Rio Nakamura

"Rather than talking about a problem I solved, I wanted to talk about a problem I couldn't solve together with my friends."

- To Korosensei

Rio Nakamura (中村 莉桜) is a student in Korosensei's Class 3-E of Kunugigaoka Junior High School. Although she was a former prodigy in elementary school, Rio felt lonely longed to be normal. When she got to middle school, she began shirking off her studies in pursuit of this goal, which eventually landed her in Class 3-E.

Appearance
Rio has long straight strawberry blonde hair (a darker blonde in the OVA) that is parted in the middle and worn swept behind her shoulders, and aqua blue eyes (sometimes appearing as light gray) with notably long eyelashes. The colors of her hair and eyes give her the appearance of a stereotypical Caucasian girl, even though she is Japanese, although her hair does appear to be dyed, as in a flashback she appears with a darker shade (black in the manga, dark yellow in the anime).

She wears the Kunugigaoka school uniform with the assigned pale yellow sweater, rather than the gray blazer.

Rio is described as the “cool and gorgeous girl” of Class 3-E.

Personality
A girl whose sleaziness can put even Class E’s perverted genie Okajima to shame, she also shows the keen intellect of someone known as a former child prodigy. At the same time, she also greatly enjoys teasing others, displaying a genius-level gift for it. She has a nose for finding people to mess with.

Rio is also a friendly, energetic girl and somewhat of a trickster. Her favorite victim, along with Karma, is Nagisa. She's playful, has a dirty mind, and has been noted to be rather intelligent. She claims she was originally a serious person, something that would prove to be true when she disagreed with Nagisa's proposition to save Korosensei and continue to kill him.

Despite her eccentric nature, she can see the bigger picture and hides how she feels, but she cares about Class E more than anyone. She also felt responsible for the bond between the class and Koro-sensei.

On one hand, she can play the role of Class 3-E's resident mischief chick. On the other hand, when the situation calls for it she can be quite straightforward. Even Terasaka started to wonder which between the two of them is the more outrageous kid in class.

Plot
Like the majority of her classmates, Rio debuted in the first chapter; however, she was not spotlighted until the first Finals Arc (Chapters 51-53) when she and Nagisa were the main rivals to Tomoya Seo in English. Before that, she was officially introduced during Chapter 18 while trying to peek into Korosensei's bath.

She is spotlighted again in Chapter 111, when she reveals her past as a gifted, but lonely elementary school student. Her intellect was clearly superior for her age, resulting in other students purposefully avoiding her because of her intellgence. Since then, she decided to "be stupid", by shirking off her studies and adapting a more playful persona. In the process, she completely forgot how to study and take tests. Bad behaviour like dress code violations, profanity and disrespect, and poor attendance also factored into her fall into the E Class. She expresses her gratitude to Korosensei for providing her with a place where she can both study and do "stupid things" along with her friends.

Rio contributes to Class 3-E's school festival in gathering the ingredients for their restaurant. She apologizes to Nagisa for teasing him for looking like a girl. However, when she sees Yuji Norita recognize Nagisa from the island arc and approach him, she swaps his slacks for her skirt, urging him to swindle money out of Yuji. When Nagisa confesses to Yuji that he is not a girl, Rio suggests Nagisa "show it to him".

At the end of Chapter 142, when Nagisa proposes to find a way to save Korosensei instead of assassinating him, Rio is the first to speak against it. She cites the bond between assassin and target the very reason why she wants to continue killing their teacher. Her disagreement eventually causes the class to split into either saving or killing Korosensei, prompting him to settle the dispute by having the two factions play a paintball match against each other. Rio joins the red (kill) team and acts as second-in-command to Karma Akabane.

When the strength of both sides has been cut in half, Rio heads to Ryoma's position and lies in wait until the blue team attacks to capture their flag. She reiterates her resolve to kill Korosensei, earning Terasaka's subtle praise. When the surviving blue team attacks, Rio's group races for the flag but is ambushed by Nagisa, subsequently eliminating her from the battle. She and the others watches Nagisa and Karma's brutal fight, which Nagisa eventually wins when Karma surrenders after being caught in a chokehold. Despite her earlier disagreement, Rio sees how both sides fought their very best and acknowledges that Nagisa's side won fair and square. She pinches his cheek afterward, silently apologizing to him.

