Iwagami Ryuusuke “Ryu”
岩神琉介 / 龍 / ЯYU

岩神琉介 / 龍 / ЯYU
Devil’s Rain vocalist
Age: 26
Birthdate: 03.30 (Aries)
Sexuality: Bi/homoflexible
Height/Weight: 170cm / 50kg
Blood-type: A-type
Eye colour: Medium brown, almost always wearing coloured contacts. Sometimes rarely caught in glasses when lounging at home
Hair: typically jet-black, sometimes with bleached parts, sometimes with coloured inserts or braids
Cologne: Histories de Parfums 1899, any with spicy notes paired with vanilla
Piercings: 5 or 6 in lip (mix of ring, spike labrets, regular labrets), 2 in eyebrow (spiked curved barbells), bridge (tiny spikes!), septum, multiple in ears + stretched firsts to ¾”, both nipples, PA, 2x frenum
Mods: split tongue, had magnetic implants in his fingers for a bit but removed them recently
Tattoos: full sleeve on right featuring skulls and sakura, centipede on inner arm on left, lily on left shoulder, butterfly on lower right back

Note: photos are just used as representations

Past bands: Antithesis (non-vk, death metal) > ??? (first vk band, shortlived) > ??? > Devil’s Rain, (deathcore session)

Appearance

When not dressed up for band activities, Ryu can typically be found wearing metal band shirts, roughed up skinny jeans held up by a pyramid stud belt, and often wearing either a pair of docs or his favourite creepers. Ryu tends to wear a lot of accessories- multiple rings featuring skulls and crosses, and of course he wears one of those popular pentagram orb rings as well- a green one Reiji gifted to him when their first band finally made some money. Around his neck there is at least always a necklace that has a small memento pendant dedicated to his parents. Often paired with a VW orb necklace. His wrists are usually adorned with pyramid stud bracelets or other various bracelets. Ryu never, ever wears shorts (he self-harmed in his teens and has scars on his thighs).

Standing at 5’7” (170cm), Ryu’s not very imposing height wise, blending quite easily into a crowd of people even in Japan. He’s quite thin but not to the point his ribs are sticking out. Arms are subtly muscular as are his legs from walking and biking a lot.

Languages: Japanese, somewhat okay with English, don’t ask him to speak anything else, it won’t go well

Occupation: Vocalist, lyricist, and co-founder of Devil’s Rain. Was originally band leader, but let Reiji take over those duties as he was more suited to it.

Education: Dropped out of high school at 16. Self-studied whatever he wanted to learn since then.

Vocal style

Ryu is a baritone. He can growl with deep gutturals, while his screams have a strong delivery and range from the low end to shrieks- though he doesn't employ the latter much. His clean singing voice is lowish, reminiscent of a very young Hazuki (think berry or deathgaze era).

Bio

Ryu’s life was pretty normal for a Japanese kid, at least until his parents died in a mysterious accident. He met Reiji around the same time and quickly became close to him as the older boy helped him cope with the sudden loss of his parents. Reiji’s basically the only person Ryu fully and deeply trusts (and is pretty much the only person who’s seen Ryu cry). With his parents gone, he was shuffled from his original home to his Aunt’s apartment until she also passed when he was 16. Her passing, on top of already losing his parents, really fucked with Ryu for a bit, causing him to lash out and almost end up either in jail or the hospital, and ultimately ending in him also withdrawing from school.

He formed his first band with Reiji not long after, and it helped him channel some of his rage at the world into a better medium. While they started as a simple death metal band, Ryu started wearing more and more makeup, adding more visuals to his act. After their first band broke up, their next band was a Visual Kei band. Ryu loves to use his visuals to try and horrify, scare, or intimidate the audience. He loves to be vulgar and aggressive on stage.

Devil’s Rain is his 3rd band, and the one he hopes to stay in for a long time, even if that’s not all that common in the vk scene.

Fun fact: Young Ryu actually hated singing after being talked into singing for some event and being mocked/laughed at. His parents are the ones who encouraged him to stick with it even though he wanted to never sing in front of people again.

Notable moments: During his first band, Ryu made the mistake of eating far too close to concert time. On top of already being anxious, it spelled trouble for his stomach, and not long into the first song, he spewed his lunch on the stage and some of the first row.

Broke 3 of his ribs when he was 19 by being stupid while drunk, causing a few of his band’s shows to be canceled.

Cut his arm open on something when stage diving once, it took a while to notice because of the fake stage blood he’d already been covered in. Some fangirls probably got his actual blood on them that day and didn’t know it.

Lost a pair of IEMs after stage diving once, they never found them and he had to finish the set without them. When they were found later, they’d been trampled.

Personality

Despite his many piercings being off putting and scary to many at first glance, Ryu is usually quite warm, personable, and friendly- loving to be the joker amongst his friends, especially while drunk or high.

