Characters belonging to Team Genesis in Air Gear
In reality, Genesis was founded by Nike, and while their goals still involve bringing down Trophaeum and annihilating The Sleeping Forest, the true purpose behind this is quite different from what Simca imagined: give Sora the opportunity to steal the Sky Regalia and rule over the sky. This makes them the Big Bads of the series.
open/close all folders
In General
- Base on Wheels: Genesis' headquarters is an American aircraft carrier that they highjacked.
- Super Soldiers: The Takeuchi brothers tried, with varying levels of success, to turn the second generation Gravity Children into this.
- Theme Naming: A good number of the second gen gravity Children have names from assorted Arthurian Legends: Arthur, Shalott, Gawain, Percival, Merlin, and Morrigan. The most obvious ones are Merlin, Gawain, and Percival. Arthur, though a common name, counts as a reference given the other names on the list. Shalott, though not a part of the mythology, comes from Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott," which is inspired by/a retelling of the Arthurian tale of Elaine of Astolat.* Morrigan is iffy, as The MorrÃgan/MórrÃgan* was a figure from Celtic Mythology, but many modern writers have been trying to link it to Morgan le Fay, aka The Queen Bitch of (the most well known telling of) Arthurian Legend.
Sora Takeuchi
Wind King
Road: Wing Road
Regalia: Wind Regalia — Bagram
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown
Shadow: None
Road: Wing Road
Regalia: Wind Regalia — Bagram
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown
Shadow: None
Sky King
Road: All
Regalia: Sky Regalia
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown, estimated over 500
Shadow: None
Road: All
Regalia: Sky Regalia
R.E.A.D. Level: Unknown, estimated over 500
Shadow: None
Sora is the former Wind King of the Wing Road, and original leader of the legendary Storm Rider team called Sleeping Forest.
He is often shown as a carefree and charismatic, albeit arrogant, person. He can be easy-going and friendly, but this attitude changes later on to a more serious tone. He can be egotistical when it comes to his abilities as a Storm Rider and has been shown to be very manipulative of his comrades in order to achieve his goals.
- The Ace: He's already a Gravity Child and a King-level Rider. What makes him even more badass? It's only recently been revealed that he has NEVER turned on his Air Trecks in battle until his current fight with Ikki
- Always Identical Twins: Subverted and then later played straight between him and Nike. The two of them have similar faces, but their builds are quite different. However, in the past, they looked, and even dressed, exactly the same as the other.
- Always Someone Better: Hell, when Ikki first meets him, he pulls more impressive stunts in a wheelchair than Ikki does with A-Ts.
- Animal Motifs: Curiously enough for a character associated so strongly with wind, he's actually fashioned after a wolf, a land animal, instead of a flying animal. This is to foreshadow his true nature as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and the Big Bad of the series.
- Arch-Enemy: He becomes Ikki's once he finds out Sora was just using him and their "friendship" in order to obtain the Sky Regalia for himself, on top of snatching back the Bagram wheels used in the Wind Regalia away from him. Ringo and Kilik also consider him theirs as well, being the leaders of Sleeping Forest opposed to his tyrannical quest to lift everybody into the sky where he can control them forever.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: Well, they may not have all been corpses, and Akira definitely wasn't, but Sora was definitely sitting on a pile of G-men bodies after he took them out.
- Big Bad: He is the primary antagonist of the series. The overarching plot is about his attempt to claim the Sky Regalia and become Sky King, and it's kicked into motion the second he gets up off his ass and takes personal control of Genesis.
- Big Bad Friend: All those bonding moments he has with Ikki? All the encouragement he gives him? All the times he helps him out? It's simply so he can pull the rug out from under him at the last second and steal the Sky Regalia for himself after already nabbing the Wind Regalia that should rightfully be Ikki's, eventually becoming a Physical God. Ikki, while deeply betrayed and hurt, eventually comes to grips with the fact that Sora turning on everybody doesn't actually change his goal: he'll crush him like all his other enemies in his quest to reach the top of the sky and achieve true freedom. If that means putting his life on the line to stop Sora's insane plan to enslave the world, so be it.
- Blindfolded Vision: Hearing too. When he activates the Sky Regalia, he blinds and deafens himself, but because of the Sky Regalia, he can see and hear anything he wants through Electric Brain Space. He can also use satellites and such things to see and listen to people.
- Broken Pedestal: He becomes this to Ikki, to whom he had played a mentor role, after his true colours are revealed.
- Dark Messiah: Like Ikki, he wants to help people. Unlike Ikki, he believes that people can only be helped if you force your help upon them and he is utterly ruthless in achieving his goals, and more than anything, he wants to stand at the top of the world once he's finished changing it.
- Evil Counter Part: To Ikki. Rika points out that Ikki reminds her so much of Sora when growing up, but Ikki is nothing like how Sora is now.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Is a Gravity Child, so he has Twinkle eyes. He typically keeps them hidden, though. Then he tears them out.
- Eyes Always Shut: For most of the series, he rarely opens his eyes wider than a squint to simulate the look of a wolf. When they are open, it's to underscore a particularly dramatic moment. It happens more often once he reveals his sinister nature as the series' main antagonist, cracking his eyes open fairly wide to taunt and gloat at his enemies.
