“Ryona” (リョナ) is a piece of Japanese internet slang used for a taste for scenes in which fictional characters are hurt, cornered, or defeated, and for the depictions and works related to such scenes.
As for its origin, a widely known explanation holds that the word developed from ryōki onanī (猟奇オナニー, roughly “macabre masturbation”), used around 2003 in a game-related thread on the Japanese message board 2channel, by way of ryonanī (リョナニー), and finally to ryona. In the naming post as quoted in later sources, scenes in which a character in a game dies while crying out are linked with masturbation, and ryona is accordingly explained as a word that arose in connection with a sexual preference.
Today, “ryona” is used not only to express a sexual preference but also in content tags and descriptions of works. There are examples in which scenes with no bloodshed or loss of body parts are treated as ryona, and usages that include death or male characters can also be found.
This article does not treat the definition offered by any particular individual or community as a common definition of ryona as a whole. Instead, it explains the etymology, actual usage, and research literature separately.
What Is Ryona?
The Basic Meaning of Ryona
Ryona is a word used in connection with scenes in which characters are attacked, injured, restrained, cornered, or defeated.
The “Ryona” entry in Tsūshin yōgo no kiso chishiki [Basic Knowledge of Communication Terms] explains it as a state in which mainly two-dimensional female characters suffer physical or psychological damage, and as a preference for being sexually aroused by this. Screams, expressions of pain, assault, bloodshed, being eaten, dismemberment, and exposed internal organs are among the examples it lists. Actual usage, however, is not limited to people declaring their own sexual preferences.
By 2007, the expression ryona e (リョナ絵, “ryona pictures”), which classifies works, can be found. Today, the Japanese-language Steam store page for the game UnderParty states that it contains “content with a high degree of violence (guro, ryona),” and the fiction site Kakuyomu has a tag page for “ryona.”
In the uses of “ryona” that can be confirmed today, a usage referring to a preference and a usage that classifies works, scenes, and content exist side by side.
Where Does the Word “Ryona” Come From?
From Ryōki Onanī to Ryonanī
The thread widely cited as the origin of ryona is “【きゃあっ】萌える悲鳴のゲーム【あんっ】” [“Kyaa!” Games with Moe Screams “Ahn!”], posted in 2003 on 2channel’s Game Salon board. Tsūshin yōgo no kiso chishiki and the former Hatena Keyword entry “Ryona” quote a record in which post 652, said to be dated August 20, 2003, gave the name ryōki onanī to the act of masturbating while watching scenes in which characters in a game die while crying out, and post 657, said to be dated the following day, the 21st, proposed the shortened form ryonanī. The word recorded in post 657 is ryonanī, not ryona. Later explanations say that the “-nī” was then dropped, giving ryona.
The First Use of the Short Form “Ryona” Has Not Been Confirmed
Etymological accounts giving the post numbers and dates from 2003 survive in several later sources. In this investigation, however, we could not fully verify the naming passages against the original 2003 logs or against an independent archived snapshot. Nor have we identified the post in which the short form “ryona” was first used. For this reason, this article states that the word “is said to derive from a game-related thread on 2channel around 2003.” Claims such as “the word ryona was born on August 21, 2003” or “a specific individual invented ryona” cannot be established from the sources we were able to check.
The Term “Ryona Pictures” Was in Use by 2007
In the “リョナのイラスト関連スレ” [Ryona Illustration Thread], started on April 15, 2007, the expressions “ryona illustrations” and “ryona picture board” are used from the very first post. Between 2007 and 2008, the same thread also discussed rules on what could be depicted at each posting venue, and whether to include cases involving male or non-human targets. 2007 cannot be treated as the year the word “ryona” was born, but it can be confirmed that, at least by this point, it was used not only as the name of a masturbatory act but also as a word for classifying illustrations and depictions.
Is Ryona a Sexual Preference?
