Characters / Kamen Rider Gaim: Mitsuzane Kureshima

Main Character Index | Beat Riders (Kouta Kazuraba | Kaito Kumon | Mitsuzane Kureshima) | Yggdrasill Corporation (Takatora Kureshima) | Helheim Forest | Others | Movie Characters

This is a partial character sheet for Kamen Rider Gaim. Visit here for the main character index. Subjective trope and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.

This page deals with tropes for Mitsuzane Kureshima of Kamen Rider Gaim.

Warning: Due to the sheer number of spoilers associated with this character, all spoilers are left un-marked. New viewers beware.

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Mitsuzane "Micchy" Kureshima/Armored Rider Ryugen^note "dragon mystery"/New Generation Rider Zangetsu Shin^note "true slaying moon" II/Armored Rider Ryugen Yomi^note "dragon mystery underworld"

Portrayed by: Mahiro Takasugi (live), Daisuke Sato (suit)
Young Mitsuzane Portrayed by: Wataru Nishioka

"If it's to protect this joy... I'll betray anything and anyone."

A shy but talented member of Team Gaim. Unknown to the others, he is actually an heir to the Yggdrasill Corporation and attends an exclusive private school, a fact that he takes pains to hide from his teammates because he wishes some semblance of normality in his life. While he looks up to Kouta and Mai, the conflicts of the series end up setting him on a much darker path...

Using the Sengoku Driver and the Budou (Grape) Lockseed, he can transform into Armored Rider Ryugen. He later obtains his brother's Genesis Driver and Melon Energy Lockseed, succeeding him as the second New Generation Rider Zangetsu Shin.

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Tropes that apply to him in general

