Kamen Rider Gaim/Characters/Beat Riders

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Rivaling group of Dancers formed by the youths of Zawame City. Originally competing in the Inves Games for fame and glory, everything changes when Kouta Kazuraba found the Sengoku Driver and Lockseeds, leading the birth of the Armored Riders.

Beware of Spoilers

General Tropes

  • Adorkable: Many of them to an extent, but Kouta takes the cake.
  • Badass: Their Armored Riders can practically eat waves of Inves for breakfast on a daily basis and are the only ones in Zawame who have a chance of standing up to Yggdrasil and the Overlords.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: Although they (well, mostly Kouta but still) break their necks and spines trying to the civilians from time to time, the citizens of Zawame City hate them for supposedly causing the Inves outbreak.
  • Five-Man Band: Zig-zagged all over the place, mostly averted though. The armored riders almost never come more than groups of two, but at rare times can put aside their differences for a short amount of time. Originally this is how is should've gone for each arc.
    • The Beat Rider Saga
      • The Hero: Gaim, he's the first Armored Rider and their main fighter throughout the series. In fact, his Driver was meant to be given to his leader, Yuya, not Kouta.
      • The Lancer: Sandwiched between Baron or Ryugen. For Baron, he's Kouta equal and main rival, and is quite antagonistic to the other Armored Riders. For Ryugen, he's Kouta's best friend and the most supportive to him.
      • The Big Guy: Either Baron or Kurokage, the latter more so. For Baron obviously, he's the second strongest Beat Rider next to Gaim. For Kurokage, it's because of his attitude and seems to specialize in unclose-and-personal combat, seeing as he even managed force back Zangetsu.
      • The Smart Guy: Ryugen, he's the smartest of the Armored Riders and has used both strategy and cunning to his and other's greatest advantage.
      • The Chick: Gridon, he's the weakest fighter and a Dirty Coward to boot. Kurokage's strategy involves using him as a Meat Shield.
      • The Heart: Mai, she ain't no Armored Rider, but she's the most associate to three out of seven (or eight) of them, Gaim, Ryugen, and Baron. And as a result, becomes the source of their best traits. And of course, her actress has her own henshin pose during a public interview.
      • Wild Card/Sixth Ranger Traitor: Bravo, he's not even a Beat Rider, only associated with them because he stole a Sengoku Driver meant for an actual Beat Rider. He's the best natural fighter out of them, the reason he joined the Inves Game in the first place was to upstage the Beat Riders, in an attempt to show/remind people how a real fight goes.
    • Yggdrasil Saga
      • The Hero: Still Gaim, he's the most involved with Yggdrasil and the main force standing in their way.
      • The Lancer: Baron this time around. With Ryugen becoming less supportive of Kouta, Kaito acts as Gaim's main combat partner from time to time. Them fighting together shows they are much stronger that way than they are alone. Whereas Kouta wants to save everyone as much as possible, Kaito just wants the world to die, believing humanity relying on lies and deception to have their way makes them deserving of death.
      • The Big Guy: Knuckle, while the other Armored Riders typically use weapons, he just uses his fists.
      • The Smart Guy/The Chick: Ryugen, he works under Yggdrasil with the intention of keeping his friends safe while weaseling information from Yggdrasil. He becomes conflicted over which side he should choose.
    • Helheim Saga/Overlord Saga
      • The Hero: Kouta, he's now sure of what he desires and wants and what he should do. Whereas Ryugen and Baron have willingly turned evil for the sake of their own goals, Kouta remains entirely for who he is.
      • The Lancer: Kaito, he's now the second strongest of the Armored Riders in total due to his new Lemon Energy Arms, and gets to show his charisma with his speech to the other Riders.
      • The Big Guy: Oren, he ends up helping the others during the Overlord's raid on humanity in episode 32. Also Zack, as he's the most willing to fight by Kouta or against Inves.
      • The Smart Guy/The Chick: Jonouchi, his and Oren's entire highlight episode focuses on him finding out what his purpose is and what he wants.
      • Sixth Ranger: Minato, who ends up siding with them for Kaito out of spite against Ryoma for leaving her to die.
      • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Mitsuzane, he's no longer a Beat Rider and is out to kill Kouta over jealousy and hate.
    • Finally, the Forbidden Fruit Saga
      • The Hero: Kouta, the most powerful of the group and the only one with a real chance to deal with the Overlords, and ultimately the chosen warrior of the Forbidden Fruit.
      • The Lancer/The Starscream: Kaito, Kouta's strongest ally and closest competitor for the Forbidden Fruit. Originally second to him in strength, he now becomes an Overlord and Kouta's final obstacle from the Forbidden Fruit, both for the Forbidden Fruit and to regain Mai.
      • The Big Guy: Oren, he's an ex-military soldier of a special squad, and mostly does the muscle work when Kouta and Kaito aren't around.
      • The Smart Guy: Jounouchi, he's used mainly for strategic maneuvers against the opponent.
      • Sixth Ranger Traitor: Minato and Zack, who both betray the alliance for Kaito. In the latter's defense though, he does it so he can kill Kaito himself.
      • Sixth Ranger: Takatora and Mitsuzane. After several episodes of being out of the loop, Takatora returns just in time to try to knock some sense into Micchy. Micchy on other hand, goes back to being good after Kouta's attempted Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Heroes with Bad Publicity: They become this when the Inves outbreak happened, causing everyone to point fingers at them, due to the fact they're the only ones who use Inves in their games and how they treat them like toys.

