Kusaka Ryuuji

Kusaka Ryuuji (九坂隆二) is a midfielder for Shinsei Inazuma Japan.

Appearance
Kusaka is quite tall and has a muscular body. He has light brown hair which falls downwards. When he is calm he keeps his eyes closed, but when angered, he opens them.

When he was younger, his skin tone was a little lighter than it is currently. His hair was shorter, and was shown to become curly when it rained, as he had a small curl at the middle of his forehead. However, when young Kusaka was angered, his pupils were red and his hair was more spiky than flat. He had his eyes closed the whole time, so it is unknown if his eyes were red before he was angry, although in present time his eyes are maroon. As a child, he wore a white long-sleeved shirt with blue on the shoulders and half of the sleeves, which the other half was white.

Whilst in his Berserker Mode, Kusaka's bandanna falls off, showing his hair. Instead of his hair being fluffy and more together, it is more curly, spiky and has turned to a light grey colour. His iris is now red instead of maroon, but still has black pupils.

Personality
He's usually a smiling and friendly person, but once he's insulted, he gets angry and attacks the person who insulted him physically.

Manabe Jinichirou commented that when Kusaka was younger, he was more kind and used to be more of a scaredy-cat than someone who was to get aggravated easily. He also said that "Normally he has the kind face of Buddha, but once he loses his temper he changes into a demon".

Background
As stated by Manabe Jinichirou and Minaho Kazuto in episode 8, Kusaka and his gang are currently being expelled from their school because they caused a lot of troubles back then. He joined Shinsei Inazuma Japan so he can return to school along with his gang.

During his childhood he was a sweet kind boy, sheltering some birds during the rain with his umbrella. Everything changed when his childhood friend, Kamida Satoko was bullied by some others boys and he tried to protect her and failed, and she left Kusaka alone. Ever since then, he gained his 'other' personality, consisting his anger. When his second personality awaken, he defeated the boys who bullied Satoko. Although, she got scared and ran away. That was when Kusaka determined that he cannot be 'weak' and must become stronger so everyone will not leave him.

Plot (Galaxy)
He first appeared on the trailer of Galaxy, along with the other new members of Shinsei Inazuma Japan.

In Episode 1, he was shown to be wearing a uniform from an unknown school. He was then chosen by Kuroiwa Ryuusei to be a midfielder for Japan's nationals, Shinsei Inazuma Japan.

After being chosen, his team, Shinsei Inazuma Japan, had an exhibition match against Teikoku. He stole the ball from one of Teikoku's players but then got the ball stolen from him by Kabata Taruhiko. Kabata then insulted Kusaka because of him thinking the tackle was a foul. This angered Kusaka which made him run up to three of Teikoku's players and push them out of his way, which made him get a foul. Teikoku ended up as the victor of the match, with a score of 10-1.

In Episode 2, it was revealed that Kusaka had never played sports before. Kusaka and the rest of Shinsei Inazuma Japan done some training to get more used to playing soccer, seeing as most of them were beginners. Kusaka was shown to have very strong power in his leg, as he stepped on the ball and burst it very easily. He also hit Manabe in the face with a soccer ball by accident, but said sorry.

In Episode 3, on the match between Fire Dragon, Kusaka and most of the team didn't want to pass the ball to Matatagi because Manabe suspected that he stole his wallet and ordered them to pass to the other person. Later, after hearing the encouraging words from Tenma and seeing Matatagi's determination, he said to Manabe that it doesn't matter no matter whether what kind of person Matatagi is. He also urged Manabe to pass the ball to Matatagi when he was cornered by the 3 members of Fire Dragon.

In Episode 4, Kusaka didn't show up for the training like some other members of Shinsei Inazuma Japan. He was seen hanging out with his gang. The next day, Tenma went to his place to persuade him to go practice but he kindly refused.

In Episode 5, Kusaka and some other members of Shinsei Inazuma Japan took the withdrawal exam, suggested by their coach Kuroiwa Ryuusei, in which they was given the chance to leave the team completely if they wanted to. Kusaka was second to take the test, which was five penalty shots. Like Tetsukado who also failed the test by scoring his last goal, Kusaka also decided to stay in the team, so he scored.

In Episode 6, Kusaka and the team played against Big Waves, Australia's national team. Shindou made a link of passes using Kami no Takuto, which Kusaka was in, and made a successful header-pass to Matatagi. As a result, Tsurugi scored with Bicycle Sword. During half-time, he asked Sakura did she purposely stomp on Konoha's foot to get the ball on the first-half but Sakura protested.

In Episode 8, Kusaka was seen hanging out with his gang again until another gang came and they got into a fight. The fight caused Kusaka and his gang to get caught by the police. At the police station, his friends from the same gang asked why they have to protect the team because rather than protecting, it creates troubles for them. Later, thanks to Kuroiwa, he was released and stayed in Shinsei Inazuma Japan. At night, he was at the place where his gang hanging out alone and remembering their words.

