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Onodera Ritsu  (小野寺律, Onodera Ritsu) is one of the main characters in Sekaiichi Hatsukoi. He is voiced by Kondo Takashi. He is in an unofficial relationship with Takano Masamune.

Appearance

Ritsu has light brown hair (red in the manga) and long bangs that frame the sides of his face. He has wide, green eyes and fair skin. When he was 15, his hair was styled differently with his bangs parting in the middle. His hair is said to be a silky in texture (to where one of his female co-workers complains about how much she envies it during a drunken rant).

He is described by Yoshino as being very attractive, having a "vogue body type" with high hips and a small face with perfect features. Ritsu doesn't really like smiling for a long time, and states that it makes his jaws hurt. Like most male characters in the series, Ritsu is relatively tall - being slightly taller than average height -but like most of the couples of the series, he is significantly shorter than his seme, Masamune.

History (OVA)

Highschool

Ritsu back in high school

The first meeting between Masamune (Saga at that time) and Ritsu was during high school when Ritsu was attempting to grab a book which was far above his capable reach, which was turning out to be difficult for Ritsu. Masamune then reached out and pulled the book out for him. Ritsu thanked him and walked away before turning back to look at him.

After their first meeting, Ritsu slowly fell in love with the older boy. Like most people, before this first meeting, Ritsu didn't believe in love at first sight. However, following this meeting with Masamune, his feelings changed. Even so, the name of the unknown senpai (for Ritsu of course) remained a mystery to Onodera, thus leading him to search through the books that Masamune had borrowed so he could see the book record cards and learn the name of his first love. After that, as Ritsu mentioned to himself during the OVA, he realizes his actions are close to being a stalker, as he had borrowed almost all the books Saga had borrowed and frequently watched him from afar. 

Mangaonodera

Ritsu in the manga

Three years later, they meet again in a similar situation. This time, Ritsu was reaching for a book that happened to be the same one that Masamune wanted. Their hands touch, causing Ritsu to blush and call out Masamune's name in surprise. Masamune then asks how Ritsu knew his name. In the midst of the sudden confrontation, Ritsu spontaneously confesses his love for Masamune subconsciously. To Ritsu's surprise, Masamune doesn't mind Ritsu's confession to him and even says that he wouldn't mind going out with him. Ritsu instantly thinks it was a joke, but Masamune says that it wasn't and adds that Ritsu could come over to his house.

Days later, after school (an extremely nervous) Ritsu and Masamune walk to Masamune's home. Ritsu enters the house to see a cat at Masamune saved on a rainy day, and he walks upwards to Masamune's room. While Ritsu was waiting for Masamune, he sees Masamune's bed and as it was his dear wish from the day he had met Saga, he had wants to be on the bed of his first love. On the sudden whim, he throws himself on the bed, but then scrambles back to the floor, thoroughly embarrassed.

A few seconds later, Masamune walks in with tea and offers that they watch TV. While they watch, Ritsu mentions the cat at the doorstep. Masamune remembers the day when he rescued the cat and chuckles. Masamune jokingly tells Ritsu that he had been stalked and Ritsu instantly gives Masamune a very formal apology, but Masamune tells him that he didn't mind and then leans forward in an attempt to kiss Ritsu. Shocked, Ritsu pushes him away, but later allows Masamune to kiss him. After the second kiss, Masamune hugs him and asks to sleep with him. Ritsu, stunned, replies with a yes. While the two are having sex for the first time, Masamune whispers that he loves Ritsu, using Ritsu's first name. The two broke up when Ritsu asked Masamune if the two of them were going out and Masamune laughed nervously in response.

However, Ritsu believed that the laugh meant that Masamune was making fun of him. Ritsu, heartbroken, kicks Masamune some day after and leaves Japan to study abroad in England. A few years later he returns to Japan to work at his father's publishing company. When seeing his co-workers believed his success was solely based on him having family connections, Ritsu decided to leave his father's company to work in literature to prove he can make it on his own without his father's name. Thus setting up the events for Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi Ichi.

Marukawa Publishing

After a few concerns with his old job (due to his colleagues belief that he was 'riding his parents coattails' in the company), Ritsu decides change work to a literature department at Marukawa Publishing. Because of a mistake, he was assigned to work on Shoujo Manga (girl comics) which disappoints him since he was set on literature and knows very little about editing manga. He pleads with General Affairs to assign him to the literature department, but to no avail.

