reno

Characters of Final Fantasy VII

Reno (レノ, Reno) is a prominent member of the Turks, ranking directly below Tseng. He sports a lanky physique, and unkempt red hair terminating in a long ponytail. In Final Fantasy VII he has two symmetrical red tattoos across his cheekbones. He is always seen wearing goggles on his forehead. He is also much less attentive to dress code than his colleagues. He wears the Turks uniform but with his jacket unzipped and his shirt untucked and open-necked without a tie. He uses a retractable, metallic stun baton, called an Electro-Mag Rod, as a weapon. He is characterized as cocky, cynical, and somewhat lazy, but is highly skilled and takes pride in his work. Reno also has a penchant for gossiping and is a competent helicopter pilot. In the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children, he is portrayed as being somewhat less cynical, clumsy and more of a comical character. Although his fighting skills are far above the level of a normal human, he is defeated with relative ease by Loz and Yazoo.

Reno is first encountered in Final Fantasy VII when he enters a derelict church in the slums of Midgar's Sector 5 in an attempt to capture Aerith (where he instructs his subordinates to be careful not to step on the flowers after stepping on them himself). Not long after, he activates the bombs that blow up the Sector 7 support pillar before having a brief battle with Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart and Barret Wallace. This fight leaves him temporarily incapacitated. He later reappears outside of Gongaga with his long-time partner, Rude, having been assigned to intercept AVALANCHE. Despite the rivalry between the two groups, he is not beyond teaming up with Cloud and his companions in Wutai, where both parties had to work together after each had a member kidnapped by Don Corneo. After this incident, Reno's group receives new orders to search for Cloud but Reno decides not to fight Cloud on the pretext of being off duty. Near the end of Disc Two of Final Fantasy VII, the player has the option to fight Elena, Reno, and Rude, or refuse the battle. In either case the Turks survive, so there is no clear canonical outcome to this situation.

Reno has a prominent role in Advent Children. Consistent with his attitude at the end of the original Final Fantasy VII, Reno possesses no true hostility towards his former enemies[1]. As of Advent Children, the Turks are on the same side as AVALANCHE and join the fight against the film's villains. Reno and Rude primarily serve as the film's comic relief. His comical role in Advent Children includes being locked out while Cloud and Rufus have an important talk, bringing out his weapon and accidentally hitting Rude in the head, being knocked back several hundred feet by Yazoo and landing on Rude, climbing a building to save Rufus and using Rude's head as support, stepping on and crushing Rude's trademark sunglasses, having a child stick his fingers up his nose while rescuing him from Bahamut SIN, and apologizing to Loz and Yazoo for insulting Jenova before realizing what he said.

He is voiced by Keiji Fujiwara in the Japanese version of "Advent Children" and "Crisis Core" with Quinton Flynn voicing him in the English versions.