Characters / Kamen Rider Geats Keiwa Sakura

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Protagonists (Ace Ukiyo | Keiwa Sakurai | Michinaga Azuma) | Desire Grand Prix (Sponsors and Supporters | Participants)
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This is a partial character sheet for Kamen Rider Geats. Subjective trope and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.

This page details tropes for Keiwa from Kamen Rider Geats.

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

Keiwa Sakurai/Kamen Rider Tycoon

Portrayed by: Ryuga Sato (live), Eitoku (suit)

The Job-Hunting University Graduate

A university graduate currently job hunting, who transforms into the raccoon dog-themed Kamen Rider Tycoon. His hobby is volunteering, and he is a good-natured person who seriously wishes for world peace.

Tropes that apply to him in general

• Animal Motifs: Tanuki, which serves as a foil to Geats' kitsune motif. He is generally friendly and trusting — almost to a fault, as shown in the early episodes — though he can be just as crafty as Ace when the situation calls for it.
• Anti-Hero: Sara's loss sends him over the edge into being one. He's still trying to get his ideal world, but he's a lot more ruthless about it than before.
• Arch-Enemy: Daichi and Keiwa slowly develop a deep mutual grudge against each other, starting when Daichi manipulates Keiwa during the early part of the Divergence DGP and Keiwa gets Daichi voted off in turn. This leads to Daichi eventually getting revenge by targeting Sara in the Yearning arc, resulting in Keiwa's existing dislike of him escalating into outright hatred.
• Audience Surrogate: According to the production team, Keiwa was explicitly designed to have reactions that would match the audience's concerning the DGP, directly contrasting the very aloof, mysterious Ace.
• Badass Fingersnap: He gets his own with his revised henshin pose upon acquiring the Bujin Sword Buckle. Where Ace's fingersnap represents his superb confidence, and Ziin's his Ascended Fanboy status, Keiwa's represents his experiences having made him more like Ace in the worst way possible, as he now shares Ace's trauma stemming from the DGP ripping away his loved ones, but is unable to balance out that trauma with compassion for others as Ace can.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: A tragic example. Keiwa's second wish was to resurrect everyone killed by the DGP, and he was initially opposed to the Goddess of Creation due to believing that she is willing to take the lives of others to grant other people their happiness. After Michinaga accidentally murders Sara, his feelings of worthlessness and despair over being unable to save her or even live up to the standards he's set for himself contribute to his Start of Darkness, and he's all too willing to use Tsumuri's power — the same as the Goddess's own, save that it isn't using others' lives or hopes as fuel for the wishes she makes — for his own ends.
• Big Brother Instinct: Inverted; he's the younger sibling, but he tends to protect Sara more often than not. While he's willing to save anyone in danger, he tends to get more riled up when Sara is the one that's targeted. This continues after Sara enters the Desire Royale as Kamen Rider Hakubi. At times, his protectiveness can bring a much more selfish side out of him, like forcing the Riders to act as bait for the Final Boss so that he can save her himself. After her death at the hands of Michinaga (and Daichi by proxy), he feels so badly about failing to protect her that he completely SNAPS.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Keiwa is by far one of the most selfless and kind-hearted DGP Riders, but as Daichi and Michinaga found out, messing with his sister will have him out for your BLOOD.
• Break the Cutie: Keiwa begins to break from the stress during the climax of the "Lamentation" arc, where he becomes less rational thanks to Daichi's half-truth about Ace's mother and her complicity in becoming the Goddess of Creation. He finally falls apart when Michinaga unknowingly kills his sister during the "Genesis" arc after she was turned into a Jyamato by Daichi; he begs Tsumuri for the power to do something, which grants him the vengeance-fueled Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • In the very first episode, he bombs a job interview and has hot soba land on his face. Then, he has to run from monsters with noodles stuck to his face, only to get thrown back into the chaos after Ace resets the world; this gets taken up a notch after his elimination from the DGP (until he rejoins during the Scheme DGP), where he's outright Born Unlucky and can't even win simple lottery pulls.
