Ragna the Bloodedge

Ragna the Bloodedge is a wanted criminal with an extraordinarily large bounty on his head for attempting to destroy the NOL, and is Jin and Saya's older brother. He is a playable character in Calamity Trigger and Continuum Shift and is the main protagonist of the series.

Information
When he was young, Ragna lived in a church with his younger siblings Jin and Saya, and was watched over by the sister of one of the Six Heroes. At some point, Saya became very ill and Ragna decided to look after her, and in turn spending less time with his brother. Jin eventually grew jealous of Saya for being able to spend a lot of time with Ragna, and he began to hate her.

Soon after Saya became sick, the church was burnt down by Jin and Terumi Yuuki, who also cut off one of Ragna's arms and kidnapped Saya. At some point, Ragna was bitten by a vampire, which turned his right eye red (causing him to become heterochromic) and turned his previously blonde-hair white. He was later found by Jubei of the Six Heroes where he proceeded to train Ragna on how to control the power of his newly acquired Azure Grimoire which replaced his lost arm, repeatedly stated although the item was a part of him now, the power was not his to command yet. For the next few years, Jubei trained Ragna to control the power of the Azure, being periodically watched by Rachel, who requested Jubei to take care of him. During the time, he met Taokaka as a child. When his training was at last complete, Ragna had finally come to the decision to depart on his journey. But before the three would part ways, Jubei took Ragna to the burnt down church and handed Ragna two items once belonging to a hero named 'Bloodedge': his jacket and the Blood Scythe. Feeling the weight of the man that gave hope to the world and the Six Heroes, Ragna finally takes off, his training now complete.

Ragna has a deep hatred for the NOL, and travels from city to city destroying their bases; due to this, he has become a world-known criminal and has a bounty on his head "large enough to buy a small country", according to Jin. Despite this, he seems to travel through cities without much fear of being detected or captured by the NOL or any vigilantes.

After the incident at the Sheol Gate, Ragna lets Noel Vermillion travel with him for a short time, though he tells her to leave afterwards, upsetting Noel who tells him that the next time they meet they will be enemies. He is shortly thereafter attacked by Carl Clover, managing to beat the boy though he is dealt a nasty blow from Nirvana. He then wakes up in the Kaka Clan village, having fallen in there and spends the next few days recovering and becoming friendly with the Kaka clan, including Tao.

He leaves shortly thereafter and meets Platinum before fighting Lambda-11 due to Kokonoe messing up the teleporting process. After fending her off, Ragna hears from Kokonoe to not fight Hazama as he can't beat him. Hearing Noel's name from Kokonoe prompts Ragna to find Rachel who tells him where to go, though reminding him that he mustn't fight Hazama. He then runs into Jin at the NOL branch, though he manages to beat him.

Ragna proceeds to fight Hazama, though his Grimoire is useless as Terumi, the original creator of the BlazBlue, locks Ragna's. Ragna is forced to watch as Noel descends from the cauldron as Mu-12. Just as he is about to be killed, Nu intervenes and gives Ragna her Idea Engine, allowing him to fight Hazama. He runs to Rachel to free her from a binding spell and then fights Mu. Ragna manages to wake Noel's mind by using the True Azure's power to activate the Idea Engine though in the process his left arm is destroyed. After the fight, he, Jin and Noel see that Hazama and Relius Clover are working for Saya, which is a shock to them. After they leave from Kagutsuchi, he, Jin and Noel decide to leave the city and become stronger. Kokonoe gives Ragna a new mechicanal arm using Lambda's parts. He also joins Sector Seven in the process. Ragna leaves for Ikaruga with Taokaka, who was ordered by Jubei to go with him much to Ragna's dismay, but he caves in as Tao would follow him even if he said no. After, he and Taokaka headed for Ikaruga, as Ragna stated that there's something he needs to do there.

Ragna is the body of The Black Beast, however, he must fuse with Nu, the heart, before the beast can awaken. Ragna is able to access the True Azure through his imitation Azure Grimoire with Nu's Idea Engine and the bond he has with Noel.

Material Collection Information

 * Hobbies: Cooking
 * Values: His silver bracelet
 * Likes: Meat dishes
 * Dislikes: Ghosts, the NOL

Appearance
Ragna is modeled after the traditional Japanese manga and anime hero. He is a young adult with white spiky hair and heterochromia: his left eye being green and his right being red, a side effect from Rachel's bite. His clothing consists of a hybrid of modern, futuristic and old features. He wears a vibrant red sleeved jacket with two long thin tails hanging from the back. Under it is a black shirt with three red belts. He wears a pair of black gloves with a red shell on the backs of the hands. His right arm is prosthetic after having lost it when he was younger. The shell opens up to reveal the Azure Grimoire whenever he utilizes it. He wears a black hakama and steel-toed red boots.

Powers and Abilities

 * See here for movelist.

Ragna is one of the more powerful individuals in the world of Blazblue. Having been trained by Jubei, the strongest creature alive himself, Ragna possesses incredible fighting skills enough to take down a squad of the NOL. Thanks to Rachel's vampire bite, Ragna has been given incredible seithr powers. His elemental affinity is darkness. This comes in the form summoning parts the Black Beast to attack such as a pointed jaw, claws and a wing. He also has the ability to transform his entire body into a creature of pure darkness to devastate his foes.

