"Abandon your captured family. Give up on the friend who betrayed you. Feel no guilt for the murder of your friend. If you could find the will to be ruthless, then you'd be freed from all your stress in an instant."
—Ryoma Sengoku to Kouta Kazuraba, Kamen Rider Gaim, "The Do-or-Die Tower Break-In Strategy!"
For a franchise aimed at children and teenagers, Kamen Rider has had many examples, ranging from low-functioning brutes to high-functioning egotists. Here below are a list of examples.
- Kamen Rider:
- The Great Leader of Shocker, the franchise's most iconic villain, is a classic example. Suffering from an intense case of A God Am I, the Great Leader is responsible for founding terrorist organizations and trying to exterminate the population of Japan on numerous occasions and at times is a Bad Boss to several of his followers. His ego is so fragile that he even attempted to kill his own son for defying him.
- Colonel Zol, the first Shocker executive faced by the Kamen Riders, began his life of villainy as a former Nazi, unashamed of this status even after moving to Shocker. Zol is also frequently a Bad Boss to his subordinates like his leader, has no problem putting children in harm's way, and had an idea of celebrating Christmas by attempting to forcibly mutate everyone in Japan into werewolves.
- Kamen Rider V3: Marshall Armor, the fourth and final Destron general, out of his rivalry with his organization's Science Division, framed and sentenced Joji Yuki/Riderman to death because he saw the scientist as a threat to his position. Also noteworthy is that one of the ways he gets a scientist to work for him is by kidnapping his family and threatening their lives if he doesn't help build a nuclear bomb for Destron. All the Destron Commandants have done evil deeds but they did them for the glory of Destron; Marshall Armor did this for his own glory.
- Kamen Rider Amazon: Jyumenki Gorgos, leader of Geddon, often forced his minions to fight to the death. If they retreat or somehow survive the fight but failed him, Gorgos often has them executed through brutal ways.
- Kamen Rider Stronger:
- Titan is often a Bad Boss to any of the combatants, even destroying one for ruffling his clothes, and has conducted numerous schemes that endanger numerous innocents, even to children, which earns him the emnity of General Shadow.
- Marshall Machine, who ended up as Delza's second leader, not only had his schemes involve endangering numerous innocents, but also cares very little of others ranging from said innocents to forcing General Shadow to stage a final showdown against Stronger for foiling his scheme, not even caring that said general died, and when Jijaku and Knight asked for his helped, he dismissed them as cowards for doing so.
- Kamen Rider Kuuga: N·Daguva·Zeba absolutely despises the lowly and weak, doesn't care about any human (or Gurongi) lives, and is willing to use any means necessary to make humanity as violent and hateful as he. If anything, the first thing he does after waking up and resurrecting his brethren is kill 162 of them (out of 200). In general, Daguva is a heartless sadist who lives only for his next fight, even laughing his head off and having the time of his life as he gets beaten to death by Yusuke.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki:
- Masashi Sudo/Kamen Rider Scissors pretends to act like a calm, cordial detective yet once his true colors are revealed, reveals himself to have assaulted Reiko during her investiagtion, plastered his ex-partner to a wall because the latter demanded to him a share, and attempted to stage Shinji into a trap that would lead to his and Ren's deaths. After having two officers who tried to arrest him get eaten by Volcancer, Sudo made it clear to Shinji that he would feed everyone who knows about his crimes to his Mirror Monster.
- Jun Shibaura/Kamen Rider Gai treats the Rider War as one big game for him to win and Riders as mere players to be killed. It's because of that mentality that Shibaura has no repentance for the lives that were taken due to his game, once took over ORE Journal to unleash said game worldwide and blackmailed Shinji into serving him lest he burns his card, and kidnapped Yui to get two other Riders to fight him seriously.