The Etymology Is Tied to Sexual Arousal and Masturbation
In the 2003 naming post quoted in later sources, watching scenes in which game characters die is directly linked with masturbation. As far as this etymological account goes, ryona did not arise as a word unrelated to sexual interest. Tsūshin yōgo no kiso chishiki also describes ryona as a sexual preference. The relationship between ryona and sexual fantasy has also become a subject of academic research. In 2019, Matsuura Yū published 「『暴力的』な性的空想の倫理に関する予備的考察――インターネット掲示板『リョナ2板』の分析から」 [A Preliminary Study on the Ethics of “Violent” Sexual Fantasies: An Analysis of the Internet Message Board “Ryona 2 Board”]. Its bibliographic information and abstract can be viewed in the Kyushu University Institutional Repository.
Today It Is Also Used for Purposes Other Than Declaring a Sexual Preference
In current usage, using the word ryona does not necessarily signal the user’s own sexual arousal. For UnderParty, it is used as a pre-purchase content description; on Kakuyomu, it is used as a tag for searching and classifying works. There are also confirmed examples of people who want to avoid seeing certain works calling particular scenes “ryona.” The fact that the word is etymologically tied to a sexual preference must be kept separate from the question of whether everyone who uses it today is expressing sexual arousal. At the same time, we found no basis for the claim that “ryona used to be a sexual word but has now lost its sexual meaning.” A usage referring to sexual preference and a usage that classifies works have coexisted up to the present.
Where Does Ryona Begin?
No official criteria for what counts as ryona that apply across multiple communities or media can be found. A wide range of elements, including beatings, restraint, screams, damage, defeat, bloodshed, being eaten, and bodily destruction, have been treated as relevant to ryona. On the other hand, disagreements about how far the term extends are recorded even within communities.
Scenes Can Be Called Ryona Without Any Blood
Bloodshed is not essential to ryona. The page on Onimusha Buraiden in the 「リョナゲー（仮）Wiki」 [Ryona Games (Tentative) Wiki] records characters’ damage voices, knockdowns, KOs, and near-death animations. The same page states explicitly that “there is no depiction of blood.” By 2009 at the latest, games without bloodshed were also within the scope of communities dealing with ryona. Given this usage, bloodshed, exposed internal organs, loss of body parts, and the like cannot be treated as necessary conditions for ryona as a whole.
Screams, Facial Expressions, Ways of Falling, and Defeat Are Also Objects of Interest
Game-related ryona sources record not only bodily wounds but also the voices characters make when taking damage, screams, facial expressions, near-death states, ways of falling, KOs, and more. On a game-related message board from late 2016 to 2017, posters likewise describe their individual preferences regarding voices, expressions, accumulating damage, defeat sequences, and storylines in which a character is gradually cornered. A personal essay on ryona preferences published in 2022 also describes a personal preference that places weight not only on whether there are wounds but also on resistance and changes in emotion. These are examples of preferences that can actually be confirmed; they do not establish a common definition that “ryona always requires a process of suffering.”
Does It Stop Being Ryona If the Character Dies?
No common criterion that uniformly excludes death from ryona can be found. The 2003 posts cited as the word’s origin themselves concern scenes in which game characters die. In Meghan Blythe Adams’s 2020 doctoral dissertation, Exquisite Corpses: Markedness, Gender, and Death in Video Games, the section dealing with ryona videos also includes injury, defeat, and death among its objects of analysis. An individual’s preference for avoiding storylines in which characters die, a rule on a particular posting site or message board prohibiting depictions of death, and a definition stating that “death is excluded from the meaning of the word ryona” are each different things. Common rules such as “ryona stops short of death” or “once a character dies, it becomes guro” were not supported by the sources we examined.
Does Ryona Emphasize the Process of Suffering?
There are usages that emphasize not only the result of a character being hurt but also the process leading up to it and the character’s reactions. Game-related sources record screams, damage voices, facial expressions, near-death states, ways of falling, KOs, and the like in detail. On game-related message boards, too, there are posts expressing a liking for accumulating damage and for storylines in which a character is gradually cornered. On the other hand, there are also usages that count corpses and post-destruction states as ryona. For this reason, it is not possible to draw a clean line such as “gore is the result of a body being destroyed; ryona is the process of suffering.” Interest in process and reaction is one tendency that can be observed, not a condition shared by all ryona.
