Kamen Rider Ryuki Review: The Start Of A Journey

You're probably wondering about that title...well, it actually has nothing to do with the show. It has everything to do with me since this was the toku show that I consider to be my official entry point into the tokusatsu fandom. Sure, I had seen Dragon Knight before-hand and I've been a Power Rangers fan my entire life but I don't really count them for this since I wasn't active in the fandom at the time. I remember exactly what I was doing when I first stumbled across this show. It was 2011-ish and I was sitting in the college cafe bored out of my mind while waiting for my next class to start. I was looking up Power Rangers clips on youtube when I noticed this little show had snuck its way into my recommended feed and I couldn't resist giving it a shot. It probably sounds weird that a Rider show was my entry point into the toku fandom at large when I'm such a big Sentai fan. So please indulge me while I take this little walk down memory lane for its 20th anniversary. Since I'm going all out for this and its an old show: SPOILERS AHEAD! Without further adieu...TATAKAE!!

Shinji Kido is an intern for the ORE Journal. While investigating a series of missing persons incidents, he finds a strange deck. He is attacked by a dragon from inside a window and manages to escape. While trying to save a friend from another monster, he falls into Mirror World. He gets saved by Ren (Kamen Rider Knight) and contracts with the dragon when it shows up to eat him. From there, he gets embroiled in the Rider War while vowing to use his powers to save people from the monsters on top of trying to solve the mystery of this man who only appears in mirrors.

The show features a lot of Riders and its probably got the most (well except for maybe Gaim). Its actually something I find pretty fascinating about the show is that most of the Riders pretty much have their own reasons for fighting in the Rider War. It shows what can go wrong if the wrong person gets ahold of that kind of power. Shinji and Raia are the only ones who aren't out for themselves and even then Raia wants to stop the war out of revenge for the death of his friend. Kanzaki purposefully picked people who would be willing to fight and kill each other just to get their one wish. Because there are so many riders in this show, I'm only gonna go over the major 4 so this will pretty much spoil who the top contenders are in the show.

Shinji Kido...where to begin...the man is my kind of hero. Dude just goes out of his way to help people when he gets the chance. He even outright tries to reason with the other riders and talk them out of fighting each other despite them telling him to fck off. He just can't help but throw himself into a situation that he feels needs to be resolved. On top of that, he can't even bring himself to kill someone in the Rider War. Just the impression of having killed someone was enough to devastate him to point of not wanting to transform again despite the risk of Dragredder eating him. Dude wears every single thought going through his head and every emotion he feels on his sleeve. Its his greatest strength and greatest weakness. You'd better believe that a lot of other riders take advantage of this fact too.

Ren is fighting in the war because his girlfriend is in a coma thanks to Kanzaki's experiments. The man is also...well kind of a dick in early Ryuki. He makes your modern asshole secondary riders look nice by comparison. The man nearly beats Shinji to death in the second episode to take him out of the fight. He is seemingly only stopped from killing him by Yui breaking a window to get his attention and has the nerve to say Shinji owes him the money he spent replacing the window. Despite all his crowing about how Riders can't co-exist, it feels like his heart isn't in it early on so his story is one about finding his resolve.

Kitoaka is a hotshot lawyer who is fighting in the war for one simple reason, he is dying from an incurable disease. He starts out valuing money, luxury, and his own desires because he knows he doesn't have a lot of time left even without the Rider War being a factor. Over the course of the show, he eventually grows and becomes a little more selfless, especially when Asakura gets involved in the Rider War. Something I really dig about how him is how he butts into fights. Its never some flashy or ominous entrance, he just straight up announces his presence by shooting people in the back. Its pretty fitting given his situation, he doesn't have the time to make a show of it.

Asakura is just straight up cold-blooded and he honestly kinda scares me. The idea that someone this unhinged became a rider is terrifying. The man joined the rider war just so he could fight and kill people. He was specifically chosen by Kanzaki for that purpose. He holds a particular dislike for Kitoaka because he played a direct part in putting him in jail. The man makes for a great villain because out of all the riders in the show, he is the one that Shinji absolutely can't even remotely reason with. The man loves dropping bodies too much. The show itself doesn't say what he could wish for but Episode Final (the movie) does. His wish is for the rider war to never end because he is enjoying it that much. I'm so tempted to track down his jacket. Its one of the most iconic looks in Rider imo.

