Ragna the Bloodedge

Ragna the Bloodedge is a wanted criminal with an extraordinarily large bounty on his head (well in the trillions) 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 Ragna's right arm 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 into 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 and repeatedly stated that 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 by night without much fear of being detected or captured by the NOL or any vigilantes.

On the date 2199/12/31 AD, New's Year Eve, Ragna travels to Kagutsuchi to destroy the NOL base located there. Along the way, he has a brief confrontation with his younger brother, Jin, inside the headquarters. After the fight he makes his way down to an elevator shaft that leads him straight down to the headquarters basement. There, he meets Hakumen of the Six Heroes and a lengthy battle ensues. As Ragna is about to lose, he activates his Azure Grimoire to tap into the power of the azure and is able to defeat Hakumen.

After arriving at the Cauldron, Noel Vermillion sees memories of her and of an unknown person's past and gets confused. There, she has an encounter with Nu-13. Due to to her being in contact with another Murakumo Unit, Noel loses control of her body which acts like a machine, just like Nu. She is then forced to fight Nu, but cannot defeat her. Right before her death blow, Ragna intervenes and saves her, but can't defeat Nu, either. Noel then saves Ragna from being taken by Nu, who wanted to fuse and jump into the Cauldron with him to become the Black Beast.

Rachel then appears and tells Ragna that Noel is the new "eye", who will inherit the true Azure, and that the world will change. She then departs to activate her Tsukuyomi Unit to protect Kagutsuchi from a powerful blast that came from the Nox Nyctores, Gigant: Take-Mikazuchi. Shortly after Rachel returns, Terumi Yuuki arrives and is able to make Noel look into his soul, causing a Life Link between the two to occur and then escapes.

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 not to 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, and he manages to beat Jin. There Jin also warns Ragna not to fight Terumi, saying Ragna cannot beat him.

Nonetheless, 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 Lambda's Idea Engine, allowing him to bypass his Azure Grimoire's restrictions and allow access to the true Azure and defeat 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. Afterwards, he and Taokaka headed for Ikaruga, as Ragna stated that there's something he needs to do there.

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. Being the human form of the Black Beast, Ragna has incredible seithr powers. His elemental affinity is darkness. In battle he summons parts of the Black Beast to attack such as a pointed jaw or possibly its tail (for Carnage Scissors), claws (Back Spin Kick followup, Devoured By Darkness, and 6D), one of the many heads (Dead Spike and the Hell's Fang Additional Blow), its breath (the Ax Kick followup only in Continuum Shift) or a lump of seithr (5D and 2D), the hide for its skin (D version of Inferno Divider and j.D), and an angelic wing (Black Onslaught). Which all involve the use of drives and his ability to reap souls. 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 that supplements his ability to steal life force with each strike. 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 (which involves summoning parts of the Black Beast). One of the main reasons Ragna is hunted down is because of his possession of the Azure Grimoire (alternatively called BlazBlue) in his right arm, an incredibly powerful form of Armagus sought out by many which grants its wielder power from the Boundary. The Azure Grimoire enhances the powers of whoever wields it. In the case of Ragna, he enters 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. Later onwards the Azure Grimoire downloads Nu's Idea Engine, removing Hazama's control over it and granting Ragna access to the True Azure.

BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

 * Rebellion - Ragna's Theme
 * Under Heaven Destruction - Ragna the Bloodedge VS Jin Kisaragi
 * White Requiem - Ragna the Bloodedge VS Rachel Alucard
 * Black Onslaught - Boss/Unlimited Ragna's theme, with vocals

BlazBlue: Continuum Shift

 * Nightmare Fiction - Ragna the Bloodedge VS Hazama
 * Pandora Tears- Ragna the Bloodedge VS Mu-12

Gallery
Click here to view all images of Ragna.

