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Ryōko Mendō (面堂 了子, Mendou Ryouko?) is the younger sister of Shūtarō Mendō.

Biography[]

Like her older brother, Ryōko is a very attractive and well-mannered girl, but she is actually a sadistic person. She dislikes boredom who is always acting in a half-joking manner. She is a 2nd Year at Seiran High School for Girls. She loves to torment the people she likes, such as her brother and Tobimaro Mizunokōji, with pranks and by creating bad situations for them. When she first appears, she had spent 2 days traveling by ox cart to deliver Shūtarō's forgotten (and now spoiled) bentō, and she will frequently go through such lengths simply to harass him. She also likes to take advantage of Ataru Moroboshi's flirtatious behavior, usually causing a riotous scene in the process.

She is almost always accompanied by her loyal Kuroko who carry out her every order with great skill, in stark contrast to Shūtarō's mostly incompetent Black Glasses Corps. They will set her bombs and traps for her and transport her, either with a kago or by two of them wearing a horse costume for her to ride. They do not only serve Ryōko though, as they are seen carrying out jobs in stories that only feature Shūtarō.

She will throw grenades and bombs at people while acting calm and composed, and yet will cry over them when they return to her charred to a crisp. She often acts in total secrecy without telling anyone of her plans, such as setting bombs in the giant Christmas Cake, turning the giant Christmas Tree into a firework, and retaliating to people by setting off bombs near them.

She also shows an interest in black magic, having used hypnosis and voodoo dolls to torment her brother. She also likes to collect rare and mysterious items. She possesses a sakura tree that she treats like a pet, feeding it sake and the legs of Shūtarō's pet octopi.

Appearance[]

Ryōko is a beautiful girl with thigh-length brown hair that is always tied in the back by different colored bows with square bangs covering her forehead and brown eyes.

Personality[]

Ryōko is portrayed as a kind hearted, innocent, caring and loving girl but is in all actuality a sadistic, arrogant, mischievous and manipulative person. She takes great pride in tormenting people especially her older brother coming up with elaborate pranks and schemes to get her way.

Relationships[]

Shūtarō Mendō

Shūtarō and Ryōko have a complicated relationship, to put it mildly. Both siblings dearly love each other, but at the same time, Ryōko relishes in causing her brother trouble or even outright suffering for her own amusement, such as when she tries to guilt him into eating spoiled food that would obviously have given him food poisoning. In return, Shūtarō knows his sister is a trouble-maker and is usually on the look-out for her twisted little games, but his brotherly drive to protect her means she easily tricks him or leads him into harm's way.

Tobimaro Mizunokōji

Ryōko has been tormenting Tobimaro since they were little children, tricking him into traps, stranding him on high places, pushing him into ponds, and otherwise taking advantage of his physical ineptitude to make him suffer for her own amusement. She professes to be in love with Tobimaro, but with her sadistic and mischievous personality, it's impossible to say for certain if she genuinely means it and her cruel tricks are just a very bratty way of expressing her affection, or if she's lying and simply making the facetious claim in order to torment both Tobimaro and her brother. Tobimaro's feelings for Ryōko are far less obfuscated; he loathes her, never hesitating to remind her or anyone in earshot of how she has made his life a misery, and striving to avoid her wherever possible.

Ataru Moroboshi

As Ryōko is a beautiful teenage girl, the lecherous Ataru is absolutely smitten with her, and will gladly do anything she asks in hope that this will make her receptive to his desires to caress, embrace and kiss her. Due to his unflinching optimism about his chances with the opposite sex, Ataru is the only man in Ryōko's life who is in denial of her sadistic, manipulative streak, and always puts a positive spin on her intentions whenever he interacts with her. In return, Ryōko thinks Ataru is one of the funniest "toys" she has to play with, since it's so easy to get him to do anything that she wants, no matter how ludicrous. That it infuriates her brother to see her flirting with his arch-enemy only makes it more appealing for Ryōko.

Shingo

Shingo becomes infatuated with Ryōko when he first meets her, making her the first woman he falls in love with after being rejected by Lum. He sincerely attempts to court her, in his own inimitably clumsy way, and goes so far as to fight Shūtarō for his right to date her. Ryōko plays along at first, finding Shingo's antics hilarious, but then firmly denounces him after she sees him glomping onto Lum in an effort to recharge himself. With Ryōko's personality, it's hard to be certain if she genuinely likes Shingo and was hurt to see him apparently groping another woman, or if the whole act was just another game to her.

Trivia[]

  • Her seiyū would also voice Maris from Maris the Chōjo (a short story by Rumiko Takahashi adapted into an OVA).
  • Her second seiyū previously voiced Sakura Mamiya from Kyōkai no Rinne.
  • A character of Ranma ½, Kodachi Kuno is very similar to Ryōko. Both are rich, have annoying older brothers, long hair, and can act proper and sophisticated while also possessing a sadistic, murderous streak.
  • Ryōko makes a cameo in episode 4 of Creamy Mami as one of the top ten performers on television. She is number five on the list and her song is titled "Loves Masquerade."
  • The skeletal mask and false hands that Ryōko is shown using on her debut appearance as well as on several other occasions may be a reference to the hone onna, or "bone woman". This yokai is the ghost of a young woman who died with a deep romantic love in her heart that leaves her unable to rest in peace; she consequently returns to haunt the man she loved, appearing to him as she did in life, but to others as a skeletal corpse dressed in her former finery. Though motivated by love, her presence brings death, as she siphons away her lover's life-force through her embrace, almost invariably killing the man she loved with her inability to let him go. This yokai's association with romantic tragedy and the destruction of men through their weakness to beauty resonates with Ryōko's characterization as a beautiful, manipulative sadist who adores drama, especially tragic romance.

Media Appearances[]

Manga[]

  • Chapters 121-122
  • Chapter 123
  • Chapter 135 (138 in wideban)
  • Chapter 141
  • Chapter 163
  • Chapter 175
  • Chapter 178-179
    • Chapter 178
  • Chapter 182
  • Chapter 196
  • Chapters 202-203
  • Chapter 213
  • Chapters 224-227 (222-225 in wideban)
    • Chapter 224 (222 in wideban)
    • Chapter 227 (225 in wideban)
  • Chapter 232
  • Chapter 244
  • Chapters 252-256 (255-259 in wideban)
  • Chapter 274
  • Chapter 275
  • Chapters 309-310
  • Chapter 321
  • Chapter 327
  • Chapters 329-333 (331-335 in wideban)
    • Chapter 332 (334 in wideban)
  • Chapter 336
  • Chapter 352

Anime[]

Gallery[]

References[]

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