• Achilles in His Tent: After he finds out that every time a Rider transforms they just give Yggdrasill more data, Micchy refuses to fight for a while.
• All for Nothing: All of his attempts to save his friends, particularly Mai, ends up becoming this. The final nail in the coffin is when he makes a deal with Ryoma to use the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed to kill Kouta, but failed when Kouta destroys said Lockseed. And when he realizes too late that Ryoma only sought out the Forbidden Fruit within Mai, killing her. He ends up accomplishing nothing and making things worse after all the evil deeds he done.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Loves Mai, but while she cares for him back it's not in the way he wants.
• Always Save the Girl: Deconstructed. Micchy wants to "save" Mai, but he eventually becomes so deluded and desperate to do so that he blatantly ignores her feelings and opinions and performs whatever villainous action he thinks is necessary to protect her. Kaito points out that Mai is a strong person who doesn't need Micchy's "help," but Micchy is unable to see Mai as anything but a Damsel in Distress that he needs to rescue. Micchy's efforts to protect her are what ultimately lead to Mai's death (and transformation into an Energy Being).
• Ambition Is Evil: He becomes obsessed with the power of influence and obtaining more of it to achieve his goals.
• Anti-Hero: He started out as this, his friends acted as his Morality Pet to keep him in check, only to end up becoming disillusioned in his quest to protect said friends.
• Anti-Villain: At one point he degrades to this, only for him to subvert this later by becoming devoid of any redeeming traits at all.
• Arch-Enemy: Kaito has it out for Micchy because of his cowardly ways, swearing to destroy him himself. However, once he discovers that Mitsuzane is uninterested in fighting for the Golden Fruit after Mai's death, he ignores him in disgust and proceeds to his next arch enemy...
  • He's also become one to Kouta. He has developed an intense hatred for him and starts trying to kill Kouta as Zangetsu Shin II. Unfortunately, Kouta doesn't know how much Micchy hates him and still thinks that they're friends. Kouta doesn't take it well when he finally finds out the truth.
• The Atoner: Post-series, to the point of distancing himself from the Beat Riders despite them (except Peko) willingly taking him back, particularly Zack.
• Ax-Crazy: By the time the Helheim Saga rolls around Micchy has become a high-functioning version of this trope. He gets worse as the series progresses, reaching a very creepy apex in #38.
• Badass Biker: When borrowing the Sakura Hurricane and when using his own Rose Attacker.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Dons one in #35 to highlight his status as The Quisling, right before revealing his hatred towards Kouta.
• Batman Gambit: To lure out Zangetsu at the end of the first arc, he and Kouta formulate a plan to use the other Riders as bait by playing off their greed and pride.
• Bash Brothers: He formed this relationship with Gaim after becoming a Rider, though soon drifted away from it. They circle around back to being this in the epilogue.
• Bastard Understudy: To Redyue, who's quite happy to teach him everything she knows.
• Be Yourself: Part of the main reason he is in Team Gaim. In his high-end private school he acts like a stoic, elite student that sees all other students as a rival, but with his team he is much more relaxed and outgoing.
  • Eventually deconstructed: he started out not caring what his brother thought, but eventually stopped caring about what anyone thought. It also seems that his Team Gaim persona isn't "himself" either.
• Being Evil Sucks: This lesson is hammered home by the end of the series, as his schemes led him to sacrifice everything and he has absolutely nothing to show for it.
• Beneath the Mask: Micchy was introduced as a cheerful and friendly person who just wanted to spend time with his friends. As time goes on, however, he is revealed to be very ruthless and manipulative, and he starts to care more about his own happiness than his friends'.
  • By #27, the mask is breaking. Even Mai notices, though she hasn't completely caught on and just comments that he hasn't been acting "like himself". Tellingly, he then asks how he should act "like himself".
  • By #35, he doesn't even bother with the mask anymore in front of Kouta, as he decides to finally reveal his betrayal. Mai, Rat, and Rica also begin to realize that there's more to him than he lets on.
  • By #38, he's not even really trying to hide his behavior from Mai anymore. He's undergone a massive amount of Sanity Slippage by this point, so he doesn't really seem to care about keeping up the charade anymore.
• The Berserker: He eventually becomes this as his frustration gets the better of him. Kaito notes that it makes him much harder to fight.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Partners with Redyue in the "Forbidden Fruit" arc, although she's the dominant one of the pair.
• Big Bad Friend: While not obvious at first, his increasing frustration at Kouta's "idiocy" turns him from his close friend into one of his worst enemies.
• Big Bad Wannabe: He clearly considers himself an ally and equal of the various other villains, but he never plays for stakes as high as they do and isn't nearly as cunning as they are (which they all take advantage of).
• Big Damn Heroes: In #8 he shows up just in time with his new Rose Attacker to save Gaim from a swarm of Inves in the Helheim Forest.
  • In Gaiden: Knuckle, he shows up just in time to save Jonouchi and Zack from Black Baron's Kurokage Troopers, as well as giving Zack a new Sengoku Driver so he can transform to Knuckle again.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He can seem very cheery and idealistic towards many things, as well as being The Smart Guy of the group, but give him a goal in mind and he can be just as manipulative and cunning as his brother.
  • This becomes more pronounced after Micchy joins Yggdrasil. He continues to act cheerful and friendly towards his friends, all while working with the antagonists and being completely okay with manipulating and lying to the people who care about him.
  • In #35, he makes a show of appearing as a benevolent benefactor when he explains his new Project Ark to Mai, Rat, and Rica. All three of them are smart enough to notice how disturbing he's acting, though.
• Book Ends: Micchy caps off his return to heroism in his round 2 against Kohgane with his transformation pose when he first transformed into Ryugen in #4.
• Brains and Brawn: When working with Kouta in the early episodes, he's the Brains. While Kouta is a better fighter, Micchy is the one who comes up with the plans. Unfortunately, Micchy's conviction that he's the "smart one" leads him to become angry with Kouta when the latter doesn't go along with his plans.
• Break the Haughty: #41 and #42 are spent crushing Micchy's narcissistic arrogance. At first, he becomes a much more dangerous villain; Micchy stops underestimating Kouta and becomes a nihilistic Death Seeker as Ryugen Yomi to kill him. However, the shock of (apparently) doing so and Mai's death at Ryoma's hands emotionally destroy him and leave Micchy a complete wreck.
• Broken Pedestal: Micchy claims that he has one for Kouta in #35. He argues that Kouta's refusal to sacrifice anyone and continued resistance against Helheim has cost him Micchy's respect and loyalty. It's not a straight example, though, since Micchy is the one who's become a selfish, villainous Jerkass, and the whole incident really just underscores how evil and corrupt he's become.
• Broken Tears: In #43, Micchy realizes that, after everything he's done over the course of the series, all of his efforts turned out to be pointless. The revelation leaves him a sobbing, broken mess.
• Bungled Suicide: Micchy obviously didn't plan on living past his final battle with Kouta.
• Bystander Syndrome: After learning about Yggdrasill using them as pawns, Micchy starts to suffer from this to the point that he stands by and lets both innocent people and Kouta get attacked by Inves without lifting a finger. He only gets away from this once he's cornered by Kurokage troopers while infiltrating Yggdrasil. He finally stops being this... after joining his brother, yet turns out he'd been joining Ryoma all along, whom manipulated his brother.
  • He relapses into this again in the final episodes; believing that everyone he ever cared about was dead by his actions has left him completely lifeless and apathetic.
• Cain and Abel: With Takatora. But unlike how the series first presented them, Mitsuzane's the Cain.
• Cast from Hit Points: Yomotsuheguri Arms is very powerful, but drains Mitsuzane's life force.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: In #18, he states, word for word, that he would betray anyone or anything to keep the joy he was feeling.
• Classic Villain: As his morality degrades, Micchy becomes an evil and twisted caricature of his former self, representing Pride, Envy, Wrath, and Lust.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Yomotsuheguri arms. While it does increase his power, it incapacitates Micchy with fits of intense agony right in the middle of battle, leaving him completely vulnerable. The only reason he wasn't immediately butchered due to this was that he was fighting Kouta, who explicitly didn't want to kill him.
• Les Collaborateurs: Becomes Redyue's adviser and mole, all for the chance to kill Kouta and "save" his friends.
• Condescending Compassion: When Micchy takes Mai to Yggdrasil tower, he stresses how much he wants to protect her... even as he blatantly ignores her feelings, tells her to her face how she's "confused" by everything that's happening, and emphasizes that she needs to do what he tells her to.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character:
  • Both Mitsuzane and Mayu Inamori are the tertiary Riders who were also the younger siblings of their of their respective series. While initially starts off as a Victim of the Week who later became a Kamen Rider late in her series in order to avenge her parents' deaths, Mayu is a heroic Rider. On the other hand, Mitsuzane became a Rider very early on and he starts off heroic due to his desire to help out his Beat Riders team before slides into a villain before realizing all of his mistakes in the end.
  • Both Mitsuzane and Shuichi Kitaoka/Kamen Rider Zolda are the resident green-colored gun-wielding tertiary Rider of their respective shows. Mitsuzane starts off as a heroic sidekick to Kouta before he descent to utter villainy until he returns back to his heroic self upon realizing the error of his ways, while Kitaoka started off as an anti-heroic figure to Shinji before he Took a Level in Kindness later on in his home series.
• Control Freak: Starts to become one more and more after joining Yggdrasill. He tries to manipulate Kouta into doing what he thinks is best, and is bitter and angry with his friends (especially Kouta) when they don't go along with his scheming since he is convinced that he knows what's best for them.
  • He expresses very disturbing Tranquil Fury whenever things don't go his way or people don't act the way he wants.
  • When Dyudyuonshu asks him if Kouta used to be a friend of his, Micchy replies that his friends are the ones who do what he wants.
  • In #41, Kaito outright tells him that Micchy doesn't really care about Mai as a person, but just wants a "puppet" that he can control.
• Consummate Liar: Micchy can lie, distort the truth, and misdirect blame with rather disturbing skill.
• The Corruptible: As Sid and many other factors easily prove.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Sid started the job when he enjoyed provoking Micchy's dark side, and joining Yggdrasill warped him further. Redyue admits that Micchy is so messed up by this point that he's driving himself nuts.
• The Cynic: Increasingly becomes one as the series progresses, thinking that the only sensible way to save his skin and his friends is making deals with villains and beg something from them instead of facing them head on, and he views Kouta's hope he inspires to others as an "infection".
  • By #42, Mitsuzane no longer remembers what Mai's smile looks like or even why he started fighting.
• Deal with the Devil: His prefered way to defend against villains. He becomes The Quisling to the Overlords, letting them wipe out humanity with Micchy asking them to spare him and his friends. Later Ryoma gives him the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed to defeat/kill Kouta in order to have the time to extract the Fruit of Knowledge from Mai's body. However, the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed drains the life force of its user, which means prolonged use would ultimately kill Mitsuzane. He accepts the deal. He ends up regretting it.
• Death Glare: His usual reaction whenever things don't go according to his plans.
• Demoted to Extra: In the video game Kamen Rider Battride War II, he's the only one of the core 4 Riders from Gaim who's not playable, being an assist character instead^note Zangetsu Shin wasn't playable in the base game, but is available through DLC, and he can only use his base Budou Arms^note while it's understandable why Zangetsu Shin and Ryugen Yomi aren't present for him, Kiwi Arms is not present for seemingly no reason.
• Despair Event Horizon: He is so shocked by the sight of a ruined alien civilization that he immediately accepts Takatora's offer to join Yggdrasill.
  • He completely crosses it in #34. Seeing Rosyuo's god-like power makes him decide to sell out humanity to the Overlords.
  • #43 is even worse. After his business with Kouta is finished, he ends up being betrayed by Ryoma before breaking down in despair like a hysterical child. It's so brutal that he actually stopped caring about whether or not Mai could be saved, and basically spends the rest of the series doing nothing but sobbing alone over just how badly he screwed everything up.
• Did Not Think This Through: In #41, Redyue points out the flaw in Micchy's plan to have Rosyuo safeguard Mai: if Rosyuo genuinely took a liking to her, he would never let a monster like Micchy anywhere near her. Micchy's reaction says it all.
  • Micchy trusts Ryoma to take care of Mai after she's been fused with the Forbidden Fruit... even though Ryoma is a Mad Scientist who has made it abundantly clear over the course of the series that he wants the fruit for his own ends. Ryoma himself points out how stupid Micchy was to do this.
• Dirty Coward: He is prone to use underhanded tactics in order to gain the upper hand, and he refuses to fight villains head on, prefering to make deals with them and beg something from them, opposing those who fight villains and get in his way instead.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Micchy becomes increasingly angry with Kouta when he doesn't go along with his manipulations, even though Kouta is heroically saving lives and clearly isn't doing so to spite Micchy.
  • Micchy's response to Takatora being genuinely happy while speaking highly of Kouta? He gives Kouta a beating while disguised as his own brother, all so that he can destroy any goodwill between the two. Not to mention that fact that he's now willing to nearly murder his best friend.