He can be a bit hot-headed at times, but cools off quickly and never stays angry at anything for very long. His fiery nature also feeds into his passions for his work and hobbies, ensuring that when he's working on something he gives it his all. However, Ryu is also quite susceptible to boredom and hates to sit still for too long.

Also in great contrast to his outer image and certainly his bandman alter ego/persona, Ryu can actually be shy about some things or in certain circumstances. He doesn’t like talking to new people at all, and can clam up/want to retreat when uncomfortable.

He’s also definitely a bit of a softie but doesn’t like to let anyone know it. His outward appearance was adopted not only because he liked how it looked, but when you’re covered with spiky metal bits, many people tend to leave you the fuck alone. Ryu dealt with bullying and his kindness being abused/manipulated when he was younger, so he doesn’t like to let people get too close to him. Despite this, when he does like someone he can grow attached quite fast, especially if they are actually nice to him.

In relationships, he can be a bit touchy-feely in private but doesn’t like public displays of affection (particularly with the same sex considering Japan’s prevailing attitude on that still). He likes to be close to his partners, even laying on them, similar to a cat. When in love, he tends to put his partner’s happiness above his own, possibly to a harmful extent.

As the frontman for his band, Ryu is a reckoning force. Aggressive and brutal in both his vocal delivery and performance, he's known for employing the use of blood and other horror-esque theatrics on stage.

He loves to annoy his bandmates both backstage and on stage, much to the amusement of the band's fans. Security often has a hard time keeping Ryu from jumping into the audience near the end of shows, and it's a miracle he hasn't been torn apart by fangirls yet.

Leading up to the show itself, however, Ryu can come off as cold or uncaring as he’s too busy being focused on making sure everything is perfect. Reiji is leader of the band, but Ryu is always double checking everything to make sure that nothing is wrong and nothing can go wrong.

Mannerisms

On stage, constantly makes use of the platform at the front of the stage. If not laying all over it, he usually has a leg perched upon it.
Will staredown random fans during songs- especially watashi dake no mono, where he often lays on the platform on his back, staring out and reaching out towards the audience while covered in fake blood
Toys with his piercings when nervous or bored.
Tries to constantly stay as busy. Smokes and drinks far too often. Gets himself in trouble while drunk if Reiji isn’t able to babysit him.
Loves to get up on the front railing at shows, letting as many girls grab his free hand as possible
Always tries to jump into the audience during the last song, even when he’s told not to
In general, as his band persona, he loves to taunt the bangya a little too much
Always during FXXXしろ grabs and rubs his crotch, sometimes fake moaning. Sometimes will harass Haru or Touya during the song, because fanservice sells right?

Likes:
Heavy aggressive music
Horror movies
Action movies, especially ones like The Raid or Punisher War Zone
Cats, snakes
Crimson-coloured things
Spicy/woodsy scents
Enjoys spicy foods but his tolerance level is shit
Piercing & Body modification
Video games
Alcohol
Rain / Thunderstorms
Blood

Dislikes:
Overly cutesy things
Sappy movies / Rom-coms
Dogs
Hyper bouncy early-morning people
Slow people
Rudeness
Anything that wastes his time unnecessarily
Will fight anyone who dares to disrespect his band (and has caused trouble before because of this)
Will also fight anyone who gives Masato shit for being mixed race (has almost gotten them kicked out of a venue when staff were being racists pricks)
People talking shit about his band or bands he likes on 2ch/tanuki
The whole concept of mitsu- feels like it’s just prostitution with a fancy name

Strengths:
Assertive and aggressive when he needs to be
Doesn’t put up with shit from anyone, especially if it involves anyone he cares about
Can be a bit blunt, but generally not afraid to speak his mind
Quite passionate about things he cares about, particularly his band and making music
Throws himself into all of his projects or songs 200%

Weaknesses:
Alcohol - prone to getting shitfaced and even blackout drunk at his worst
Boredom - with nothing to do, Ryu becomes melancholy quite fast
While throwing himself into a project 200% is good, it can often be at the expense of other things that need his attention
Doesn’t particularly take great care of his health and often has problems sleeping
Taunts their fangirls a little bit too much, it’ll probably bite him in the ass one day
Sometimes scares people away, even when he’s not trying to
Hard drugs and Uppers particularly - he avoids the fuck out of them cause he knows he’d abuse them if he ever got his hands on some
Is actually an emotional person but he tries like hell to hide it from everyone, even Reiji. (Reiji is probably well aware of this though)

Important Possessions:
Memento pendant necklace dedicated to his parents, only takes it off to shower
Green pentagram orb ring that Reiji gave him
His first set of IEMs that no longer work
Photos of him and Reiji as kids, as well as a single photo of him with his parents on his first day of school in his wallet
Pet peeves:

Elitist metalhead fuckers who try and diss his band just cause they wear makeup / play with other visual kei bands
People who only listen to what’s popular and refuse to listen to anything else
The whole fake idol industry, and worse, how it’s trying to invade his scene
Commoditization of subcultures - Vk, punk, metal, etc - to try and repackage them for mainstream appeal/consumption