How Ryona Differs from Guro and Gore
Ryona, guro, and gore are sometimes applied to the same scenes, but they are not synonyms.
| Term | Main usage that can be confirmed |
|---|---|
| Ryona | A preference for characters’ harm, suffering, and defeat, or the classification of depictions and works related to it |
| Gore | Expression that concretely shows bodily damage such as blood, wounds, severed limbs, and internal organs |
| Guro | A word used broadly for things involving strangeness, rawness, or unpleasantness, not limited to bodily damage |
Gore and guro do not need to be sexual preferences. Ryona has an etymology and usages tied to sexual preference, but today it is also used as a word for classifying works and scenes. In addition, there are examples of ryona without bloodshed; it is not the case that something cannot be ryona without gore. Conversely, there is also ryona that involves bloodshed and bodily destruction. A single scene can be ryona and at the same time gore or guro. Gore and guro are covered in detail in “What Is Gore? Its Meaning and How It Differs from Guro and Ryona”.
Is Ryona Only About Female Characters?
Many Sources Deal with Female Characters
Many ryona sources focusing on female characters can be found. Tsūshin yōgo no kiso chishiki also explains the term as mainly concerning two-dimensional women, and game-related wikis and message boards from the 2000s contain numerous records dealing with female characters’ damage voices and defeat animations. These sources confirm that female characters have been a major focus of ryona culture.
There Are Also Usages Targeting Male Characters
Being female cannot be treated as a necessary condition for ryona. The 2007–2008 “Ryona Illustration Thread” also mentions cases targeting men and non-humans. In addition, a September 2013 question on Yahoo! Chiebukuro (Yahoo! Japan’s Q&A site) preserves a post that uses the terms gyaku ryona (逆リョナ, “reverse ryona”) and otoko ryona (男リョナ, “male ryona”) while looking for works in which male characters are attacked one-sidedly. By the early 2010s at the latest, the usage otoko ryona, with men as the victims, existed in the Japanese-speaking world. When the term otoko ryona was first used could not be determined in this investigation.
What Is Gyaku Ryona (Reverse Ryona)?
How gyaku ryona is understood differs from source to source. In the Japanese-speaking world, there are examples of scenes in which women attack men being called gyaku ryona. In the English-speaking world, on the other hand, there is also a usage in which Gyaku Ryona is defined by the victim being male. In Gaspard Pelurson’s 2022 talk at the Manchester Game Centre, “Flawless in Defeat – In and For the Margins,” fighting-game videos in which a male character is attacked one-sidedly by another male character are also treated as Gyaku Ryona. This usage shows that gyaku ryona does not always refer only to “scenes in which women hurt men.” Gyaku ryona cannot be fixed to a single definition shared by all communities.
In What Media Is Ryona Used?
Games
The 2003 posts cited as the origin of ryona were on a game-related message board, and games have continued to feature in many ryona-related sources since. Game-related wikis and message boards record in-game “getting beaten” (yarare) depictions such as damage voices, ways of falling, near-death animations, KOs, restraint, and being eaten. Fans classifying certain scenes as ryona is a different matter from the game having been made for the purpose of ryona. Where the creators’ intentions cannot be confirmed, the purpose of production cannot be inferred from fans’ classifications.
Illustration, Manga, and Anime
The usage “ryona pictures” can be confirmed in 2007, and dedicated illustration boards also existed. For manga and anime as well, there are examples of readers and viewers classifying particular scenes as ryona, otoko ryona, and so on. These are classifications made by readers and viewers and are not necessarily the official genre labels of the original works.
Fiction
The “ryona” classification is also used for prose fiction. Kakuyomu currently has a tag page for “ryona,” which is used for searching and classifying novels. This confirms that in fiction, too, “ryona” is used as a tag indicating a work’s content.
