Ryukyu Turtles

Quick facts:
Founded: N/A
Field: Okinawa Cellular Stadium, Naha, Okinawa
Owner: N/A

The Ryukyu Turtles are the only fictional team in this series, representing Okinawa Prefecture and the entire Ryukyu Islands. A baseball team, known as the Ryukyu Blue Oceans, attempted to organize and enter NPB, but fell apart due to financial difficulties after the COVID-19 pandemic. The islands were previously ruled by the Ryukyu Kingdom before annexation by Japan in 1879. The Ryukyu name still holds tremendous value to the people of Okinawa and is used for their two current major sports, FC Ryukyu Okinawa of soccer and the Ryukyu Golden Kings of basketball. An Okinawa team could draw from locals as well as capitalize on the major U.S. military bases on the islands (a major source of contention from native Okinawans). 

Following the trend of NPB teams named for animals, I considered two local marine animals as the nickname for Okinawa's team. The prefecture is home to both sea turtles and dugongs, but as the Dragons already use "D" in alphabetical abbreviations, Turtles was the better choice. The logo is a stylized turtle seen from above, similar to this Daytona Tortugas logo. I went for a unique double-green color scheme with a light tan representing the turtle's shell. This way, Ryukyu stands out from the other green teams in NPB.



Ryukyu's jerseys were a place for me to implement ideas that I hadn't yet in NPB, including a mascot character on the home jersey and a sand-colored road jersey like the Padres, referencing Okinawa's tropical nature. The third jersey is a bright green set with a Turtles script while the fourth jersey shows off Okinawa pride, placing the prefecture front and center. 

It remains to be seen if the Blue Oceans' dream of a local NPB team ever reaches fruition, but they certainly have my support. Okinawa is a beautiful place and somewhere I would love to visit one day when I'm able, hopefully with a local team to call their own.

What do you all think? All comments are appreciated! Tomorrow will be the last team of the series, the Japanese national baseball team, Samurai Japan!

Dan O'Mac wrote:

I genuinely love this set. The only thing I'm not sure of is the home having a turtle on the chest and on the cap. The Ryukyu script makes me very happy though.

Thanks! I agree with you but I wanted to have the turtle on the jersey and it only made sense to keep it on the cap. The Ryukyu script is a favorite of mine as well.

ventures: solid, classic baseball look. definitely reminds me of the yankees too. you really took it to another level with the changes you made; the rope pattern is such a great touch

pirates: this is another one with a weird logo. it almost reads like a C and an I to me, although I also kinda see a lowercase e for ehime in there? still, when it's based on an existing brand, it feels right. the colors are awesome; I love orange and green and it feels like the only choice for a team based around mandarin oranges. oh and I almost missed the secondary logo on the sleeves! holy banger

turtles: I love almost everything about this. the color scheme is great and the turtle logo is really well done. the only issue I have is the tan road uniform. I think the reason it works for the padres and not the turtles is that the padres' tan complements their shade of brown really well, but here it clashes with the green. if you want to try something different on the road, maybe a powder blue would work here? it might also look really bad, idk

samurai: not much to say here, but I definitely like the tweaks you made to the colors. it just feels like the japanese national baseball team. the red alt is nice, albeit maybe a little dark, but I think it works

all in all, just an absolutely stellar job from top to bottom. can't wait to see what you tackle next!