  • He eventually decides that he needs to eliminate Kouta in order to save his friends. Why? Because Kouta gives them hope.
  • He decides that Rica and Rat deserve getting hooked up to Redyue's life-draining machine after they tried to leave Yggdrasil Tower against his wishes.
• Dissonant Serenity: When Micchy is explaining his new Project Ark to his friends, he remains disturbingly calm as he reveals that he plans to save them while abandoning a majority of humanity to die. All of his friends quickly pick up on how creepy this is, thankfully.
  • When Micchy forces Mai to come with him by having an Overlord Inves beat up Peko, he remains completely calm and cheerful, even as a horrified Mai begs him to stop.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: Micchy's overall behavior when he forces Mai to come with him to Yggdrasil Tower. He obliviously blackmails Mai into coming with him by threatening the life of one of her friends, all the while telling Mai how she's just "confused" and needs to do what he says. When we cut back to them later, Mai is sitting in Micchy's office, visibly terrified and wearing a completely different outfit, while Micchy himself talks about how everything will be fine once Mai starts seeing things his way.
• Driven to Suicide: In a dark way. Realizing that his actions have accomplished nothing and he's lost many of his friends, he willingly uses the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed out of the belief that it would save Mai's life.
• Drunk with Power: Unlike other characters, Mitsuzane isn't drunk off of the physical power being a Rider gives him. Instead, he becomes drunk off of the power of control and influence that being a part of Yggdrasill gives him.
• Easily Forgiven: By Kouta in #43. His response? Far from being satisfied or relieved. Thankfully, however, this is the first step in Micchy's Heel Realization. Mai extends similar forgiving hand as well. The Beat Riders (except Peko) also don't hold it against him in the end of the series, readily accepting him back if he wants to rejoin them.
  • Discussed after the first Time Skip, when Hideyasu questions whether everyone should really be so quick to forgive Micchy for everything that he's done. Oren gently chides him and iterates the tragedy of Micchy's character arc: that, ultimately, Micchy was just a stupid kid who allowed himself to be used by several legitimately evil people.
  • After the second Time Skip, most of the other characters are willing to forgive Micchy for the things that he's done (some like Peko at least won't forget they happened). However, Micchy hasn't quite forgiven himself.
• Engineered Heroics: While he doesn't cause a disaster in order to be the hero, he's more than willing to exploit one in progress and sabotage the actual hero to keep him from getting the glory.
• Epic Fail: Micchy's entire character arc reaches this point in #43. All of his actions have done more harm than good, he's failed to actually accomplish anything, everyone either hates or doesn't trust him, and the people he cares most about are all dead either by his hand (Takatora and Kouta, though both are later revealed to have survived) or as a direct result of his decisions (Mai). He's such an idiot indeed.
• Evil All Along: While Micchy was hinted to have a darker side early on, he seemingly cares about his friends' well-being. As the series go on, he's shown to care less about them as people, but more about his own desires to keep his personal joy, taking sadistic delight in secretly trying to kill Kouta, his best friend who is his main opposition in his plans.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Ties in with Micchy's narcissistic tendencies and his arrogance. He doesn't seem to understand why Mai, his friends, and Takatora gravitate towards Kouta instead of him, since Micchy is convinced that Kouta is an Idiot Hero who's constantly "ruining everything" while Micchy is the genius who will save his friends. Kouta, of course, earns their respect by being a hero and trying his best to save everyone, but Micchy never seems to see the virtue in this.
  • This becomes particularly glaring in #35, when he complains to Mai. He basically paints Kouta as a fool who doesn't think things through or accept the reality of the situation. Neither of these conclusions are accurate and are clearly influenced by Micchy's jealousy and hubris.
  • Micchy seems either unable or unwilling to acknowledge that Mai genuinely disapproves of his actions. He instead convinces himself that she's being irrational and will eventually come around to his way of thinking.
• Evil Costume Switch: He's usually seen in brightly colored clothes, but when he joins Yggdrasill, he immediately switches to a pitch black shirt.
  • While he was already fairly evil, Micchy's switch from Ryugen to Zangetsu Shin symbolizes his complete surrender to his darker instincts. The switch in Rider powers is accompanied with matching white sweaters in his civilian attire.
  • After Redyue's invasion he's seen wearing formal clothing and a black blazer, similar to what Takatora was previously wearing before his 'death,' to show his rise to power over his brother and to show that he's The Quisling.
  • He eventually gains a new form, Ryugen Yomi Yomotsuheguri Arms, which is essentially a more evil-looking version of Ryugen's Budou Arms and Kiwi Arms forms.
• Evil Counterpart: To Kouta. Both Riders start out wanting to use their powers to help their loved ones. While Kouta is initially Drunk with Power, he's limited to using his abilities for harmless monetary gain (while still helping his friends and family) and eventually grows out of it, unselfishly dedicating himself to protecting everyone, acting as a Hope Bringer to them. Micchy becomes much more selfish, allies himself with the villains, tries to protect his friends by lying and attempting to control them, and becomes so much worse than he was originally to sacrifice whole humanity for their sake, becoming a Hope Crusher to Kouta out of jealousy. Their final forms are also this, Yomotsuheguri Arms summons the monsters' and villains' weapons to Kiwami Arms summoning the Riders' weapons. It's design also makes it one to his Budou and Kiwi Arms.
• Evil Former Friend: Becomes this to Kouta in #26 when he shoots him in the back. Kouta doesn't find out about this until #35. He becomes one to the rest of Team Gaim when he lets Redyue keep Rat and Rica hooked up to her life-draining machine.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Over the course of the series, Micchy arrogantly believes that he's intelligent enough to manipulate the villains that he allies himself with for his own ends. He's not, and he has an emotional breakdown when he finally realizes it.
• Evil Makeover: As his morality degrades, Mitsuzane begins to resemble a more deranged version of his brother.
  • He starts wearing a blazer with formal clothing in #35, making his outfit almost identical to his brother's. This is also the episode where he finally reveals how evil he's become to Kouta.
• Evil Is Petty: In a world where the planet Earth is at risk of being consumed by an Eldritch Abomination and multiple factions have grand ambitions of aiming to save the planet, letting it be consumed, or trying to become a god, Micchy is content to use his superpowers and all of the resources of a multi-billion dollar company to try and kill his ex-dance teammate, all out of mere jealousy.
  • Micchy tries to justify his actions with the excuse of "saving what he can of humanity," but he's really just protecting what he considers "his" and leaving the rest to rot.
  • He lets Redyue keep Kouta's sister captive, even though she has nothing to do with his grudge towards Kouta other than being related to him. He later leaves Rica and Rat to the same fate after they tried to escape against his wishes, actually thinking that they deserve it for not doing what he wanted.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Mahiro Takasugi confirmed in an interview that, knowing his character was going down a bad route, he lowered Micchy's tone of voice as the show went on to reflect the character development.
• Expy:
  • Of Wakana Sonozaki, both of them are younger siblings of a rich family who lives a double life (Micchy being a Beat Rider and Wakana being a famous radio host) and is also close associate with the main Rider before they fell into corruption after learning a dark secret within their respective stories.
  • Also to both Sayaka Miki and Homura Akemi:
    • Both Mitsuzane and Sayaka are deeply devoted to another character before being driven insane by their own selfishness and childish dreams of heroism.
    • Both Mitsuzane and Homura are gun-wielding sweet kids who became increasingly more bitter, callous, controlling, and eventually turned against their respective main characters as a result of their Always Save the Girl mindset. They also have Super Modes associated with darkness, though his is themed after the Japanese underworld instead of the Christian hell Devil Homura represents.
  • He's also one to Shinji Matou and Kirei Kotomine the first being a former friend of the hero with Yandere tendencies and the second having a Start of Darkness after being corrupted by the villains.
• Face–Heel Turn: He makes no hesitation to switch to Yggdrasill's side after seeing whatever Takatora shows him in #16.
• Fair-Weather Friend: He seems to be driven to save his friends at all costs, as being with them brings joy. Emphasis on joy, he only cares about them if they please him. If his friends displease him, like disobeying his plans or opposing it, he'll throw them under the bus, like Kouta, Rat, and Rica.
• Fallen Hero: Began as an Anti-Hero but gradually degrades into an Anti-Villain and then a deranged psychopath willing to watch his own brother die and not lift a finger.
• False Friend: He starts out as a seemingly genuine friend to Kouta, Mai, and Team Gaim, but it's made clear from the start that he has no problem with lying to them or trying to manipulate them behind their backs. He does genuinely want to protect them, but he never seems to actually care about what they think or feel and remains convinced that only he knows what's best for them.
  • As Micchy becomes more evil, he becomes more willing to get rid of his friends and family when they displease him. By #39, Mai appears to be the only person he still cares about other than himself.
• Faux Affably Evil: He puts up a Nice Guy facade but all the oily hate manages to slip through. But as the series progresses, Micchy eventually stops being a jerk after his efforts are rendered All for Nothing.
• Foil: Like Kouta, Micchy acts as one to all three of the other main characters:
  • Takatora: Micchy is introduced as a hero, but becomes disturbingly more villainous as the show goes on. His brother Takatora first appears as the ruthless leader of the villains, but it becomes apparent later that he is misguided, but genuinely has altruistic motives. Takatora also feels guilt for all of the horrible things that he does, believing that he's Necessarily Evil that will ensure the greater good; Micchy doesn't seem to care about the morality of his actions, so long as his own selfish desires are met. Both also become Zangetsu Shin, with Takatora pulling a Heel–Face Turn and becoming Kouta's ally, while Micchy becomes his Evil Former Friend.
  • Kaito: Both are entirely selfish and desire power; however, Kaito desires pure physical power while Micchy desires the power of influence and manipulation. Furthermore, Kaito is upfront with his enemies and despises tactics of deception and dishonesty. While a Jerkass, he always speaks genuinely and never lies. Micchy's skills at deception are his greatest asset, and he utilizes them to their full extent. In #27, they come to blows over this difference when Kaito becomes disgusted with and attacks Micchy after witnessing him shooting Kouta in the back and knocking him unconscious. Ultimately, his desire to prove himself as better than everyone that gets in his way makes him The Social Darwinist played straight, in contrast to Kaito being more of an "Anti-Social Darwinist".
  • Ironically enough, Micchy becomes one to Mai. Mai is extremely caring and emphatic, wants to make people happy, and became focused on revealing the truth once she found out the full story of Helheim. Micchy becomes willing to betray anyone who displeases him, only cares about his own ambitions, and spent a good chunk of the series trying to keep secrets from everyone. It's ironic because, by #39, Mai is the only other person that Micchy still cares about, even though she's clearly horrified by his actions.
• For Great Justice: Mitsuzane claims that he's helping Kouta fight Yggdrasill because it's the right thing to do. It's immediately subverted when Takatora claims that the real reason why he's doing it is just to rebel against his brother.
  • In #35, Micchy tries to take the moral high ground when he reveals his Face–Heel Turn to Kouta. He claims that Kouta's attempts to inspire hope are dangerous, argues that Takatora's fate was Kouta's fault (not knowing that Takatora is still alive), and seems to think that killing Kouta will help him "save" Mai and the others.
• Foreshadowing: Micchy getting his Sengoku Driver from Sid sets the tone for his interactions with the other antagonists later in the series. Micchy is pleased with himself upon receiving it and only cares that he got what he wanted. However, he completely fails to realize that Sid wasn't the least bit intimidated by his threats and only met his demands out of amusement at Micchy's darker tendencies. Micchy would later go through similar interactions with Redyue and Ryoma, not realizing until the very end that he was just an Unwitting Pawn the entire time.
  • Micchy's line in #18 about how he would "betray anything and anyone" to keep the joy he was feeling is a twofold example. At first, it seems just to indicate how far Micchy is willing to go in order to fulfill his desires. The latter part, however, is ultimately revealed to be the root of most of Micchy's problems. Micchy became so desperate to keep everything the same and hold on to his happiness that he alienated his friends and did much more harm than good.
• Forgot About His Powers: Kind of. At the end of the series, he states his Budou Lockseed is the only Lockseed left (not counting the Black Ringo Lockseed Kohgane uses), but his Kiwi, Blood Orange, and Suika Lockseeds, as well as the Melon Energy lockseed that used to belong to his brother, were still unaccounted for (Blood Orange was presumably excluded due to it being movie-exclusive on top of him not transforming with it, but no reason is given for why he didn't mention the other 3), and the Kiwi and Melon Energy lockseeds would later show up in Movie War Full Throttle. Although it's possible he meant that he was the last Armored Rider left.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The Phlegmatic.
• Freak Out: Has a big one in #38, when a hallucination of his brother, whom he himself defeated, mocks his effort to make himself something more than just Takatora's little brother. It produces a genuine 'what the hell?' reaction from the onlooking Redyue, who just sees Mitsuzane slipping into a fit of mindless rage for no apparent reason