His weapon of choice is the Blood-Scythe, a weapon capable of sucking the life out of its wielder's enemies with each strike and adding it to the user. The Blood-Scythe initially takes on the form of a giant sword with a giant slab of metal resembling a blade. The weapon can change into a scythe-like weapon to effectively steal more energy from the foe through his Drive, Soul Eater. One of the main reasons Ragna is hunted down is because of his possession of the Azure Grimoire (alternatively called Blazblue), an incredibly powerful form of Armagus sought out by many. Ragna uses this to enter a more powerful state known as Blood Kain, enveloping him in a dark aura that doubles his attack power at the cost of his life energy. After absorbing Nu's soul (and becoming complete as a result), Ragna gains access to the Idea Engine, gaining untold amounts of power that far exceed even Hazama.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

 * Rebellion - Ragna's Theme
 * Under Heaven Destruction - Jin VS Ragna
 * White Requiem - Rachel VS Ragna
 * Black Onslaught - Boss/Unlimited Ragna's Theme, with Vocals

Blazblue: Continuum Shift

 * Nightmare Fiction - Ragna VS Hazama
 * Pandora Tears - Ragna VS Mu (μ-12)

Gallery
Click here to view all images of Ragna.

Trivia

 * Ragna appears to be the Blazblue counterpart of Guilty Gear's Sol Badguy, due to their similar fighting styles, hidden powers and rivalry with a particular authority figure. Some concept art sketches depict him with clothing and hair color strikingly similar to Sol as well as a rectangular sword, further alluding to his 'predecessor'.
 * Another character from the Guilty Gear series, Sin from Guilty Gear 2 Overture, may have also been an influence on Ragna. Ragna has a similar, 'I will do what I want' attitude and is also rude. This can be supported by Ragna's early concept art, which shows him with hair in a style similar to Sin's, similar clothing (albeit inverted colors or blue to red and white to black) and even a similar eyepatch. This was later dropped however.
 * In another Blazin' Gears cross, Balken shares some things with Ragna such as quick temper, missing hand (pointing out of Ragna's new hand) and a infected eye (Balken's right eye's wounded and Ragna's right eye isn't it's own color).
 * Ragna is often compared to Dante of the Devil May Cry series due to their similar appearance and the nature of their powers. In the Blazblue Material Collection, a nod is made to this as a sketch of a shocked Ragna is holding the Rebellion, Dante's signature sword. Coincidentally, Rebellion is also the name of his theme song in BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger OST.
 * In a segment of the omake series, Teach Me, Miss Litchi, Ragna points out about his rather low defense, to whom the titular character points out it isn't as bad as Guilty Gear's Chipp Zanuff's, whose defense is notoriously low.
 * Ragna could also be easily compared to Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Both wear mainly red on their bodies with slight clothing of black. Both have a mechanical prosthetic arm and a huge bounty on their heads with Ragna having a "Bounty big enough to buy a small country." They also have brothers whom they hold a grudge against and blame for the death of a loved one(Vash held Knives responsible for Rem's death, while Ragna was led to believe that Jin murdered Saya). Main differences between them both is that Ragna is willing to kill, at least much more considerably than Vash is. Also, Ragna's bounty is because of his own doing, while Vash's bounty is mainly because of things getting destroyed around him, whether he was the culprit or not.
 * Ragna is possibly a reference to the Manga/Anime series Soul Eater, due to his resemblance to the main character Soul Evans whose nickname is Soul Eater. His weapon of choice is a scythe, which is also the form Soul Evans is able to take on as a means of combat.
 * Ragna currently has the most BGMs in the game
 * Ragna is the first Boss character from Arc system works that is both Male and the protagonist of the series
 * During Ragna's flashbacks, his outfit resembles one of the concept designs for the early design stages of Ragna's character.
 * A running gag in Continuum Shift is that Ragna is frequently mistaken for a pedophile/Lolicon. In his story mode, he states (when he is accused of "lusting after (his) own brother") that he is "into young girls" but retracts the statement quickly when he realises its double meaning. He is mistaken as such because he is frequently in the company of Rachel or Luna, both extremely important characters within the BlazBlue story. However, he makes it abundantly clear that he finds both irritating, although he will put up with Rachel's teasing if she has anything important to tell him.
 * Ragna's Unlimited form puts him in a constant Blood Kain state, allowing for increased health regeneration from drive attacks and special extensions, as well as use of Devoured by Darkness without having to prep it beforehand. He does not suffer health loss due to the Blood Kain state in this form.
 * In his "gag" Ending of Blazblue: Continuum Shift, he wakes up on a boat in the middle of the ocean and found himself, Rachel, Iron Tager and Nu as ghost. It is revealed that Ragna has a fear of ghosts, as he barely able to look at himself when he is a ghost himself, easily worked up into a panic-induced frenzy against other ghosts and even inducing a girly exclamation. The group told Ragna that they're after the Crimson Grimoire, a great natural ruby treasure in the HMS Nirvana (which are also occupied by the ghosts of Jin, Carl, Hazama and Arakune). After the battle it turns out that the Crimson Grimoire was just a tasty fish called Ikaruga Tuna just to boost up Ragna's morale. Rachel make the boldest move by trading Ragna for the tuna. They accept and Ragna was very angry after he was toss inside the HMS Nirvana. Ranga snapped saying he was going to kill all of them after the HMS Nirvana crew was going to do the same thing as the tuna is. In the end, it turns out to be a dream while Ragna commented that he was either relieved or rather disappointed.
 * The blade of Ragna's Blood Scythe resembles an enlarged version of one of the 8 blades the Murakumo Units use during combat. In early concept art the two are identical.