- Eye Scream: He tears out his own eyes so that he can assimilate the senses* of the Sky Regalia.
- Foil: To Ikki. The only thing they have in common are their good intentions. Beyond that, their opposing personality traits emphasize those of the other: Ikki believes in inspiring others, Sora believes in forcing help upon them. Ikki will never screw someone over and always shows mercy, but Sora will ruthlessly use and/or crush any who stand in his way. Ikki cares about his friends more than anything, while Sora tried to blow Rika up to stop Ikki. And finally, while Ikki willingly sets aside the glory of being the Sky King in favour of his desire to just enjoy Air-Treks, Sora wants nothing more than to stand at the top of the world, and throws aside his own professed noble goals when he gets desperate.
- Final Boss: He has the honor of being Ikki's final opponent, and defeating him in a battle of skill and wits is Ikki's last test before becoming the Sky King.
- Godhood Seeker: At his core. Whatever altruistic intentions he might have concerning the 99%, deep down, Sora only cares about one thing, and that's making himself powerful enough to rule the world through the Sky Regalia. When he gets there, he immediately styles himself as some benevolent deity to uplift and rule over all of humanity.
- Graceful Loser: Downplayed. Once Ikki and Ringo temporarily switch off the Earth's gravity, he realizes that Ikki had managed to accomplish what he had originally wanted in giving the people of the world true freedom. He concedes defeat and lets himself fall to his death. However, Ikki risking his life to rescue him and a vision of Kilik reassure him that he can start over and be born anew. He's not redeemed, especially given how he had previously tried to blow up Rika in a petulant attempt to take Ikki and Ringo with him, so it comes off more as resignation than dignity. He lets Ikki fly him to the ground and acknowledges the young man has finally bested him as the world's greatest Storm Rider, becoming the true King of the Sky.
- Handicapped Badass: Was crippled before the start of the series by Kilik, but that hasn't stopped him from pulling off badass stunts, even before the reveal.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: After Ikki is invited into Trophaeum, Sora tunes in through a video call to inform him he has zero need of him anymore, calling him a useless little boy he'll come back to destroy some day when he gets around to it, just to demonstrate how little he thinks of him. Kilik astutely surmises that Sora's distaste towards Ikki springs from his fear of how far Ikki would soar with the properly constructed Wind Regalia Kururu had made in his possession. This incident itself serves as the catalyst for Ikki to embark on the entirely new Storm Road, eventually becoming an Air Treck rider superior to him.
- Hypocrite: Sora may champion the cause of the 99%, but all he cares about is himself. This is shown most egregiously when he has Yoshitsune killed. Despite what he tells Nike about Gravity Child purity, Sora actually greatly respects Yoshitsune because he considers him a perfect example of one of the common 99% rising to the top, and only had Yoshitsune killed because he was a direct and ambitious threat to Sora's power. Instead of putting his money behind his ideals, he ordered Yoshitsune killed, and he didn't even have the stones to challenge the Rumble King to a fair fight and give him the chance to embody Sora's own ideals. Instead, he wore Yoshitsune down by forcing him to fight off the invasion of an entire city, and then sent his Hero Killer Nike to finish the exhausted Yoshitsune off.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: When he starts losing his battle with Ikki, Sora informs his opponent that things are about to get serious because now, for the first time in his life, he's going to insert the batteries into is A-Ts.
- Informed Ability: Inverted. Sora has been stated to have been weak as a Gravity Child, and was even going to be scrapped as a failure. However, in battle, he's done nothing but kick ass, only losing when he planned to lose (except in the final battle, of course), and he took out all of The Sleeping Forest and killed Kilik with deactivated A-Ts. In other words, he kicks ass while using regular roller-blades. Of course we have only seen him after he started working with Dr. Minami, who created the Gravity children. So his strength could have been the result of training with the doctor.
- It's All About Me: Despite his professed desire to raise up the powerless 99%, at his core, Sora only wants to help them so that he can control them and stand at the top of the food chain, and he's willing to murder, abandon, and betray anybody who gets in the way of that.
- Jade-Colored Glasses: He once admired the world, but when he realized how selfish and apathetic people were, he became bitter and cynical.
- Jumped Off The Slippery Slope: He originally wanted to give the 99% of people who are worthless a meaningful existence, and from there, he decided that he should give everyone in the world an insane amount of power by giving everybody the power of the Sky Regalia, and from there, he decided the world would be better off if he controlled everything. If they ended up abusing it, that would just mean they weren't worthy of their own existences and deserve the catastrophe that would follow. If they didn't, they would have wings, and he would have control over all of them thanks to him being the master of the Sky Regalia.
- Laughably Evil: He's just so energetic and funny with almost everything he does that his antics are often played for laughs. He has the ability to take very little seriously, and often gets into amusingly childish arguments with Nike over how dull some things are. However, this is all a ruse in the end. Sora is a rather nasty and violent person at his core.
- Locked into Strangeness: After he obtained the Sky Regalia, his hair turned white. The other wiki hypothesizes that this was caused by his exposure to the core reactor at the bottom of the Trophaeum Tower.