  • He either falls over trying to dodge things flying at him or gets knocked over when those things hit him, like the Water Buckle's exhaust or a discharged Boost Buckle flying away from its user. This even continues when he's no longer a DGP participant (as seen in #11), though he notes a feeling of Déjà Vu when he dodges the Boost Buckle nearly hitting him then.
  • The Divergence DGP being based on Popularity Power means he's inevitably this as the only normal contestant among famous people, as shown throughout #17; he gets left out of the introductions of the new DGP competitors, Sae hurls him across the room and he gets a scolding from Neon when he accidentally crosses over to the "girls' side" of the DGP waiting rooms, Daichi calls him (and Neon) easy to read, and he's literally the least popular Rider in the first popularity poll of the Divergence DGP.
  • The Genesis arc ramps this up to tragic levels. Keiwa has been struggling with feelings of powerlessness alongside the Trauma Conga Line the DGP has been putting him through. The fact that he's been unable to fulfill his wish of saving the previous victims of the DGP compounds Keiwa's growing feeling of worthlessness after continually being beaten in the DGP, the JGP, and the DR. Finally, Keiwa loses Sara, the rock that's kept him from falling fully into despair. On top of that, he watches her die at the hand of Michinaga, the last person to beat him after sacrificing him for the Jyamato Grand Prix and beating him handily at the Desire Royale. Keiwa snaps, driving him to adopt the philosophy that Might Makes Right.
• Cannot Spit It Out: #3 touches upon this, as the DGP's rules dictate that players are unable to share information about the game to outsiders, leaving Keiwa unable to confide in anyone about what he's going through. He's visibly gutted when one of Taira's subordinates talks about their boss mysteriously vanishing, unable to say anything about his death despite Taira having literally died in his arms.
• Character Development:
  • In the Scheme DGP, while he still retains his gentle, kind-hearted nature, he's far more firm in his goal for the DGP this time, making a wish that's still selfless and grand but far more specific: the resurrection of all eliminated DGP Riders. His new confidence in himself and firmness in his goals is reflected by his ultimate choice of occupation: the first episode shows him failing to get an entry-level position as a salaryman because he can't elaborate on his goals in a meaningful way, but in #12 he takes on a humbler job working at the soba shop he and his sister frequent after getting his memory restored, and is clearly more at ease there than anywhere else.
  • He's also less naive upon his return in the Scheme DGP. Before, he questioned why people would risk their lives for their wishes, to the point of attempting to force the Riders to work for his cause in #8. Once he's back, though, Keiwa understands that the other Riders are ready to risk their lives for their wishes, no matter how frivolous or shallow they might appear to be, because those wishes are as important to them as his is to him. Aside from not wanting to hurt Ace, the reason that he strings Girori along with Neon's plan is because Girori shows him Ace's wish and explicitly trivializes it, calling it it shallow and worthless compared to Keiwa's wish to revive the Riders that have died in the DGP.
  • It's subtle, but after the events of the Divergence DGP, Keiwa's more willing to do what he feels is necessary if he thinks that it's right. After learning part of the truth behind the DGP's wish-granting power during the Lamentation arc, he fights even more ferociously in order to restore all the victims he feels that the Goddess of Creation is responsible for — his parents included — and to bring her to justice, which carries into the next arcs. Unfortunately, that rising conviction also means that his sense of justice is even more tightly wound, as he firmly believes that Mitsume willingly harmed all those people to grant wishes for the Desashins of the past and (understandably) still resents her a little even once he learns the full truth; when Michinaga kills Sara, he breaks from the trauma, believing that he lacks the strength or will to actually back up his convictions, and becomes much more vengeful and aggressive as a result.
• Character Narrator: He provides the recap of the previous episode's events during the Encounter DGP (in the form of telling Sara in #2 and a video diary from #3-#8).
