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The Yuto Sakurai who transforms into Kamen Rider Zein is an alternate version of the original Yuto Sakurai and is the secondary antagonist of Kamen Rider Outsiders. This Yuto comes from a post-apocalyptic future where he never fought for the people he cared about.
Like his main timeline counterpart, he is portrayed by Yuichi Nakamura. This is Nakamura's second villainous role, following Zabil from Ultraman Trigger The Movie: Episode Z.
History[]
Background and Past[]
Outsiders' Yuto Sakurai comes from a future devastated by human hatred and evil. The loss of those closest to him, including Airi Nogami and Deneb, prompted him to accept the offer of Zein, a mysterious entity that wants to control the world. Yuto becomes Zein's host and uses the Zein Driver to transform into Kamen Rider Zein, with the goal of subjugating humanity to "save" them from themselves.
Journey as Kamen Rider Zein[]
As Kamen Rider Zein, Yuto shows incredible strength and does not hesitate to use extreme violence. In one fight, he stopped time to defeat his enemy, showing just how powerful Zein's powers are. However, this power also reflects the depth of his despair and anger towards humanity.
Deliverance and Redemption[]
After a series of events, Yuto begins to realize that his harsh approach is not bringing about positive change. With the help of other characters, he manages to free himself from Zein's influence and attempts to make amends. Yuto then returns to using the power of Kamen Rider Zeronos to fight Zein and save the world from total destruction.
Personality[]
This version of Yuto Sakurai is a gloomy and nihilistic individual, a far cry from the fiery temper and heart of gold of his main timeline counterpart. Because of his origins, he became misanthropic and believed that humanity is a lost cause because of their capacity for malice that he willingly accepted himself as Zein's host to become the namesake Kamen Rider, using the power of every Rider so that humanity has no option but to capitulate to Zein's tyranny.
As Kamen Rider Zein, Yuto is shown to be very cold-blooded and murderous. He shows no remorse in turning Tenjuro Banno into a human pincushion by using the powers of Xross Saber. Shockingly, he is more willing to cross the line in the name of a good cause, when most heroic Riders are not supposed to. If it not for Brain protecting Horobi and Ark from Zein's killing blow, Yuto could have become the same evil he's opposing.
Yuto is not without a conscience, as this allowed him to break free from Zein's possession after being overwhelmed by the guilt of the Ride-Player deaths he caused unwillingly. Thanks to Brain, he returns to being Zeronos, valuing his life and the lives of others over a heartless artificial intelligence's twisted logic of good and evil.
Trivia[]
- Just as Zein is already an evil counterpart to Sougo Tokiwa, and by extension Ohma Zi-O. This Yuto serves as an evil analogue to Geiz Myokoin, both come from a dark future that traveled back into the present to avert the grim circumstances of their respective timelines. Coincidentally, both Sougo and Geiz met the main timeline Yuto in the Den-O tribute episodes, and even tried to finish what Geiz failed to do by eliminating Sougo before he could become the Overlord of Time. The alternate Yuto manifests as what if Geiz succeeded in vanquishing Ohma Zi-O as what White Woz envisioned, only for him to be usurped by the latter.
- Like everyone else in Zein's faction, Yuto ended up being an unwitting pawn for Zein's goals to exterminate mankind and unwillingly mass murdered people while being possessed by the AI. After Ecole reveals his true colors as well as being the mastermind who released Zein into the world in the first place, deeming alternate Yuto's role as nothing but a guinea pig, resulting in his goals and efforts being permanently in vain.
- His interactions with Brain parallels that of Shinnosuke Tomari and Heart. While Shinnosuke and Heart are red-colored characters with a long-standing rivalry (whereas Brain and Yuto are green-colored Riders, and the former has a fixation with the latter). Brain's character arc in Outsiders revolves him trying to stop Yuto from going down a dark path, given the absence of his timeline's Deneb.
Gallery[]
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 Villains
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Kamen Rider Outsiders Zein's Faction Foundation X Thouser-Intellion/Genm Musou Corp Smart Brain Others | ||