- Takeshi Asakura/Kamen Rider Ouja is an easily vexed psychopath who broke out of jail and participated in the war due to enjoying the fact that he could takes lives of fellow Riders, wanting to use his wish to make the battle go on forever. For how crazy he is, Asakura is capable of intelligent manipulation and does not make stupid decisions, as shown in cases regarding his brother and a little girl who looked up to him. Notably, numerous individuals that know Asakura either fear or despise him as the only thing he cares about is hurting and killing more people for his own sick sadistic pleasure.
- Kamen Rider 555:
- Masato Kusaka/Kamen Rider Kaixa is an anti-Oprhnoch racist who suffers from a high-functioning mixed personality disorder with both antisocial and borderline traits. Kusaka is driven by two things, a desire to kill all Orphnochs and to have Mari all to himself. Despite this, Kusaka is also exceptionally charismatic and manages to keep his true nature hidden from nearly everyone (except Takumi) and is also a skilled manipulator who effortlessly sabotages Takumi and Kiba's friendship for his own goals.
- Kitazaki/Dragon Orphnoch is member of the Lucky Clover who is a remorseless assassin who massacres people for fun and is incredibly self-absorbed, believing himself to be the strongest Orphnoch to the point where he's willing to murder a child in order to keep it that way. Kitazaki does not hide his cruelty, showing that he's a heartless person even if he's not in battle.
- Masahiko Minami is a human scientist who worked with Smart Brain to study the Orphnochs, but desired to purge them all instead of helping them. His methods include inciting Electric Torture onto Yuka and later having units shoot at her, Takumi, and Kiba, eventually triggering the latter's Face–Heel Turn. Once Kiba attacked his facility, Minami left his staff to die while he escapes on his own.
- Kamen Rider Blade:
- Isaka/Peacock Undead, the first of the Royal Clubs, conducts experiments in grand attempt to make the Ultimate Rider (Leangle) and be his to control via an improperly sealed Spider Undead. Isaka also doesn't exhibit any genuine emotions, brainwashes and manipulates those he sees fit for his plans, like his own men and Tachibana, has no problem bombing whatever he discards, and disposes of those who stand in the way of his schemes.
- Miyuki Yoshinaga/Orchid Undead acts friendly and gentle in order to manipulate others into either doing her dirty work or letting their guard down. All Miyuki only cares about is herself and her chances of being the last standing Undead, even desiring power to help benefit herself, and ultimately has no conception of reciprocating kindness given to her.
- King/Caucasus Undead takes great pleasure and amusement to mess with others to incite more enjoyment onto himself. No matter what false claims he has such as "protecting" Nozomi or that he doesn't wish to fight the other Undeads, it gets made very clear that he treats these all as a game to him. There's also the fact that he has no consideration his victims' feelings and how he claimed his messes would have him damage the world.
- Hiroshi Tennoji served as BOARD's chairman who purposely unsealed the Undeads to restart the battle fight in order to rule the world. Tennoji has no problem with discarding in order to get what he desires and endurance through it, such as leaving his own scientists to get mauled by Kerberos or firing the two Riders that worked for him.
- Kamen Rider Kabuto: Masato Mishima served as Riku Kagami's Number Two in ZECT who is unempathetic for human life or consideration for others if it meant his goals were met and succeeded. If anything, Mishima also expresses shallow emotions, has no problem conducting unethical experimentation to an individual who was just a child at the time it started, and a very ruthless person in general.
- Kamen Rider Kiva:
- King/Bat Fangire served as the tyrannical leader of both the Fangires and Chekmate Four back in 1986. Apart from his cruel ruling of Fangire laws, King is definitely one regarding his "love" for Maya: he initially claims that he doesn't love her, but seeing her have feelings for Otoya made him very entitled to her being his, even trying to threaten her with Taiga's life, take her Fangire powers, claiming it to be worser than death, and attempting a Taking You with Me on them.
- Bishop/Swallowtail Fangire is King's right-hand man and planner of Checkmate Four. Severe loyalty to King aside, Bishop values the Fangire law without any empathy for those he ends up hurting because of it, especially with Mio while also having refused to admit any of his wrongdoings, wanting to take Life Energy from people and overthrow Taiga out of mostly pettiness.