• Freudian Excuse: He started off unhappy with his wealthy lifestyle with an older brother that didn't show how much he really cared about him, but puts much pressure on him due to their position in society, and joined Team Gaim, who he felt were his only friends despite their lower class status in society, just to get away from it all. He feels joy by being with them, and he wants to keep that feeling, ultimately at any cost. From his perspective, he felt that there was nothing special about him, and wanted to change that. His Control Freak tendencies are also implied to come from him getting sick of being controlled himself.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: See Freudian Excuse above. He begins his role as little more than the hero's sidekick, but slowly grows into one of the show's most dangerous characters.
• Good Costume Switch: The very last set of clothes Micchy switches to are a simple dark gray shirt and black jacket similar to Kouta's, making a stark contrast against the fancy suit and tie he wore at his worst and marking his change into The Atoner.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Seeing the damage Helheim's already done to a alien civilization drove him to forgo his own morals and join Yggdrasill.
  • Micchy is left Laughing Mad after seeing for himself just how powerful Rosyuo is.
  • Apparently killing Takatora causes him to literally lose his sanity and begin hallucinating.
  • His reaction to thinking Kouta and Mai are dead by his hand also qualifies, though it leaves him more broken than insane.
• Green-Eyed Monster: #28 all but states that his grudge against Kouta is due to jealousy; he starts to exhibit Tranquil Fury as he listens to Takatora compliment Kouta. This causes him to stand by idly as his brother is seemingly killed. Then he takes his brother's Driver and name, all in an effort to both kill Kouta and to destroy the bond he had forged with his brother.
  • Long before that, it was heavily implied that Micchy had feelings for Mai. Her apparent attraction towards Kouta (and Team Gaim's approval thereof) clearly didn't sit well with him. Her "siding with" Kouta when she calls Micchy out on his behavior is what sets off his complete descent into villainy. He later claims he was okay with being on the losing side of that particular Love Triangle, but he's so deluded and twisted by that point that it's likely he's not being completely honest with himself.
  • Another possible factor is that he sees Kouta's life as just being better than his when Kouta has so very little, while Micchy had so much and wasn't satisfied with it, ironically leading him to befriend Kouta and Team Gaim in the first place.
• Guile Hero: Starts out as one, but he dovetails into a Manipulative Bastard. However, he regressed back to this during the last episode.
• Guilt Complex: After Earth has rebuilt itself in #46, Micchy refuses to rejoin with the Beat Riders since he feels that he doesn't have the right.
• Hallucinations: Micchy starts seeing hallucinations of Takatora after defeating him.
• Hated by All: In #41, the Takatora hallucination points out that everybody else either doesn't like or doesn't trust Micchy anymore.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: However, his own indecision makes it clear that Micchy has no clue what side he's really on. He eventually decides Heel.
• The Heavy: Takes this role from none other than his elder brother midway through. He acts as an ally to both Ryoma's splinter group and the Overlord Inves in succession, is directly responsible for things getting worse by attacking Kouta as Zangetsu Shin to break up his and Takatora's partnership, helping the Overlord with their invasion, kidnapping Mai, and betraying his friends to Helheim.
• The Hedonist: Micchy justifies his actions with the desire to protect his friends from the conflict with Helheim and keep them happy, believing that he's "the only one who can make Mai happy". Eventually, it becomes clear that "their happiness" is really just an excuse for his own happiness and desires.
  • He steers them away from anything that would make them feel bad, even if not knowing the truth would hurt them. He also uses Inves to sabotage Mai's attempt to warn the city of Yggdrasill's plans due to his own desire to keep her out of the conflict, even though such an act would (and did) clearly not make Mai happy.
  • Micchy seeking to keep his personal joy also means he only cares about Team Gaim, his personal friends. He's perfectly willing to form an alliance with Redyue and write off the majority of humanity so long as he gets to keep Team Gaim for himself. Even then, he doesn't hesitate to cut Team Gaim off when they don't do what he wants and displease him.
• Heel–Face Turn: Seems to have done this between #46 & #47 after learning from his mistakes and spending most of his time with Takatora during the six-month timeskip.
• Heel Realization: By the end of the penultimate episode of the series, Micchy finally comes to realize that he was wrong and becomes The Atoner for his actions.
• The Hero: He intially wanted to follow Kouta's footsteps as this but his Lack of Empathy towards others, Control Freak tendencies, increasingly huge ego, delusions of heroism, and continuous lying habits caused him to go off the deep end. Later played straight after his Heel–Face Turn and Kouta's ascension to godhood.
• Hero-Worshipper: To Mai and Kouta, at first.
  • It becomes horribly deconstructed in Kouta's case. Micchy becomes increasingly disillusioned with Kouta for being a hero while Micchy himself becomes a manipulative, selfish villain. Since Kouta isn't going along with his schemes, Micchy forsakes his friendship with Kouta and becomes dead-set on killing him.
• Heroic BSoD: Or maybe Villainous BSoD; it could be either. When he thinks both Kouta and Mai are dead, he zones out for entire episodes over how he failed to do anything good over the course of the series.
• Heroic Wannabe: This is one of the root causes of Micchy's Face–Heel Turn. He desperately wants to be The Hero who saves Mai and his friends, but his anger and jealousy towards Kouta (along with his own manipulative, Control Freak tendencies) leads him to become increasingly villainous. By #35, he's so desperate and deluded that he thinks murdering Kouta will allow him to save the people he cares about.
  • He accepts the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed when Ryoma convinces him that he needs to hold off or kill Kouta so that he has time to remove the Forbidden Fruit from Mai. Micchy desperately accepts, even though Ryoma is anything but trustworthy.
• He's Back!: The finale has him return to his heroic self as the only Armored Rider left to face off against Kohgane/Kamen Rider Jam.
• Hidden Depths: When pressed, he can be just as ruthless as his brother. Later on in the series, he doesn't even need to be pressed.
• Hope Crusher: An odd example because he believes destroying Kouta's hope will keep him happy and safe. As time goes on, he instead tries to do so purely out of anger and jealousy.
  • Mitsuzane decides to become one for Mai after she tells him that she wants to stand by Kouta since he inspires hope in her.
    Micchy: Hope? That's the barrier between Mai and me? Well... it should be easy to destroy such a fragile thing.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Due to his arrogant attitude, Micchy has a tendency to vastly underestimate everyone around him. He dismisses Kouta as a foolish idiot, he interprets Mai's reluctance to go along with what he wants as her just being "confused," and he allies himself with various villains under the assumption that he's intelligently "using" them (when it's actually the opposite). Taking the Mad Scientist at his word that Mai will be safe pretty much sums it up. Ryoma even hangs a lampshade on how idiotic it was to leave him alone with Mai, given that Micchy knew Ryoma wanted the Forbidden Fruit.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: In #39, Rosyuo uses Micchy as an example of why humanity is a lost cause. Given how selfish, petty, and homicidal Micchy has become, the point is pretty clearly made.
• Hypocrite: Micchy initially has a low opinion of his brother, seeing him as cold and ruthless...even though Micchy reveals that he himself is cold and ruthless early on in the series.
  • Micchy claims that his actions are for the good of his friends, but he does his best to keep them Locked Out of the Loop and never seems to truly consider their thoughts and feelings.
  • Micchy angrily blames Kouta for "making Mai sad" when her attempt to warn the citizens of Zawame about Helheim fails. It only failed because Micchy himself summoned a group of Inves to sabotage the announcement. Unfortunately, Micchy thinks that he's completely justified in this accusation, since he blames Kouta for telling Mai about Helheim in the first place.
  • In #35, he tells Kouta that he and his attempts to inspire hope are to blame for Takatora's apparent death...even though Micchy himself stood by and did nothing while his brother was attacked; Micchy then took up his brother's Rider powers and tried to kill Kouta, all in an attempt to ruin his brother's newly established friendship with him out of jealousy; and Micchy had no problem continuing to work with the villains who betrayed Takatora in the first place.
    • It gets even worse when Takatora reveals himself and defends Kouta. Micchy almost immediately turns on him in anger, even after making such a huge deal over his apparent death.
  • In #38, he calls Mai irrational. Yes, the Ax-Crazy Psychopathic Manchild that runs off of Insane Troll Logic is calling someone else irrational.
  • In #41, Micchy argues that he wants to make Mai happy; Kaito immediately points out that Micchy is pretty much ignoring Mai's feelings in favor of his own desires.
  • After Kouta and Mai's apparent deaths and his beatdown at Ryoma's hands, Micchy tearfully questions why "everyone has abandoned [him]." His hallucination of Takatora then reappears and calls him out on this, pointing out that Micchy was the one who abandoned his friends and that it was his own actions and decisions that led to his current misery.
• I Didn't Tell You Because You'd Be Unhappy: His (initial) motivation for keeping Kouta and Mai in the dark as much as possible.
• Ignorance Is Bliss: Micchy keeps several secrets about Helheim, Yggdrasil, and the truth about Yuya's disappearance from Kouta and the rest of Team Gaim out of the belief that keeping them Locked Out of the Loop would make them happier in the long run.
  • In #23, he tries to convince Kouta not to tell Mai the truth about Yuya's death, outright stating that she would be happier never finding out.
• Image Song: Point Of No Return
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Arguably one of the biggest factors in the dark path he takes. Having spent time a Lonely Rich Kid stuck under the shadows of his brother and the more popular Beat Riders, his desire to make a name for himself away from the family business and become someone special like Kouta, Kaito, or Takatora that he got fed up with not being as good or well-known as they are, and went for The Social Darwinist belief that killing all of them will prove that he's surpassed them.
• Insane Troll Logic: Micchy's justifications for his actions become increasingly more flimsy as time goes on. This reaches its apex in #36: he argues that, since Takatora believes in noblesse oblige (which includes sacrifice as part of its philosophy), he should accept his own murder at Micchy's hands, since Micchy thinks it would mean that Takatora would be sacrificing his life so that he can succeed.
• I Just Want to Be Special: This is pretty much his ultimate goal in a nutshell, wanting to stand out from everyone else, no matter the cost eventually.
• I Just Want to Be You: The first part of his initial motivations. He looks up to Kouta and Mai and wants to grow up to be an adult that has their best traits.
  • Eventually deconstructed: Micchy does want to be like Kouta, but only in the sense that Kouta is admired and respected by Mai, Team Gaim, and Takatora. Instead of realizing that Kouta earns this respect by being a noble, heroic person, Micchy becomes jealous and bitter.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Though coming from a rich and powerful family, Micchy just wanted to be with his friends in Team Gaim. Unfortunately, he wants to keep his friends all to himself and is willing to lie, scheme, and kill in order to do so.
• Irony: Micchy joined his brother in Yggdrasil to protect Kouta from the secrets of Helheim, but Takatora revealed almost all of them to Kouta anyway.
  • Micchy initially dreaded joining Yggdrasil, had a low opinion of his brother, and cared deeply for Kouta and Mai. Upon joining he becomes Drunk with Power, starts to become more cold and evil than his brother ever was, and becomes increasingly more angry and bitter with Kouta and his friends when they don't go along with his manipulations.
  • Micchy originally wanted to grow up to be just like Kouta and Mai, but instead became the antithesis of everything they believe in.
  • Micchy's entire Start of Darkness came about due to his desire/obsession with protecting his friends, but his growing villainy has increasingly alienated him from them. Even Mai and Kouta, who both still want to save him in spite of everything he's done, have been forced to acknowledge that he's become an insane monster.
  • Micchy thought that it was impossible to defeat the Overlords but he unintentionally sets into motion the events that cause them to lose.
  • Micchy prided himself on his ability to manipulate others, but Ryoma is easily able to trick him into fighting Kouta and give him time to extract the Forbidden Fruit from Mai, killing her in the process.
    • On a similar note, Micchy had earlier derided Takatora for his habit of "trusting people that he really shouldn't." Micchy makes the exact same mistake over the course of the series by working with villains like Sid and Redyue. It reaches a peak when he trusts Ryoma to take care of Mai, which results in Mai's death and transformation into an Energy Being.
  • As he grows more insane and desperate, Micchy refuses to see Mai as anything but a Damsel in Distress that only he can save. Not only does this lead him to dismiss her actual feelings, it's his desperate attempts to save her that lead to her death and rebirth as The Woman at the Beginning.
  • Takatora realizes that his behavior towards him played a part in his descent into villainy. The hallucinations Micchy has of him appear to be what's left of his own common sense.
  • Unlike some of the other villains, who were obsessed with obtaining the Forbidden Fruit for their own ambitions, he didn't really care about it at all. When Mai had it inside her, he cared more about her safety rather than the fruit itself.
  • To make a long story short, everything he's done was to keep what he had. Instead, he ends up losing it all.
  • The 2 riders he's based^note Zolda and Kaixa on are the second type of gun-wielding rider in the series, the Smug Snake. After he becomes a hero again, he is a much more serious and humble rider, and has more in common with the first type of gun-wielding riders, such as G3-X and Garren - the Straight Man.