Ryuki has a decent amount of timelines and quite a few endings. You've got the series timeline, two timelines branching from the ending of the 13 riders special, Episode Final's (the movie) timeline, and the Rider Time special continuation that basically ends Ryuki's story. I love this aspect because well...everything in Ryuki seems to be canon in a sense. In the last episode of the tv show, Kanzaki outright says "No matter how many times I do this, it will always end the same". All of the endings are rather bleak except for the tv series ending where the existence of the Rider War itself is undone. Thats probably why the Rider Time special continues from the tv ending instead of simply rebooting it for a new timeline. The Rider Time special is honestly the most fitting ending Ryuki could hope to have. There is no way the Rider War could really end without a lot of death. Its about as "happy" an ending as Ryuki could expect to given the 13 rider special and Episode Final have even bleaker endings. Rider Time's ending is downright chilling once you've seen everything Ryuki related.

Final Thoughts: Ryuki just has this kind of magic to it. Its engrossing from the first episode though I'm not sure how much of it is from the show itself or if its from the fact that except for two episodes, every episode ends on a cliffhanger that blends into the next episode. Either way, its was addictive for me at the time and it still is today this day (I rewatched a chunk of it as a refresher for this review since I've already seen the show twice). I legitimately had to force myself not to binge it. If you haven't seen this show yet, I give it a whole-hearted recommendation.

My Updated Kamen Rider Rankings

Since I did an updated list for Sentai, I figured its time to do an updated one for Kamen Rider. Keep in mind that I've been more into Sentai than rider. So there probably isn't gonna be as many new series on this list. With that being said, there has been a slight shift since last time so I guess a new list is warranted. Since the last one, I've finished Gaim and Amazons. Drive and Ghost will not be talked about because I dropped both of them before the 25 episode mark. Den-O will not be mentioned even though I saw half of it since I haven't seen any more of it since the last list. With that out of the way, lets get right down to it.

7. Kamen Rider Amazons:

It took a while but I finally found a series I dislike more than Faiz. Yes, that is a big statement to make since only season one is done and its only 13 episodes. It tries so hard to be dark, edgy, and serious that it ends up being overly angst-y. I don't tend to like the "Life sucks, deal with it!" mentality in superhero shows unless its done really well. It got to the point where I was only watching it to riff it with a friend. Pretty much the main positive I have for this series so far is Alpha's suit. Omega's bike is the most irritating bike I've seen so far. It will not stop roaring whenever its on screen. After a while, my friend and I were constantly telling it to shut up whenever it showed up. Its also this extremely generic lion roar even though the bike is lizard themed. The fight scenes were outright boring and lacked any sense of brutality which is pretty bad for a modern take on Amazon. It doesn't really feel like the show has any weight to it. I legitimately don't expect Mamoru to survive season two and I'm honestly a bit surprised he survived season one given how bleak the tone was.

6. Kamen Rider Faiz, Decade, and Kiva:

Yeah, all three share the same spot but I'll start with Faiz. I've actually softened up a bit on it this series since the last list. It does have some good ideas but the execution makes some of them frustrating. The drama built around misunderstandings or mis-communications still annoys me because it can be solved so easily. I still love the rider suit and monster designs. I love all the little gadgets that the belts have. I get what they were trying to do with Kiba's heel-turn near the end but it really could've been handled better. It comes off as a bit annoying and its placed at a bit of a bad spot for me given everything that happens near the end. I like the Orphenocs in concept but the execution was kind of lacking. I also kind of wish they had a little more variety in their color scheme.

I still don't like Decade and my thoughts on it haven't changed much from last time. I still think it gets lost in all the world hopping to the point where it forgets the driving force of the show. It also doesn't help that the show doesn't have a concrete ending. Due to that, it left so many questions unanswered. In a way, thats good because it means an infinite number of stories to tell and its a way to always bring Tsukasa back for cameos. However, the downside is that those stories can be kinda tainted because well its Decade. Any questions that the Decade movie and the crossover with W answer vary between the two. So we really don't get to know a lot regarding Decade. I still have no idea what Narutaki is.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through Kiva. So why is it being ranked? Its because I don't think the last third is going to be able to change my opinion of the show all that much, especially given what I've heard happens near the end. It falls into a lot of the same pitfalls as Faiz. So much so that an entire love triangle is built on miscommunication. I can't stand Otoya and he is probably going to end up on my least favorite rider character list whenever I redo it. Pretty much the only things I like about it at this point are the suits and the music. With that being said, Kiva's default suit should've been sent back to the drawing board. I like its design but its the weight thats the problem. It apparently caused the suit actor to have back problems because most of the weight is in the chest. I absolutely love the stained glass look for the Fangires.

