Ryu Matsubara

"Summon! Infinite Aurora! Fire's Summoner! Southern Aurora Ranger!" -Aurora Ranger Transformation/Roll Call

Ryu Matsubara (松原 龍, マツバラリュウ Matsubara Ryu) is the twin brother of Ryo Matsubara. He is a former antagonist towards the Shōkan-shi Sentai Auroranger. For some time afterwards he was sealed away in the Holy Summoning Diamonds, after having merged his soul with the Holy Shijin in order to survive after defeating the Sorceress Neoul. He was later freed by the combined powers of the Aether Rangers and the Aurorangers. He later inherited the power of the Southern Aurora Ranger from his brother Ryo.

Character History Shokan-shi Sentai Auroranger Ryu and his twin brother Ryo are descendants of the one of the 12 Ancient Summoner Families  of Japan whom obtained their power from something known as the Infinite Aurora  and the Four Holy Shijin  . Every generation new representatives of the 12 families are chosen to become one of the Aurora Rangers, by the Aurora Queen, a powerful sorceress.

An Evil Sorceress known as Neoul  and her Dream-devouring Bakujin  appear in Japan, looking to steal the dreams of the world and extinguish the light of the Infinite Aurora. This prompted the Aurora Queen to have to hold the selection ceremony far earlier than expected: as 8 of the Summoner families had been captured by Neoul's forces.

Ryu and Ryo, had been trained by their father  for their entire life, studying in the art of summoning, knowing one of the two of them would have to become the next Red Aurora Ranger. Ryu had dedicated his life to studying the art of summoning, spending countless hours training and practicing. Both Ryu and his brother were certain that Ryu would be chosen to take their father's place as the Red Aurora Ranger and representative of the Matsubara family,  as Ryu was the older twin, and was more dedicated to the training than his brother whom was something of a slacker and would often ditch out on training.

Ryu is a little nervous whenever he learns the selection ceremony is to be held earlier than planned, and he is not only representing the Matsubara family, but is to be chosen at the representative of the two other Fire-summoner families as well, as eight of the other summoners had been captured by Neoul.

However, Ryo is selected as the person to inherit their father's Aurora Changer. Ryu's jealousy and resentment towards his brother grows as he watches the Auroranger team fight and take down Neoul's forces. Eventually his jealousy gets the better of him and he has a falling out with his brother,

The Sorceress Neoul finds him, and manages to use his resentment and jealousy in her favor to turn Ryu against the Aurorangers and his family. Convincing him the only way for him to ever fulfill his dream of becoming an Auroranger, would be to destroy the Aurorangers and to take their powers. Ryu believes Neoul, and faces off against them, possessed by the Sorceress's Dark Aurora.

However, after he encounters the Mysterious Ashe Black, an American woman living in Japan, who barely has any memory of her past, Ryu begins to break through the possession of the Dark Aurora and begins to see all the evil the Aurorangers were fighting against, and begins to have a change of heart. However, the Dark Aurora's hold on him is strong and it is difficult to rid himself of it entirely.

He tricks the Aurorangers into believing he has freed himself from Neoul's control in order to get close to the Aurora Queen, and he kidnaps her, using the power of the Dark Aurora in order to open up a gate to the the Nightmare Realm which Neoul resides in, and turns over the Aurora Queen over to Neoul. While the Aurora Queen is imprisoned in Neoul's fortress she manages to make attempts to break through Ryu's possession.

Neoul pulls Ryu into the Dark Aurora to bring forth the Four Dark Shijin, and forces him to fight against his brother and the Aurorangers one more time. Ryu and Ryo fight, with Ryo having to use a massive amount of his energy to summon the Phoenix Shijin's power. Ryu is nearly killed in the process, but at the last minute is able to expell the Dark Aurora from his mind, As Neoul merges with the power of the Four Combined Dark Shijin, transforming into the Dark Goddess Mode her place begins to collapse as the nightmare realm begins to appear in Tokyo.. The Aurorangers, Ryu, and the Aurora Queen are forced back to Earth, to retreat.

Knowing there was only one way for the Aurorangers to defeat the Dark Goddess form of Neoul, and that would be to Combine all 12 of the Summon Gems, and the Four Holy Diamonds, in order to summon forth the Ultimate Power of the Infinite Aurora. Though the legend was the summoning power required a powerful soul in order to control, and could be deadly. Knowing Neoul was expecting to destroy all four of the Summoners gems, as she had placed a curse upon the four of them in their previous battle, which would kill all of them the moment Ryo would attempt to summon the Infinite Aurora. In order to prevent this from happening, Ryu desguised himself as his brother, taking his Aurora-Changer, the summoning gems, and the Holy Fire Diamond, and went with the other three summoners to face off against Neoul.

As he is battling with Neoul, Ryo, and their father, grandmother, and the Aurora Queen show up, lending their powers to Ryu in order to defeat Neoul.

However, the amount of power he had to use to control the Infinite Aurora Ultimate Power, combined with Neoul's final attack,  Ryu was left extremely weakened, and on the verge of death. In order to save his life, the Phoenix Shijin Suzaku merged their souls together, in order for Ryu to live. However, whenever the Shijin returned to the realm of the Infinite Aurora, Ryu was taken along with them, unable to return to Earth, His spirit resting inside the Holy Fire Diamond.

Three months afterwards, while the Aurorangers are trying to move on with their lives, Ryo finds a letter addressed to him, along with a strange Red Crystal. The message is from Ryu. He tells Ryo about a vision he had seen, of a city in America, surrounded by an extremely cold mist, and a Red Pegasus. The letter tells Ryo to speak with Ashe Black. When Ryo speaks with Ashe he learns the Crystal is actually a peice of an  Aether Crystal, a source of power originating from an Alien world, Millennia ago. She tells him, if the full Aether Crystal could be peiced together, it's power would be great enough to restore Ryu back to normal and to bring him back. Believing her, Ryo accompanies Ashe to the American City of Angel Grove where the peices of the Crystal were said to be gathering soon.

"Knight of the Infinite Aurora"
Ryu is able to breifly communicate with his brother after he joins the Aether Ranger team. He offers some words of encouragement towards his twin brother. He knows Ryo is now faced with the task of destroying the evil forces in Angel Grove, and it would probably be awhile longer he would be able to help him be brought back.

"Aether and Aurora"
When one of Neoul's Generals, Kyohime reappears and she teams up with the Machine Empire's forces and sends them after the Aurora Queen, Ryo and the Aether Rangers take off to Japan to warn the Aurorangers of the threat.

During the battle between the Machine-enhanced Kyohime, and the Aether and Auroranger teams, Ryu appears to Ryo, telling him to summon the Holy Shijin, and boost their powers with the power of the Aether Crystals. The combined forces are enough to defeat Kyohime, and to free Ryu from the Holy Fire Diamond.

As Ryo and the Aether Rangers leave Japan to return to Angel Grove, Ryo passes on his power as an Auroranger to Ryu, entrusting him to lead the Aurorangers.

"New Elysia"
Ryu and the Aurorangers appear in Angel Grove to defend the city from the Aether Rangers, after they had been turned into Shades. After the Aether Rangers are returned to normal, the Aurorangers continue to defend Angel Grove from the hoards of Cybershades and Metalliwisps which have begun to flood into the city because of the instability of the barrier between Earth and the Nadir and Zenith Aether Realms.

After the Aether Rangers defeat Briezora once and for all, and things begin to settle down after the battle, Ryu and Ryo are reunited, and they return to Japan. Ryu and the Aurorangers work alongside Ryo to establish and alliance between the United Alliance of Heroes and the Auroranger team.