Ganryu

Story

Ganryu is the youngest ever Oozeki (champion) in the world of professional sumo. He would have been the youngest Yokozuna (Grand Champion) if not for his dishonorable life outside the sport. His terrible behavior in and outside the ring led to Ganryu being banned from sumo. After that, Ganryu delved into the world of crime and illegal gambling. However, he still wanted to prove his strength to the world, and the first King of Iron Fist tournament was an excellent opportunity for that.

Despite failing to win the tournament, his talent was not left unnoticed by Kazuya Mishima, who became the head of Mishima Zaibatsu shortly after the first King of Iron Fist tournament. Hiring Ganryu as his bodyguard, Kazuya had him enter the second installation of the tournament. Ganryu meanwhile dreamed of his own sumo ring to impress Michelle Chang, who he hopelessly fell in love with after the first tournament, even if his love was unrequited.

Many years later, Ganryu is now leaving his peaceful, retired life in Hawaii, with his personal sumo stable to boot. Things change when he notices Julia Chang, his former crush's daughter, during the fourth King of Iron First broadcast and falls in love all over again. At the time, Julia was determined to find a disk containing a reforestation program. Knowing this, Ganryu enters the fifth King of Iron Fist tournament and successfully recovers the disk. Unfortunately for him, after he hands off the disk to Julia, he nervously fidgets for too long, and she runs away before he can confess his love for her.

Returning to Hawaii, Ganryu opens up his sumo-themed restaurant - Chanko Paradise. The restaurant performed significantly below Ganryu's expectations, and he started looking for a way to promote it. The fifth King of Iron Fist tournament is announced as if on cue, and Ganryu jumps at the opportunity. This proves to be a great success, Chanko Paradise begins to thrive.

All goes well until one-day Ganryu stumbles upon a video of Julia where she asks for donations to support her reforestation project. Eager to help his beloved Julia, he accidentally donated all of his earnings and put himself into a tight financial situation. To earn money, Ganryu resorts to streaming but gains little attention. Following his previous strategy, he enters King of Iron Fist once again, but this time to promote himself.

Personality

Ganryu started out as a rather greedy and overly prideful man. Seeking money was so important to him that even resorting to crime wasn't far enough. Over the years, he mellowed out and matured, however, establishing his own business and a sumo stable. Ganryu is rarely seen interacting with other characters. Still, when it comes to Julia and Michelle Chang, he tends to show his more innocent side, as he nervously tries to propose and goes at great lengths to help out and impress the women he loves.

Appearance

Ganryu is a huge man, his hair is tied in a topknot, and his forehead bears a small scar. Most often, he's depicted wearing little more than a mawashi and some bindings on his feet. In Tekken 7, he underwent a significant redesign, appropriate with his change of career. He wears a traditional Japanese outfit with geta sandals, but on top of it, he has a belt made out of rope, prayer beads on his neck, a massive cape with a complicated design, beads on his hands, and has a collar decorated with bird feathers.

Playstyle

Despite his poor mobility, Ganryu is a pressure-oriented character who sticks to his opponents and never lets go. While it's difficult for Ganryu to get out of pressure or play-around movement, once he gets in, he's an intimidating force to be up against. With one of the best lows in the game and ambiguous low/mid mixups, Ganryu forces his opponents to either guess correctly or to find gaps in pressure to get out. However, if the enemy fails, Ganryu can easily gain momentum and snowball entire matches with his rather damaging pokes and combos.