5. Kamen Rider Wizard:

I'm still very mixed on this series. I liked the aesthetics, particularly the designs for most of Wizard's forms, and some of the background music. The battle music sounds, for lack of a better phrase, like a magical symphony. The main form I don't like design-wise is Infinity due to it looking too plastic-y. There are some nice ideas in the show but the execution is questionable. Its one of the few shows I've seen where a villain reveal has shattered one of the fundamental rules of its universe and nearly made the plot collapse in on itself. I don't really remember much action-wise outside of some sword-play. Also if you notice, Wizard never actually throws a punch in his fight scenes. I'm guessing its because they didn't want to break the rings on his hands.

4. Kamen Rider Gaim:

I like this show, not as much as I did when I first finished it but I enjoyed it for what was. I'm indifferent on the suits with the exception of Pineapple Arms. The flopping shoulder pads can get distracting. Other suits have that problem as well but it is a lot more noticeable on pineapple arms. At one point, Pineapple Arms shoulder pads swung and bounced off the chest-plate of the suit. With that being said, I think the shoulder pads for Ryugen Grape Arms look good. The dueling philosophies are a nice touch but unfortunately, some don't get touched on much. The other downside is that due to the number of riders, some get shoved to the side. I'm actually one of the people in the fandom who is glad Micchi didn't die. In my opinion, it would've been him getting off too easy. He has to live with what he has done and with his friends no longer trusting him. The show flat out admits that he burned a few bridges that he might never be able to repair.

3. Kamen Rider W:

I enjoyed this show a lot and my opinions of it haven't actually changed much from the last list. I love the detective style it has to it. The Dopant designs are great and they are able to capture some of the more abstract concepts will in their designs. Some of them have a nice of nightmare fuel to them. The action is absolutely fantastic. I still love the mix and match ability for the form changes. Luna Trigger is still my favorite out of all W's forms. Museum is probably one of my favorite villain organizations. Weather Dopant is probably my favorite villain in the show. The dude manages to hit Long levels of creepy for me. Shotarou and Philip play off of each other rather well and I liked Accel's subplot. Philip's search pose has actually become my thinking pose. The rider suits for the show look great, especially all of W's forms. They really made sure the colors for all W's forms worked regardless of combination.

2. Kamen Rider Ryuki:

One of the more divisive early heisei series but I like it. I will admit its a heavily flawed show and I don't really defend its flaws that much. So why is it ranked this high for me despite being so flawed? Honestly, I can't put my finger on why I like it that much. Something about the show just speaks to me. I just can't help but look back on it fondly even knowing all its problems. I like the mirror beasts designs. I like that it shows what happens when people the wrong people get a hold of this kind of power which is honestly an interesting idea even if it likely wasn't the show's goal. I still like how each episode ends on a cliff hanger and leads directly into the next episode. Granted it does making marathon-ing it rather difficult since there really isn't a clear point to take a break from it. I'm still indifferent to the ending. I like all the rider suits except for Zolda's which is hilarious because he is actually my favorite rider in Ryuki.

1. Kamen Rider Fourze:

Yeah this one has over-taken Ryuki since last time. This show just hits that sweet spot for me and it really makes me happy. I know a lot of people in the fandom will say that it lays on the friendship stuff too thick. At its core however, I see it as a show about how one person can help people through their problems. I think the high school setting works well with that as well. The Kamen Rider Club is probably my favorite group of characters out of all the rider series I've seen so far. I love the designs for the Zodiarts with Sagittarius being my favorite of them. I like the rider suits in the show with Meteor Storm being the main exception. The helmet looks so weird to me that while watching the show I began referring to Meteor Storm as "Pikachu States". Cosmic States is still my favorite rider final form because I like how it ties all the switches together and sums up Gentaro's personality.

My current Kamen Rider rankings

I figured it was time for me to hammer out a list like this sooner or later so I'm going to rank all the riders I've seen so far. At the time of this post I have seen Ryuki, Faiz, W, Decade, Fourze, Wizard, 1/4 of Amazon, half of Den-O, half of Kiva, one episode of Hibiki and have seen 9 or 10 eps into Gaim. For the purposes of this list, I am not counting Gaim for now because I'm not really sure where I stand on it this early. I won't be counting Amazon either since I've only seen 1/4 of it. Hibiki will also not be on this list since I haven't seen past episode one. Kiva and Den-O will get a separate section from the completed series. I will most likely do an updated list once I finished more rider series.

