This article lists the characters who have appeared in the Japanese Ring films, based on a series of novels written by Koji Suzuki. The series is made up of Ring, Rasen, Ring 2, Ring 0: Birthday and Sadako 3D. The films have also been adapted into the Korean film The Ring Virus, and the American series The Ring, Rings (2005), The Ring Two and Rings (2017). In television the first novel has been adapted into the television film Ring: Kanzenban as well as Ring: The Final Chapter a 12-episode television series. A follow-up series, Rasen, was also produced. The books and films revolve around a mysterious video cassette that is said to curse those who watch it so that they will die within a week of viewing. The main characters discover this to be true and must solve the videotape's origins to save themselves and other characters from the deadly curse. Main characters Kazuyuki Asakawa is the lead character in the first novel of the series, Ring. He has two older brothers: Junichi, who works in a publishing company, and another one who works as a high school teacher. Kazuyuki is married to Shizuka Oda and they have a one-year-old daughter named Yoko. His best friend is Ryuji Takayama, a college professor and alleged rapist. After his wife's niece Tomoko dies and he comes across another boy who died on the same day on his motorbike, Asakawa tries to find out why, which then links him to the cursed videotape. After watching it, he is left with just seven days to figure out how to break the curse. While Kazuyuki manages to escape the curse by showing Ryuji with a copy of the videotape, as revealed in Spiral, his daughter and wife do not despite having done the same, as the virus which causes the curse mutated when Kazuyuki copied the tape for Ryuji. In his panic, Kazuyuki experiences a car accident which leaves him catatonic. Ando attempts to interview him about the virus, but he remains mute. Several weeks later, Kazuyuki passes away in his sleep. It is later revealed that the virus spared Kazuyuki because he unwittingly helped it spread; Kazuyuki's journal chronicling his investigation on Sadako is printed by Junichi into a book published nationally. In Ring: Kanzenban (1995), Asakawa is played by Katsunori Takahashi with little difference except for an unborn child rather than a one-year-old