After meeting his boss, Takano Masamune, he wants to tell Masamune that he wants to quit due to little knowledge in such a deparement and field work. However, he decides to give manga a try after being called 'useless' by Masamune. Ritsu later finds out that he was placed in shoujo manga section deliberately by his father for unknown reasons. Ritsu later decides to stay and work with shoujo manga so he can gain success and prove to others that he is not riding on his parents' coattails and can be a great manga editor on his own personal success. Ritsu usually tells himself that he will quit working at Marukawa as many of the workers like to pick on him for being a "newbie".

As Ritsu invests more time in editing shoujo manga, he begins to neglect his health to solely focus on on his work. Ritsu comes to work extremely pale, worrying Takano. Takano confronts Ritsu in the restroom asking him if he is alright. Ritsu insists that he is fine, but over the next few days, Ritsu's health continues to worsen. This results in him abruptly collapsing while talking to Isaka in the parking lot, who takes him to a local hospital to be properly examined. Isaka then contacts Takano about the matter, who rushes to the hospital. Once there, he learns that Ritsu has been neglecting his health and failing to eat properly. Takano then tells Ritsu that he will now be in charge of meals for him, which he carries out by ensuring they always eat at least one meal a day together.

Relationships

Takano Masamune

Takatsu

Masamune is Ritsu's current boss, neighbor and first love in high school. In the manga, Masamune and Ritsu have been neighbors for quite a while but they never met or even introduced themselves due to irregular times arriving home while Ritsu was still working at his father's company. In the anime, Ritsu moves in after wanting to get a fresh start with work, only to find out Masamune is his neighbor, shocking him.

Ten years ago, after Ritsu went off to study abroad, Masamune attempted to find him, but was never able to do so due to knowing Ritsu under a false name. Ten years passed and Ritsu ends up working at Marukawa Shoten's Emerald department where Masamune is his boss. Neither of them realize who the other is because, due to his parent's divorce, Takano's last name had been changed and Ritsu had been using his actual name which Takano didn't know. Also, since 10 years had passed, appearances had been changed (such as Takano's hair style). After finding out that his new boss is his former lover, he tells Takano that he will never have such feelings for him again, although Takano vows that he will make him fall in love with him again.

While Takano still has feelings for Ritsu and refuses to give up on him, Ritsu often wonders if he really still loves Takano. After a few words with Takano while waiting for the rain to lighten up,Takano says that he had been trying to find him when they were in high school. Ritsu was touched (and scared after telling him he shortened his name from 'Onodera' to 'Oda' to hide his real name) and had his emotion exploded for him. It was here than Ritsu finally confessed 'I love you' to Takano. However, Takano was unable to hear him due to a sudden downpour of rain and a bus driving by, although had a feeling he missed something very important. 

Sekaiepisode119

Ritsu tells Takano that he loves him, who fails to hear due the noise drowning out his voice.

Despite this, Takano realizes that Ritsu still has strong feelings for him, but he just doesn't show it. Though Ritsu acts like he hates Takano's advances, he deeply cares for him and maintains his love for him, even if he has yet to admit it. He often makes this apparent when he becomes worried after Takano catches a cold, buying him medicine and cooking a dish for him which was, apparently, unappetizing.

His continued love for Takano is often shown when he becomes jealous of Takano's possible romantic relationships with other people, such as with Yokozawa. One time, he had even begged him not to go visit Yokozawa at night and even implies that he still cares for Takano in a romantic sense just to get him to stay. 

Ritsu's Mother

Ritsu and his mom have a somewhat cold relationship. As his mother is trying to make Ritsu spend more time with An, whom she made an arranged engagement with despite Ritsu's protests that he doesn't want it. As she often nags him to spend more time with An, Ritsu refuses and claims the reason is that he has work, but doesn't tell his mother that the real reason is that he doesn't want to hurt Takano.

After Ritsu repeatedly refuses to accept the marriage, she asks Ritsu if he already has someone he loves, and Ritsu answers "I guess I do". When An later cancels the engagment herself, with the excuse that she can never love Ritsu as her husband, she calls Ritsu furiously demanding to know why An would cancel the engagment.