  • He apparently became a Beat Rider as a way to move on from who he really is and what had been set for him to give himself a better life while keeping what he was apparently embarrased of a well-guarded secret from everyone. It isn't until some time after everything about him is out of the bag that he finally manages to do so.
• Irrational Hatred: Towards Kouta as the story goes on. After some tragic events, he gets over it.
• It's All About Me: Though he claims his actions are for the benefit of his friends' happiness, it becomes clear from all the lies and deception that Micchy doesn't really respect them as individuals and only cares about the emotional reward that their relationships with him provide. When Kouta and Takatora (his best friend and brother, respectively) bond with one another, Micchy turns on them with almost no hesitation out of jealousy, to the point that he stands by and lets the latter be nearly killed and tries to kill the former himself.
  • Micchy generally seems to think that his "loved ones" should be completely dependent on him. He thinks that going along with what he wants will make them happy in the long run, and he interprets Kouta inspiring Mai, Team Gaim, and Takatora not to give up hope as Kouta "taking away" everyone Micchy cares about.
  • When Mai tells Micchy that she wants to stand by Kouta and won't go along with Micchy's new Project Ark, she implores him not to give up hope and to help Kouta save the Earth. Micchy instead decides that he needs to eliminate Kouta so that he can be The Hero who saves Mai and the rest of Team Gaim.
  • Kaito calls Micchy out on this in #41, saying that Micchy only really cares about himself despite his supposed dedication to Mai's happiness.
• Jerkass: Outside of Team Gaim, he's shown to be an elitist who looks down on others in his school, and willingly manipulates and threatens others to get what he wants. He only gets worse from here.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Though a prideful jerk to anyone else, he's friendly with Team Gaim and wants to protect them. Eventually it's shown that he only cares about the joy he felt by being with them, even throwing his own friends under the bus if they displease him.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: As much as he tried to get rid of it, there was a part of him who felt torn over what else he cared about his loved ones, even if he didn't know entirely what they were. After things failed spectacularly for him, [[Reconstruction he ultimately learned to]] fully appreciate his relationships with others.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: While he does not appear to suffer any other repercussions for his crimes after the whole situation with Helheim sorts out, he still suffered a massive Trauma Conga Line that ultimately led him to become The Atoner.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: All of those secrets just keep on piling up and are having a notable effect on his sanity.
• Kick the Dog: In #39, he finds out that Redyue broke her promise and has hooked Rica and Rat up to her life machine. He doesn't care and has the gall to say that they deserve it.
• Knight Templar: What he essentially becomes by #35. Micchy wants to save his friends above all else. Unfortunately, he sees himself as The Hero and he's completely convinced that anything he does in pursuit of his goal is completely justified. He goes so far as to convince himself that Kouta needs to be eliminated so that Micchy can "save" Team Gaim.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Deconstructed; while it's not obvious at first, Micchy is convinced that he's smarter and knows better than everyone else. This isn't really true, but Micchy is so convinced of his intellectual superiority that he dismisses his friend's opinions and feelings, sees Kouta as an idiot, and remains convinced that he's smarter than the other antagonists and is successfully "using" them.
• Lack of Empathy: Micchy justifies his descent into villainy with his desire to protect his friends, but it becomes increasingly apparent that he doesn't really take their feelings or desires into consideration. He instead tries to control them behind their backs and gets mad when they don't go along with his scheming, since he's convinced that only he knows what's best for them.
  • It only gets worse as the series progresses. During the Yggdrasil Saga, Micchy refuses to transform so as not to provide Yggdrasil with any data, even when innocent people are in danger of being killed by Inves right in front of him.
  • Micchy had no problem threatening innocent civilians with Inves when Mai was trying to spread information about Helheim, and even blamed Kouta when Mai was saddened afterwards.
  • He stood by and did nothing while his brother was apparently murdered, then took up his powers just so he could ruin his friendship with Kouta.
  • He starts working with Redyue and aiding her invasion attempts, despite the number of casualties that would inevitably ensue if she succeeds. He doesn't seem to care in the slightest as long as he gets what he personally wants.
  • In #35, Mai explains to Micchy that she (and by extension, everyone else Micchy cares about) has chosen to stand by Kouta due to the hope and idealism he inspires in everyone. Micchy appears baffled by this, and decides to murder Kouta to take away their hope, all so that he can then save everyone according to his own schemes.
  • When he forces Mai to come with him by threatening Peko's life in #38, Micchy doesn't seem to even slightly realize that Mai is horrified by what's happening, remaining calm and cheerful. Sadly, this behavior is largely due to his increasingly tenuous grip on reality.
• The Lancer: Became this to Kouta after becoming Ryugen. It doesn't last. Except for one last time in the finale.
• Laughing Mad: At the end of #33 and in #34.
• Love Hungry: It becomes more obvious over the course of the series that Micchy is rather desperate for his friends' love and respect. Unfortunately, he starts to become more bitter and evil when he doesn't feel that he's getting it.
• Love Makes You Crazy And Evil: It's implied throughout the series that Micchy has feelings for Mai, and her safety has always been one of his prime concerns. Unfortunately, his obsession with keeping her safe and happy leads him to become an increasingly evil person.
  • In #35, Micchy claims that he would have been okay if Mai ended up with Kouta, but he's now convinced that he needs to eliminate Kouta so that he can "save" Mai. He's so deluded by that point that it's unclear if he's telling the truth or not.
  • Micchy is also a platonic example: he's driven by the desire (later obsession) to keep his friends in Team Gaim safe. Unfortunately, he believes that said desire justifies any action he takes, no matter how heinous.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Played for Drama; Micchy's obsession with keeping Mai safe leads him to make some very foolish mistakes. Trusting Ryoma to save Mai after she's been implanted with the Forbidden Fruit is probably the standout example.
• Lust: Not just in the sexual sense. Apart from his increasingly creepy crush on Mai, Mitsuzane lusts after emotional fulfillment and will lie and manipulate anyone to get it.
• Manchild: Psychopathy aside, #45 states that this is main problem: his Takatora hallucination tells him that he's in the mess he's in because he fought to stay in his childhood and keep everything the same; meanwhile, his friends and the rest of the world grew up and left him behind.
• Manipulative Bastard: Has no problem using his Yggdrasill influences to get what he wants from Sid. He also begins trying to control Kouta in #12, to the point where he almost got him to throw away his belt.
  • Whenever Mitsuzane gets serious about trying to get Kouta to do what he wants, he invokes Mai's well-being to try to persuade him, arguing that Kouta doing what he thinks is right would put her in distress.
    • This is Truth in Television, since this kind of action is a real-world emotional blackmail technique.
  • When Micchy tries to get Mai to come with him to "protect" her, he resorts to having an Overlord Inves threaten Peko's life right in front of her so as to leave her no option.
• Martyr Without a Cause: A villainous example. Micchy's entire Start of Darkness came about due to his desire to protect his friends. However, instead of working with and trusting them, he remained convinced that he was the only person capable of making the right decisions and resorted to lies, manipulations, and joining Yggdrasil to force them to do what he thought was best, all in the name of "protecting" them. As Kouta unintentionally defies him again and again, Micchy becomes increasingly frustrated, seeing him as an Idiot Hero who was ruining Micchy's attempts to keep him safe.
  • When Micchy accepts the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed from Ryoma, he's desperate enough to believe that Kouta actually wants Mai to die so that he can have the Forbidden Fruit and that Micchy needs to kill him to save her. Even though this entire scenario is obviously a deception on Ryoma's part, Micchy is still willing to accept it and throw his life away.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Feminine Boy to Mai's Masculine Girl.
• Mask of Sanity: Best shown when he becomes The Quisling. He puts up the front of being a Reasonable Authority Figure when he's actually become crazier and pettier than ever.
• Master Actor: Micchy can pull off his former personality with great skill even though he's become almost the exact opposite. He seems to have given up the charade by #39, letting his friends see just what he's actually like.
• Meaningful Echo: His descent began with him shooting Kouta in the back. When Kohgane posesses a girl and holds her hostage in the finale, he refuses to shoot her, showing how much he's recovered.
• Misery Builds Character: He wants to inflict this trope onto Kouta. After a while, he just wants to make Kouta miserable purely out of hatred and jealousy.
  • He basically decides to enforce this on the rest of his friends by killing Kouta. Micchy believes that his friends will be better off if he takes away their greatest source of hope since he thinks that they'll then do what Micchy wants (which he believes will save them).
  • This ultimately happens to Micchy himself. It's only after he loses everything and undergoes an emotional breakdown that he finally moves away from his villainous actions.
• Misplaced Retribution: Whenever things don't go Micchy's way or his friends don't do what he wants, he generally blames Kouta. Probably the most glaring example is his belief that Kouta needs to eliminated for inspiring everyone not to give up hope via his fighting against Yggdrasil and the Inves, since Micchy doesn't seem to realize that his friends are choosing to stand by Kouta of their own free will.
• The Mole: He was initially this for either the Beat Riders or Yggdrasill. He eventually chose Yggdrasill.
• Mood-Swinger: He's able to switch from Faux Affably Evil to a screeching Axe-Crazy psychopath with frightening speed.
  • An extremely disturbing example of this occurs when Micchy forces Mai to come with him to Yggdrasil tower. He's so calm and cheerful towards Mai that it's off-putting, but as soon as he turns to address Peko, he becomes cold and arrogant. He then immediately switches back once Peko starts getting beaten and Micchy's speaking to Mai again.
• Moral Myopia: Micchy believes that whatever he wants and whatever he does to fulfill his desires is good, and he sees anyone or anything who stands in his way (even unknowingly) as a threat or obstacle.
• Motive Decay: At first, Micchy wanted to help Kouta and Mai, then he joins Yggdrasill to protect them and the rest of humanity. Unfortunately, that eventually degrades into a dangerous lust for power and personal satisfaction.
  • By #35, he does still technically want to save his friends. Unfortunately, this desire is based more on his own ambitions and ego than it is friendship, and he thinks the best way to accomplish his goals is by murdering Kouta.
  • In #39, he lets Redyue keep Rat and Rica hooked up to her life-draining machine, even though one of his biggest motivations was to protect them. He actually goes as far as to say they deserve it.
  • In #42, Micchy honestly can't remember why he started fighting in the first place.
  • In #43, Micchy doesn't appear to care about saving Mai anymore, even when told that there's a way to bring her back.
• Mundane Solution: Two of them in #9. First he stops a Helheim fruit from becoming a Lock Seed by not picking it while wearing the Sengoku Driver, de-powering in the process; then he tracks the Komori Inves by slipping his cell phone onto it.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Eventually becomes his go-to answer to every problem in his way.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: This appears to be part of his motivation for trying to kill Kouta in the latter half of the series, since it's hinted that Micchy is jealous of the admiration Mai has for Kouta. He later claims that he never minded the idea Kouta and Mai getting together, but he's so deluded by that point it's hard to tell if he's telling the truth.
  • It eventually becomes apparent that Micchy applies this sort of reasoning to all of his relationships. He comes to view the respect and admiration that Kouta gains from Mai, Team Gaim, and Takatora as signs that Kouta is "taking away" everyone Micchy cares about, and decides to murder him out of envy.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Micchy finally reaches this point come #43, after he apparently kills Kouta and finds out that Mai is dead. He realizes his actions have failed to accomplish anything and gets reduced to a crying mess once he sees that everyone he cares about (including Takatora, Mai, and Kouta) are all gone, and all of their deaths were his fault (though all three either survived or got better).
• Named After Someone Famous: Likely named after Akechi Mitsuhide, a general of Nobunaga's who famously betrayed him.
• Narcissist: Micchy shows all the signs of being one. While capable of a full emotional range, he has a massive superiority complex and loses it when his self-inflated sense of worth is threatened.
  • His "friendship" with Team Gaim seems to exist solely for his own emotional satisfaction; he doesn't appear to see them as people, and instead sees them more as extensions of himself. Despite "caring" about them, if they jilt or defy him enough, he'll cut them off and try to get rid of them (as he does with Kouta). Even worse, he seems to believe that Kouta gaining admiration from everyone Micchy cares about is tantamount to "taking them away" from him.
• Never My Fault: If his plans fail, it's Kouta's fault for interfering. If Mai objects to Micchy's actions, she's just "confused" and will come around in time. If Takatora is upset with what he's doing, he's the one who drove him into becoming what he is (and it probably doesn't help that Takatora thinks this too). Micchy never seems to even acknowledge that there's anything morally wrong with the things that he's doing. Possibly because he wants to actually turn out to be right for once. He completely breaks down when he realizes that everything (including Kouta and Mai's apparent deaths) was his fault.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Micchy, even at his worst, inadvertently helped the heroes.