- Manipulative Bastard: Initially, he's portrayed as a mentor/brother figure to Ikki and helped train him to use the Wind Regalia. In reality, he was just using poor Ikki so that he could reclaim the Wind Regalia. Sora (again) takes this to a whole new level after executing his grand-master plan to obtain the Sky Regalia. Not only did his cowardly and villainous personality turn out to be false (leading Kilik to drop his guard), his original defeat against Kilik during the collapse of the Old Sleeping Forest was planned from the beginning as he only needed to collect the missing codes of the remaining Regalias, which were required to unlock the full potential of the Sky Regalia. He succeeds. Now he's the Sky King, thereby succeeding in fulfilling his own made-up prophecy. Afterwards he gives a speech telling the whole world he did all of this to solve all world issues and 'save' all of the 'good defects' (aka humans), which he claims to be 99% of the world's population (with the 1% being hinted at as the Gravity Children, most notably Kilik). How does the vast majority of the world react to this? They applaud him for his actions.
- Meaningful Name: He actually shares his name with his twin, the only difference is that the kanji for Sora's first name would translate to "Sky", while Nike's would be "Space".
- Pacifist Wind: Played with. Sora Takeuchi (whose name means "Sky" in Japanese) is introduced as the perpetually smiling, idealistic, wheelchair-bound, former Wind King and leader of the infamous group Sleeping Forest. While the past he discusses did see him engaging in fights and battles, whatever happened that crippled him has turned him into a calm, Big Brother Mentor to Ikki and a neutral party to the ongoing battle to conquer Tropheum Tower taking place between Genesis, Sleeping Forest, and Kogarasumaru. This is then subverted after Sora reveals himself to be a False Friend to Ikki—only building him up to be strong enough to get the Sky Regalia just so he can steal it from him—and Evil All Along as the true leader of Genesis. Interestingly, his nefarious plan still has shades of this trope as he wants to democratize ATs by giving everyone in the world the ability to ride and use AT tech to solve all of the worlds problems. Even still, he would be standing at the top of this "egalitarian" world as its sole ruler with everyone forced to follow his will.
- Pet the Dog: At one point he was beaten up by three gangsters for trying to stand up to them to protect a girl and a pair of nerds. Afterwards, he had Nike kidnap all six of them (gangsters and victims) and told the victims to kill the gangsters. When the two nerds refused, Nike killed them, and then killed the gangsters, but Sora let the girl go because she gave him her handkerchief after he was beaten up.
- Power Gives You Wings: Not actual wings, but the "wind" that powers his regalia's Infinity Atmosphere is created by consuming the I As generated by others. When he consumes Ikki's during the climax, he's shown being given a pair of symbolic "Bloody Wings" to reflect his status as Dark Messiah.
- Rage Against the Heavens: In a sense. While the world of Air Gear has no fictional god per se, Gravity is often likened to a god thanks to the endless power it has over everything. Much of Sora's motivation to do what he does is to end this tyranny.
- Straw Nihilist: He believes the world is defective and devoid of morality. He also refuses to believe anybody can change their lot in life, and so sets out to force the world to change both his life and the lives of the vast majority of humans that aren't exceptional.
- Take Over the World: His end goal. Sleeping Forest and Kogarasumaru, naturally, are the main obstacles in his way.
- Taking You with Me: Once his Regalia is broken he feels he has nothing to lose and tries to blow up the tower with everyone in it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He gets the entire world on his side by saying he'll give everybody wings. However, once he reveals he truly intends to give everybody on the planet the power of AT technology as well, they realize to their horror it includes people who will misuse that power and destroy the world.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: One interpretation of his actions, in that he wants to solve the world's problems but is a complete bastard about it. However, he still wants to end up in control of everything, so his good intentions may be suspect.
Simca
Road: Pledge Road
Regalia: N/A
R.E.A.D. Level: N/A
Shadow: None
Regalia: N/A
R.E.A.D. Level: N/A
Shadow: None
Simca is a rider of the Ring Road. She wears unique looking but nothing out of the ordinary A-Ts. They are black stilettos with a single wheel. She is masterful in the art of riding, being able to perform difficult tricks, run fast, and climb buildings, but she lacks actual fighting abilities. She takes a great interest in Ikki, whom she believes is destined to one day become the legendary Sky King, and who has practically idolized her since watching her ride A-T through his neighborhood. She also appears to have a somewhat romantic interest in him.
- Animal Motifs: Like Ikki, she too has a pet bird, a swallow, that follows her everywhere.
- Becoming the Mask: At first, she intended to just use Ikki to further her own goals. But after he managed to defeat Behemoth, she became enamored with him to the point that she genuinely wanted to make him the Sky King instead of following the original plan.
- Exotic Eye Designs: As a Gravity Child, she has the same Twinkle Eyes as the rest of them.
- Femme Fatale: The ambiguity of her motivations makes her give off an untrustworthy vibe. Simca never really responds to Ikki's feelings so much as she just uses them to manipulate him. She's attractive and she uses it to wrap Ikki around her finger. At first...
- Game-Breaking Injury: She receives one from Ringo, taking her out the impeding war between Sleeping Forest and Genesis. She has to work hard for months in self-rehabilitation in order to ride A-Ts again.
- Important Haircut: Gets one following Team Kogarasumaru"s fight against Behemoth, signifying her new goal.