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Keiwa's desire to help people is sincere, but it means he often jumps to be the hero at the earliest possible opportunity, and the series examines the downsides to this more than once; he gets called out for putting his desires over the other Riders' during the last game of the Encounter DGP, and while his good nature means that Ace and Neon trust his compassion, he also puts a lot of pressure on himself, to the degree that losing his sister after previously being faced with his own "powerlessness" during the Jyamato Grand Prix and Desire Royale causes him to break down into a grieving, vengeful wreck.
• Condescending Compassion: His naive view of the world means that he fails to understand why any of the other Riders would be willing to risk their lives for their wishes in the Encounter DGP, meaning that he tends to prioritize his over theirs because he thinks they're more selfish than his desire for world peace. When Neon has a tearful breakdown over her infection in #4, all he can offer her are weak platitudes about never giving up and not knowing that she's doomed until she flat out tells him that only uttering nice words isn't always helpful. Ace calls Keiwa out on this when he tries to get the other Riders to give up on their wishes to support him in #8 by reminding him that the other Riders have reasons to fight that are just as valid as his own; this lesson finally sinks in during the Scheme DGP, leading him to grow out of this habit somewhat.
• Contrasting Sequel Protagonist:
  • Fuwa, Rintaro, and Daiji were all established members of military organizations when their respective series began, and each were characterized as being far more serious in personality than their corresponding protagonists. Keiwa flips this script by being a civilian Naïve Newcomer in the DGP who has to grow and learn to become more capable, and is tricked several times in the process. Keiwa is additionally distinguished from Fuwa (who comes from a series also written by Yuya Takahashi) by being a good-natured young man trying to support his family (like many other lead Riders have tended to be), contrasting the elusive and arrogant Ace.
  • Arata Kagami and Keiwa are the naive Audience Surrogate secondary Riders of their series, but Kagami was a member of ZECT, unlike the civilian Keiwa. While Kagami was so eager to be a hero that he gets surprised at the Kabuto Zecter bypassing him in favor of Tendou, and doesn't transform until a few episodes into the series, Keiwa spends the first episode getting thrown into the Desire Grand Prix and gets his Desire Driver at the end of the episode, allowing him to transform by the second episode.
  • Being a secondary Rider notwithstanding, Keiwa has quite a bit in common with Shinji Kido; both are Naive Newcomers to their respective Battle Royales whose idealism causes them to be tricked on more than one occasion, disagrees with the idea of risking lives to get a wish to the point of going overboard at one point and getting scolded for their self-righteousness, and are confronted with the dilemma of whether they have the right to deprive the other Riders of their wishes. They're also surprisingly Supreme Chefs. However, Shinji stumbled into the Rider War by pure accident, in contrast to Keiwa who was chosen to participate in the DGP. Shinji was also Hot-Blooded and passionate, compared to Keiwa's meeker, more timid personality.
• Decoy Protagonist: Subverted. During the endgame of his first Desire Grand Prix, he gets so injured in his fight against the Saboten Knight Jyamato that Tsumuri personally steps in and declares him no longer qualified to be a Kamen Rider. He isn't selected for the following Desire Grand Prix, either, but eventually rejoins in its second round after trading places with the injured Ittetsu.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Zigzagged. He has a general idea of what he wants to do (be helpful to people), but he has only a vague idea of how to get there or more precisely what job to look for that fits this desire. This even extends to his wish in the Encounter DGP, where his wish is a vague, if benevolent desire for "world peace". Once he returns as a rider for the Scheme DGP, he's no longer quite as unsure of what he wants to do, and has settled on the equally ambitious but more specific wish to restore all Riders killed in the DGP back to life. This is ultimately deconstructed, as it's shown that Keiwa puts so much stock into the purpose he was looking for that when he feels that he can't live up to the purpose he's chosen for himself — especially in the wake of Sara's death — he's unable to move forward, and makes a hard turn toward vengeance and dangerous self-delusion.
• Despair Event Horizon: Sara's loss in #40 pushes him past his breaking point, and he snaps, deciding to take vengeance on Michinaga for being the one that killed her even though it was accidental on Michinaga's part.
