Ray Kon

, known in the English version as Raymond Kong or more commonly Ray, is a fictional character from the anime and manga series of Bakuten Shoot Beyblade.

Appearance
Rei has black long hair, golden eyes with cat's pupils, and wear Chinese clothes.

Personality
He is generally shown as to be calm and open minded. In fact, many comparatives can be made between his personality and Yin and Yang, which he appropriately wears the symbol of, the Taijitu. The forces of Yin and Yang are generally described as opposite but complementary forces, and the same can be said about him. He can be calm and collected, but also a fierce competitor. These two qualities can be referred to as opposites, but they are not absolute in their differences, and the same can be said about Yin and Yang. Furthermore, the forces of Yin and Yang are interdependent, meaning that they cannot exist without their counterpart. This can also be compared to Rei's personality. His whole nature seems to be similar in principal to this metaphysical concept.

First season (Beyblade 2001)


In the anime, Rei is first introduced during the Regional BBA Qualifier before his match with Takao. At the time, he is portrayed as a powerful and confident competitor. However, some may say that he is shown as overconfident in some aspects, especially before the battle against Takao had even begun. In the first battle, Rei easily, and almost effortlessly destroys Takao's blade using his holy beast Driger's Tiger Claw attack. The following battle, Rei becomes somewhat cocky about his ability, and ends up losing the 2nd round to Takao. Rei forfeits the final, deciding battle, saying that he had no more to prove. After the final round of the Tournament, between Takao and Kai, Rei approaches Takao, along with Max and Mr. Daitenji, inviting him and Kai to join the new team called the BBA Team (Blade Breakers in english dub).

Throughout the first season, Rei is looked to for advice about battles. He is generally revered as a kind hearted, polite individual, who is very welcoming when meeting new people. He is also shown as being very open minded, especially about Beyblading techniques. This is emphasised in the Asian tournament, used as a means to justify his leaving of his home village. It is also shown in this season that he has an uncle who is the head chef at a restaurant in Paris, which is owned by Olivers' Dad. It is also shown that he works as a waiter in a restaurant in Hong Kong for extra cash. This has led to an opinion of him loving to cook.

Rei's beyblades in this season were Driger Slash & Driger Fang

Second season (Beyblade V-Force)


Generally, Rei is shown in a similar light as to how he is portrayed in season 1, although in 2002, he is much more critical of his performance.

A good example of Rei's kind hearted nature is shown in 2002, in the battle against Salima and Cyber Driger. During this battle, Salima becomes somewhat hypocritical towards her original philosophies towards beyblading. Because of this, Rei spends most of the battle trying to convince her that using Cyber Driger has tainted her beliefs.

Rei uses three beyblades in the second season: Driger Fang, Driger Vulcan, and Driger Vulcan 2.

Third season (Beyblade G-Revolution)


In this series, Rei is portrayed in a very different way from the other two series. In the previous two, he was shown as being a polite young man, but unconfident in his beyblading ability. In G Revolution however, he is shown as being confident, almost to the point of being cocky. It is this that causes him to lose some of his matches. During this series, he leaves the BBA Team to help form the Baihuzu team, partnering up with his former teammate, Rai.

Rei uses three beyblades in this season: Driger Vulcan 2, Driger Gatling, and Driger Metal Slash.

Beyblades/Beast/Abilites
Holy Beast



White Tiger (Byakko or Driger): is the Holy Beast inside Kon Rei's Beyblade. Driger is a strong Bit-Beast who come's from the white tiger tribe. The blade of Driger was given to Kon Rei who now takes care of him. Driger was passed down to people from generations it ended up in rei's hands because of his strong beyblading skill. Driger's well known attack is Tiger claw attack. Another known attack is called Tiger fang attack.

Quotes
"Mariah..."

"Hey, thanks a lot, Mariah."

"Tiger claw attack!"

"Tyson, how did I do? Did I beat him?"

"Give me 100%"

"Always a pleasure talking with you Kai,"

"What is it?"

"I'm no expert on table manners, but something tells me that's not how you're supposed to eat in a fancy restaurant! Unbelievable!"

"For goodness sake, Tyson, use a fork!"

"Isn't it strange how the memories are? Even such a long time ago?"

"Me too. But some how it all came back to me,"

Relationships
Kai Hiwatari: Kai and Rei are closest in age of the BBA Team and are shown to share a certain respect, concern and admiration. This is particularly evident in Beyblade 2002.

Chou Mao: Rei and Mao were born and raised in the same mountain village in China, and grew up together alongside Gaou, Kiki and Mao's older brother Rai, becoming life-long friends. It was from Rei that Mao first learned how to Beyblade, and as time went on, their loyalty to each other led to early stages of friendship. However, this was dashed by Rei's desertion. Mao however refused to believe Ray was a traitor and her feeling for him were lost forever. After the Chuugoku team reconciles with Rei, he later rejoins in the third series.

Salima: Rei seems to have the same feelings for Salima as he does for Mao. They both want to have fair fights, since Tyson was also considering breaking the rules to protect their bit-beasts.

Family
His parents aren't known. In the manga however, he marries Mao (Mariah) and they have a daughter named Rin (Ling). Taking this into consideration, Rei would now have a wife, a daughter, a brother-in-law (Rai) and a grandfather-in-law since Mao's family would also be his.

Information
His age in the manga and in the Japanese version is 12 in BB 2001, 13 in BB 2002 and 14 in BB G-Revolution. In the US version he's 14-16.

In the Japanese versions, his given name is often written in katakana as "レイ."(Re-i)