- Lust Object: She's sexy and eye-catching, and especially earlier in the series. Thus she is desired by many, many A-T Riders in the story, especially Ikki. Ringo is less than pleased.
- Manipulative Bitch: Though not nearly to the same extent as Sora, Simca counts as a minor version of this early in the manga. All of her interactions with Ikki are (mostly successful) attempts at bringing out his more of his full potential and (mostly unsuccessful) attempts at making him loyal to her. Afterward, she tries to manipulate things as far as she can manage for Ikki's benefit instead.
- Morality Pet: She's this to Nike. She's the only person he cares about besides his brother, and his interactions with her are his main humanizing point.
- Ms. Fanservice: There are scenes that Simca is shown topless, and even naked, which makes her very easy on eyes.
- Only One Name: She is only known as 'Simca' as she doesn't have a last name.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Thought nothing of stripping down and getting into the bed of a highschool boy and even before that, manga version, she stripped topless to give Ikki a 'reward' for winning against an A-T team. She usually dresses up in either cute clothes or doesn't care in which state he sees her in.
- Stripperiffic: She seems to love clothes that accentuates her figure, especially her legs and bust.
- The Tease: At the start of the story, it seemed that her life mission was just to tease people, especially Ikki. After she falls for Ikki, however, she dials back the teasing to just him.
- Took a Level in Badass: After Nike went berserk when he realized that the last key to the Sky Regalia was still on the aircraft carrier, Simca punches him out. Even though he was badly wounded, this is still an accomplishment for someone who is supposed to have no combat skills.
The Aeon Clock (Yasuyoshi Sano)
A Storm Rider who was once a member of Behemoth, and was recruited into Genesis by Simca. While he is normally serious, he is often used as a comic relief with his homosexuality being a recurring gag. He is very analytical, often thinking ahead.
Aeon is a King-Level Storm Rider who follows the Flame Road and specializes almost exclusively in the "Time" techniques.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: For some reason the OVAs gave him silver hair.
- Butt-Monkey: Bad stuff tends to happen to him.
- Camp Gay/Straight Gay: He switches between the two. Normally, he's as straight as they come, but in certain situations, he can act rather flamboyantly.
- Cool Car: He's seen driving a Lamborghini Murciélago and an Aston Martin Vanquish, among other cars.
- Cyborg: Once again, after his run-in with the Takeuchi Brothers, his body is robotic and has integrated Regalia. Subverted when there's nothing remotely "human" about the body, it is simply a puppet that he is controlling from Electric Brain Space.
- Dead All Along: The last chapter reveals that the real Sano died the same day as Spitfire, and the Sano that appears afterward was a robot controlled from electric brain space.
- Deflector Shield: Can use heat waves or a similar concept to create a wall of hot air to stop oncoming projectiles.
- Friendless Background: He didn't really have any friends besides Ryo when he was growing up.
- Graceful Loser: During the underground match with Kogarasumaru, he concedes defeat for Behemoth when the crowd start to get unruly, citing it as their loss despite Akira managing to briefly recover and slam Ikki into the ground, though was unconscious at the time and his body acting on instinct.
- Good All Along: While he was forced to do some horrible things by Sora, most of his antagonism towards Kogarasumaru was actually to help them. For instance, he stole the Flame Regalia from Kazu, not for greed, but because Spitfire had asked him to hold on to them until Kazu became experienced enough to use them without hurting himself.
- He-Man Woman Hater: With exception for Ryo Mimasaka and Simca. He doesn't so much as hate all other women as much as he simply ignores their existence if at all possible.
- Honorary True Companion: As far as Kogarasumaru is concerned, he's as good as a member of their team.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Played for laughs when he and Spitfire do this to Nike to settle a disagreement. Both of them think that they got more hits in than the other, so when they can't agree, they go right back to kicking him before simply agreeing to disagree.
- Large Ham: While Aeon isn't the largest source of ham in this series (we're looking at you, Inuyama), he's the most consistent. He always starts a scene in a calm and reserved fashion before getting more and more into it. In fact, whenever he shouts "TIME!", one can almost see the ham floating around him.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: Even though he's one of the good guys, he does have something of a sadistic streak.Aeon: "A canary's voice is most beautiful when it has lost all hope and sings only a final song filled with despair."
- Only Known By His Nickname: All the other high ranking members of Behemoth have badass nicknames too, but while they are referred to by name, he is typically called "Aeon Clock" or "Aeon" for short.
- Time Stands Still: He is the very best at these techniques. He technically doesn't stop time, but rather hits enough nerve endings on his opponent to paralyze them and give the appearance of time stopping.
- Time Master: His specialization in time tricks from the Flame Road make him this
- Unstoppable Rage: Against Nike and Sora after they killed Ryo Mimasaka. He got so fast that not even Spitfire could see him move when he punched Sora in the face. Subverted because he was going up against the Big Bad and The Dragon, so his rage ended up being quite stoppable.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Spitfire. At one point they got into a fight over who kicked Nike more times over the course of a single attack. When they can't decide, they go right back to kicking him, insulting each other all the while.
Sora "Nike" Takeuchi
- "I don't need wings that can't fly."