- Rook/Lion Fangire is a sadistic, mentally-unstable, low-functioning sociopath who kills simply because he's good at it, having routinely made up "games" for himself, basically boiling down to "kill a set amount of people sharing a common trait within 12 hours", with absolutely no other concerns than said game. Rook's attempts at good deeds at one point are less out of altruism and more of his Insane Troll Logic of "entering Heaven" for doing so.
- Kamen Rider OOO:
- Kazari constantly manipulates and backstabs his fellow Greeed for his ambitions of being complete without any empathy or remorse whatsoever, all with a smile on his face. His selfishness extends to the fact that if something doesn't go in his favor or out of his control, he'd be quick to retaliate, such as when Ankh swayed the other Greeeds to his side over Kazari.
- Kiyoto Maki/Kyoryu Greeed started out as one of Kougami Foundation's finest scientists while being very open about his goal being to see the end of the world, even before fully siding with the Greeed. Maki is also very unempathetic towards others such as leaving other scientists to be maimed by several Same Yummies out of science to calling the other Greeed a pile of Medals and using them to further his agenda. He even burned his older sister in a housefire when he was a kid, falsely claiming it to be an accident.
- Kamen Rider Wizard: Sora Takigawa/Gremlin began his life of villainy by killing long-haired women after having done so to his ex for dumping him. Once his true colors are shown, he shows a grandiose sense of self worth about himself, has a superficial charm that makes certain people like and trust him instantly, has poor impulse control announcing his plans just to get a rise out of people even when it threatens his position, is easily bored and comes up with complicated scenarios to amuse himself or hurt people, is a natural manipulator, and has a complete Lack of Empathy outside of being a Manipulative Bastard or Jerkass.
- Kamen Rider Gaim:
- Lock Dealer Sid/Kamen Rider Sigurd is charismatic enough to have easily convinced the Beat Riders to take his wares, takes a sadistic pleasure in screwing with people's heads, and has zero empathy for anyone else. He also escalates the Inves Game seemingly on a whim without orders from his superiors more than once. He also shows a violent, homicidal streak when he's actually enraged, to the point of outright trying to kill Baron and Gaim in anger when they get the slip on him. He also seemed to enjoy killing Hase as opposed to his comrades, who either viewed it as being Necessarily Evil or were indifferent.
- Ryoma Sengoku/Kamen Rider Duke is a psychopathic Mad Scientist for Yggdrasill who designed the Sengoku Drivers and sees his research as the pinnacle of human creation. Despite supposedly working to save humanity, Ryoma cares nothing for others and works to hinder Yggdrasill's efforts to halt the Helheim Forest, desiring to claim its Forbidden Fruit to become a god. Ryoma hides his dark ambitions under a friendly personality, including from his close friend and boss Takatora Kureshima, whom Ryoma later coldly backstabs when their goals diverge. Ryoma never hesitates or regrets his crimes and his upbeat personality is because he has no connections or compassion for anyone.
- Demushu is a violent Overlord Inves who just wants people to hurt, subjugate, and kill each other until there's only one last man standing. For him, war and death are all he thinks about, agressively discards any pacifistic offerings aimed at him, and causes bad things to happen when he loses his cool. On top of his envy, Demushu freely admits to Kouta that he enjoys hurting people for the sake of hurting them.
- Redyue is another malevolent Overlord who enjoys manipulating and ruining peoples lives. Redyue lives for her own personal amusement, even if means manipulating other governments into firing at Zawame City. She is also yet another individual who desires the Forbidden Fruit, wanting to rule over others with its power and is even willing to backstab people close to her to obtain it like with Rosyuo.
- Kamen Rider Drive: Tenjuro Banno/Gold Drive is a self-absorbed Narcissist and the former research partner of Krim Steinbelt until Banno's sociopathic urges led to their friendship falling a part. Despite this, Banno refuses to accept any wrong-doing and instead blames Krim for their partnership ending, installing negative emotions in his Roidmude androids to trigger a robot uprising as a way to spite Krim. Caring nothing for anyone except himself, Banno is willing to throw his own son under the bus in order to get ahead and desires to enslave all of humanity to force them to bow down to him.
