly every day, with Ohma admitting that Raian won more of them. Rolón Donaire noted that Raian had the strength to be on par with the likes of Kanoh Agito. Raian's relative Karla also said Raian could contend with Rolón, though he is not a good with techniques. Even Edward Wu acknowledged Raian's might.
Raian also has a staggering growth rate able to adapt and improve rapidly. He was able to relearn all his Kure techniques in a year and incorperate tactics into his fighting. While fighting Edward Wu, Raian was intially easily overwhelmed by him, and even when working with Erioh and Xing Wu did not help. Edward was able to overwhelm 4 elite Kure and 1 Wu member with only sparse use of his Guihun. However after Raian fought him again by himself he was able to kill Edward, and Erioh commented Raian will one day surpass himself when he was in his prime.
Kure Clan Style
According to Erioh, the Kure Clan Style is designed to both give and take lives. Many of the Kure Clan Style combative techniques emphasize disabling or incapacitating their opponent with attacks that focus on the vitals or sensitive areas of the body, ranging from full-powered strikes to the neck, throat and chest and attacks against the eyes. In Raian's case, he was admittedly rusty with his clan's techniques due to neglecting them. Two years later, Raian had essentially shaken that rust off, further compounded by his brute strength and his sheer killer instinct.
Etymology
- Raian (
雷 庵 ) uses the kanji for "thunder" and "hut".
Notes & Trivia
- Raian is both named and modelled after Ryan Gracie, the bad boy of the Gracie family.[1]
- Raian's hobby is killing guys that piss him off; unsurprisingly, he is also exceptionally skilled at killing guys that piss him off.[1]
- At 21, Raian was the second youngest fighter in the Kengan Annihilation Tournament.
- Raian and Hayakuwa Samato are said to be distant relatives. The extent of this relationship is unknown.[10]
- Raian is the only fighter whose epithet wasn't visually displayed during the Kengan Association VS Purgatory Tournament.
- Raian's theme in the anime is In Your Face by PABLO.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Raian's profile
- ↑ 1 win against Mokichi Robinson during the Kengan Annihilation Tournament(Ch56)(Ep10)
- ↑ 1 loss to Tokita Ohma during the Kengan Annihilation Tournament(Ch135) (Ep24)
1 loss against Alan Wu in the Kengan Association VS Purgatory Tournament due to the "No Kill" rule(Ch97) - ↑ Chapter 54
- ↑ Chapter 133
- ↑ Chapter 137
- ↑ Chapter 53
- ↑ Chapter 135
- ↑ Chapter 177
- ↑ Reddit: Official Author Twitter Response about Samato
