Taruga

"Now. If you want to face the power of a real god... come and die." — Taruga

Taruga
Taruga
Name in Kanji	タルーガ
Name in Romaji	Taruga
Alternate spelling(s)	Targa
Fighting Style	Taijutsu, Gunplay
Allegiance(s)	Army of Ruin
Family	Unnamed father
Position(s)	Lieutenant of the Army of Ruin
Appearances	Hokuto Ga Gotoku
Voice actor(s)	Yuichi Nakamura Mick Wingert (English dub)

Taruga (タルーガ) is the Lieutenant of the Army of Ruin and right hand of Kyo-Oh.

History

According to himself, half of his body was blown away from the nuclear explosion. As such, he had to get mechanical implants to survive. After that, Taruga's father left to find Eden, and apparently discovered what laid beneath Sphere City, leading to Nadai killing him. After learning of his father's demise, he hatched an idea to get revenge against Nadai, and joined forces with Eden residents Lyra and Jagre, all of whom also had their fathers killed by Nadai.

Once Taruga joined Kyo-Oh's army, he kept at Kyo-Oh's side as a subordinate. The first time Taruga shows himself in-game is during a raid by the Army of Ruin, where he kills an innocent old man to taunt Jagre. Kenshiro comes to deal with his minions, before dealing with Taruga himself. Taruga himself is interested in Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken, but dismisses it as he believes he has more power in his guns and abilities. He is easily beaten, despite using martial arts that would make great use of his gunslinger abilities. After he is beaten, he is taken back to the Army of Ruin base with Kyo-Oh.

Taruga would appear once again once Kenshiro and Rei find Jagi, Ken's younger brother. Taruga claims to have allied himself with Jagi so that they could both take revenge on Kenshiro. Once Kenshiro is inside the coliseum with Jagi, Taruga shows that he has kept Rei and Airi hostage. However during Jagi's showdown with Kenshiro, he notices Nadai using Kyo-Oh's Meito Kieiken to take out his guards and free Rei and Airi. During this, he had come to the revelation that Kyo-Oh is in-fact Nadai.

After learning Kyo-Oh is the man he had been searching for a long time, he gives an idea to Nadai; he will pretend to be Kyo-Oh and lure Kenshiro into their base, while Nadai sneaks into Eden and unlocks Sphere city. The plan is successful as Kenshiro battles with the fake Kyo-Oh and, after beating him, realises that Taruga had set him up.

After Sphere City is opened by Nadai, he, Lyra and Jagre ambush Nadai, Kisana and Kenshiro. Taruga tells the three that they were planted into Eden in order to cause suffering to Nadai just as he did to their parents. However, once Jagre steps down from shooting Kisana due to his love for her, Taruga backstabs him, and shoots him point blank in the stomach. Lyra notices Taruga's real personality, and as such, gets taken out too.

He then reveals his true plan as he holds Nadai at gunpoint; he wants to take over Sphere City and use the nukes to destroy the world. He also reveals to everyone that his body is made up of robotic attachments, as an aftermath to having his body blown up in the starting nuclear apocalypse. Taruga foolishly states that Meito Kieiken can damage Taruga's body, and Nadai strikes at him, but he escapes and runs inside of Sphere City, launching his minions after Kenshiro, who pursues him.

Once Kenshiro arrives at Yuria's resting place, Taruga monologues on his plan of using the nukes; once he uses the nukes to cleanse the world with fire, he will use Yuria to spread his seed, practically making himself a god. The final battle commences, as Taruga disregards the high status of Hokuto Shinken. Despite his god-like abilities and attitude, he is beaten by Kenshiro. As he hold his head in pain, he proclaims that a god can't be killed, leading to Kenshiro giving him the revelation; he is not even a god. He dies and his body tumbles down into the pits of the city.

Fighting Style

Taruga uses a unidentified Style, which consists of kicks and spins. Since he is a partial cyborg, his body is able to withstand powerful hits from Kenshiro's Hokuto Shinken. In QTE's, you can see his arms snap back to their original positions after being knocked out of their sockets. He also has a very rapid gunplay style similar to Jagi, but not as reckless. He manages to shoot accurately with his pistols, and can surprise attack Kenshiro with a sawed-off shotgun. As Kyo-Oh, he has some moves borrowed from Nadai. The most obvious difference is that Kyo-Oh/Taruga uses rapid kicks and spins instead of purely fist attacks. He also doesn't use Meito Kieiken.

Trivia

• Danmatsuma: "Hidebu!"
• Taruga's body is weak to Meito Kieiken. This could be due to Meito Kieiken using electrical energy instead of pressure points.
• He is similar to Souther, as he also believed he had no pressure points.
• His boss theme uses German choir, which matches the same choir in the songs Hike and Propaganda, featured in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency anime soundtrack. It also uses the exact same instrumental as Rammlied by Rammstein.
• During the first Kyo-Oh fight (where Taruga is dressed up as Kyo-Oh), his moveset is the same as Taruga, with rapid kicks, dodges and swipes.
• Taruga is voiced by Yuichi Nakamura, who also voiced characters from the mainline Ryu ga Gotoku games; Joon-gi Han from Ryu ga Gotoku 6, and Yeonsu Kim in Ryu ga Gotoku 7.

Gallery

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