  • He shot Kouta In the Back in Helheim, leading to Kouta being present to both help a lost and hungry Oren and encounter Demushu while he was raiding the Yggdrasil camp, prompting him to help Takatora out and point to Demushu as proof that there's another way to save Earth. This, after a string of betrayals and other events, led to Demushu moving to Zawame, intensifying the war and led to Kouta's obtainment of Kiwami Arms.
  • Micchy kidnapping Mai and placing her in Rosyuo's custody set into motion the events that led to the Overlords' ultimate defeat and the eventual duel to decide the fate of Earth.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In #28, Micchy becomes Zangetsu Shin II and takes a rather disturbing delight in trying to beat Kouta to death while he's not transformed.
  • During their second fight, Micchy ends up on the receiving end of one when Kouta doesn't hold back.
  • He gets it again when Kouta uses Kiwami Arms against him (after Bravo warns Kouta that Micchy isn't the original Zangetsu Shin).
• Not So Harmless/Beware the Nice Ones: Showed his ruthless streak early on, which is how he got a Sengoku Driver in the first place. It only gets worse from there.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He makes a big show about being the hero when all his motivations were rooted from Envy towards Kouta, Lust towards Mai, and keeping his personal joy.
• Obliviously Evil: A very disturbing case. At first, Micchy justifies his actions with the belief that they'll save his friends, but he never seems to actually recognize the villainy in what he's doing and doesn't express any sort of guilt for anything. It gets worse as he loses his grip on reality: he thinks anything he does is perfectly fine, and doesn't understand why his friends object to his actions.
• Oh, Crap!: Mitsuzane has this when Kouta actually attacks him, no longer falling for his plan of disguising as Takatora.
  • He has two during his fight with Kouta in #33: first when Bravo quickly jumps in and alerts Kouta to the fact that Zangetsu Shin is an imposter, then when Kouta in Kiwami Arms is about to finish him off (though he manages to escape).
  • He has two such moments in #41: one when Redyue asks him what will happen between Rosyuo and Mai and another when he deduces the location of the Forbidden Fruit.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Only he has the right to kill Kouta. No one else!
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the alternate world of the summer movie, he retains his memories of killing his brother in the main world, but feels regret for his sins and has no intentions of hurting anyone again.
  • In #42 when the Takatora hallucination gives him another "Reason You Suck" Speech, instead of flipping out as usual, he instead quietly tells it to shut up.
  • When told that there's a way to bring Mai back after her death and transformation into an Energy Being, Micchy apathetically questions what the point is since she's no longer human, signifying just how emotionally broken he is.
• Pet the Dog: His attitude towards Mai may be seven shades of creepy, but when Redyue takes an interest in her as a potential pawn in their plans, he immediately puts her in Rosyuo's custody, perhaps the safest place in the two worlds and certainly well out of his partner-in-crime's reach.
• Power Born of Madness: After apparently killing his brother, Mitsuzane loses his already tenuous grip on reality. Consequently, his fighting style switches from hesitant and analytical to The Berserker, turning him from one of the less powerful Riders into someone strong enough to fight off Gaim Kiwami Arms and Baron Lemon Energy Arms at the same time.
• Pragmatic Hero: Micchy thinks he's this, since he believes that his actions are necessary in order to protect his friends. He's actually a Deconstruction: his arrogance leads him to believe that his increasingly villainous actions are absolutely correct and he becomes disproportionately angry at Kouta (who Micchy sees as an Idiot Hero), whose ideals and heroism constantly lead him to unintentionally defy Micchy's scheming.
  • By #35, he's gotten to the point where he sees all of the hope that Kouta inspires in others as something that needs to be destroyed...by destroying Kouta. He thinks that this is justified due to the belief that taking away his friends' source of hope will allow Micchy to "save" them.
• Pride: Micchy's Fatal Flaw. He's genuinely intelligent, but he's utterly convinced that he's smarter than everyone else. As such, he completely ignores his friends' thoughts and feelings in the belief that he knows what's best for them, he works with the other villains so that he can "use" them (oblivious to the fact that he's the Unwitting Pawn), and he starts losing it when things constantly don't go the way he wants.
• Pride Before a Fall: Micchy's arrogance grows more and more over the course of the series, only to be brutally torn down during the Forbidden Fruit Saga. It's so bad he's left an Empty Shell.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: The defining theme of his character arc.
• Psycho Supporter: Micchy becomes obsessed with protecting Kouta, Mai, and the rest of Team Gaim. Unfortunately, he is convinced that he is the only person who knows what to do and proceeds to lie to everyone and manipulate his friends. When Kouta doesn't go along with his manipulations, Micchy becomes bitter ends up betraying him. He's still technically loyal towards Mai and Team Gaim, but not in a good way. By #39, Mai is the only other person that Micchy really seems to care about. He's willing to go so far as to have an Overlord Inves threaten Peko's life right in front of Mai in order to force her to go along with his plan to "protect" her.
• Psychopathic Man Child: Despite only being sixteen, Micchy fits this trope disturbingly well. He doesn't seem to care about anyone or anything else beyond what he personally wants. He's even willing to kill his best friend and threaten innocent people if it helps his goals.
• The Quisling: He is more willing to sell out humanity to the Overlords so he can have Mai for himself.
• Quit Your Whining: After Kouta and Mai both appear to die and he's been beaten by Ryoma, Micchy is left utterly broken. As he cries over everything that's happened, he tearfully questions why "everyone has abandoned [him]." His hallucination of Takatora then reappears and points out that nobody abandoned Micchy; losing all of his friends and allies was a direct result of Micchy's own actions and choices. "Takatora" then tells Micchy that instead of sitting around feeling sorry for himself, he needs to actually learn something from the whole experience.
  "Takatora:" You’ve failed to become somebody. Think carefully about what that means.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He wears pink capris with his Team Gaim uniform.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He's both given and received several throughout the show:
  • He gives one to some snobby student in #24 calling him out on being nothing more than a corporate drone with no dream or ambition that belongs to himself.
  • Micchy gets one from Yoko, of all people, who accuses him of being a foolish child who has no place where he belongs due to his reliance on lies and keeping secrets. She even points out that none of his friends would follow him if they knew just how manipulative he had become. Micchy actually loses his composure in response and yells at her to leave; Yoko just laughs in his face and walks right back into Team Gaim's base.
  • Gives one to Kouta in #35. It mainly serves to indicate just how much of a twisted Straw Nihilist Micchy has become.
  • And then there are the ones he gets from his hallucinations of Takatora - even his own subconscious is telling him how much he sucks. The standout one occurs when Micchy gloats that he's become a Self-Made Man by using his own power. "Takatora" states that this is a lie, that all Micchy ever did was leech off of the real Takatora's hard work, and he's still nothing more than his brother's shadow. Micchy doesn't take it well.
  • He gets several in #41. First, Kaito points out that, for all of Micchy's talk about making Mai happy, he doesn't really care about her as a person and just wants someone that he can control. Later, Redyue mockingly asks him if he really thought she wouldn't deduce that Micchy had put Mai in Rosyuo's custody to "protect" her. She then points out the obvious flaw in his plan: if Rosyuo genuinely takes a liking to Mai, there's no chance he would let someone like Micchy anywhere near her. Micchy is left reeling by this, right before another hallucination of his brother appears. "Takatora" taunts Micchy for foolishly thinking that people will just blindly do what wants anymore, especially since nobody trusts him by this point.
  • And in #43, Ryoma gives Micchy a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown and gives him a Breaking Speech that he's a Consummate Liar and a Dirty Coward who attempts to deceive others into doing what he wants, never comprehended adult-level actions, and was not as smart as Micchy thought he was.
  • #45 piles on with yet another reason Micchy sucks: "Takatora" gives him another Breaking Speech that he's been acting like a child, and that he refused to grow up by fighting way too hard to keep things the same as in his childhood.
• Redemption Promotion: Micchy noticeably grew less competent as a fighter and planner the more his ego grew out of control and his sanity dwindled. By the end, Micchy was rather ineffectual, only being a threat due to his madness and instability. However, after being humbled and getting a reality check, he gets a chance to become The Hero after Kouta becomes a Physical God and is notably a better fighter than ever before.
• Sadist: Micchy takes way too much joy in trying to kill Kouta. In #33, he even shoves the Inves who's helping him aside just so he could get in some more hits.
• Sanity Has Advantages: Micchy becomes more and more ineffectual as he slides further into insanity, a far cry from his earlier intelligent personality. However, he becomes much more capable after finally being snapped out of his Face–Heel Turn.
• Sanity Slippage: Becomes more and more crazy as time goes on. It reaches a frightening depth in #38.
• Screw Destiny: The second part of his motivations. Mitsuzane has had his entire life planned out for him since he was born. He loves the power that being Ryugen gives him because it lets him make his own choices.
• Secret-Keeper/Secret Secret-Keeper: He has a lot of secrets to keep: Takatora being Zangetsu, Yuya's fate, Helheim's inevitable invasion... It's actually the core reason he snapped.
  • Micchy is ultimately a deconstruction of both of these tropes. He initially keeps all of the secrets he knows because he believes that doing so is necessary to keep his friends happy. However, not only do his friends find out the truth on their own anyway, but knowing about everything that's going on is better for them (and everyone else) in the long run. Unfortunately, Micchy's arrogance leads him to become increasingly bitter with everyone, since he's convinced that he's doing what's best for them and is angry that they're not going along with what he wants.
• Selective Obliviousness: Like his brother, Micchy has trouble acknowledging things that challenge his worldview. Unfortunately, this is largely due to his very high opinion of himself, and he becomes more angry and twisted the more his schemes are thwarted.
  • Micchy seems incapable of realizing that Kouta and Mai are horrified by his actions; he instead assumes that the former is an idiot and the latter is just being irrational and will agree with him in time, never once acknowledging the immorality of his deeds.
• Self-Serving Memory: Sort of. During his conversation with Mai in #35, Micchy flashes back to Kouta's battle against a group of Inves towards the end of the Beat Riders Saga. He recalls this incident as proof of Kouta rushing into things without thinking about the consequences, completely ignoring or not understanding that Kouta was saving innocent peoples' lives while Micchy himself stood by and did nothing (which he considered to be the "correct" course of action at the time).
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Sensitive Guy to Takatora's Manly Man.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: He undergoes a few PTSD-like episodes during the epilogue and in Movie War Full Throttle. He is unable to shoot the girl possessed by Kohgane due to how he did so to Kouta in #26. Similarly, he hesitates at shooting Megahex while Takatora restrains him after remembering that he nearly killed his own older brother in #36. In the novel, Chucky and Zack finally are able to get him over past his trauma.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: In #42, he quietly tells the Takatora hallucination to shut up. Unfortunately, it's because he's so far gone by this point that he no longer cares about anything but "saving" Mai.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: He becomes so nihilistic that he sees hope as a disease.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: He starts with implied threats to Sid and gets worse from there.
• The Slow Walk: Gets one before engaging Jam in #47.
• Small Name, Big Ego: One of Micchy's biggest weaknesses, since he thinks that he's far more capable and intelligent than he actually is. At the peak of his villainy, he saw himself as the mastermind controlling everything, even though his plans were frequently failing and the other villains were pretty clearly using him for their own ends.
• The Smart Guy: When he's in Team Gaim's garage, he's often seen planning out something for the team, such as comparing the rankings of other Beat Riders or discussing their next move.
• The Smart One Turns Traitor: One of the smarter Beat Riders, but also the one who becomes their enemy. In fact, his intelligence (or rather, his pride in his intelligence) is behind many of his reasons for this.
• Smug Snake: What Micchy is ultimately revealed to be. As the Forbidden Fruit Saga reaches its climax, it becomes apparent that Micchy is really nowhere near as smart or capable as he thinks he is, and he's nowhere near the level of the other villains. This becomes especially obvious when Micchy breaks down and finally realizes that all of his schemes have fallen apart while costing him everything.
• Spoiled Brat: Micchy grows in a lavish Kureshima family, and he gets angry whenever things don't go the way he wants, thinks he knows better than everyone else, is fine with getting rid of anyone who makes him mad, and never seems to express remorse for the horrible things he does until all of it backfires on him.
• Steamrolled Smart Guy: While Team Gaim respects his strategies, Kouta and sometimes Mai are placed in situations where they can't stick to his strategy and have to act. His frustration at their ignoring his plans, and that Kouta is praised for ignoring his plans, is what leads to his Face–Heel Turn.
• Straw Nihilist: He is the Last Man to Kouta's Übermensch. When he becomes Ryugen Yomi, he admits that he can't find meaning in his own life anymore.