Sora Takeuchi's twin brother. He gave himself the name "Nike," the name of the Greek goddess of Victory, to reflect his overwhelming power and the fact that he has never been defeated in battle. He was well known throughout the A-T world and widely feared as an unstoppable force of destruction who has left nothing but bodies in his wake.
He is extremely mentally unstable and has a deep hatred for the one who took everything away from his brother: the Gem King, Kilik. Despite being Sora's twin, the two aren't very similar: appearance-wise, Nike has a taller, bulkier, and far more muscular body than his brother and possesses a different hairstyle. In terms of personality, Nike is belligerent and tends to favor the use of brute force while Sora is more of a Magnificent Bastard.
He is the current Gem King of the Jade Road. It fuses the Wing Road with the Gaia Road, reflecting his philosophy of total control over both Land and Sky. Combined with his great physical strength and insane endurance, this Road makes him a very formidable opponent. He is very loyal to his brother and in love with Simca, until his defeat.
- Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Thanks to having his shoulder blades removed (and just keeping his arms in place with his ridiculously powerful muscles), Nike's arms have an unlimited range of movement.
- Actually a Doombot: Nike pulls this on Onigiri when the latter appears to be beating him. The robot blows up, wounding Onigiri, and Nike steps out of a door, vaguely amused.
- An Arm and a Leg: Not that it stopped him.
- Always Identical Twins: Subverted and then retroactively played straight between him and Sora. The two of them have similar faces, but their builds are quite different. However, in the past, they looked, and even dressed, exactly the same as the other.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: One of his defining character traits is his pride in his own skill in battle and the fact that he has never lost a fight. This serves as one of his greatest strengths as it makes him a determinator of the highest class, but it also serves as his Achilles' Heel, as he ended up being defeated when his pride and resolve were crushed. However, unlike most examples, he has loyalties that lie beyond his own strength, namely his brother.
- Ax-Crazy: He's clinically insane and violently proactive, to say the least. If you do something to piss him off (and if you aren't important to his brother's plans, this roughly translates to "if you do anything around him"), he'll kill you in some horrible and likely drawn-out manner, and he'll enjoy every second of it.
- Badass Arm-Fold: He likes to make an entrance by standing on something high up with his arms folded and a Death Glare on his face while he looks down on his enemies. Whenever he does this, you just know it's time to run.
- Badass Cape: He's got a hooded cape, the tails of which look like wings.
- Barbarian Longhair: While it's generally messily tied up behind his head when he's not in combat, when he lets his long hair down it's automatically unkempt and very badass.
- Body Horror: Not as bad as some examples, but he had Sora cut out his shoulder blades, giving his arms a full range of movement.
- Break the Haughty: Really, this is the only thing that can stop him. See Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy.
- Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: What happens to anybody who really hurts him, namely Benkei and Kazu.
- Chekhov's Gunman: He's first mentioned in a conversation between Spitfire and Yoshitsune and said to live in America. A few volumes later, he's revealed to be The Dragon.
- Combat Pragmatist: Despite his overwhelming power and endurance, Nike fights dirty. He'll attack anybody who bothers to run their mouth in front of him, he has a habit of having his opponents hit him with their toughest attacks and letting them think that he's out of the fight before he comes back and hits them when their guards are down, and if his enemies have defenceless friends on the battle field, they will be used as shields. That isn't to say he relies on these tactics to be dangerous, though.Om: "His strength lay in surprise attacks."
Gabishi: "No... that was just his preference..." - Determinator: Despite his status as Nigh-Invulnerable making it difficult for anything to really put a dent in him, he still fits this. Over the course of his final battle, enough attacks get by his invulnerability to give him numerous wounds that would each easily kill a normal person, and he just keeps going. Punch through his armour? He'll get up and keep fighting. Cut off a foot that he needs so that he can, you know, ride and fight effectively? He'll get up and keep fighting. He spent the last part of his fight with Kazu with giant shards of metal stuck in his back, with one of them passed right through him, and he really didn't notice. Say what you will about how defective the man's moral compass is, but you have to admit he doesn't give up easy.Nike: "Don't underestimate me. It's just one leg."
- Disc-One Final Boss: It takes a shitload of effort from a lot of people to dispatch him. But once he's finally down for the count, Sora decides to take the matter into his own hands...
- Dishing Out Dirt: He merges the Gaia Road with the Wind Road.
- The Dragon: To Sora. He's his most trusted servant and his second in command. When Sora was out of action, Nike was the one who really set things up with Genesis.
- The Dreaded: His battle level is 428, the highest shown in the series. He more than lives up to it. It takes the combined efforts of four powerful riders to take him out, and none of them ended the battle in a condition where they could even walk.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Nike is a quieter, less insulting, but far more Ax-Crazy version of this trope. He'll only insult you once for every mistake you make, so that means he'll insult you about once or twice, three times if you're lucky. After you've made that many mistakes, he kills you.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He genuinely cares for both Sora and Simca, although he can only express his affection for the latter in his own condescending, domineering way.
- Exotic Eye Designs: Comes with being a Gravity Child. He mostly keeps them hidden, but they come out in his battle with Kazu.
- Eye Scream: Kazu's final attack did a real number on him, including taking his left eye.
