History Characters / KamenRiderGaimTakatoraKureshima

He initially uses the Melon Lock Seed and the Sengoku Driver to transform into Armored Rider Zangetsu. Later, he becomes the first[[note]]''Duke Gaiden'' revealed him to actually be the second, after Ryoma Sengoku.[[/note]] user of the next-generation Genesis Driver, which, along with the Melon Energy Lock Seed, allows him to transform into New Generation Rider Zangetsu Shin[[note]]"Shin" = "new". Often used as a prefix to indicate the new (and perfected) iteration of something, much in the same way "Super" was added onto videogame sequels like Super Mario Bros. or Super Metroid.[[/note]].\\
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Voted #1 Kamen Rider in the ''Kamen Rider Gaim'' franchise, #34 Kamen Rider in the Heisei era, and #53 Kamen Rider overall in NHK's All Kamen Rider Popularity Vote.

* BigBad: [[spoiler:Subverted. While presented as the major enemy at first, as the show goes on he's shown to be neither very Big (other forces can easily manipulate him) nor Bad (he's committing what he feels are {{Necessary Evil}}s).]]

* DropTheHammer: The Donkachi.

%%*** MixAndMatchWeapon: The default Musou [[CoolSword Saber]] [[note]]Peerless Saber[[/note]] sidearm.

* CharacterDevelopment: Takatora started out as an arrogant man who saw the Beat Riders as "street trash" but as he fought Kouta his arrogance wanes and he develops respect and sympathy for them. [[spoiler:In Gaiden side episode has him begin into this after meeting Kouta, especially when he finds out his father's dark secret within an abandoned Zawame's Child Care by Yggdrasill, the place where Touka was (though he didn't know Ryoma was one of those orphans there), turning them into a guinea pigs to make them work for Yggdrasill forever, thus may processed into TheAtoner.]]
* ChildhoodFriends: With Touka Akatsuki, who was also his personal maid servant, and they were very close, at that. [[spoiler:The truth of her origins sours things]].

* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Both Takatora and [[Series/KamenRiderRyuki Takeshi Asakura]] are the fourth main Riders of their respective shows filled with multiple Riders. However, while Gen Urobuchi claimed that Zangetsu will be the series' equivalent to Ouja, this is quite the opposite, as Takatora is a decent bussiness man who has altruistic reasons on his tenure as an Armored Rider, whereas Asakura is a psychotic criminal man with a malicious intent of becoming a Rider.

* CurbStompBattle: Most of the time he's the deliverer, but in the team-up movie with Drive he's on the receiving end.

** In #19 this happens again: Kouta holds out for a while but ultimately couldn't touch Takatora at all.
** The team-up movie with Drive has him struggling against Megahex. Emphasis on ''struggling'', since he can't even damage Megahex at all even with Zangetsu Shin.

* DeclarationOfProtection: During his fight with Megahex he says this word for word, stating he'll protect the world he's inherited. Similarly, as she dies Kamen Rider Sylphi says that there'll always be someone like her and he'll never stop fighting. He merely responds that he's well aware of this.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: He's at the helm of the antagonists for the first half of the show, with his ruthless means for combating Helheim, but as soon as he decides to try a more benevolent approach, he's ousted and replaced by a three-way [[BigBadEnsemble ensemble]] between Ryoma, Mitchy and Redyue.

** Zigzagged in #36, where he's blasted into the river and his Driver's wrecked. Normally in ''Kamen Rider'', being thrown into the water is the result of a harsher-than-usual beatdown, but it's generally not fatal. But then he's not seen ([[spoiler:other than as a hallucination]]) for over two months... [[spoiler:He eventually turns up alive, but not until the series epilogue; and as a deconstruction of the usual ''Rider'' practice in that his time in the water caused brain damage that left him in a coma for months.]]

* FatalFlaw: By the halfway mark, it's made pretty clear that his fatal flaw is that, while he talks a big game about killing, he's pretty hesitant around it, [[spoiler:having Sid kill Hase instead of doing it himself, wanting Ryoma to make just a ''few'' more Sengoku Drivers for Project Ark, and sparing Micchy and Touka are all examples of this]]. He also has major flaws in being a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter and being too trusting of people; and having TheoryTunnelvision, too committed to his beliefs and slow to recognize conflicting evidence.

** Similarly, he takes on [[spoiler:his brother and almost wins despite using the Sengoku Driver and basic Melon Lock Seed against Micchy's Genesis Driver and Melon Energy Lock Seed, and the only reason he loses is hesitating due to his memories of the younger Micchy.]]