How Has the Word “Ryona” Been Used Over Time?
Arranged chronologically, the sources that can be confirmed today look like this.
Around 2003 | The Etymological Account of Ryōki Onanī and Ryonanī
Later sources quote posts on the 2channel Game Salon board thread “【きゃあっ】萌える悲鳴のゲーム【あんっ】” in which the words ryōki onanī and ryonanī were proposed. When the short form “ryona” was first used cannot be determined.
2007–2008 | “Ryona Pictures” and Debates over Scope
On a 2007 illustration-related message board, the usages “ryona illustrations” and “ryona picture board” can be confirmed. Through 2008, the same thread also debated the range of permissible depictions and cases involving male or non-human targets. By this period, “ryona” was being used not only as the name of a masturbatory act but also as a word for classifying works and depictions.
2009 | Bloodless Games Are Also Included
The “Ryona Games (Tentative) Wiki,” updated in 2009, records damage voices, KOs, ways of falling, and so on for a game with no depiction of blood. This usage shows that, already at that time, there was a practice that did not treat bloodshed as a necessary condition for ryona.
The 2010s | Ryona Also Becomes a Subject of Research
In 2013, Maximilian Heinrich’s “Ryona Sells! Pain and Pleasure in Popular Fighting Games” was included in Build ’em Up – Shoot ’em Down: Körperlichkeit in digitalen Spielen, edited by Rudolf Thomas Inderst and Peter Just. In 2019, Matsuura Yū published a paper on the Japanese-language “Ryona 2 Board.” Ryona is a word used within fan culture and, at the same time, a subject of game studies and sexuality studies.
The 2020s | Name of a Preference and Content Label Coexist
The usage expressing sexual preference can still be confirmed today. At the same time, as with the official store description for UnderParty and Kakuyomu’s content tags, the word is also used as a label indicating a work’s content. We found no basis for the claim that “it changed from a word indicating a sexual preference into an entirely general genre name.” Multiple usages have coexisted up to the present.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What is “ryona” short for?
A. A widely known etymological account says it went from ryōki onanī (“macabre masturbation”) to ryonanī and then to ryona. Later sources quote naming posts for ryōki onanī and ryonanī as message-board posts from 2003, but the post in which the short form “ryona” was first used has not been confirmed in this investigation.
Q. Is ryona a fetish?
A. There is a usage that refers to a sexual preference. The 2003 posts cited as the word’s origin are also tied to masturbation. On the other hand, since the word is now also used in content tags and descriptions of works, not everyone who uses the word “ryona” is declaring their own sexual preference.
Q. Are ryona and guro the same thing?
A. No. Ryona is used for a preference for scenes in which characters suffer harm, pain, or defeat, and for related depictions. Guro is used broadly for things involving strangeness, rawness, or unpleasantness, not limited to bodily damage. A single scene can be both ryona and guro.
Q. Are ryona and gore the same thing?
A. No. Gore is used for expression that concretely shows bodily damage such as blood, wounds, severed limbs, and internal organs. There are also examples of ryona without bloodshed or loss of body parts. Since some ryona involves severe bodily destruction, the two can overlap.
Q. Does ryona require blood?
A. It cannot be said to require it. The 2009 “Ryona Games (Tentative) Wiki” contains a record of a game with no depiction of blood being treated from a ryona perspective.
Q. Does it stop being ryona if the character dies?
A. No common criterion that uniformly excludes death can be found. The 2003 posts cited as the word’s origin include death scenes, and later research also includes an example that deals with ryona videos involving death.
Q. Can male characters be the subject of ryona?
A. Usages targeting men have been confirmed. A 2007–2008 message board mentions male targets, and a Japanese post from 2013 using the term otoko ryona (“male ryona”) can be found.
Q. What is gyaku ryona (reverse ryona)?
A. Its usage is not consistent. There are examples in which it refers to scenes of women attacking men, while other sources define it by the victim being male and treat attacks by men on men as Gyaku Ryona.
