Rantaro Kiyama

"I'm known as Head Honcho! People love me!"

, also known as in the Japanese version and The Head Honcho or Honcho for short in the English version, is a character featured in the anime and manga series, Beyblade Burst. He is a member of the Bey Club at his school as well as a member of the Spanish team: BC Sol. He currently battles with his Beyblade, Roktavor R3 4Cross Flugel.

Appearance
Rantaro is tall, comparative to his age, and has blond hair and brown eyes. He is usually seen wearing a black gakuran jacket with a red tank top underneath. His matching gakuran trousers are kept up using a white sash and he keeps comic books around his waistband (In the manga, these are specifically CoroCoro comics). He wears a bandaid on the bridge of his nose and he is almost always seen with a lollipop in his mouth. He also carries with him a large white paper fan.

Personality
Rantaro is highly self-confident, often referring to himself as the Head Honcho and is good at sneaking things in and out of their school's strict regulations. He can be quite simple-minded and clueless, and is shown to not be very insightful (such as when he was unable to tell that Valt was upset over Shu's shoulder injury and when Ken was feeling lonely at Xander's grandpa's dojo). Despite this, he is honest and has a strong sense of justice.

Rantaro has many similar personality traits to Valt Aoi. Being naturally honest, he displays many of his emotions openly, whether it be happiness, anger, sadness or joy. He always wants to be seen as a tough guy, but he is actually a big softie underneath it all. However, one emotion he has a hard time admitting to having is that he actually loves Valt and is just scared to show it. Often times, he is the first to encourage his teammates to do well before a battle and provide moral support whenever they are feeling down. In addition, he is shown to get along very well with younger children.

Rantaro's greatest fear is revealed to be unicorns, though it is unknown how or where he developed this fear from. A couple of his favorite foods are tacos and meat. At one point, he threw a fit when Wakiya stole an entire plate of kabobs meant for the former, leaving him nothing but a single green onion.

As shown a couple of times in the anime, Rantaro doesn't like it when people call his jacket a cape. The fact that Rantaro wears his jacket like this is just like how Ryuga wears it.

Beyblade Burst (anime)
Rantaro was introduced in Let's Go! Valtryek!!, where he is first seen at the start of a battle against Valt Aoi. He won the battle against Valt without commanding his Beyblade once, as Valt's bad launches caused self-knockouts. He was then forced to clean up the mess caused by Valt's Valtryek V2 Boost Variable by the School Principal.

He later registered for the local tournament and faced Valt once again in the first round of the tournament. Despite winning the first battle with a Stadium Out and earning a point, Rantaro lost the second round due to a Burst Finish, resulting in Valt's overall victory. He complimented Valt on his performance afterwards.

Ever since then, Rantaro becomes fast friends with Valt, Ken Midori, and Daigo Kurogami. They eventually go on to form their own school Beyblading Club and train together.

Beyblade Burst (manga)
Rantaro Kiyama debuts in the first chapter as the first person ever to be challenged by Valt Aoi. However, their first battle ended up in disaster as Valt's wrong launch broke the statue of the school's founder. As a result, both Rantaro and Valt were punished by their teacher.

Beyblade Burst Evolution (anime)
Sometime after Valt's battle against Lui in the Individual finals, both Valt and Rantaro are scouted by Spain's team: BC Sol and their beyblades receive upgrades. They do so well that they become official members of BC Sol and battle in the World Tournament.

Beyblades

 * Roktavor Heavy Survive: Rantaro's primary Beyblade in the Beyblade Burst manga.
 * Roktavor R2 Gravity Revolve: Rantaro's primary Beyblade in the Beyblade Burst anime.
 * Roktavor R3 4Cross Flugel: Rantaro's primary Beyblade in the Beyblade Burst Evolution anime.

Special Moves

 * Roktavor Zone: Roktavor takes up the center of the beystadium and uses its strong stamina and defensive properties to repel opponents while reducing stamina loss. This technique is used primarily for Survivor finishes.
 * Stamina Launch: Roktavor now has a higher spin speed and more power thanks to the special Launcher grip that Trad gave to Rantaro. When this launch is executed properly, it allows Roktavor to attack with more power. However, if the launch fails, Roktavor bursts on its own rather easily. The grip changes during the finals at the World League.
 * Ultra Roktavor Zone (True Ragnaruk Zone in Japanese): A stronger version of Roktavor Zone in which Roktavor utilizes its stamina wings to create a miniature cyclone that repels attacks and allows it to spin for longer periods of time.

Quotes

 * "Keep your cool, Honcho. Come on, inner peace. Think sunshine and tacos."
 * "Cannot survive on green onion alone!"
 * "This is just like the unicorn from my dreams."
 * "With great style comes great responsibility."
 * "Am I boring you?!"
 * "Welcome to Roktavor Zone!"
 * "Unlike some of us, he's [Shu] got the fundamentals down."
 * "Look at him showing off! There's no need for that behavior!"
 * "Can't a guy soak up the sun in peace?!"
 * "It's not a cape!"
 * "What'd you say? My hearing aids can't pick up the frequency of your attitude!" -Rantaro imititating an old man

Trivia

 * Rantaro's family name, Kiyama, includes the name of a colour, similar to Valt Aoi and Shu Kurenai, who have "Blue" and "Crimson" in their names respectively. Specifically, his colour is yellow.
 * Rantaro's first name and his bey, Raging Roktavor share the same initials, hinting at the letter R in the center of the bey.
 * Rantaro's English voice actor, Matt Hill, is well-known for voicing Ed from Ed, Edd and Eddy and also voices Soarin in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
 * His Beyblade beast is resembles to Jack Atlas's Red Dragon Archfiend from Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's.
 * Rantaro could be considered the Beyblade Burst counterpart of Benkei Hanawa, in the sense that both of them behave larger than life, and they serve as friends who support a main character, sometimes act as coaches, and tend to have short tempers, but are ultimately good-hearted.
 * He is similar to Gentaro Kisaragi from Kamen Rider Fourze, because both are mistaken to be cruel and thuggish because their appearance; but actually good at heart.
 * He also similar to Ryouta Kise from Kuroko's Basketball, due to their shared hair color and "黄" kanji on their last names. Furthermore, much like Kise's school (Kaijou High became the first match for Seirin High in the anime), Rantaro is serves as the first opponent for Valt Aoi in both the anime and manga.
 * His first name is honorific of the Nintama Rantaro anime series, and its main protagonist, Rantaro Inadera.

Gallery
For a full gallery of images of Rantaro, see Rantaro Kiyama/Gallery.