Ryūnosuke Naruhodō


 * This article is about the character, Ryūnosuke Naruhodō. You may be looking for the game Dai Gyakuten Saiban: Naruhodō Ryūnosuke no Bōken.

"Ryūnosuke Naruhodō"

- I'll become an attorney... I swear it!

Ryūnosuke Naruhodō was an ancestor of Phoenix Wright who lived in Japan during the Meiji period.

While he was a second year student at Teito Yuumei University, Ryūnosuke was put on trial for a murder he did not commit. After his acquittal, he traveled to London where he became acquainted with Sherlock Holmes. Ryūnosuke went on to defend clients in the English courtroom.

Personality
Ryūnosuke is defined by his loyalty to his friends, faith in his clients, and pursuit of the truth. All three of those drive him to transcend cultural barriers in an environment prejudiced against Japanese. Ryūnosuke has a very sharp detective instinct, and is skilled in both observation and deduction. By using Sherlock Holmes's deductions as a starting point and scaffold, Ryūnosuke finds difficult truths behind otherwise baffling situations.

In trials, Ryūnosuke's lack of experience is countered by his natural charisma. In closing arguments, he is able to bring all sorts of eccentric and even outright racist jurors around to his point of view. Many characters note he is an excellent public speaker, and he succeeds even when placed under odd demands like time or word limits. He shares many of the same movements and sarcastic mental commentary as his descendant Phoenix Wright, although Ryūnosuke is not quite as fond of bluffing.

Ryūnosuke tends to be a bit uptight. He is easily flustered and breaks down often and dramatically. He hates doctors since he had bad experience getting a needle jab at the age of 5. Ryūnosuke's nervous habit is to glance around wildly. He brings himself back to his senses by slapping his cheeks. When Ryūnosuke is confident, he maintains eye contact and rests his hand on his sword. Over the course of five cases, he becomes more composed.

Kazuma Asougi's advice has significant impact on Ryūnosuke's outlook. In times of self-doubt, Ryūnosuke reflects back on Asougi. Ryūnosuke derives a lot of his inner strength from his friends, first Susato and Asougi and later Sherlock and Iris.

Ryūnosuke's miscellaneous talents include a proficiency with tongue twisters.

Name

 * Like his descendant Phoenix Wright, Ryūnosuke Naruhodō's Japanese surname, "Naruhodō" (成歩堂), is a reference toward the Japanese expression "naruhodo", which roughly means "I see", "I understand", or "indeed", and is usually used to agree with other people's ideas.
 * His given name "Ryūnosuke" (龍ノ介) is shared with the Japanese writer Ryūnosuke Atagawa (芥川龍之介), with the kanji 之 replaced with the katakana ノ.
 * The name literally means "dragon herald" (i.e., someone heralding the arrival of a dragon). This is in reference to his status as ancestor to Phoenix Wright, who has the Japanese given name "Ryūichi" (龍一) that refers to the dragon; as the "dragon herald", Ryūnosuke precedes Ryūichi "the dragon" in the timeline of the Ace Attorney series.
 * Naruhodō's English name in dowolf's unofficial English translation is "Yanosuke Raitou"
 * His fan English surname, "Raitou" is a Japanese transliteration of "Wright"
 * His fan English given name, "Yanosuke", is a Japanese transliteration of Ianos, the Greek form of Janus. Janus is a Greek god (which continues the mythical-naming of the defense attorney trope) of new beginnings, travelers, and doors; all of these apply to Yanosuke. Dowolf had plans to make a pun with "Ya' know" in conjunciton with Yanosuke's name.

Development

 * Ryūnosuke is essentially written similarly to his descendant Ryūichi (Phoenix Wright), with the different setting providing enough to distinguish them while still making the former easy to get used to by series veterans and new players alike.
 * Ryūnosuke was given a student uniform designed to distinguish his look from Phoenix Wright's. Art director Kazuya Nuri had the most trouble with the hairstyle due to the limited selection of plausible hairstyles of the period.
 * Ryūnosuke's sword is "Karuma", the exact same sword owned by Kazuma Asōgi before his death. Ryūnosuke also wrapped Asōgi's headband around it in memory of his friend.