- Kamen Rider Amazons: Takaaki Tenjo is the chairman of Nozama Pharmacy who shows little to no concern for human life and sees everything as a testing facility for his projects. And by letting loose the Amazonz which kickstarted the conflicts of the series causing countless of deaths of innocent people and Amazonz alike. He shows little to no shame or remorse for his actions, as he views the Amazons eliminating one another or being killed off by humans a form of man-made ecology with whatever results being evolution or survival of the fittest.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
- Kuroto Dan/Kamen Rider Genm served as the egomaniacal CEO of Genm Corp., who views his talent at designing video games as being godly and displays a complete Lack of Empathy to both other humans and his Bugster allies, viewing them all as simply pawns for him to manipulate. He is prone to intense rages whenever someone has an idea as good as his, infecting Emu with the Bugster virus while he was still a child out of spite after seeing his game ideas and permanently deleting Burgermon for being from a game not designed by him. Despite his malignant impulses, Kuroto effortlessly keeps his insanity and narcissism hidden behind a Mask of Sanity, even managing to feign remorse for his actions at one point to infiltrate CR and get the last of the data he needed. Kuroto somewhat grew out of this once he came Back from the Dead as a Bugster. Psychotic and possibly even more insane than he was before, but it's also revealed Kuroto genuinely loved his mother at one point and he's even shown to care for Poppy. He's willing to assist CR in stopping the Bugsters too (though mostly to get back at them for betraying him).
- Masamune Dan/Kamen Rider Cronus, Kuroto's father, is a very charismatic businessman, able to put up the facade of being a Benevolent Boss all while being a remorseless manipulator. Valuing no one but himself, Masamune sees the Riders and Bugsters as nothing more than products of the Genm Corp and the rest of humanity as simply lives for him to manipulate and control. He kills Saki to punish Hiiro after he refuses to murder one of his friends and later attempts to instigate a global Bugster virus pandemic to digitize everyone so he can become the controller of all life. As his plans get derailed, Masamune becomes more unhinged, culminating in him committing suicide after he's defeated out of spite to prevent any victims of the Bugster virus from being saved.
- Kamen Rider Build:
- Evolto/Blood Stalk/Kamen Rider Evol is a member of the Blood Tribe who desires the power of the Pandora Box to destroy Earth and consume the universe. While he appears himself as a casual and friendly villain to the heroes, Evolto has no problem backstabbing heroes and villains alike to further his own goals. Everything he conducts, like helping the Riders increase their Hazard Levels, end up being part of his schemes, yet once the heroes start hindering his schemes in a way that doesn't benefit him, Evolto seethes in rage and desires to sadistically spite them in retaliation. Evolto also spends most of the series mimicking emotions, but once hit with Build Genius, he gains genuine emotions and process anger and sadism as his way to toy with the heroes.
- Juzaburo Namba is the president of Namba Heavy Industries who desires to open the Pandora Box and access the unlimited energy supposedly stored within to create weapon of mass destruction, therefore monopolizing weapon manufacture in the world. Namba manipulates and plays everyone for his own ends, including the Namba Children as his personal Tyke Bomb minions, is able to masquerade as a Villain with Good Publicity, and human life means absolutely nothing to him to the point of starting a war solely for his own gain.
- Kamen Rider Zi-O:
- Swartz, leader of the Time Jackers, sees everything or everyone around him as a means to an end, being calculating and manipulative, his fellow Time Jackers as beneath him, going as far as to use Heure as the host for Another Kikai, and is incapable of empathy, having the audacity to outright ignore the opinions of others (from his underlings, contract holders, and even the heroes). Even when he reveals that his goal is to destroy every other Rider world to save his, once Sougo brings up the fact that his sister Tsukuyomi were to grow stronger than him, Swartz goes berserk at the idea that Tsukuyomi would gain the throne instead of him, showing that all of his actions was just to benefit himself.
