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"Hiya! I'm Rio! I'm the blackjack dealer in the casino. It's a lot of fun! You should drop by"
—Rio in Dead or Alive Paradise


Rio Rollins Tachibana is the main character and the official mascot character of Tecmo's Super Black Jack gambling game series. She made her first debut outside of Japan in the Dead or Alive Xtreme spin-off, Dead or Alive Paradise.

In Paradise, the player can partake in poker and blackjack in the casino during the evening, both in which Rio acts as the table dealer. She also appears as a character to interact with in areas outside the casino.

Rio can be unlocked as a playable character by receiving Zack's "challenge item" in the hotel, visiting the casino to play blackjack against Rio, and winning with one blackjack hand.

Story[]

Dead or Alive Paradise[]

Rio is one of the most popular casino dealers working at the Howard Resort, a world-famous entertainment-resort hotel where the rich and famous gather from around the world to gamble and to be entertained.

Rio swimsuit 4

Rio in Dead or Alive Paradise

For the two-week vacation, Zack hired Rio to be his casino hostess at New Zack Island. During that fortnight, Rio spent her time on the island either working for Zack as the casino's hostess and only dealer during the evenings, dealing cards at the poker and blackjack tables. She used her leisure time during the day to relax or to play beach games on the island's shores with the other vacationers, until the vacation finished. Afterwards, she returned to the Howard Resort to continue with her regular work.

Character[]

Rio swimsuit 2

Rio in the Blackjack swimsuit.

Appearance[]

See also: Rio's costumes

Rio is at average height for her age, and has one of the biggest bust sizes in Dead or Alive Paradise, falling 4cm behind Tina Armstrong. She has a healthy complexion, with soft facial features and a heart-shaped face. Her hair is pinkish-red in Paradise (normally pink in the Super Black Jack series) and styled in a shoulder-long cut with a front fringe. Her eyes are a vivid green, and are always wide and awake.

She is normally seen wearing a revealing casino outfit: a white, v-collar shirt, and a black waistjacket with white detailing that both show off her stomach and lots of cleavage, a black mini-skirt, black high-heels, and a black bow-tie collar around her neck.

Personality[]

An adventurous soul, Rio has been involved in many adventures and constantly finds herself involved in games of chance from poker to Russian Roulette and many others.

Etymology[]

Rio (リオ) is an unisex Spanish name meaning "river". Its namesake is likely to be the Rio Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas rather than any Spanish origins. It can also be a female Japanese name. Her surname Tachibana (タチバナ) is Japanese, but it is written in katakana to note her American origins. Common Japanese spellings can either mean "standing flower" (立花) or the tachibana orange (橘).

Gameplay[]

Riovolleyball

Rio playing volleyball.

To partner with Rio, the player has to go to the casino and play at least twenty games of Blackjack with Rio, after which Rio will be found wandering the island the next day. To unlock and play as Rio, the player has to challenge Rio to a game of Blackjack and win with a Blackjack hand.

While there have been no official stats released, Rio has been observed as being similar in technique to Lei Fang, while pretty low on speed, defense and power.

Appearances[]

Dead or Alive series[]

  • Dead or Alive Paradise (unlockable, 2010)
RioSuperBlackjack

Rio in the Super Blackjack series.

Non-Dead or Alive appearances[]

Ninja Gaiden Clans[]

Rio makes a cameo appearance as a special SR dagger class card.

Super Black Jack[]

Created by Tecmo in collaboration with pachi-slot company Net, Rio is the mascot character of the casino-themed, Japanese gambling series Super Black Jack which started off back in 2003. Since then, she has appeared in many games across most platforms, and is featured in other various merchandise such as posters, soundtracks and figurines.

Rio Sound Hustle[]

Rio Sound Hustle is an anime soundtrack featuring Rio with two other girls from the Super Black Jack series. The soundtrack was advertised on the Dead or Alive Paradise Japanese website.

Rio Super Carnival[]

Rio Super Carnival is an anime Drama CD featuring Rio with some of the girls from the Super Black Jack series. While it was advertised along with the Rio Sound Hustle soundtrack, the CD also featured a segment about Dead or Alive Paradise.

Rio BlackJack[]

Rio also appears in the simple blackjack game, Rio BlackJack for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is in very similar style in gameplay and appearance to Girls of DOA BlackJack, which features Kasumi as the dealer.

Rio: Rainbow Gate![]

Rio has also starred in her own late-night anime series, Rio: Rainbow Gate!, produced by Xebec. The anime aired on Tokyo MX, running for thirteen episodes from January 4, 2011 to March 29, 2011.

The plot will follow Rio, a popular casino dealer with the ability to bring good luck to gamblers just by walking past them, as she learns that she is a Gate Holder - a dealer who holds one of the 13 legendary cards called "Gates" - and takes part in Gate Battles with other Gate Holders to collect the rest of the Gates, to become the world's "Most Valuable Casino Dealer".

Warriors All-Stars[]

Stars - Rio Tachibana

Rio in Warriors All-Stars

In an alternate world that relies on a miraculous spring to sustain itself. The King who could control the spring's powers suddenly perished, leaving the world in turmoil. The Queen told her daughter to summon otherworldly heroes to save their land, with Rio being one of them, but the attempted summoning malfunctioned and left them scattered in different areas. Eventually, other members of this royal family are deemed eligible for the throne, dividing all the heroes into three warring factions.

Gallery[]

Promotional renders
Promotional images
Ninja Gaiden series
Miscellaneous

Trivia[]

  • On the Paradise character selection menu, under her height/weight information, Rio has sneakily put that her weight is a "secret."
  • In some gravures, Rio will occasionally mention Mint.
  • Rio is the first guest character in the entire franchise to speak in both English and Japanese depending on the version (as SPARTAN-458 spoke English regardless of whether it was the overseas version of Dead or Alive 4 or the Japanese version). This would later be repeated with Naotora Ii in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.
    • On a similar note, she is also the first guest character to be from a first party franchise (hailing from Tecmo's Super Black Jack), predating Naotora Ii.
  • Rio, like Hitomi, has her name spelled in katakana despite the name itself being of Japanese origin. This is likely because both are Japanese-descent characters who hailed from countries outside Japan (America and Germany, respectively).
  • Although Rio makes no reappearance in the Dead or Alive series, the character Monica from Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation has a similar role and personality to Rio in that she acts as a dealer at the casino.

External links[]

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