5. Kamen Rider Faiz/Kamen Rider Decade:

I'll start with Faiz first. Well how do I put this one? This show earned this spot for the simple reason that I didn't particularly care for any of the characters outside of Kiba. The way it handled the characters is the big problem I had with the show. I found it really difficult to support any of the three riders. Shuji/Delta was a crybaby the entire time even to the point where he almost died because he refused to fight. Kusaka/Kaixa just infuriated me throughout the entire show if you saw my "most aggravating rider character list" then you already know why I hate the guy so I'm not going to repeat myself. Inoue seems to like Kusaka alot to let him do what he does with little to no repercussions, it also leads to a plot-hole involving him later in the series. Takumi/Faiz isn't necessarily a bad character, he just wasn't a lead character that I could get behind. Of the three, he is the one most I'm neutral on. Kiba was my favorite character in the show due to his drive to hold on to his humanity while others carelessly tossed away their attachments to their human-selves. He even went so far as to urge fledgling Orphenocs not to turn their backs on what they once were. The heroes in general seem to have some major communication problems and don't really seem to trust each other enough to tell them that something is wrong other than when Orphenocs are attacking. To make matters worse, they took Kiba the one character I actually liked and made him do a complete 180 near the end just to increase the already depressing and dreary mood in Faiz. He was a ray of hope in the dreary world of Faiz but Inoue just had to do that to him. Coupled with that and the personalities of its riders, Faiz's ending is also less than satisfactory. It has an alternate ending in its movie "Paradise Lost" though that ending is about on par with the series ending for me.

Decade:

This show is on par with Faiz for me because of one simple reason: The Story. The overall story of Decade is supposedly about stopping the worlds from colliding but it just gets lost in all the jumping from world to world. It is ultimately forgotten about until the last few episode when Shocker completely comes out of nowhere. It had potential and interesting but they just didn't know how to handle it. To top it all of the story doesn't get finished in the series, it gets dragged into Decade's movie. Like Faiz, I don't really care for many of the characters. Tsukasa is just someone I absolutely cannot get behind as a hero thanks in large part to his arrogant attitude. The only episodes I found particularly memorable were Ryuki's world, Amazon's world, and Black's/Rx's episodes. I think it would've benefited more from being a 50 episode long series so they could have time to explain things more clearly. Its really a shame the series has so many issues because I do like Decade's suit a lot. It also has one of my favorite theme songs in the franchise.

4. Kamen Rider Wizard:

It was a little more enjoyable than Faiz and Decade for me. For the most part, I found it boring and with a gaping plot-hole involving the Carbuncle Phantom near the end. Its plot progression is slow for me and it is badly paced with most of it being filler. Its Dragon Style arc is my least favorite arc in the show because it did nothing at all for its story and felt more like it was just toy-spamming. I don't hate this show and at most I'm indifferent to it. I don't really care for its concept of magic and I think Magiranger handled it better with their concept of magic being tied to courage. It worked much better because their magic grew stronger as they grew as people and it helped developed their characters while with Haruto, his magical strength is dependent on how many rings he has. I found Kousuke and his life or death situation to be more interesting than Haruto. Its really a shame that the show bored me like it did because I actually like Wizard's and Beast's suit designs. The Wizard/Gaim special actually poses an interesting question in regards to Wiseman: The magic stone in the special held an alternate universe and in the show the magic stones came from Wiseman, so does that mean Wiseman could create alternate universes?

3. Kamen Rider W:

I did enjoy W quite a bit. I really liked the concept of his form changes and how he can mix and match them using the memories. My personal favorite form in W is Luna Trigger. The story was awesome and I really liked the concept of the un-refined memories acting like drugs and getting their users more addicted to the power as shown in the story of the Bird Dopant. I like the chemistry that Shoutaro and Phillip have and how they play off each other. I've even caught myself doing Phillip's search pose when I get stressed out and need to cool my head. I know a lot of the fandom would find Akiko annoying but I actually like her character. Accel was awesome and I really liked his tale of revenge with the Weather Dopant. The Weather Dopant is one of the creepiest villains I've ever seen. He is at Long's level of unsettling for me and his performance made my skin crawl. The Dopants themselves had some really nice variety in terms of designs and abilities. Before watching this series I didn't think it was possible to create an interesting/convincing monster with powers based around money.