On the day of the match, Kusaka and the rest of Shinsei Inazuma Japan played against Shamshir, their third opponent in the Asia preliminaries. Just before the match started, he saw his childhood friend watching him in the crowd, Kamida Satoko. She didn't show much expression, just a blunt face. It was shown in a flashback of Kusaka's that a younger him tried to save her from a group of boys bullying her, but Kusaka got hit instead. However, young Kusaka switched personalities and turned angry, even making his pupils turn red. As soon as the match started, Matatagi lost the ball to Said Ashraf, the captain of Shamshir. Said Ashraf then easily scored with Oil Rush, making the score 1-0 in favour of Shamshir. Matatagi passed to Kusaka after the kick-off, but Kusaka slipped and lost possession of the ball, giving it to Kasim Bador. Kasim, Said and Tamir Nasr then teased Kusaka about being weak, and that he is no where near world-level at soccer. But Kusaka then got mad and injured all three of them, similar to what he did to Teikoku Gakuen's players.

In Episode 9, the first-half ended and then second-half began. Everyone in Shinsei Inazuma Japan didn't pass the ball to him to prevent him from getting into rampage again. However, he then tried to get the ball and Shamshir started to attack him continuously with rough play. Later, the gang that he fought in the previous episode came to the stadium and he got angry again. He was about to attack them but Tenma came in and got punched instead. However, they still continued to talk bad about him and finally, Kusaka got into his Beserker Mode. However, he was stopped when his childhood friend, Satoko who called him out from the audience seat and told him she has never hated him and apologized. After hearing that, Kusaka cried and finally be able to control over his Berserker Mode and the gang left. The match continued, he was able to play soccer properly and passed the ball to Matatagi who made a goal with Parkour Attack and continued with Tsurugi's Bicycle Sword. He broke through Dai Sabaku Sunaarashi and scored the third goal with Kyoubou Head. The match ended with 3-2 with Shinsei Inazuma Japan winning. At the end of the match, he told Tenma that soccer is interesting.

In Episode 10, he tried to approach Konoha a few times to tell her the most important thing about 'true strength' that he learned after that match between Shamshir but failed. He and everyone trained in the black room for the passed three days. On the third day, he and other members except for Manabe, Minaho and Konoha agreed on staying in Shinsei Inazuma Japan and win FFIV2. Later, Aoi came and told them that their opponent in semi-final is Mach Tiger.

In Episode 11, he, Tenma and Aoi went searching for Konoha when heard that she left with Matatagi and Tetsukado joned them. Later, they found her playing with the rabbits at the zoo. When he listened to Konoha talking to Tenma about her past, Kusaka couldn't take and tried to persuade her but failed as she left. Then, they saw her saved a cat from being hit by the truck in the blink of eye which surprised them. They persuaded her once more time and she decided to come back.

In Episode 12, he tried to approach Konoha wanting to apologize to her for calling her 'irritating' earlier on when she left Shinsei Inazuma Japan but she just ran away. Then, the whole team excluding Tsurugi, Shindou and Ibuki came to him as he told them the situation. He was immediately scolded at by Sakura, Minaho and Manabe for saying that to Konoha. Manabe and Minaho helped him to approach Konoha with their plans so tha Kusaka could apologize but failed miserably. The day of the semi-final match between Mach Tiger finally arrived. During the match, he was assisting Konoha on stopping the opponents due to her fear. But, when Mach Tiger scored the first goal with Tamugan Jar's Ivory Crash, Konoha started to lose confidence in herself and then started blaming herself which led to her crying. Kusaka then suddenly turned into his Berserker Mode and confessed to Konoha that he loves her. The whole team was shocked and Konoha just blushed. Then, when Konoha still hesistated to stop Napa Radamu, he encouraged her that she can do it. Thanks to him, Konoha was able to to steal the ball with her hissatsu, Konoha Roll. He scored the first goal for Shinsei Inazuma Japan by using his hissatsu, Kyoubou Head and Shindou's Kami no Takuto FI. The first-half ended, Konoha came to him and apologized to him that she couldn't accept his feelings but he just smiled and happy that she cheered up again. He sat down on the bench as Tetsukado gave him the drink, said that Kusaka is the man and smiled.

In episode 13, he saved the pinch when Konoha failed to block Kaolan Sagot's pass because of Manabe's miscalculation. Later, he was able to pass through Mei Pakudi's sliding thanks to Minaho and passed the ball to Sakura.

Inazuma Eleven GO Galaxy

 *  [SH] Kyoubou Head

Trivia

 * He has a very quick temper.
 * He has a dislike for spicy food; as seen in Episode 9
 * In scans of the Shinsei Inazuma Japan members, it was mentioned that Kusaka has been expelled from 5 different schools due to being a venturesome delinquent; and joined Japan's team so that he would be allowed in school again, with the members of his gang.