• Survivor Guilt: He has this in #46 after he thought of seeing Kouta and Mai's deaths took a toll on him, yet his brother is in critical condition in a comatose state. Subverted once Takatora awakes from his sleep on that same episode, while Kouta is now the Man of the Beginning as he can return the Earth whenever he pleases.
• The Team Benefactor: In Knuckle's Gaiden Episode, Neo-Baron has stolen some important information from Yggdrasil, so he provides Zack with a new Sengoku Driver and Lockseeds to stop them.
• Teen Genius: One of Japan's brightest students, and he shows it with his many schemes and gambits.
• Teens Are Monsters: Micchy has a very impressive rap-sheet. His crimes include blackmail, obstruction of justice, assault, framing people for crimes they didn't commit, identity theft, multiple murder attempts, becoming The Quisling to a sadistic monster from another dimension, and attempted fratricide. Damn...
• Theory Tunnelvision: Once he's made aware of the threat that Helheim poses, Micchy becomes convinced that there's no way to stop it and save the planet. As he grows increasingly arrogant, Micchy refuses to ever reconsider this belief and instead remains adamant that his plans are the only thing that will save his friends. This is one of the reasons why Micchy becomes so enraged towards Kouta: Kouta's refusal to give up trying to save Earth and his inspiring others to not give up fly right in the face of Micchy's narcissistic conviction that he's right.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: After being left with nothing but his own self-inflicted Hell, Kouta gives Micchy some peace of mind by giving his brother back.
• Too Clever by Half: Micchy is genuinely intelligent, but he tends to seriously overestimate himself and his capabilities as he becomes more evil. He sees himself as a genius capable of controlling everything without realizing that there's a steep learning curve involved in manipulation, leading to more experienced manipulators like Sid, Redyue, and Ryoma corrupting him and using him for their own ends. Ryoma goes as far as to basically tell Micchy that he's a stupid kid who's too foolish to be the mastermind Micchy sees himself as in #43.
• Too Dumb to Live: He crosses this in #42 and #43, by entrusting to "save" Mai to a Mad Scientist who plays Back-Alley Doctor, and is given the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed to stop Kouta. The end result: Kouta does a Suicide by Cop to save his friend from said Lockseed and is dead, sort of. After he returns to Ryoma, it doesn't end well for him as Ryoma wanted the Golden Fruit all along, NOT saving the patient.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As time goes on and he becomes more corrupt, Micchy extends his prideful jerk persona to even the friends he want to protect, such as Kouta.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: He finally drops his Jerkassery once Takatora is back.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: Just like his brother, only with a noticeable lack of sanity. Inverted when it eventually becomes clear that Micchy only really cares about his own circle's happiness, or rather, his own happiness of being with them.
• Toxic Friend Influence: He's come to see Kouta as a bad influence on him and their friends, though Mai and Team Gaim are starting to catch on that Micchy's the toxic one.
• Tragic Villain: His line in #18, which also acts as Foreshadowing for just how far Micchy is willing to go:
  Micchy: If it's to protect this joy...I'll betray anything and anyone.
  • It really hits home in #43: after Kouta and Mai both apparently die, Micchy finally realizes that his actions have ultimately failed to accomplish anything and cost him his loved ones, and he has a complete emotional breakdown.
• Tritagonist: The third most important character after Kouta and Kaito. He even becomes The Hero after the former leaves Earth and the latter perishes.
• Turn Out Like His Father: In Gaiden episode of Zangetsu that Takatora finds out their father's dark secret. After Zangetsu's Gaiden episode, this is something Mitsuzane doesn't realize that he becomes influence by not only by of Ryoma and Sid's influence, but also his father's influence.
• Underestimating Badassery: The reason why all of his murder plots against Kouta fail is because Micchy refuses to believe that Kouta is anything more than a useless Idiot Hero when its clear to everyone else that he is an awe-inspiring Hope Bringer badass.
  • He also makes this mistake with the other villains. Micchy is convinced that he can manipulate the other antagonists in order to achieve his goals. However, his arrogance not only blinds him to how dangerously effective they are, it also makes it easier for them to manipulate Micchy for their own ends.
• Undying Loyalty: Micchy has a very unhealthy and somewhat sycophantic devotion to Kouta and Mai. His entire world revolves around them, and by the Yggdrasill saga, Micchy's only objective is to make them happy.
  • Becomes subverted for the former and deconstructed for the latter. Micchy gives up his loyalty towards Kouta due to his own frustration and jealousy, to the point that he's now secretly trying to murder his former friend. Micchy still wants to protect Mai, but tries to do so in ways that she would never approve of that ignore her thoughts and feelings.
• The Unfettered: Micchy's ultimate goal is to save his friends, or rather, keep his emotional satisfaction. He will cross any line to see it through, from protecting Kouta to joining Yggdrasill. He's even willing to ally himself with Redyue and sacrifice a majority of humanity in order to have his friends spared, and he'd even throw the friends who oppose him under the bus. Kaito even states that this is how he becomes so much more powerful in #38.
• Unknown Rival: In a way, he's this to Kouta. Micchy spends a good amount of time trying to manipulate Kouta into doing what he wants. Kouta doesn't catch on to this (assuming Micchy is just giving friendly advice) and instead does what he thinks is right, leading Micchy to become bitter and angry with him. It eventually peaks with Micchy becoming Zangetsu Shin II and trying to outright kill Kouta, with the latter completely unaware that his "best friend" has fallen so far (until #35, that is).
• Unwitting Pawn: To Ryoma in #43. Micchy believes Ryoma's Blatant Lies and uses the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed to fight Kouta, buying Ryoma time to remove the Forbidden Fruit from Mai. It doesn't matter if Micchy kills Kouta (thus eliminating the biggest obstacle to Ryoma's plans) or just stalls him long enough for Ryoma to get his hands on the Forbidden Fruit; either way, Ryoma comes out on top. Thankfully, Mai prevents hims from getting the fruit.
  • Micchy was always this to the other villains. Micchy always believed that he was successfully manipulating others into getting what he wanted, but it's pretty clear that Sid, Ryoma, and Redyue all kept him around largely out of amusement and used him for their own plans.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: With Takatora during his childhood days.
• Villainous Breakdown: Being hurt by Mai sets him off completely and leads him to see Kouta as a major threat.
  • Has a small one in #29 when Kouta fights back and overwhelms Micchy before their battle is interrupted by Demushu. He angrily laments how his plans are constantly being thwarted by forces outside of his control.
  • And another in #33 after Kouta foils his plans again by pulling Kiwami Arms out of nowhere. It's bad enough to leave Micchy Laughing Mad.
  • He has another small one in #35: after telling Mai about his deal with Redyue and his new Project Ark, he's left utterly baffled when Mai doesn't want to go along with his plans and instead chooses to stand with Kouta. As he stumbles away, he decides that he needs to eliminate Kouta once and for all in order to "save" Mai.
  • The entirety of #41 acts as one for him. The various lectures he gets from others increasingly wear him down; once he realizes that Rosyuo placed the Forbidden Fruit into Mai, he completely loses his composure before running off.
  • He suffered a huge one in #43. Kouta takes a near-fatal hit from Micchy so that he can remove and crush Micchy's Yomotsuheguri Lockseed, then forgives Micchy for all the terrible things that he's done. Feeling remorseful but still driven, Micchy goes back to Ryoma in order to make sure that at least Mai is alright, only to discover that Ryoma dissected her in order to obtain the Golden Fruit when he was fighting Kouta. Micchy attempts to fight, but gets his Genesis Driver disabled by Ryoma, and is beaten down afterward. When Kaito and Minato find him, he's a sobbing, miserable wreck.
• Villainous BSoD: Undergoes this after Mai's (human) death, effectively putting him out of the running for the Golden Fruit. Even after he knows there's a way to save Mai, he expresses no care.
• Walking Spoiler: A lot of Micchy's actions (especially those from the second half of the series) spoil much about his development and overall plot details.
• What the Hell, Hero?: In #26, Mai calls Micchy out on his behavior after he assaults Kouta. This jilts him into becoming a flat out villain.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Due to the events of The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle, he comes into possession of Bujin Gaim's Blood Orange lockseed, yet he's never shown using it afterwards.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: In #44, Micchy gets another Kick the Dog moment when he says that saving Mai is pointless because she isn't human anymore.
• What You Are in the Dark: In #26 he's given the chance to literally shoot Kouta in the back without anyone knowing (except Kaito, who Kouta won't believe). He does so.
  • His actions as Zangetsu Shin II can be seen as this. With his identity concealed, he makes several attempts to brutally beat or kill Kouta (taking obvious pleasure in doing so). Even worse, he does this all while tricking Kouta into thinking he's really Takatora (until Oren thwarts it by noticing the Fighting Fingerprint).
  • In #47, consideing how everything turned out for him the last time he went through with it, he decides not to shoot Kougane so he doesn't also kill the girl he's posessing. Even though he gets knocked down for it, Kouta's immediate arrival makes sure they finish him off.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Micchy starts to develop this sort of attitude towards Kouta. He becomes increasingly jealous of Kouta for the admiration and attention the latter gets from Mai, Team Gaim, and Takatora, and develops a grudge towards Kouta when he doesn't go along with Micchy's scheming (even though Kouta clearly doesn't realize that Micchy is trying to manipulate him). Micchy puts all of the blame for this on Kouta and sees himself as being justified in his hatred.
  • Gets taken to a terrifying degree in #35: Micchy blames Kouta for the beating Micchy gives him (along with his subsequent murder attempt), arguing that he wouldn't have had to do so if Kouta had just gone along with Micchy's schemes.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In #35, after trying to keep up a friendly image for his friends, only for all of his plans constantly ruined, with everyone taking Kouta's side, and Oren having already exposed him as an impostor pretending to be Takatora, he decides he's had enough and should just give Kouta the cold hard truth if it finally gets him out of his hair.
• Wicked Cultured: Micchy might be a crazy rat-bastard, but he has impeccable taste in teacups.
• Wild Card: Doesn't care who he has to betray, as long as his goals are met.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Subverted. He's presented as this at first, but his desires and eventually his methods are nothing but childish. Worse, he believes he's this, which gives him an inflated opinion of himself.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: This is essentially how Kouta views him after he learns the Awful Truth.
• With Us or Against Us: See Moral Myopia above. Micchy sees anyone or anything that stands in the way of what he wants as something that needs to be destroyed.
• Wrath: Micchy keeps his rage and frustration bottled up, so it's rather disturbing to watch him unleash it on people who displease him.
• Wrong Genre Savvy:
  • When he first joins Yggdrasil, it's fairly apparent that Micchy sees himself as The Hero since he's trying to "protect" his friends. As time goes on, he starts to see Kouta, the actual protagonist, as an Idiot Hero who's ruining Micchy's efforts. The aggression that he builds up in response is what largely fuels his further Face–Heel Turn.
  • In #29, Micchy's plan to kill Kouta hinges on Kouta being an All-Loving Hero who would be willing to die to keep a fragile alliance. This plan falls apart because he doesn't realize that Kouta has a sense of self-preservation unlike most All Loving Heroes and will use violence for self-defense.
  • In #35, Micchy gives Kouta a Breaking Speech that tries to paint Kouta's hope-inspiring actions as dangerously delusional, blames him for what happened to Takatora, and makes clear that Micchy thinks killing Kouta will "save" Mai. Micchy still sees himself as The Hero, either genuinely not realizing or not caring about how evil he's actually become.
  • In general, he believes he that he's the Only Sane Man trying to make the best out of a scenario against what he sees as impossible odds, and that Kouta is being an idiot for thinking they still have a chance and managing to convince the others such.
• Xanatos Speedchess: Rather impressively, he managed to use the remains of his failing plan to steal Kouta's Sengoku Driver in order to solidify his new position in Yggdrasill. Possibly subverted, though, since it's hinted that Ryoma knows that Micchy is lying to him and is letting him stay out of a sense of amusement.
• Yandere: Eventually revealed to be a major one towards Kouta and Mai. He's obsessed with "protecting" them, even if it means lying, manipulation, and working with the more villainous members of Yggdrasil.
  • By #26, he's completely turned on Kouta out of anger and frustration for Kouta not going along with his manipulations. He is now only "devoted" to Mai.
  • Micchy's Breaking Speech towards Kouta in #35 seems to indicate that he believes murdering Kouta will "save" Mai, since Micchy thinks that Kouta's attempts to inspire hope are delusional and dangerous. He also goes as far as to tell Kouta that he should be proud that he murdered Yuya, since he saved Mai by doing so.
  • He's perfectly fine with threatening Peko's life in front of Mai if it will get her to go along with his plan to "protect" her.
  • As he fights Kaito in #41, Micchy outright states that he's "the only one who can make Mai happy." Kaito immediately calls him on it.
• You Can't Fight Fate: It's implied early on that he became a Beat Rider to get away from becoming a stuck up business-type person like the rest of his family, but his attempts at hiding from his friends who he really is just kept piling up with even more secrets until he cracked under the pressure and use what he was originally ashamed of to become something more violent and dangerous.
• You Fool!: A heartwarming example. Kouta calls Micchy an "idiot" while giving him a warm hug in #43.
• You're Insane!: Even though Kouta and Mai still think that Micchy can be redeemed, they both admit that he is insane.