2. Kamen Rider Fourze:

I know some people will be a bit shocked to see that I ranked Fourze above W but the truth is that Fourze just hits the sweet spot for me. Yeah its goofy and cheesy but it works pretty well for what they were going for, at least to me. While I normally hate the power of friendship concept and the shounen goofball archetype (I've seen it used in far too many anime and it very rarely works out for me), they did relatively well with Gentaro in my opinion. Gentaro is actually one of my favorite riders, he has that personally that makes it so you just can't help but take an interest in the guy. Unlike others in his archetype that usually come off as perfect (the most recent example being Daigo from Kyoryuger), he does have legitimate flaws in his character that help make him an actual character. He is loyal to a fault and values his relationships with people above all else. Cosmic States sums up his personality rather well in my opinion. While people like to complain that Gentaro didn't get enough focus, I don't mind that because in all honesty he doesn't need it. His development took place before the series even began and as such he is used more as a jumping board for the other characters to get their development. I like the Kamen Rider Club members and how they grew from meeting Gentaro. I like both Fourze's and Meteor's suits and I enjoyed Meteor's character arc a lot. I think the high school setting in Fourze worked rather well with when combined with the space motif for Fourze. Like with Wizard, the overall plot-progression is slow but the main difference with Fourze is that the characters had more than enough energy to them so I didn't notice it. Overall Fourze is a very simple series with a very simple but heart-warming message: If you stick by your friends, you can overcome anything.

1. Kamen Rider Ryuki:

Come on, you guys saw this one coming. This one is hands-down my favorite Kamen Rider series and it is usually the first series I recommend to people. It is one of the most unique rider series I've seen. What I like most about it is that its not only the monsters that the riders have to worry about, its a rider fighting for his/her life against other riders, all in an attempt to gain their hearts' desire. Each rider has their own arguably justifiable reason for being in this fight, with the exception of Gai who is just a jerk because he is bored and Ouja who just wants to wreck stuff though Ouja's reason is way more forgivable because he adds a great sense that he is a threat to everyone involved. Zolda's reason for fighting is the most heartbreaking for me as unlike the others, he is quite literally fighting for his life. Like a lot of the early Heisei riders, it does an excellent job creating an unsettling atmosphere. The way it handles transitions between episodes really helps add to the mystery of why they have to fight each other. Each episode has a cliff-hanger style flow to them that left me wanting to watch more and more. I remember saying one day that I was only going to watch 3 episodes for that day and those 3 episodes turned into 6 or 7. Though I'm not going to pretend this show is perfect, it does have a few problems like the ending and Odin but its definitely worth the ride for any Kamen Rider fan. Not all of the riders in the picture appear in the series: Ryuga and Femme only appear in the movie "Episode Final" which is an alternate ending for the series. Verde only appears in the "13 Riders Special". When I heard Gaim was going to have a similar rider war concept I thought "Sweet! I'm sold already!" but sadly I don't feel they're executing it rather well. I still don't get why people are making Ryuki/Gaim comparisons this soon. All they have in common at the moment is that they have riders fighting each other and that is about it.

Series I've haven't finished yet: It should be noted that since I haven't finished either of these series yet, these are only my thoughts as they stand at the moment. My overall thoughts will likely change once I actually get around to finishing these two series.

Kamen Rider Kiva:

This one will be more detailed than the others and will include slight spoilers since we're doing this one on the podcast. I'm somewhat indifferent to this series at the moment. I don't exactly like it but I don't exactly hate it. I've seen up to episode 37 and I honestly don't get why the fandom loves Otoya's comedic antics so much (though he has somwhat grown on me since his introduction). I find him to be kind of annoying, but not so annoying that I might end up hating him. I actually prefer Wataru over Otoya because he is that timid hero type and its really been nice to see him open up to people more. I don't like Nago because he reminds me too much of Kusaka from Faiz, especially when he provoked that frog/toad Fangire into attacking people just so he could have an excuse to kill it. He also has a "holier than thou" attitude that does nothing but aggravate me, though he has gotten a little better in that regard. I absolutely love the use of the stained glass look on the Fangire designs. There are two love triangles in the show, one that happens simply because Otoya doesn't tell Yuri whats going on. The other only happens because the characters suffer from Faiz syndrome where the pivotal character doesn't want to tell the other two a single thing. Yeah I get it, she has that shy timid personality but even with that I think Inoue could've come up with something to get her message across instead of her hiding it from the other two for the sake of drama. The reasoning for why King and Queen do their respective roles in the Checkmate Four doesn't really make much sense to me. Namely why loving humans is illegal or why they want to stop humans from advancing when they can just steal the advancements and apply them to Fangires. Having two stories being told in different times is actually a good idea but all the cutting between the two stories kind of breaks the flow of any fight scenes that are happening at the time and at certain times it doesn't really feel like it needs to happen.

