Ryu Aoba

Stanford Bačovnik-Dugandžić (nee Tormann), mostly known by his alter-ego Ryu Aoba, or his stage name Ryze, is a Malichkan singer-songwriter, EDM producer and actor residing in Tokyo, Japan and the son of ex-Prime Minister and film director Marko Dugandžić. He is known for his fictional character's perpetually edgy personality and his anime-inspired stage-appearance.

Early life and rise to fame
Stanford was born on May 14th 1991 to his father Marko and mother Margrethe, Duchess of Devetzmajev. He was an avid fan of his father's movies and even made him a costume of the main protagonist of his then-latest film, Mario, when he went out trick or treating for the first time in 1997.

In 2004 Margrethe and Marko divorced. Margrethe and Stanford then moved to Tokyo in neighboring Japan. There, Margrethe gave him singing lessons for a year until 2005, when he made his first appearance on RTVM Kids as a host of the show The Cat Twins.

Career and AMSF victory
In 2008, Stanford returned to Dvoreki with Margrethe. There she started writing songs for Stanford (that would last until 2015 when he started writing his own songs under the pseudonym Ryu Aoba). He participated in and won the Annual Malichkan Songfest's 40th edition in 2009.

Change of persona
In 2015, he adopted the pseudonym Ryu Aoba and changed his style of attire, now wearing more "edgy" anime-inspired clothes, almost like the character Kaneki Ken from the Tokyo Ghoul manga. He also dyed his hair white and was never seen without his signature cybernetic eye prop.

An amusement park, Aoba's Nightmare, based on his fictional character, was built in 12 Decembra, a small town not far from Svetijurij, and opened in 2019. An animated film featuring his fictional character was also made by state broadcaster RTVM's film production division the same year.

After winning the AMSF's golden jubilee edition in 2019 with the song "Našel te bom", he is set to host the 2020 edition in persona alongside newsreader Marija Kocijančič and rapper-DJ Antun Lam. It is now postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fictional character
Ryu Aoba is an anime character from Tokyo, Japan. He claims to be a half-werewolf and half-human and has a cybernetic right eye that glows red. He perpetually wears a black undershirt, black gloves, a black trench coat, black leggings, black leather boots, and his character wields pistols, a sniper, an AK-47 rifle and a few grenades. He is ruthless and claims to be making others join his army who will help him in his plan to dominate the "realm of the mortals" and exterminate all who stand in his way.