• Determinator: In the Encounter DGP, he keeps going even after getting stuck with PunkJack during the Concentration round and losing the Boost Buckle, insisting that it's over for him only when he decides it is. He loses this trait after being restored to normal life in the Scheme DGP, and tends to give up easily due to being Born Unlucky; both Ace and Neon, when they see this, note that he's Not Himself anymore. This is due to losing the desire for world peace that he wrote on his Desire Card for the Encounter DGP, as a result of his elimination from that game; however, touching Ace's Core ID in #12 restores his memories, and with it, his original character traits.
• Deuteragonist: He's the Secondary Rider and Audience Surrogate, his arc runs concurrently with Ace's and he receives almost the same amount of focus that Ace does. As the show goes on this becomes less so, with Michinaga taking focus away from him for most of the middle third of the show.
• The Ditherer: While Keiwa has a tendency to rush headfirst into things most of the time, he occasionally has the opposite problem, and will waffle between priorities whenever he has a reason to doubt what he's doing. This is a large part of his conflict with other Riders most of the time, as it makes him appear unreliable in dire situations when he's really just trying to figure out what to do.
• Don't Tell Mama: After learning why Sara joined the Desire Royale, Keiwa becomes desperate to hide his identity from her while trying to protect her, only communicating through a tanuki statue and ventriloquism in the Desire Lounge and staying out of sight in the battlefield.
• Establishing Character Moment: His very first scene is him badly flunking a job interview when he gives an incredibly vague answer to his personal goals, establishing him as a Ridiculously Average Guy lacking any real passions in life.
• Expy:
  • He is very similar to Emu Hojo, a character from another series written by Yuya Takahashi. They are both Nice Guys and idealists who want to make others happy; Emu wishes to bring smiles to his patients' faces while Keiwa says that he's happy as well if others are. They are also the most noticeably and unambiguously good Riders in their clique who hope that everyone else will get along. And they are both rather naive and gullible; Emu gets tricked by Taiga and Kiriya multiple times while Keiwa is also tricked by Ace in episodes 2 and 7, yet they both get a What the Hell, Hero? moment from said tricksters shortly after. They also got a scene where they urge the other Riders to work together, only to get rejected. However, one fundamental difference separates them: Emu is the main Rider of his series while Keiwa is the secondary Rider.
  • Keiwa also shares a similarity with Aruto, both being orphaned young men who are generally the most morally upright characters of their respective shows and get subjected to numerous traumas. It gets to the point where after a loved one of theirs dies due to being caught up in the conflict, they both fall into the deep end and become dark shadows of who they were before.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His kindness and trusting nature can be a double-edged sword for him. He's willing to throw himself into things without thinking, which often leads to him being an Unwitting Pawn for Ace's schemes and gets him severely injured, then eliminated, in the Encounter DGP. The Divergence DGP shows that his kindness makes him a prime suspect for the Desastar due to the mistrust between the Riders making his kindness appear suspicious. That same kindness causes him to hesitate and act erratically when he believes that the Jyamato are actually dead Riders. As a result, he ends up being dead weight for a large chunk of the Jyamar Ball game, and gets over-aggressive in warding Daichi off from attacking one of the Jyamato that looks like Takeshi/Shirowe, making him seem even more suspicious to the other Riders by seemingly sabotaging the round.
  • A more subtle one is his low self-esteem and how much of his own self-worth he pins on his ability to be a hero. Early on in the show, he briefly alludes to his frustration at the idea of dying without having accomplished anything meaningful, and while his desire for world peace is sincere — stemming from the desire to protect his sister Sara and make her happy after seeing her sorrow over their parents' death — the climax of the Encounter arc demonstrates that he's enough of a Determinator that he is willing to nearly die for that ideal, especially if it means protecting Sara. This, along with the traumas he's had to endure as part of the DGP, JGP, and Desire Royale, is why he breaks so badly when Michinaga kills Sara; her death is, to him, the final proof that he's too weak and worthless to do anything meaningful, leading him to pursue power even at the cost of his friendships or Tsumuri's life.