Kamen Rider Den-O:

Like Kiva, I've seen about halfway into this series. The series is about on par with Kiva, though the comedy can be grating at some points. My favorite of the Imagin is Kintaros. The only suit design I don't like in this show is Gun Form and even then I can't quite put my finger on exactly why I don't like it, something about it just seems off. I was kind of hoping that Zeronos would be a more serious rider to help balance out the comedy angle of the show but unfortunately that isn't the case from what I've seen so far. What initially attracted me to this series is its music. I like how a lot of the music used in the show is multiple versions of Climax Jump and Double Action. Double Action Wing form is my favorite piece of music next to the theme song. I'll have to pick it up again at some point.

The 3 most aggravating Kamen Rider characters I've seen so far

I'm usually a pretty forgiving guy when it comes to toku characters characters in genral. However, there are some characters who have aggravated me beyond belief and even made me despise them. Here is the list of Kamen Rider characters that I just outright cannot stand and surprisingly, Decade isn't on the list. At the time of this post, I've seen Ryuki, Faiz, Decade, W, Fourze, half of Den-O and 4/5 of Wizard.

3. Shuji Mihara/final Kamen Rider Delta:

This guy doesn't stir up much hatred from me, more like major annoyance. He only served to add to the already depressing mood in Faiz. Constantly whining about how he wished he never came back to town or that he didn't want to fight. His indecision actually ends up putting one of his friends in the hospital. I remember shouting at him a few times "They're trying to kill you! You're going to die if you don't fight, you moron!" or "Man up or give the belt to Kiba!". A reluctant character like this would normally be interesting, but this guy came off as more of a crybaby than anything else which didn't do much to help my opinion of him given the already depressing atmosphere in Faiz. There were a lot of points in which he was left with no other choice but to fight and he just waited until a friend of his almost died before he decided to fight.

2. Satoru Tojo/Kamen Rider Tiger:

This guy...I can't tell you how mad he made while watching Ryuki. He earned this spot on my list not only through his actions but because of his hero complex and outlook on heroism. While he was an interesting character at first, his idea of heroism got on my nerves after a while. His idea of being a hero means that everyone you've ever associated with has to die. Even going so far as to kill his mentor and attempting to kill one of his friends just to follow his idea of "Heroism". I have no sympathy for those who turn on their friends. He is nothing more than a blood-thirsty hero wannabe. It would've been nice if he had at least questioned his mentor's views on heroism instead of just blindly adopting them. So many times I shouted at my screen saying "You are not a hero! You don't deserve to be a hero! Stop acting like you're one!". Granted, he did redeem himself somewhat before he died (its the only reason he is ranked number 2), but I still couldn't help but laugh like a madman when he met his ultimate fate and even replayed that part three times when it happened.

1. Masato Kusaka/Kamen Rider Kaixa:

He is by far the one character on this list that I hate the most. Every time I think about Faiz, I can't help but imagine myself slamming his head into a wall and taking the Kaixa belt. He is a badly written anti-hero. He is the perfect example of someone who should not be a rider. This guy has some kind of vendetta against Takumi and spends a lot of time just beating him up for no reason or just making him look bad all the while spouting that Takumi doesn't deserve to be a rider because Takumi doesn't think that all Orphenochs are evil. I can't tell you how many times I wished Takumi would've ripped his throat out in self defense. He is utterly pointless and serves no other purpose than to force drama with Takumi. I don't care how tragic his backstory was, it does not give him a reason to be such a cruel jerk, especially when its shown that he was actually a nice guy before said incident! Every time he opened his mouth, I wanted to slug him. What is worse is that the show actually makes me cry for him in the end, which only serves to make me despise him more.