Tropes exclusive to him as Kamen Rider Ryugen

Hai! Budou Arms! Ryu, Hou, Ha-Ha-Ha! ^note Yes! Grape Arms! Dragon, Cannon, Bang-Bang-Bang!

• Back to Base Form: In the final episode Mitsuzane returns to using Ryugen, having abandoned the suit since mid show in favor of more powerful forms. However this is potrayed as nothing but a positive thing and shows Mitsuzane getting his head back on straight and and returning to being a hero since this was the form he started with as a good guy and his more powerful forms were gained due to his fall to darkness, having stolen Zangetsu Shin from his brother after betraying him and accepting Ryugen Yomi thanks to his alliance with Ryoma.
• Finishing Move:
  • Budou Arms:
    • Squash: Ryugen performs the Ryugen Kyaku ^note Fantasmal Dragon Kick by jumping into the air while empowering his foot with grape-shaped energy and strikes the target with a kick. Alternatively, he can execute the Dragon Shot by pulling the hammer on his Budou Ryuhou once, charging the gun with grape-shaped energy that forms into an ball and eventually into an Asian lung, before pulling the trigger to fire shots at his target that are shaped like Asian lungs.
    • Sparking: Ryugen performs a much stronger version of Dragon Shot.
  • Kiwi Arms: Au Lait: Spinning Hoop. Ryugen charges the Kiwi Gekirin with Kiwi-shaped energy before slashing his enemies.
  • Double Arms: Squash: Ryugen performs Kamen Rider Double's Maximum Drive, Joker Extreme by jumping high up before splitting down with his two sides delivering a kick to the enemy. Alternatively, he can perform a Rider Shooting with the Trigger Magnum.
• In the Back: To symbolize Mitsuzane's fall into a complete villain, he shoots Kouta in the back as an act of spite. This is later given a Meaningful Echo with his return as a hero, where he decides not to shoot the girl Kohgane is possessing.
• Long-Range Fighter: Budou Arms gives great potential at ranged combat. However, because that form doesn't come with a Musou Saber, he has to rely on keeping his distance from others.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: The novel gives him one with Jimber Dragon Arms.
• Took a Level in Badass: After his Sanity Slippage ends up affecting his combat performance, his recovery in the finale has him back to being competent enough to fight Jam. If Kohgane hadn't held the girl he was possessing hostage, he would have won.

Tropes exclusive to him as Kamen Rider Zangetsu Shin II

Soda! Melon Energy Arms! (Japanese techno music)

• Energy Bow: Sonic Arrow.
• Finishing Move:
  • Melon Energy Arms: Squash: Zangetsu Shin converts all the energy from the Melon Energy lockseed to his body and his Sonic Arrow before slashing his targets.
  • Sonic Arrow: Sonic Volley: Zangetsu Shin fires an series of energy arrows from his Sonic Arrow after locking the Melon Energy Lockseed in. Alternatively, he can slash the enemy with his Sonic Arrow with it.
• In-Series Nickname: To differenate him from Takatora, Oren calls him Zangetsu Nise ^note False Slaying-moon, noting his status as an imposter of Takatora.
• Silent Antagonist: He doesn't speak to keep up the façade that he's his brother.
• Took a Level in Badass: After he defeats Takatora, he stops holding back and is shown to be as powerful as Kouta and Kaito.
• Unskilled, but Strong: He has the sheer power of a New Generation Rider, but is nowhere near as good a fighter as his brother is. When Kouta decides not to hold back against him, Micchy is quickly overwhelmed.
  • This becomes a plot point in #33, where Bravo identifies him as an impostor because he's not as skilled a fighter as Takatora is.
  • This is shown again in #41, where Micchy can't even beat Oren and Jonouchi despite whooping their asses for most of the battle. The two are simply able to outmaneuver him despite their weaker Arms.

Tropes exclusive to him as Kamen Rider Ryugen Yomi

Hai! Yomotsuheguri Arms! Mei, Kai, Yomi, Yomi, Yomi!^note Yes! Underworld Arms! Realm of the Dead, Underworld, Underworld, Underworld!

• Awesome, but Impractical: Yomtsuheguri Arms serves as Ryugen's Super Mode with stats that is capable of rivaling Kiwami Arms. The problem is that it causes poor Micchy to undergo massive pain throughout his transformation, resulting in it being a upgrade whose downsides overshadow that of its upsides.
• Deadly Upgrade: Ryugen Yomi grants Micchy immense power at the cost of his life force (and causes him immense pain with use).
• Finishing Move: Squash: Ryugen Yomi performs the Ryugen Kyaku by jumping into the air while empowering his foot with dark-red energy and strikes the target with a kick. Alternatively, he can execute the Dragon Shot by pulling the hammer on his Budou Ryuhou once, charging the gun with violet energy, before pulling the trigger to fire several violet blasts at his target. He can also execute a Rider Thrust by charging the Dau with the Yomotsuheguri Lockseed and impaling the enemy with it.
• Flawed Prototype: Though Yomotsuheguri Arms is on par with Kiwami Arms, it drains the users life force with each use.
• The Grim Reaper: "Yomi" literally translates to "underworld."
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Yomotsuheguri Arms can use the Overlords' weapons, as well as the Budou Ryuhou and Kiwi Gekirin.
• Palette Swap: Yomotsuheguri Arms basically looks like a combination of Ryugen's Budou Arms and Kiwi Arms, but painted mostly blood red and black.
• Power Up Letdown: A rare non-videogame example. Yomotsuheguri Arms is sold as a Deadly Upgrade, but ultimately goes heavy on the deadly, light on the upgrade because of the constant spasming fits it induces. Kouta is able to nearly defeat Micchy without even transforming just by rolling out of the way. Kouta opts to let Micchy stab him to keep Micchy from killing himself.
• Super Prototype: Yomotsuheguri Arms was created before the Energy Lock Seeds and is on par with Kiwami Arms.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Ryugen Yomi is colored blood red and black, and it has a nasty tendency to cause pain to its user.

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