- Freudian Excuse: Becoming a psychopathic killer was not something he chose, but rather something that Sora forced upon him by isolating him from all of his friends (the other Gravity Children) and brainwashing him to believe that victory in battle was the only thing that mattered.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Back before Kilik tore down The Sleeping Forest, he was nothing. He barely rode A-Ts and he spent most of his time out of the country, so Kilik had forgotten about him. Then he stole the Gem Regalia, created the Jade Road, founded Genesis, and became a legend in the A-T world.Kilik: "He wasn't just Sora's shadow anymore... soon, nobody could touch him. He had grown into the revered god, Nike.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: He's a first generation Gravity Child.
- Genius Bruiser: He appears to be big, hulking brute who lets his brother do the thinking for him, but he actually possesses a keen tactical mind and the ability to accurately analyze other riders' abilities.
- Green-Eyed Monster: He has a thing for Simca, and is not happy when he hears that she is interested in Ikki. As Simca finds out during a disturbing encounter with Nike, being the object of his affection is not an enviable position to be in. He is extremely possessive and has no concept of boundaries, leading him to tear up her clothes and molest her on a semi-regular. Simca is understandably terrified of him.
- Hero Killer: Let's see, Spitfire, Aeon Clock, and Mimasaka Ryo die in a battle with him and Sora. On his own, Nike kills Yoshitsune, and then kills Aeon Clock again, permanently this time, and takes out Onigiri and even after a long battle, Kazu needs to use the power of other roads and finally hit him with his own road's most powerful attack powered by countless riders all over the world to finally bring him down.
- Hunk: Has a really muscular build and is pretty handsome.
- Implacable Man: Nike combines Made of Diamond with being The Determinator. It eventually takes an attack that pretty much trashes an aircraft carrier to put him out of commission, and he still gets up afterwards, even if he was in no condition to fight.
- Jerkass: Calling him this is an understatement. He's casually murderous and his favourite pastime is terrorizing people who know they can't protect themselves from him.
- Karma Houdini: He seems to be heading in this direction. Despite the fact that he's lost a leg, he's got Simca to care for him and he seems to finally be free of his brother's influence.
- Kick the Dog: He does this all the time. An interesting double subversion occurs when he "attacks" Simca, whom he is in love with, stating that his love for her is a weakness. Then it turns out he missed, and Nike muses that his love for her threw off his killing strike and it starts to look like he's finally going to display a bit of humanity. Then he essentially says, "Nah, just screwing with ya," uses a blast from the Gem Regalia to throw Simca at Kazu, and takes advantage of the distraction to attack. If it wasn't for Benkei's intervention, Kazu would have lost a leg.
- Last-Second Chance: While The Power of Love makes him realize how wrong his life choices have been, he feels he is too far gone and incapable of ever living a normal life, and that if he gave up his current life of battle and his loyalty to Sora, he would truly be left with nothing.
- Laughably Evil: He's by no means incompetent, but his sociopathy and arrogance let him see a lot of things other characters do as funny, and whenever he laughs, he looks ridiculous. Like Sora, he rarely takes things seriously and generally plays around in many situations other characters would take seriously. And then, whenever he tries to be suave and cool, he manages to screw it up for himself, such as when he was trying to wax poetic to Simca and almost bit his own tongue off.
- Lightning Bruiser: While he isn't normally as insanely fast as Fragile Speedsters like Aeon, Spitfire, and Kazu, or even as fast as Ikki or his brother Sora, but he is by no means slow, even by Storm Rider standards, and when he needs to, he can put out huge bursts of speed. He is also likely the toughest character in the series, taking ridiculous amounts of damage before finally going down, and he hits insanely hard, even without using his arsenal of powerful tricks.
- Mad Love: He's in love with Simca and expresses it with threats, invading her personal space, and outright molestation. Except for possibly near the end of the series, where she completely turns the tables on him, she wants none of it and is terrified of him.
- Meaningful Name: Nike, the Ancient Greek Goddess who embodied victory. Nike had never lost a battle in his life before he fought Kazu.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: His Jade Road hardens his body — including his clothes for an extra layer of protection — to insane levels. Even if you manage to actually hurt him, the force rebound will probably destroy your weapon and leave you too incapacitated to fight. However, even after Kazu found a way to completely nullify his Jade Armour, Nike took a truly inhuman amount of punishment, including an attack powerful enough to destroy an aircraft carrier, and not only did he survive, he remained standing. Even after he is defeated and missing a leg, Ikki complements him, saying that the only way they could beat him was to shatter his spirit, because they could not do the same to his body.
- Oh, Crap!: Nike subverts this all the time. It's almost standard procedure for him to take a massive hit, act like this attack will finally take him down... before he laughs it off and gets up. When he stops doing this, run, 'cause he just got serious.
- Only Known By His Nickname: The only one who calls him "Sora" is his brother.
- Pet the Dog: Though it is undermined somewhat by the above Kick the Dog incident, Nike does use his own body to shield Simca from falling shards of metal that pierced even his armor (not that it slowed him down any). And even when he attacks her, he only temporarily paralyzes her, covering her chest with his own blood to make the wound look fatal, and when he uses her as a distraction (he throws her at Kazu who immediately catches her) he goes for Kazu's leg — while most of his previous attacks went for center body mass — so as to avoid hitting her.
- Perpetual Frowner Although he breaks it from time to time to give off an annoyingly immature laugh when he wants to screw with people.