An Kohinata

An is Ritsu's ex-fiancé and friend since childhood. She comes to Ritsu's apartment late at night to greet him after coming back from Paris and gives him souvenirs. While taking the gifts, he brings her to a taxi. Takano confronts him and Ritsu tells him that An confessed her feelings to him, but he turned her down telling her that he loves someone else. He claims that he only held her hand but nothing else.

Later on, she appears at the Teito Hotel for a party, while Ritsu is working there as well for the Marukawa New Years Party. She confesses once again, but Ritsu turns her down again telling An that he still might be in love with the person from high school. A couple months later, Ritsu gets a call from An, explaining that his mother was sent to the hospital. Meeting An, he takes her home. An later learns that Ritsu has feelings for "Mr. Next-door Neighbor".

She confronts Takano and tells him that he better not hurt Ritsu and runs away. Ritsu tries to calm An, but their only conversations consist of An asking if Ritsu loves her. Ritsu receives a call from his mother, telling him that An canceled their arrangement because she cannot see him as her husband.

Takafumi Yokozawa

Ritsu doesn't have a good relationship with Takafumi, at least for a majority of the series, since Takafumi believes that Ritsu was the sole source of Takano's pain in high school and college. As a result, he often dismissed his work proposals and often made the two's working relationship hard until Takano confronted him about sabotaging Ritsu's working assignments. When Takafumi and Ritsu would see each other (often unexpectedly), Takafumi would get angry with Ritsu and tell him to stay away from Takano because he felt that Ritsu was causing him even more pain. He also held a grudge towards Ritsu because he himself was in love with Takano.

After Takano tells Takafumi that despite the years and past pain, he is still in love with Ritsu - not him. Takafumi painfully accepts this and stops acting as aggressively towards Ritsu, only wanting Ritsu to confirm that he does love Takano, which Ritsu admits. Takafumi even admits that Ritsu does a good job with his field work and to keep it up. However, he is still very protective of Takano and says that if Ritsu ever hurts Takano again, he would not hesitate to take Takano back. 

Kisa Shouta

Kisa and Ritsu are very good friends and co-workers. When Ritsu first arrived to Marukawa, Kisa was the first to greet him and they sit next to each other when they work. Ritsu is often teased by Kisa, though in a joking manner. However, they help each other out when it comes to deadlines and work, usually with Kisa often asking Ritsu to make him copies of certain forms. In the manga series, Kisa admits how he considers him and Ritsu to be good friends and believes Ritsu to have a girlfriend. 

Hatori Yoshiyuki

Hatori and Ritsu are very good friends and companions at work.

Trivia

  • He only does dishes and laundry when the one he uses gets dirty.
  • It is also mentioned that he was one of Ryouichi Sumi's (father of Keichi Sumi, friend of Misaki Takashi also from Junjou Romantica) editors at his previous job. 
  • Ritsu's shoe size is 26.5.
  • It is later revealed that Ritsu owns an iPhone 4. It is currently installed to be used and typed in hiragana and katakana. It has been used when Ritsu was texting An Kohinata an apology via text; telling her that he is coming home from the station.
  • His favorite food is dorayaki.
  • He is a terrible cook.
  • His current hairstyle resembles the one Takano used to have during high school. 
  • His pairing with Takano is referred to as "Nostalgia," referring to their past relationship and their rekindled feelings.
  • In the manga, Ritsu admits that he lost his virginity to Takano. This being during their high school relationship. 
  • His and Takano's relationship counterpart from the mangaka's other manga "Junjou Romantica" is the Junjou Romantica pairing of Usami and Misaki; mainly due to them being the first pairing introduced, the pairing that takes the longest to confirm they are lovers, and the pairings with the most overall exposure in both the anime and manga.
  • Until he dated Takano in high school, Ritsu never ate fast food or any kind of instant food. He also cannot handle giving his order, failing at it in high school and just as so in his adult years.
  • Following his break up with Takano in high school, Ritsu dated a few girls. However, these relationships were significantly brief, never lasting long. (An, during a confrontation about Ritsu's true feelings, also confirmed this.)
  • When transfering to Marukawa Publishing, he had requested to be put into the literature department. However, his father intervened and instead had him deliberately put into the shojo department, much to his confusion when he found this detail out. Why his father instructed that Ritsu be assigned to the shojo manga field is left unknown.
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