Reiko Nagase is the race queen featured in the Ridge Racer series, as one of the girls holding cards before the start of each race, and appearing in the FMV cutscenes. An unnamed girl resembling Reiko first appeared in the real-time arcade intro for 1995's Rave Racer, but she was officially reintroduced (and named) a year later in Rage Racer. Whether the Rave Racer girl is supposed to be Reiko is unknown, but Reiko's Ridge Racer 6 outfit bears a resemblance to the Rave Racer one.

In 1998's Ridge Racer Type 4, she was given more prominence, as the opening animation, which used a Kimara Lovelace song, was a short story starring her, and introduced a redesign to her 3D model by Kei Yoshimizu. This is when Namco started giving more exposure to the character, heavily using her image to promote the game.

Her story as depicted in Ridge Racer Type 4's intro begins when she was going to walk all the way to the city, where at the same time, a Real Racing Roots '99 street race was in progress, and upon reaching the tunnel, one of her high-heel shoes broke, forcing her to walk barefoot, and then moments later, she heard the sound of engines approaching, and the Racing Team Solvalou driver in the Assoluto Bisonte, who was leading the race, saw her asking for a ride and decided to give her a lift whilst finishing the race. It can only be assumed that this is when she fell in love with cars and racing.

Also on Type 4, she is known to have a cameo appearance as having sent a fax mail to Pac Racing Club, but due to her profession, this was kept as a secret (only gained through coming 1st place overall up to Phantomile).

While still appearing in other games, Namco decided to replace Reiko in 2000's Ridge Racer V with newcomer Ai Fukami. In 2001, Namco created an image girl for their Namco Sports line named Hitomi Yoshino, and while the Ridge Racer series doesn't belong to that line she was featured in a Ridge Racer trailer shown in the 2002 edition of the E3.

The PSP titles saw the return of Reiko Nagase after her absence in Ridge Racer V, now with reworked CGI and new outfit. In the first PSP title, she's not only featured in the game's intro, but also the ending credits.

In Ridge Racer 6, she makes a return with an easter egg in the form of hidden messages, obtainable in certain points of the game.

Afterwards, in Ridge Racer 7, she was given even more backstory. At this point, she now works in the Universal Federation of Ridge Racing Association (abbreviated as UFRA), Ridge State GP's governing body, as its spokesperson.

In subsequent releases, she reprises her role as a race queen, except for Ridge Racer Draw & Drift , where she acts as a race manager.

The Reiko Nagase character's official profile, unleashed by Bandai Namco Entertainment in 1998 alongside R4, tells a lot more about Reiko and what she is like. It is the second photo in the gallery below.

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Appearances

Gallery

Other appearances

She has been featured in many products licensed by Namco, including the first and sixth wave of Namco Gals gashapon.

Multiple characters named Kei Nagase, who all bear a notable resemblance to Reiko, have appeared in the Ace Combat series, most notably Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. The Kei Nagase that appeared in Ace Combat 2 was explicitly stated to be Reiko's younger sister.[1]

Reiko is a playable character in Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis

Reiko is a playable character in Pac-Man Fever

Reiko drives an Age Prophetie in R4 , and a Lucky & Wild Evolver in the opening scene for Ridge Racer 3D , as well as being the final boss in the latter, driving the Lucky & Wild MadBull special machine, where she will be faced off alongside two other racers driving a Kamata Angelus and a Soldat Crinale.

, and a Lucky & Wild Evolver in the opening scene for , as well as being the final boss in the latter, driving the Lucky & Wild MadBull special machine, where she will be faced off alongside two other racers driving a Kamata Angelus and a Soldat Crinale. It may be possible that she drives the yellow Assoluto Fatalita that she was sitting on in the intro movie of Ridge Racer (PSP). Proof of Reiko's love for cars is obvious by the way she treats them. During the intro of RRPSP she was trying to help the Soldat Raggio race car improve its lap time. She takes a glimpse of her stopwatch before gently resting her outstretched arms on the hood of the yellow Fatalita. Then the Raggio in the scene comes to the finish line and skids to a stop. Then Reiko leaped from the hood of the yellow Fatalita, and was walking towards the Raggio after stopping her stopwatch, only to be digusted with the time the blue race car made out.

Trivia

She was born in Tokyo on February 14th, 1975, which means that she's 24 by the time Ridge Racer Type 4 took place, or roughly 21 years old in Rage Racer , assuming the time setting is its present time of launch. As of the current day in 2020, she is 45 years old. That's what makes it weird that she didn't look any younger during the more recent releases. (e.g., RRPSP)

took place, or roughly 21 years old in , assuming the time setting is its present time of launch. As of the current day in 2020, she is 45 years old. That's what makes it weird that she didn't look any younger during the more recent releases. (e.g., RRPSP) Her birthday is, ironically, on Valentine's Day.

In Ridge Racer 7 , she works as the spokesperson for the UFRA, according to Ridge State News running texts.

, she works as the spokesperson for the UFRA, according to Ridge State News running texts. According to a magazine article for Incite Video Gaming Magazine about Ridge Racer 64 for the Nintendo 64 from February 2000 [2] , a Japanese male developer couldn't find a woman's face for Reiko so he had a quick shave, conducted a spot of eyebrow plucking and scanned his own head in as Reiko is "part man".

about for the from February 2000 , a Japanese male developer couldn't find a woman's face for Reiko so he had a quick shave, conducted a spot of eyebrow plucking and scanned his own head in as Reiko is "part man". One of the characters in Tekken 7 , Josie Rizal, somewhat resembles Reiko.

, Josie Rizal, somewhat resembles Reiko. According to a news ticker in Ridge Racer 7, Reiko's interests are "reading comments from Ridge Racers all over the world via the World Connector", as well as drinking green tea, which is also implied to be her favorite drink.