• Foil:
  • Ace and Keiwa's Rider forms follow the classic Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast common in Japanese culture; Geats is the sly kitsune, and Tycoon is the simple-minded tanuki with occasional bouts of craftiness.
  • Geats is The Ace, incredibly self-confident and reassured, and able to perform incredibly well in the DGP thanks to his clear tactical knowledge and ability to keep a clear head. Tycoon is riddled with self-doubt, and is barely able to fight at the start of the series, choosing to instead focus on rescuing civilians.
  • Ace's wish at the start of the series makes him a worldwide celebrity, while Keiwa is an everyday young man and Loser Protagonist whose Establishing Character Moment is his failing a job interview.
  • Ace is always chosen and willing to take part in the DGP, while Keiwa is thrown into it against his will in the Encounter DGP and is The Unchosen One in the Scheme DGP.
  • The two have different wishes that are used as smaller steps for their actual wish. Ace is using his wishes to stress test the system's limits and ultimately game the DGP to reunite with his mother, while Keiwa realizes that his first wish for world peace is too vague and ultimately decides on a more specific but equally altruistic one.
  • Finally, the most obvious: Ace is the main Rider but is an Anti-Hero who's very willing to trick and use others for his goal, while Keiwa is the secondary Rider but is traditionally heroic and finds more happiness in supporting others. The Genesis arc, however, flips this dynamic around: Ace is the main heroic Rider wanting to make everyone in the world happy, and Keiwa begins walking a darker path, consumed by vengeance due to Sara's death. Additionally, Keiwa begins mirroring Ace's Badass Fingersnap in the form of an extremely painful finger crack; while Ace has always been undoubtedly heroic even at his most unscrupulous, self-harm is typically associated with severe mental and/or emotional trauma, and indicates that Keiwa is not in the state of mind to practice what he preaches.
  • While Geats IX is a benevolent Deus est Machina formed from Ace's desire to correct a genuine injustice, Tycoon Bujin Sword is a purely-supernatural Mask of Sanity generated from The Power of Hate.
• Foreshadowing:
  • He's the only player aside from Ace to figure out the Concentration game in #5, showing that he can have quite keen instincts when he puts his mind to it. This pays off more clearly in #16, where his plan to bait Girori into exposing his corruption in front of Niramu goes off without a hitch and proves that he can be The Trickster himself if he wants, just like Ace. Keiwa even points out that his Tanuki Animal Motif also means that he shares their knack for trickery.
  • #7 reveals that Keiwa used to make paper katana and shuriken when he was a child, with Sara joking that his goal was to become a ninja. Come the following episode, Tycoon's preferred Raise Buckle turns out to be Ninja. Much later, the paper katana turns out to be the basis for Tycoon's Final Form, Bujin Sword... albeit Keiwa has gone past the deep end by that point, only seeking vengeance against Michinaga.
• Good Is Not Soft: In #20, when he's running out of time to save Sara and cannot break through a door to chase after the Jyamato carrying a pineapple bomb, he forcibly borrows Sae's Zombie Buckle, slashes the door open, and brutally beats up said Jyamato. Later, the instant he sees Daichi absolutely maul Sara without any mercy, he rejoins the battle without any hint of hesitation and proceeds to go absolutely apeshit on him. After Michinaga kills his sister outright (even if the act was unintentional), Keiwa's response after a period of grieving is to immediately go after the buffalo Rider's hide.
• Graceful Loser: In contrast to Kanato and Morio, Keiwa takes his elimination from the DGP in stride near the end of the Encounter arc, satisfied with successfully fulfilling his genuine desire by saving Sara, and hands over his Ninja Raise Buckle to Ace before disappearing.
• Grew a Spine: He's notably more defiant in #7, refusing to give his Boost Buckle to Michinaga and insisting on taking on the Boss Jyamato himself. Though he ended up being used by Ace again, he now realizes what a Manipulative Bastard Ace can be. In #20, Kekera gives him a harsh pep-talk about being too trusting, and he seemingly follows through by voting Daichi out of the game as well as borrowing Sae's Buckle to accomplish his goals of saving Sara in the next episode.