Rio makes another major appearance during Valentines' Day, conspiring with Karma to tease Kaede about her affections for Nagisa. They help Kaede build up her courage by taking her to spy on other couples throughout the mountain and watch her present chocolates to him. Afterward, Rio indirectly confesses to Karma that she will not act on her feelings for Nagisa for Kaede's sake.

She makes an appearance when the students try to save Korosensei from the government’s hands where Korosensei notes she moved gracefully during battle. She takes out the cake she had brought Korosensei to celebrate his birthday and the class sings him happy birthday. They are interrupted by the arrival of Shiro and the God of Death.

After the fight, while Korosensei is working to heal Kaede's wounds, he asks her to feed him the cake for energy. She says that the cake was filthy from falling on the forest floor, but gives it to him anyway.

In the end, she bravely faces Koro-sensei's impending death with a smile during his final roll call, though she crumbles in tears after he is gone for good.

Seven years after graduation, Rio is seen in England chatting with a friend on a bridge near Big Ben Parliament during her exchange program. She is unable to attend the reunion because of the program, but sent her regards anyway.

After graduating from college, she became a freelance interpreter and aims to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Her dirty jokes garner a lot of great reactions even when studying abroad in London, and she fits in perfectly. She started working as a sharp and witty interpreter, aiming to establish her career with the personal connections she'd established.

Abilities
Marksmanship: Rio is ranked joined third for marksmanship on the girls' side, along with Kirara Hazama. She scored 79/200 in a test in June, giving her the 8th best marksmanship in Class 3-E.

English: Rio has mastery over this subject and the language itself, enough to surpass Tomoya Seo and attain first place in the school. She is proficient enough to study in England, shown seven years later in the timeskip.

Intelligence: Rio, despite her whimsical personality, is one of the smartest people in Class E, second only to Karma, scoring 3rd in the second semester finals. Though she landed herself in the E Class, she hasn't lost her wit nor genius.

Technology: Rio was ranked 3rd for technology in Class 3-E by Korosensei, mentioning that she could disassemble a radio within seconds, though she finds it a bore.

Night vision: She was ranked 4th by Karasuma in the students’ night vision abilities.

Nagisa Shiota
Rio sits on Nagisa's right and enjoys messing with him and harassing him. She gets a kick out of playing on his androgynous appearance and according to the tankobon extra, this is one of her hobbies. Despite that, the two are good friends and Nagisa doesn't pay much mind to her teasing.

In Chapter 116, Rio apologizes to Nagisa when she finds out his reasons for keeping his hair long, and promises to never touch upon it again. Not a minute later, she breaks her promise and discreetly puts a skirt on him, encouraging him to swindle money out of an admirer.

It is hinted that she has a crush on Nagisa, indicated when she made an indirect confession in front of Karma but gave up as soon as Kayano made her move.

Karma Akabane
Though they are not featured together often, Rio and Karma get along devilishly well. It can be deduced from their closeness with each other that they are good friends. Their first well-known interaction was during the civil war when the two shared a common ground in opposing Nagisa's suggestion to save him. During that time, she acted as Karma's second-in-command.

As the two most intelligent students of Class 3-E, they are of the same mind and know each other very well. They share the same love for mischief, tormenting the rest of Class E with their antics. Since they both have a wide range of knowledge, the conversation can jump from candy to world economics in an instant.

Kaede Kayano
Although they are rarely seen together, Rio and Kayano sometimes interact together in the background. At some points, Rio teases Kayano, which is mostly about Nagisa. On Valentine's Day, Rio along with Karma, helped Kayano to get her courage to deliver her feelings towards Nagisa.

Hinano Kurahashi
Though they aren’t often seen together, the two of them have bonded over bejeweling their knife sheaths. The two of them also seem to have their airheaded moments together, as they casually were showing them off during a school assembly, much to Karasuma’s dismay.

When Hinano tells the girls that she has a crush on Karasuma, Rio remarks by telling her no girl in 3-E does not have a thing for him. The two are also shown battling each other with knives during one of 3-E’s PE lessons before Takaoka’s arrival.

Yuzuki Fuwa
Frequently peeks at the shonen manga over Fuwa’s shoulder, and often feels the progress of the characters are moving towards a sloppy direction. The character relationships that Fuwa favors run in complete counter to Nakamura’s, so Rio feels flustered when they become ruined to her.