Trivia

 * Ragna is called "shinigami" in the Japanese dub, meaning "death god". This was replaced in the English version with Grim Reaper, a more Western personification of death.
 * Intriguinely, when Ragna ends his Astral Finish he unfolds a black/red angelic wing from his left side. When Jin ends his Astral Finish he unfolds blue/yellow angelic wing from his right side.
 * 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'. Alternate color schemes found in BlazBlue also make Ragna resemble Order-Sol. Strangely, Sol is said to be quite good at cooking and coincidentally, so is Ragna. It is said that barbeque is his specialty. He also may have picked up his cooking from Jubei.
 * 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(though these traits also parallel with Sol). 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, Baiken shares some things with Ragna such as quick temper, missing hand (pointing out Ragna's new hand) and a infected eye (Baiken's right eye's wounded and Ragna's right eye isn't its own color).
 * Ragna and Sol can also be compared to Iori Yagami from the King of Fighters series in terms of personality. Only that Iori is not the protagonist, but is instead the rival character.
 * 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 the new Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of the Two Worlds(which marks the first time Dante is playable in a fighting game), Dante's playsytle is very similar to Ragna, with both of them having long reach on attacks, a launcher, dashing moves that cover distance, diving attacks, short range energy attacks, attacks that have optional followups, a super move that enhances their abilities(as well as moves exclusive to their powered-up state) powerful combos and a strong rushdown game. A notable difference is that Dante is more versatile than and less slugish(as well as packing over 40 moves out of the entire MVC3 cast) and puts more style on his attacks as well as teleporting and actually having projectiles, Ragna on the other hand is more simple to pick up and focus much more on combos and stealing health as well as having more damaging attacks than Dante.
 * Coincidentally, both Dante and Ragna have a similar button scheme in their fighting games, with both Marvel vs. Capcom 3(modelled after Tatsunoko vs. Capcom's button scheme) and Blazblue having a light, medium, and heavy attack button.
 * 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 that 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 and may have served as another template for his overall design. Both wear mainly red coats on their bodies with black clothing worn underneath. Both have a mechanical prosthetic arm(replacing their left arms) 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). Their right arms also possess immense powers (Ragna's Azure Grimoire and Vash's Angel Arm). 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"/"actually a lolicon" 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 the consle version of Continuum Shift, he also gains the ability to follow up additional blows from any move other than their originals(i.e: Dead Spike to Hell's Fang Additional Blow to the first hit of Carnage Scissors) he also can steal health with any attack that does not involve drives and his sword flashes red. This is the result of Ragna absorbing the Idea Engine, to the point his power vastly increases beyond limit.
 * 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 is 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 makes the boldest move by trading Ragna for the tuna. They accept and Ragna was very angry after he was tossed inside the HMS Nirvana. Ragna snapped saying he was going to kill all of them after the HMS Nirvana crew said they were 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.
 * Ragna being the captain of his ship may be down to his status as the protagonist, or a subtle joke regarding psychopomps (such as Grim Reapers and Shinigami) who are said to serve as ferrymen for souls.
 * Ragna's fear of ghosts may derive from the fact that they are spiritual, and thus he cannot fight against them, especially seeing as how they rely on illusions and dark arts, which cannot be physically countered. Although in theory Ragna can absorb ghosts, them being simply souls by another name, it is possible that he avoids doing this because of some undesirable side-effect. Another explanation is that his fear stems from the fact that Hazama, his archenemy, is a ghost, and he is still suffering from the psychological trauma he inflicted upon him.
 * 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.
 * Ragna is always comparing things to getting hit by trucks. He says it in his winquote against Tager, and in Noel's gag ending, he says it when Bang explodes of spicy puffer fish, and again in Rachel's gag ending when he wakes up after getting knocked unconscious by Rachel. Also, fans sometimes call Ragna's Hell's Fang Hell Trucker, this is Ragna's way of copying Jin's Ice Car.
 * Ragna is the only character who has a vocal theme in English and does not use his main theme Rebellion.
 * Sometimes when Ragna does his Astral Finish he yells "Black Sabbath!", this might be a nod towards the band or the song of the same name and the fact that the Guilty Gear characters all are named or have attacks named after famous hard rock/metal bands/artists or songs.
 * Due to the way that Ragna's eyes are placed (left: green, right: red), he can be noted to be a possible subject of the 'Desu' meme originating from Rozen Maiden.
 * Ragna, similar to Jin and Noel, has 'tails' on his clothing (namely his hakama). Unlike Jin and Noel, he never attacks with them.
 * Ragna was bitten only once by Rachel, as she admitted it in her ending in Calamity Trigger. In all the other timelines, he was able to save himself by touching the Azure Grimoire, as it is described in Rachel's short story "Endless Waltz".
 * Ragna's name could be a pun off of "Ragnarok" in Norse Mytology being the end of the world which can be a reference to him being the "Destroyer of the World" - the Black Beast - killing half of the world's population.
 * Ragna's heterochromia is opposite to Vivio Takamachi.
 * When Ragna fights Hazama, the intro scene is the collision of Ragna's Hell Fang with Hazama's Jabaki,with later Ragna backdashing to avoid Hazama's 6C attack, however, if both Ragna and Hazama are in their Unlimited Forms, the intro will be Ragna and Hazama activating his Azure Grimoire.
 * Ragna's Crest seems to be a variation of the Black Beast's Crest,implying the fact that he is one of the two being that need to be fused in the Cauldron in order to the Black Beast can surge.