• Guile Hero:
  • Grows into this by the time of #16. After learning Girori's true identity as a Game Master and realizing that Girori's stacking the deck against Ace, he sets up a Batman Gambit by fighting Ace and deliberately letting himself get into trouble due to their skill gap. He's confident that Girori will show up to the fight to personally ensure Ace's death if it looks like he can't win, letting him expose Girori's corruption in front of Niramu, and sure enough, Girori plays right into the trap.
  • He makes a spectacular deduction in #22 when he unmasks the actual Desastar. He notices that Neon didn't hesitate to accuse Ace, but never accused Keiwa, and with only three Riders left in the game that clearly means that she already knows who the actual Desastar is. He also doesn't fall for Neon's attempt to frame Ace for shooting her during Tag; he knows that Ace isn't careless enough to give away that he's the Desastar with such a careless stunt, and says something to that effect.
• The Heart: His selflessness and kind demeanor are such that even a massive Jerkass like Azuma will help him to some extent (despite verbally denying it), and Ace gives him the Boost Buckle back without any strings attached when he's paired with PunkJack. His departure in #8 even brings a more somber mood to the rest of the Encounter DGP. This also helps him out in #19; his reputation with Ace and Neon, who already know he's a genuinely good guy because of his kind and selfless nature, leads Neon to vouch for him with Sae, tentatively gaining her trust as well.
• Holier Than Thou: Has shades of this early on pre-Character Development, culminating with him dismissing other Rider's wishes compared to his desire to save the world from the Jyamato by making everyone support him by acting as the bait for the Final Boss to let him kick the can and subsequently win. He gets called out by Ace for trying to make the other Riders give up on their wishes to fulfill his.
• Honor Before Reason: While his hesitation to attack the Jyamato that looks like Takeshi Goutokuji in #18 is completely understandable, he fights against Daichi to do so, to the point of knocking him out of his transformation thanks to the power of Keiwa's Command Twin Buckle overwhelming Daichi's Raise Buckle. This further cements everyone's suspicions that he might be the Desastar.

• Idiot Ball:
  • In #31, he chooses to believe everything he learns about the Goddess of Creation from Daichi after Kekera "verifies" that Daichi is telling the truth, which causes him and Ace to be at odds with each other, which is jarring as Keiwa explicitly warns Neon and Sara to not trust Daichi based on his own experiences with Daichi previously. He also becomes far too fixated on carrying through with his wish, despite the cost it'll incur to other innocent people.
  • A pretty glaring one in #41. When he's given a moment alone with Tsumuri, he doesn't try to get her to use her Goddess powers to revive Sara or any of Daichi's other victims, even though the first time she awakened them, it was to revive Ace.
• Implausible Deniability: He tells Michinaga that he hasn't really changed at all in #41 — after he's literally beaten Michinaga to the ground and right before he goes for a finishing strike straight to the chest. Not even Tycoon Bujin Sword itself sugarcoats this fact — his cape is a literal mark of his erratic, irrational behavior, called the Delude Mantle.
• Insane Troll Logic: A combination of his desire to revive everyone who has been killed and his drive to hold Mitsume responsible for all the suffering that has been inflicted upon the world leads him to somehow believe that even though the wishes she grants are powered by the lives and dreams of innocent people, using her to make another wish to save the same people who were sacrificed will allow her to make up for the lives lost in the first place. This is largely because he is unaware of the true story behind how she became the Goddess for a notable period of time.