Summary
Ryona is a piece of internet slang used for a taste for scenes in which fictional characters are attacked, injured, cornered, or defeated, and for the depictions and works related to such scenes.
As for its origin, a widely known explanation holds that it derives from ryōki onanī and ryonanī, said to have been used around 2003 on the 2channel Game Salon board thread “【きゃあっ】萌える悲鳴のゲーム【あんっ】.” In the naming posts as quoted in later sources, death scenes of game characters are linked with masturbation.
On the other hand, by 2007 a usage that classifies works, “ryona pictures,” can already be confirmed. Today, the word is used not only to express sexual preference but also in game content descriptions, tags for fiction, and so on.
Bloodshed and loss of body parts are not required, and usages that include death can also be found. Many sources deal with female characters, but otoko ryona, targeting men, also exists. As for gyaku ryona, its interpretation differs among sources and communities.
Nor is it synonymous with guro or gore. Guro is a broad word that includes strangeness and rawness, while gore relates to depictions of blood and bodily damage. Ryona has a usage denoting a preference for, or interest in, scenes in which characters suffer harm.
Sexual preference as the word’s origin, a usage expressing personal taste, and a usage classifying works and scenes have coexisted up to the present.
About the Research for This Article
For this article on ryona as internet slang, we cross-checked dated message-board sources, game-related community wikis, official store pages, tags on posting sites, university bulletins and a doctoral dissertation, and dictionaries and encyclopedias.
In handling sources, we distinguish between “records of the word actually being used,” “definitions put forward by posters or communities,” “objects of study set by researchers,” and “etymological accounts recorded in later sources.”
Regarding the 2003 etymology, accounts giving post numbers and dates survive in several later sources, but in this investigation we could not fully verify the naming passages against the original logs from that time or against an independent archived snapshot. The first post using the short form “ryona” has also not been confirmed.
In addition, unified definitions such as “ryona is limited to women,” “it always involves bloodshed,” “it is not ryona if the character dies,” “it no longer has a sexual meaning,” or “gyaku ryona is always an attack by a woman on a man” were not supported by the sources we examined.
Most sources below are in Japanese. Original titles are given with English translations in brackets.
Main Sources
- 『通信用語の基礎知識』「リョナ」 [Basic Knowledge of Communication Terms, “Ryona”]
- 旧はてなキーワード「リョナ」 [Former Hatena Keyword, “Ryona”]
- 「リョナのイラスト関連スレ」 [Ryona Illustration Thread]
- 「リョナゲー（仮）Wiki」『鬼武者無頼伝』 [Ryona Games (Tentative) Wiki, Onimusha Buraiden]
- 『UnderParty』Steam公式販売ページ [UnderParty, official Steam store page]
- カクヨム「リョナ」タグ [Kakuyomu, “Ryona” tag]
- 松浦優「『暴力的』な性的空想の倫理に関する予備的考察――インターネット掲示板『リョナ2板』の分析から」九州大学学術情報リポジトリ [Matsuura Yū, “A Preliminary Study on the Ethics of ‘Violent’ Sexual Fantasies: An Analysis of the Internet Message Board ‘Ryona 2 Board’,” Kyushu University Institutional Repository] (2019. Full text not publicly available; bibliographic information and abstract checked.)
- Meghan Blythe Adams, Exquisite Corpses: Markedness, Gender, and Death in Video Games, The University of Western Ontario, 2020.
- Maximilian Heinrich, “Ryona Sells! Pain and Pleasure in Popular Fighting Games,” in Rudolf Thomas Inderst & Peter Just (eds.), Build ’em Up – Shoot ’em Down: Körperlichkeit in digitalen Spielen, Verlag Werner Hülsbusch, 2013.
- Gaspard Pelurson, “Flawless in Defeat – In and For the Margins”, Manchester Game Centre, 2022.
Translated from the Japanese original, “リョナとは？｜グロとの違い・意味・語源・性的嗜好との関係を解説”. Quotations from Japanese sources are our own translations.