Kouta Kazuraba/Kamen Rider Gaim

The main character of Kamen Rider Gaim. Kouta is an earnest young man who quits Team Gaim so that he can get a job and support his sister. However, after finding the Sengoku Driver and Orange Lock Seed, he is drawn back into the competition between the different Beat Rider gangs, believing that his new-found power is the key to his maturation as an adult.

  • Acquired Situational Narcissism: Downplayed, but after getting his Rider powers he used them for every little thing while acting very cocky.
  • Adorkable
  • All Your Powers Combined: In Kiwami Arms, he can use the weapons of every single Armored and New Generation Rider.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: An in-universe example: Micchy comes to believe that Kouta is an idiot who ruins his plans by rushing into things who also "corrupts" everyone that Micchy cares about with his beliefs. However, it's clear that this way of thinking is a result of Micchy's increasingly evil and deluded worldview, and Kouta really is the heroic and noble Hope Bringer that Mai and Takatora see him as. Also in #36, Kaito believes that Kouta is naive at best and insane at worst.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • Kouta's morals slowly make him Sid's most hated enemy after he becomes Sigurd.
    • Kouta also becomes this to Micchy after the latter's sanity breaks. Micchy starts to see him as the root of all his problems and attempts to kill him.
    • And in the final episodes, he becomes one to Kaito. Where Kaito believes that people lose strength with compassion and vice versa, Kouta believes the opposite, that they can have both, and that they become stronger if they do.
  • Badass: While not all that great at the start of his tenure, he shows signs of this as he was completely willing to fight off a monster before gaining powers. Plus, the intro to the series and his appearance in Kamen Rider Wizard assures us he will eventually grow into a full-fledged badass, then #11 comes around making his Wizard appearance look like a joke compared to the potential he showed as a One-Man Army.

Kouta: I'll never give up! If you say sacrifices are necessary, I'll fight the world that demands them!

  • Bash Brothers: Had this relationship with Ryugen then to Baron through the series. Then went to back to Ryugen in the final episode.
  • Batman Grabs a Gun: This is basically what accepting Kiwami Arms really is for Kouta. He takes the power in an obvious Deal with the Devil situation because he needs greater strength to deal with the Overlords. He's also essentially admitting that it's hopeless to reason with the Overlords, abandoning his role as a protector to become both a conqueror and destroyer as he unleashes lethal force on sapient beings (though his intentions remain noble and the Overlords are almost entirely evil).
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Mai, according to the rest of the team.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Friendly, nice, somewhat naive and all around do-gooder…until you piss him off enough.
  • Big Good
  • Big "NO!": Does an epic one when he tries to stop Sigurd from killing Ryoji.
  • Bishonen Line: His transformation from the bulky and heavily armored Kachidoki Arms to the lightly armored and rather thin Kiwami Arms can be seen as this.
    • Played even straighter in #46, after Kouta eats the Forbidden Fruit and becomes the Man of the Beginning. Overall, it just looks like him with blonde hair and silver armor, while still having godly power in his possession. This makes his most powerful form the most human looking of all.
  • Calling Your Attacks: While he normally doesn't do this, when he uses the Showa Rider Lockseed in Kamen Rider Taisen, he shouts out two famous words when he activates the Ichigo Squash.

Gaim/Ichigo: Rider…KICK!

  1. ↑ Is weaker and faster than Pine Arms but still stronger and slower than Strawberry Arms, and is in-between their respective attack powers.
  2. ↑ Becomes a Lightning Bruiser in Odama (Big Ball) and Gyro Mode
  3. ↑ supposed to be only the latter, but the way it is used in the series while still being weaker defensively than Orange and Pine Arms makes it the former as well
  4. ↑ Among themselves is a different archetype: Jimber Lemon is a Mighty Glacier for giving Gaim a boost in strength, Jimber Cherry is a Fragile Speedster for being his fastest form, and Jimber Peach is a Squishy Wizard as it gives Gaim Super Hearing but also sensitivity to high-pitch sounds.
  5. ↑ Initially, it was established as Gaim's most powerful form, but was quickly overshadowed by the more powerful Kiwami Arms.
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