• Inspector Javert: After The Reveal that Mitsume is both Ace's mother and the Goddess of Creation in #31, he begins harboring a grudge against her, blaming her for everything wrong with the world and being hellbent on making her pay for her sins, despite the fact that she was abducted and forced to act as the Goddess of Creation against her will.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Keiwa uses The Power of Hate to wish for what becomes the Bujin Sword buckle and later scabs for Jitto's machinations so that he can fight for what he thinks is right. The result is a form that, as powerful as it is, puts the sheer hypocrisy of that sentence up for everyone to see.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Due to Michinaga eliminating him in #31, he initially doesn't know the truth about Mitsume being forcibly turned into the Goddess of Desire, and therefore seeks to bring her to justice for all the needless death and suffering the DGP has caused. This serves as a source of his Irrational Hatred towards Mitsume, leading to some friction between him and Ace.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • A variation of this comes up for him in the Encounter DGP; since Riders cannot share details of the DGP to non-participants or staff, Keiwa chooses to maintain a video diary instead, which he intends to be passed on to his sister in case he's killed during the game.
  • Another variation in #8: despite transforming right in front of his sister Sara to save her, Keiwa wasn't disqualified from the DGP. This is because the rules says that players can't talk about the DGP to people outside, and Keiwa didn't talk about it to his sister, he just transformed to save her with little explanation. The only reason he was disqualified later was because he'd become too injured to continue.
• Loser Protagonist: Keiwa neatly represents the demographic of Japanese youth entering the work force while lacking any real life goals or aspirations, being by his own admission completely directionless in life. Not only is his Establishing Character Moment him failing a job interview after giving incredibly vague answers on his aspirations, but after being made a participant in the DGP itself he's shown to be both an initially poor fighter and easily misled by those trying to take advantage of his naivete. His own awareness of his status as a "loser" is played far more seriously in the Genesis arc, as he perceives his complete powerlessness in the wake of Sara's death as proof of his own worthlessness, which drives him to beg Tsumuri for a wish that leads to the creation of the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Manipulative Bastard: In #41, he uses Tsumuri's sympathy for him to get her to use his power for him, which creates the Bujin Sword Buckle for his own vengeful use.
• Moral Myopia: He begins to have shades of this after the events of the Lamentation arc, as he becomes even more intent on achieving his ideal world in order to revive those lost during the DGP and JGP, as well as make the Goddess of Creation pay for her crimes. The main problem is that he wants to do this by using exactly the same power responsible for the thing he wants to undo, a power that will, if used the way he plans on using it, just inflict the same suffering he wants to undo in the first place. This only becomes more pronounced after he crosses the Despair Event Horizon and asks Tsumuri to give him the power to fight, as her power is the same as the Goddess of Creation's, just not drawn from the ideals of other people.
• Naïve Newcomer: As an Audience Surrogate, his only experience with the Desire Grand Prix before becoming a participant is as a near casualty in the Dawn DGP that ends in #1. This naivete, combined with his gullible nature, often leaves him open to tricksters, cheaters and liars; Ace has no problem getting the Boost Buckle out of him in #2 since he has no idea how strong it is nor that the Boost Buckle can only be used once per round.
• Nice Guy: He's consistently kind and considerate to pretty much everyone he meets, including the other Riders in the DGP who are supposed to be his rivals. He acts as the peacemaker among the players and is concerned about their well-being to the point that he'd gladly give away such prized items as the Boost Buckle if it'd be able to help someone. Though his change in personality after his elimination in the Encounter DGP makes him significantly more passive until he gets his memory back, he still displays concern toward people who help him, like Ittetsu. After Michinaga kills Sara, this trait makes way for pure hatred toward Michinaga and a desperate need to "save the world" with the power of the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Non-Action Guy: Downplayed; as a Rider, Keiwa can fight, but his clear nervousness makes him less than adequate for the role. He instead chooses to focus on helping civilians caught in the crossfire, which fortunately earns three times the points in certain DGP rounds than fighting Jyamato or ensures that he clears secret missions that other Riders wouldn't. However, late in the Encounter DGP, then during every DGP onwards, it's shown that he's grown enough to hold his own against the Jyamato even when untransformed, and spends equal time actively fighting against them and making sure to prioritize civilians.