Sumire Hara
At a glance, the two have completely different styles, yet the quick-thinking Nakamura and the considerably mature Hara have a lot of common topics which they often discuss, their relationship has a joyful atmosphere to it. Rio refers to her as "Hara-chan".

Ryūnosuke Chiba
She’s fond of music. Because she often listens to Western songs, she has some differences in opinion with Chiba, who prefers Japanese Punk. Rather than European, she favors the more exciting nature of American music.

Okajima Taiga
Since she has a lot of guy friends, she is not repulsed by dirty talk. To the point that she and Okajima together may set the mood even more sleazy. Okajima comments that she's the first girl to make him feel like he might lose to her in terms of sleaziness.

Toka Yada
The two of them are sometimes seen together and are usually together in a group. Rio refers to Toka as “Yada-chan”. In one of the tankobon extras, Rio is seen trolling Yada and Kayano in the 3-E girl group chat by telling Yada her breasts have grown bigger to which the the latter denies.

Quotes

 * (To Korosensei, Chapter 111) "Rather than talking about a problem I solved, I wanted to talk about a problem I couldn't solve together with my friends"
 * (About Class A, Chapter 123) "You can't keep the bloodlust (hatred) going for that long"

Etymology

 * The name Rio means "white jasmine" (莉) (ri) and "cherry blossom" (桜) (o).
 * Rio's surname Nakamura means "middle" (中) (naka) and "town, village" (村) (mura).

Trivia

 * Rio's favorite subject is English while her worst is Civics.
 * Irina notes that unlike her school uniform, she favors wearing pants for streetwear. Also, her skill at dressing down so that her clothes are fashionable without being particularly casual was something to be noted.
 * Rio's past club before joining the Class E was Amateur Radio Club. Back when she was still in the club, toying with the boring men who turn up before going home was a daily lesson for her.
 * Rio favorite food is Pizza.
 * Rio hates boring men.
 * Rio prefers snacks over Bentos.
 * Rio's older brother is in university; he has a lot of refined interests but has a sister complex.
 * Rio's father is a translator and her mother formerly was an advertisement model.
 * Rio wants to be a diplomat or an interpreter (presumably due to her English skills) in the future.
 * In the tankobon extras, it was revealed that Rio's current nickname is "Old Mannish Middle Schooler" while her past one was "Elementary School Genius."
 * Rio was paired with Sōsuke Sugaya in Nuru-Nuru Test of Courage in Chapter 74.
 * Rio is seen trolling Yada and Kayano on the girls’ group chat in one of the tankobon extras.
 * Rio's profile photo online is Nagisa wearing a skirt.
 * Rio's current hair color was revealed to be dyed as shown in a flashback in Chapter 111.
 * When Rio was in first grade, she got 100% on 6th-grade tests.
 * Contrary to her status as a "gifted girl" when she was in kindergarten, Rio even got reported on TV.
 * Despite the way she acts, whenever a perverted situation happens, Rio is shown to be completely disgusted. However, she playfully notes that Taiga has a small penis while all the other girls were enraged at his flashing at the beach during Summer Camp.
 * Rio says she hates looking at pictures of herself because she doesn't like her small eyes.
 * Rio placed 11th overall during the first-semester final exams.
 * Rio was ranked 3rd overall in the final semester exams with a score of 469, after Karma(500) and Asano Gakushuu(497).
 * Rio is known as the 2nd smartest student in Class-3E.
 * Apphia Yu (Rio's English voice actress) and Micah Solusod (Gakushu Asano's English voice actor) are married in real life.
 * As of 2019, Rio and Yuma Isogai's Japanese voice actors are married in real life.
 * In Karasuma's Assassination Aptitude (out of 6), Rio's statistics were:
 * Strategy/Planning: 5
 * Commanding/Leadership: 3
 * Execution (Ability to carry out plans): 4
 * Technique (Traps, weapons, preparations, etc): 3
 * Scouting/Intelligence Gathering: 4
 * Politics/Negotiations: 4
 * In the tankobon extras, Rio's statistics were listed as:
 * Physical strength: 3
 * Mobility: 3.5
 * Close-range assassination: 3.5
 * Long-range assassination: 3
 * Academic ability: 5
 * Characteristic skill: 4.5 (wasting talent)