User blog:Red Chevalier/Pure Evil Proposal: Ryoma Sengoku

This is the first of the Pure Evil Proposals I'll be doing for two villains from Kamen Rider Gaim.

What is the work?
Kamen Rider Gaim is the 15th installment in the Heisei Kamen Rider series and is an interesting show to say the least. It was written by the same guy who wrote Puella Magi Madoka Magica and like Madoka is a show that starts off light-hearted before taking a shocking and dark turn about a quarter in.

The basic plot of the show can be summed up as the Games of Thrones cast meets the setting of Stranger Things. Basically, there's a sentient extraterrestrial forest called Helheim that's slowly seeping into our world and turning all who eat its fruit into creatures called "Inves". The only ones who know of the invasion (at first) are the Yggdrasill Corporation, who plan to combat Helheim by manufacturing the Sengoku Drivers for humans to use to transform into "Armored Riders" which would enable them to survive in Helheim's ecosystem, and also by killing off 6/7ths of the Earth's population to deny Helheim a food source. Over the course of the series, many shocking twists and betrayals occur as most of the main cast apart from the main protagonist try to exploit the Helheim situation to further their own power rather than actually combat it. And our candidate is no exception.

Who is the villain?
Ryoma Sengoku aka Kamen Rider Duke, a top level researcher at the Yggdrasill Corporation and inventor of the Sengoku Drivers (which he named after himself), as well as their successors the Genesis Drivers. He is also second-in-command to the head of Yggdrasill's R&D branch in Japan, Takatora Kureshima, who is the mastermind behind Project Ark, Yggdrasill's "Thanos on steroids" plan (though Gaim came first, so its more like Thanos is "Yggdrasill on Advil"). Unlike his boss, Ryoma doesn't share his more altruistic motives of trying to save humanity and instead is the leader of a clique within Yggdrasill that's plotting to use the Helheim invasion to claim power for themselves. Ryoma in particular seeks to claim the "Forbidden Fruit" of Helheim (yeah, this series loves its Biblical references more than Evangelion) so he can use it to become a "god" by evolving into a higher being.

What does he do?
Though it's not his most heinous action, one of Ryoma's most chilling moments is when halfway through Gaim he backstabs, openly admitting to his longtime friend right before he nearly kills him that he stopped reciprocating his friendship after he found out Takatora was only concerned with saving the lives of others.

Later on, when the Overlord Inves invade through the crack in Yggdrasill's Japanese headquarters, Ryoma opts to flee and leave the other Armored Riders to combat the invasion. This is in spite of the fact that, as New Generation Rider Duke, Ryoma was one of the most Kamen Riders in the series at that point. He would rather leave others to die rather than risk his own hide. Ryoma's next action is to pin Project Ark on the top level Yggdrasill executives, causing an international panic.

After this, Ryoma disappears for a few episodes before returning in episode 38, where he shows up to assist Kouta Kazuraba / Gaim and the other Armored Riders in fighting the Overlord Inves (for his own motives of course, he still wants to claim the Forbidden Fruit). However, after the Overlords are dealt with, the Forbidden Fruit winds up being placed inside the female lead of Gaim, Mai Takatsukasa, by the Overlord leader Rosyuo for safeguarding. Mitsuzane Kureshima takes Mai to Ryoma, who promises to extract the Fruit without harming her if Mitsuzane kills Kouta for him. To accomplish the task, Ryoma gives Mitsuzane the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed, which would enable him to transform into a stronger form at risk of losing his life.

Mitsuzane accepts and succeeds in killing Kouta (though Kouta would later be revealed as the Jesus of Gaim and come back). However, when he returns, Ryoma reveals to him that the Forbidden Fruit was fused with Mai's heart, and that in order to obtain it he killed her. Mitsuzane angrily tries to transform but Ryoma uses a failsafe he implanted in the Genesis Driver to disable it before attempting to strangle Mitchy.

Though Ryoma is killed off by an angry Kaito, he returns in the Movie War crossover with Kamen Rider Drive, where he is revived by the Megahex collective as Mecha-Ryoma Sengoku to assist it in assimilating Earth and Helheim. Ryoma assists Megahex gleefully, considering being a part of it to be equivalent to a god. It's not like Ryoma is being forced to serve it either. Kaito was also revived by Megahex but rebelled against it. Ryoma is serving Megahex of his own free will, only concerned with his own power even after joining a hive mind collective.

Heinous Standard
Gaim's villains are weird to say the least. The main villain is technically Helheim Forest (and by extension its avatar DJ Sagara), but most of the direct conflict comes from individuals responding to the Helheim crisis, whether it be to avert or to use it to seize power for themselves. Ryoma is about the closest thing Gaim has to a human Big Bad and his scheming is the instigator for many of the problems faced by our heroes.

Gaim has a lot of amoral characters, but most of them are either trying to combat the Helheim invasion or have some other redeeming qualities. Ryoma has none. He believes his research to be only thing of importance and his crimes come off as some of the most cruel actions in the series. The only other human villain who is comparable to Ryoma is Sid, though he doesn't stick around long enough to do anything particularly heinous. Gaim's head writer Gen Urobutchi has even stated that Ryoma is "the most evil person in Gaim".

Ryoma's atrocities even extend to Gaim ' s DVD movie spinoffs, where Ryoma is basically the Bigger Bad of all of them. Most of the antagonists are people who Ryoma either supplied Drivers to or gained their powers from a freak experiment Ryoma conducted. This even extends to the villain of the movie where Ryoma is the star, as TVTropes points out, technically means Ryoma is the Bigger Bad to his own story where he is the protagonist.

Mitigating Factors
While Ryoma is an egotistical and psychopathic scientist, his Gaiden special does expand on his backstory. He was an orphan who was raised in a child care facility run by Yggdrasill and was basically conditioned from childhood to be a researcher for Yggdrasill. However, it isn't made clear if being raised Yggdrasill's orphanage was what molded him into the mad scientist he became and it doesn't justify any of the crimes commits. For the entirety of Gaim, Ryoma was acting in only his own interests, not Yggdrasill's.

Final Verdict
Pretty definite yes.