Ryo's family is descended from a Shinobi ninja clan, but very little is known about them. Ryo's mother died when he was still a baby and his wild-life photographer father, Sanada-san, makes his first official appearance in an audiocassette drama (Cassette Collection #3), in which he is possessed by a demon. Despite such traumatic events, Mr. Sanada is often on photography assignments, much to his son's dismay. Ryo has relatives on his father's side of the family, but has never met them: their personal convictions are disliked by Sanada-san, who had to abandon them to live a life of his own. Fan fiction stories often portray Ryo as an orphan.

Ryo wears the Wildfire armor (a straightfoward translation of its original Japanese name, Rekka). His Virtue is Jin (Righteousness; rendered simply as Virtue within the series). He has an elemental affinity for fire. His weapons are a twin pair of katanas, and his surekill is Wildfire Flare (Flare Up Now!) (called Sou En Zan or Twin Flame Cut, in YST). For this attack, he attaches his two katanas together to form a staff-like weapon and preforms a greatly empowered strike with it.

When Ryo gathers energy and the guiding Virtues from the four Ronin or Warlord armors, the armor of Inferno (called Shiroi Kikoutei or White Sun Emperor, in YST) (sometimes simply called the White Armor in the dub) forms around him. He gained the armor during the first battle against Talpa. During the battle Ryo is overpowered and absorbed into Talpa's armor along with the rest of the Ronin warriors and Dark Warlords. He nearly gives up, but refusing to let his friends down he breaks free, and gains the Inferno from the other Ronin's virtues and defeats Talpa. A draw for Ryo when using the Inferno armor was that it's power was so great that it damaged his swords from the wildfire armor when he used it, but Ryo later gained the Swords of Fervor, (called Gou Retsu Ken or Strong Violent Swords) and uses a different surekill: Rage of Inferno. The attack essentially the same as his Wildfire's surekill, except that he shoots a massive stream of fire instead of attacking with a his swords. The armor's power itself is legendary; at the peak of its power, it is said to be able to destroy an entire planet. When Ryo gained the armor, Talpa desired to gain to the point where he lost any interest in the other armors. With no guiding virtue of its own, the Inferno Armor must rely on 5 guiding virtues to keep it pure. Ryo's tiger, White Blaze, also has an armored form. White Blaze is entrusted with the soul of Black Blaze, who accompanies Ryo into battle and carries the Soul Swords of Fervor. However, the Inferno Armor was eradicated in a fever-pitched battle with Mukara.

Descrption:

"Their swords rise the heat of the flames erasing the darkness of the dynasty."

The Armors:

When Talpa was defeated in a previous attempt to conquer the human world, his spirit was sent to the Netherworld, but his armor, which was charged with demonic power, somehow remained behind. In order to prevent Talpa from returning to the human world, The Ancient diffused it into nine separate suits of armor.

In the original Japanese version, each armor is infused with one of the Confucian, or Bushido, Virtues: Jin (Righteousness), Gi (Justice), Rei (Courtesy), Chi (Intellect), Shin (Faith), Chuu (Loyalty), Tei (Obedience), Kou (Reverence for elders), and Nin (To bear pain quietly). A couple of these were changed for the American version: Chi became Inouchi (Life), and Rei became Chi. Kou is translated as Piety, and Nin as Serenity.

The nine armors have a number of special properties and they can be put on in an instant by calling out an armor's name and associated Virtue. For example, Ryo dons his Wildfire armor by calling out "Armor of Wildfire, Dao Jin!" In the Japanese version, the command used to summon the armor is "Busso (armor name)!".