Solo Leveling Goto Ryuji

Goto Ryuji (고토 류지) was the strongest hunter in Japan and the Guild Master of the Draw Sword Guild.

Appearance

Goto was a handsome and muscular man with shaggy black hair and a neatly trimmed black beard. When using his powers or agitated, his eyes glowed pure white. During the 4th Jeju Island Raid, he wore his guild's standard black battle uniform and wielded a long red katana.

Personality

On the surface, Goto presented himself as a calm, collected, and polite individual who rarely ever showed signs of alarm or anger. However, in reality, he was consumed by overconfidence and had a cruel disregard for human life, as displayed when he left the Korean S-Rank Hunters to die for his own gain and showed no sympathy for his guild members when he discovered their corpses. He was also cunning and inquisitive, as he was the one who hatched the plot to lead the Korean S-Rankers to their deaths and was quick to realize that Jinwoo was more powerful than he looked.

However, due to his pride and his longtime status as Japan's strongest hunter, Goto had a hard time accepting whenever someone was stronger than him and would flat-out deny that he was weaker than them, even if all evidence pointed to the contrary. This hubristic attitude was what ultimately led Goto to his death in battle against the Ant King, as his ego prevented him from realizing that he was outmatched until it was too late.

History

About four years after the emergence of the Jeju Island S-Rank Gate, ant attacks began to occur in various cities on the south coast of Japan, resulting in the deaths of dozens of Japanese civilians and hunters. Realizing that the dungeon break on Jeju Island could no longer be ignored and was now a risk to all of Asia, Goto flew to Korea to meet with Go Gunhee and offered to help the Korean government rid the island of the ants and finally reclaim it once and for all. With nothing to lose and with no other choice, Gunhee accepted his offer.^[1]

Four days before the launch of the 4th Jeju Island Raid, Goto met up with the rest of the Jeju Island Raid Party inside the Korean Hunters' Gym and witnessed Jinwoo easily incapacitate Atsushi Kumamoto when the latter got carried away in his sparring bout with Cha Hae-In. Suspicious as to whether Jinwoo was actually a mage-type hunter like the official report had said, Goto challenged him to a 1v1 sparring match and discovered that Jinwoo was able to move fast enough to easily dodge his attacks.^[2]

Realizing that he wouldn't be able to land a hit on Jinwoo as long as he kept holding back, Goto unleashed his full power and attacked Jinwoo with the intent to kill, giving him a small cut on his cheek. However, before he could try anything else, Jinwoo grabbed his hand. Realizing that Jinwoo hadn't been taking him seriously for the entirety of their match, Goto lost his cool and attempted to attack him again, but Kei and Hoshino restrained him out of fear that he would get injured if the fight progressed and the match ended right there with no official victor.^[3]

During the 4th Jeju Island Raid, Goto divided his guild members into four teams. As the raid progressed, Goto suddenly lost contact with his guild members in Teams Charlie and Delta, and stumbled across their corpses in his search for them. Unmoved by their deaths and believing that they died because they were weak, he then relayed the news to Chairman Matsumoto, revealing that they never had any real intention of helping the Koreans reclaim Jeju and had only offered to "help" in order to annihilate the Korean S-Rank Hunters for their own ends.

With their mission having mostly succeeded, Matsumoto ordered Goto and his surviving guild members to leave the island and abandon the Korean raid team to die. However, before they could do so, they were ambushed by the Ant King, who decapitated Ishida in one strike. Believing that he could win, Goto decided to fight and ordered Hoshino to leave him behind and join up with Team Bravo. However, the Ant King proved to be too strong even for him and swiftly beheaded him as well.

Abilities

As the greatest hunter in Japan, Goto was one of the strongest foreign hunters (aside from the National Level Hunters) introduced in the series. However, despite his status, Goto was no match for Jinwoo during their sparring bout before the 4th Jeju Island Raid and was noted to be completely outclassed by Liu Zhigang, China's strongest hunter, in raw power by a Chinese navy captain who had seen them both in action firsthand.^[4]

• Enhanced Strength: Goto possessed great physical strength, as displayed by how he was able to cut Jinwoo's skin with his bare hands despite being significantly weaker than him at the time.

• Enhanced Speed: Goto could move at great speeds, as displayed by how he was able to move fast enough to use his hand like a blade and react in time to the Ant King's first attack when the monster suddenly ambushed him from behind.

Etymology

• Goto means "rear, remainder" (後) (go) and "wisteria" (藤) (to).

• Ryuji means "dragon" (竜) (ryu) and "two" (二) (ji).