Ryuunosuke Akasaka

Ryunosuke Akasaka is a supporting character featured in Hajime Kamoshida's light novel and anime series The Pet Girl of Sakura Dormitory. One of the residents of the eponymous dormitory, Ryunosuke is a very talented programmer who frequently speaks in logical and scientific terms. He also suffers from gynophobia, an irrational fear of females. Ryunosuke is depicted with long black hair, a feminine face, and is portrayed by a female Japanese voice actress, making him an example of an otokonoko character (or "trap" in English online anime slang). Despite this, he has a female love interest in Rita Ainsworth.

As a character of the Sakurasou series, Ryunosuke is a regular contestant in the International Saimoe League because of a prominent voting block that represents the series keeping itself active since 2012. He first appeared in the 2013 male exhibition contest where he reached the bracket stage, and competed in the 2014 exhibition bracket which was contested exclusively by otokonoko characters, reaching the quarter-finals. Ryunosuke has also appeared in all of ISML's regular seasons from 2015 onwards except the 2019 edition, where he competed in the divine crown consolation tournament instead and finished runner-up behind Mikaela Hyakuya from Seraph of the End.

The dormitory resident would finally get his first ISML award by winning the amethyst exhibition ring in 2021, which was contested between a period's best performers who have never won an ISML award yet. At the same time, he also progressed to Split 3 of the regular season (last 3 periods), which is his best-ever performance outside of the 2014 trap exhibitions.

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How hard can it be for a second-year high school student to develop an artificial intelligence assistant? Most, if not all, would doubt whether anybody of a similar age can even attempt to do so. Akasaka Ryūnosuke, however, managed to achieve this feat all by himself. Trusted by several companies to develop technological products, he is a teenage programming prodigy, and machines to him are his best allies.

Ryūnosuke’s social life, however, is virtually non-existent. He shuts himself in his room facing the two computer screens almost every day, and whoever wants to communicate with him using whatever platform would be answered by “Maid-chan”, his artificial intelligence program. Even his dormmates find It a hassle to talk to him. He just seems... incompatible with the rest of the world.

What is friendship and love? For him these were just bugs in the human neutral circuit. He believed that these are things that he doesn’t need, as a part of his job as a programmer is to wipe out any bugs. But as somebody came and messed his ideal situation up, he might have to rethink the definition of these two words that seem to contradict the universe that he was so accustomed to where everything is just binary.

Humans ourselves are difficult to comprehend as we harbor emotions that most other animals don’t. Akasaka Ryūnosuke’s biggest coding challenge perhaps is to program his brain to comprehend those bugs in us that might not be bugs at all.

(written by Smartboyhw)