- Psycho Knife Nut: While he doesn't use it all that much in battle, he does carry around a combat knife. He does use it to threaten people and torture them for shits and giggles. He's also notable for being one of the only high-class riders who carries a normal weapon (the other being Alexander Locke, the king-class flame road rider that Aeon Clock defeated, who carried a handgun).
- Shadow Archetype: To Kazu. Both are the Number Two to their respective leaders, and both at one time had crushing self-esteem issues. However, while Kazu found strength in his friends and gained confidence in himself thanks to the example set by Ikki and to a lesser extent the others, Nike was manipulated and isolated by his brother and he eventually came to have only one purpose in life. Kazu realized that he could do next to nothing by himself, but instead of despairing, he fought with the strength of his friends, and later that of thousands of people. Nike was made to think that he needed nobody, and fought alone, only realizing at the end that he would have been much stronger — and much happier — if he had embraced those who had tried to reach out to him.
- The Stoic: He spends most of his time with either a reserved, bored expression or a subdued glare on his face, even when killing people.
- Not So Stoic: When he gets pissed, though, he becomes a raving lunatic.
- Taken for Granite: He can paralyze enemies with vibrations.
- Taking You with Me: He destroyed a massive valve on Genesis' aircraft carrier in order to sink it and kill everyone on board.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The advised tactic when dealing with him is to use this as many times as you can. He himself possesses a number of tricks that are each powerful enough to be classified as this.
- Tragic Villain: While he's a mostly unrepentant jerkass who kicks the dog often, he becomes oddly sympathetic when we see just what made him the way he is. He's been used as a weapon for most of his life by the brother he looks up to and Spitfire even states that Sora kept him isolated from everything that could have dulled his edge as a weapon. As a result, his life gradually lost all meaning outside of killing to achieve victory in battle. When he finally realizes how close everything that could have given him a normal life was, he laments the fact that the other Gravity Children could have become his wings instead of just his bastard of a brother. However, he feels that even if he's finally realized this, he's come too far and that there is no way he would be able to live a normal life. The way the scene plays out, it's clear that he's a slave to his own need for victory.
- Undying Loyalty: To his brother Sora.Nike: "My wings are in his hands."
- Unstoppable Rage: He arrived at the battle between the old and new Sleeping Forests just as it ended. After watching Kilik cripple his brother and take his regalia, Nike went ballistic, and Kilik, exhausted as he was, needed to sacrifice his own regalia in order to escape with his life.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Justified and Downplayed. Justified because Nike has never lost a battle, causing him to think himself an invincible god of victory (hence the meaningful name). Downplayed in that putting him down was still insanely difficult: of the three good guys who entered the fight, one died, another was taken out before the battle's half-way point, and the third severely damaged his own body to use the attack that finally stopped Nike.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never see him again after the G-men cart him off. Unlike every other major villain who didn't wind up dead, he doesn't show up in the final chapter and we have no idea as to the specifics of his fate.
- Would Hit a Girl: He doesn't discriminate when it comes to causing harm.
- You Have Failed Me: If you work for him, for the love of God, whatever you do, don't screw up.
Spitfire
Spitfire was the Flame King of the original Sleeping Forest and also one of the Gravity Children. He passes down his title of the Flame King to Kazu.
- Accent Adaptation: Is given a British accent in the English dub.
- Cultured Badass: Despite his looks and the fact he was the Flame King, he's a hairdresser and plays piano.
- Brutal Honesty: He has a few moments early in the series, such as telling Ringo that Ikki had one fatal weakness: he sucked.
- Dead Person Conversation: He can speak to Team Kogarasumaru from Electric Brain Space through a laptop.
- Exotic Eye Designs: As a Gravity Child, one would assume he has these, but he never shows them before his death.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Shot full of holes with high velocity debris, courtesy of Nike and Sora.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: First generation Gravity Child.
- Handicapped Badass: He severely damaged a tendon in his foot during the fight with Kilik in the past and his abilities have never been the same since. He still kicks ass, though.
- Kick Them While They Are Down: Played for laughs when he and Aeon do this to Nike to settle a disagreement. Both of them think that they got more hits in than the other, so when they can't agree, they go right back to kicking him before simply agreeing to disagree.
- Killed Off for Real: Sora wasn't too happy about Spit passing his title on to Kazu, a "weakling and a coward."
- Mr. Exposition: He becomes this after his death, as there isn't much else he can do except explain things.
- Only One Name: We never get to know his real name.
- Spirit Advisor: He fits this somewhat after his death. While anybody could see him, only a small number of people have access to the laptop that displays him.
- Video Wills: Spitfire appeared to have made one of these. After he dies, Ikki and the gang huddle up and watch the tape he had left behind. It helps Ikki get back on his feet after he learns of Sora's true colors. It's subverted when it's revealed that he's actually communicating with them from electric brain space.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Aeon Clock. At one point they got into a fight over who kicked Nike more times over the course of a single attack. When they can't decide, they go right back to kicking him.
- The Worf Effect: He and Sano were painfully dominated and killed by Nike and Sora.
- Worf Had the Flu: His injured leg kept him from performing to the best of his potential.
- Nike: How could he not sink when he only had one wing?