- Ora, the sole female of the Time Jackers, sees everything or everyone around her as a means to an end, treats the only person that cares about her like dirt and is only capable of feigning empathy or kindness to manipulate the people around her. Even when she appeared to have standards when put with other villains, Ora ultimately doesn't care about anything or anybody but herself, and readily stoops to far deeper lows than anything she seemed disturbed by previously.
- White Woz, a Woz from the Geiz Revive timeline, despite his surface-level intentions, manipulates Sougo and Geiz to do as he wishes, informing Geiz he has no choice about becoming the savior he wants him to be, and inflicts cruelty upon the Time Jackers, being smug and uncaring to everyone around him, all with a smile on his face. Eventually, it is revealed that White Woz lied from the start of his intentions, only wanting a future for himself, then attempting to spitefully trigger the end of the world once his future became impossible. However, once Sougo discussed with him to not give up, White Woz grows out of his villainy and decides to give him the Zi-O Trinity Watch to undo his damage.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One:
- Gai Amatsu/Kamen Rider Thouser, the first CEO of ZAIA Japan, is the type of person whose expression of genuine happiness mainly come from whenever he benefits from something, has little to zero consideration of others, even those that work closely with him, has no problem being underhanded and manipulative towards heroes and other villains alike, and was the instigator of the series' events that he never takes responsibility or shows remorse for, all while having a decent public image. After another Villainous Breakdown that ends with evidence being used against him, Gai reveals his intentions of wanting the President's chair while clinging onto it, eventually leading him to somewhat grow out of his rotten nature.
- As, the Ark's doppelganger of Is, despite her smiley, cheerful demeanor, masks an individual who revels in endless malice and chaos, corrupts those into performing such atrocities by offering them power, even seductively comforting one of her victims, has no real genuine care and concern for others, and has no emotional conception of the power of goodwill. Despite her loyalty to the Ark, As doesn't seem particularly attached to the Ark's identity as a computer, showing no sign of mourning its destruction, only worshiping and fawning over the hatred and destructive impulses it represents, and anyone who gives themselves over to those impulses is just as good an Ark as the first in her mind.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Isaac/Kamen Rider Solomon, the current Master Logos, manipulates both heroes and villains alike to further his goals, went against the creed of his predecessors by wanting to rebuild the two worlds under his rule, disposes of those that either grow beyond his expectations or try to hinder him in any way, and has a rather massive God complex. His upbeat personality serves to highlight his madness as he seems joyous over others' suffering and expresses zero remorse for his crimes. It is also worth noting that most sociopaths have a need for stimulation; in his case, the 'need for stimulation' part comes from his actual motive: by his own admission, his entire motivation is he was just bored.
- Kamen Rider Revice: Orteca is a charismatic and superficially charming individual that's skilled at playing on people's emotions to manipulate them. At the same time, he's also incredibly cold-blooded and while he refrains from needlessly sadistic acts, he also won't hesitate to do things like sacrifice his own followers or turn someone's friend into a Gifftarian if that's an easy way to get at them.
- Kamen Rider Geats: Beroba, the sponsor of the Jyamato, is a bratty, sadistic teenage girl who enjoys takes pleasure at the suffering of others and has little to no concern for the well-being of others and will betray anyone when she doesn't get her way.
- Kamen Rider Outsiders: Zein is a tyrannical artificial intelligence that viewed itself as morally superior to humans, and seeks to impose this mentality to bring upon its idea of absolute peace and order, concealing its true motives with a superficial narrative and manipulates all of the world's stalwart heroes into surrendering their powers to stoke fear and terror against the villains and the entire human race in the name of eternal benevolence, and has no qualms disposing its own allies the moment they dissent against its goals. At the end of the day, Zein comes off as a Holier Than Thou Hypocrite with a growing God complex rather than a Benevolent A.I. that it proclaims itself to be.
