Ryoutarou “Klein” Tsuboi

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Ryoutarou “Klein” Tsuboi is a character from the Sword Art Online anime and manga.

Kirito’s first friend and comrade in SAO. After Kayaba trapped them, he and Kirito parted ways to gather his real-world friends, in the process forming “Fuurinkazan”, a guild famous for having all of its members survive SAO. Later in ALO, he joins Kirito’s party as a Salamander-type swordsman.

In the XP4 fics, Klein is part of the Heroes Coalitions and is a member of the Triumph Division. He also attends the Vanguard Academy as a student.

In the AWA fics, Klein debuted in the All World Alliance Stories. He is a student at the AWA Academy and is part of Class 9.

Appearance

In both Sword Art Online and the real world, Klein wore a red bandana that held up his hair and was tied around his forehead. In Sword Art Online, he had spiky reddish hair, but he has brownish hair in the real world. He also had a hooked nose, a slight beard on his cheeks and chin, and, according to Kirito, he looked like a wandering samurai or a bandit. During the two years in Aincrad he used red robes and black armor resembling those of a samurai including a katana, along with his guild members. 

In ALfheim Online, Klein’s appearance is mostly the same as his appearance in Sword Art Online, except that his hair is dyed red in ALfheim Online.

Personality

Klein is one of the friendliest people in the series and sets the mood when he is around. He never holds grudges against others and is always ready to lend a helping hand. He cares deeply for his friends and always wants to be by their side fighting alongside them when they are in danger even to the point of getting angry when Kirito was fighting Death Gun, saying he should have converted to Gun Gale Online as well. He gets angry when people get into situations that can get them killed since he wants to protect as many people as he can.

Klein is a very loyal person, which is apparent in his friendship with Kirito, despite the latter usually treating him with coldness. Klein is also a “bachelor” and is shown trying to get together with various women in the series, such as Asuna, Freyja, and even Kazuto’s sister, whom he had yet to meet.

Abilities

Klein is one of the most skilled players in the series. In SAO he was comfortably among the top five best players, only being beaten by Kirito, Asuna, and Heathcliff, and in every other game, he consistently stays right around Kirito’s level.

XP4 Heroes Coalition Relationships

Friends

• Kazuto “Kirito” Kirigaya, Asuna Yuuki, Suguha “Leafa” Kirigaya, Shino “Sinon” Asada, Andrew Gilbert “Agil” Mills, Keiko “Silica” Ayano, Rika “Lisbeth” Shinozaki, Yui, Gob, Meliodas, Roy, Ike, Travis Touchdown and Techna Loggy.

Trivia

• Ryoutarou was one of the hardcore gamers who were waiting for 3 days in line during the SAO release.
• Ryoutarou’s avatar name, Klein, was derived from the term Klein bottle (Kurain no Tsubo), based on his real name Tsuboi Ryoutarou.
• Klein was one of the 10+ players who had the extra skill «Katana».
• In the 4-koma Klein is much more prominent and he tends to bug Kirito with messages or calls.
• In all commercially released media Klein first met Kirito on the first day of the SAO official service start, but in the web version, Klein first met Kirito on September, 2013 (2023 in the light novel timeline), three months before the Christmas Event.
• Klein nicknames Kirito as Kiri-no-ji.

Gallery