Taeko Aikawa
Aeon Clock's maid, assistant, and bodyguard, who also has a crush on him. She follows the Flame Road and is a skilled rider.
- Battle Butler: Surprisingly enough, yes. She managed to fight Nue's entire team of Gravity Children single-handedly when Ikki was having trouble with just Nue.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: She's a Lovable Sex Maniac who can't go two sentences without saying something perverted. She's also an extremely skilled rider who is at an A-Class skill level in 8 different roads.
- BFG: Her aforementioned Focke Wulf, which she wears over her right calf and hand, is a giant contraption that's bigger than she is
◊. - Bodyguard Crush: Her crush on Sano is ridiculously obvious.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: As the head of the Sano Family's security forces, she's technically Aeon's bodyguard. He doesn't need it.
- Combat Medic: Despite being a major badass, she's also apparently a capable medic, as she treated the horrible wounds Kazu received from his battle with Nike.
- Combat Stilettos: Her A-Ts have only a single wheel on the toes coupled with long stiletto heels.
- Cool Big Sis: She ends up being something resembling this to Nue's team of Gravity Children.
- Dark and Troubled Past: It's implied that she has one, given how she comments that the scent of gunpowder brings back unwanted memories.
- French Maid: She has the outfit and she hits almost all the personality points save for the french accent.
- Girlish Pigtails: She likely wears her hair like this to make herself seem younger.
- Heel–Face Turn: She joins Aeon when he sides with Kogarasumaru.
- Hidden Depths: She's a lot more mature than she lets on and is even capable of giving good advice.
- Hopeless Suitor: There are so many reasons why she doesn't stand a chance with Aeon, namely the fact that he's gay and he's her half-brother.
- Incompatible Orientation: She is in love with Aeon, despite the fact that he's gay.
- Indirect Kiss: She tries to do this with Aeon. He's not amused.
- Insistent Terminology: She's the Loli-maid.
- Lovable Sex Maniac: She is extremely perverted and more than half the things she says are about sex or her trying to seduce Aeon.
- Ms. Fanservice: She starts off wearing a very stripperific maid outfit with a ridiculously short skirt and a bared midriff. Then she loses the skirt just because
- Odd Friendship: With Black Burn. The only thing they have in common is the ability to imbibe large amounts of alcohol and an obsession with sex, but she's also one of the few people to realize how much he loves his kid.
- Older Than She Looks: She looks like she's fourteen, but she's really twenty-four.
- Old Maid: Not quite, but at age twenty-four, she's getting close. She lampshades this trope when she introduces herself by saying that despite how she looks, she's twenty-four and ready to tie the knot any time now. It's likely that this is the reason why she likes to act much younger than she is.
- Power Copying: Her custom regalia is a prototype regalia called the Focke Wulf, which can duplicate the Infinity Atmospheres of the original 8 roads at 88% efficiency. In other words, she can use all the powers of all the eight kings at the same time for only a small decrease in the power of the techniques.
- Redemption Promotion: She's a lot more useful as a hero than she was as a villain.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: She's rather petite, but her Focke Wulf is huge.
- Smarter Than You Look: She's all around much more competent, smart, mature, and badass than she originally seems.
- Stripperific: Her maid uniform leaves very, very little to the imagination.
- Time Stands Still: She uses a variant of the Time technique that can be used at a range at a cost of power.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Implied. She makes a suggestive face and suggestive sounds before handing Aeon Clock a bug another character had found, and Aeon immediately freaks out, asking where she got it from.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ryo Mimasaka. The two seem to argue often but are obviously friends.
- Wrench Wench: The Focke Wulf has Pledge Road functionality and she can perform battlefield repairs on A-Ts, and even install Regalia.
Nue
- Voiced by: Miyu Irino (JP), Kyle Jones (EN)
Nue is the Thunder King of the Rising Road and head of the team Black Crow, which is made up of twenty Gravity Children. He is intelligent and caring, but overall fairly serious.
- Exotic Eye Designs: He's a Gravity Child. His Twinkle Eyes are usually hidden.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: He's the son of the Black Burn.
- Master of Illusion: Standard power for followers of the Rising Road, achieved by manipulating a person's brain waves to create hallucinations.
- Meaningful Name: The Nue is a Japanese mythical beast similar to the Chimera.
- Precision F-Strike: After disarming Kaito and his men, there's this:"Without your guns, you bastards are about as useful as dog shit."
- Technology Porn: His thunder regalia is probably one of the best examples of this in the series.
Orca
- Blood Knight: Even after Lind took him apart, including slitting his throat, he stood up while he was receiving medical treatment, jumped onto a missile one of his allies shot at Lind, and rode it so that he could return directly to the fight.
- Depraved Homosexual: Appears quite attached to Lind and Buccha; although his attachment to the latter isn't exactly depraved, his attachment to the former definitely was.
- Graceful Loser: Upon being faced with Agito's perfected Fang, he smiled and thanked him for the great battle.
- Meaningful Name: His true name is Vercingetorix, while his partner's is Caesar and his sister is known as Colonel.
- Slasher Smile: Pops these out from time to time.
- Would Hit a Girl: Subverted. He made it appear as though he destroyed Yayoi's face, but in reality he merely covered it with a gutted fish just to get a rise out of Agito.