• Only Sane Man: He seems to be the only one who has a problem with a game where the contestants' lives are at risk, no matter what the prize is (though his Character Development is about learning how important someone's wish is to them if they're going to risk their lives for it). This causes the other contestants to see him as an easily duped ditherer. His disagreement with the DGP risking lives also leads for him to recognize how threatening a Final Boss can be—suggesting the other Riders put their differences aside and work together to defeat it and save the world—and gets brushed off for putting his own desires ahead of everyone else's.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • After the "Encounter" DGP concludes and Keiwa returns to a life of normalcy, his personality has undergone a bizarre change; he's now obsessed with gambling, has terrible luck, and is far more unambitious than before. Oh, and he likes sushi over tanuki soba now. #11 reveals his change in personality is because his elimination from the Encounter DGP removed his desire for world peace that he wrote on his Desire Card; to ensure his desire was completely gone, his Determinator nature and remaining idealism went with it.
  • At the end of #40 and for most of #41, Keiwa is either in a towering rage, desperate sorrow, or eerie calm. With Sara dead, he's completely adrift and purposeless until he gets the idea to beg Tsumuri to grant him the power to protect everyone; when she does so, it creates the Bujin Sword Buckle, which he then uses to viciously attack Michinaga for killing Sara.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Keiwa gets subjected to a non-stop series of trauma and dramatic reveals from the end of the Lamentation arc onwards. First, he's led to believe that the Goddess of Desire is to blame for the cruelty of the DGP, putting him at odds with Ace. Then, Sara becomes a participant in the Desire Royale due to Kekera's machinations, as well as a Revenge by Proxy target by Daichi. It all culminates in Sara's death, which pushes Keiwa over the edge into becoming an avatar of hate and destruction via the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Punny Name: In Eastern name order, "Sakurai Keiwa" sounds an awful lot like "sekai heiwa", Japanese for "world peace".
• Red Herring: There are clues that lead up to him being the Desastar, such as #17 highlighting the Joker card he got, indicating that he may be a Wild Card. As #21 later reveals, he's not the Desastar.
• Ridiculously Average Guy: By his own admission, Keiwa lacks any kind of real life aspirations or goals, making him an outlier among the far stronger convictions of the other DGP contestants. During the Divergence DGP, he gains little publicity and fanfare compared to the other Famed In-Story contestants, serves as a Butt-Monkey for the Immoral Reality Show, and gains very little popularity in the in-universe fan polls.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: While the Core ID does confer the erased memories of their respective Riders, he's the only other Rider aside from Ace able to remember what happened in the previous Desire Grand Prix without one, although he does pass it off as a dream.
• Rule of Symbolism: While he adopts a Badass Fingersnap to match protagonist Ace in #41, he does it by cracking his index finger with his thumb. Compared to a normal fingersnap, this is extremely painful — seriously, Don't Try This at Home. One can even hear his bones crack as he does so in the scene he first does it in. The fact that he doesn't care about hurting himself for no good reason shows that unlike Ace, his heroics are all in his head now. Alternatively, because the finger crack isn't worth emulating, it can be taken to represent the fact that this is also no longer the case for Keiwa as a whole.
• Running Gag: Despite Keiwa having incredible luck in getting the Boost Buckle in multiple rounds of the Encounter season (due to Kekera's machinations), he constantly loses a chance to use it himself, then gets hit by it or has to dodge it when it ejects from the user.
• Seeks Another's Resurrection: This becomes his second wish in the "Scheme" DGP after replacing Ittetsu. Rather than aim for the rather vague wish of world peace, Keiwa wants to revive all Riders who died in the Desire Grand Prix.
• Self-Harm: A minor case, but don't try acting out his transformation pose for Tycoon Bujin Sword unless you want to painfully blow out the tendons connecting your index finger to your palm. Considering what Bujin Sword represents, this is to be expected.
• Skilled, but Naive: Though he has become a more competent and skilled player, he still lacks situational awareness in new situations; in the Divergence DGP the player-griefing Desastar role is added, which causes distrust among the group. Good deeds like Keiwa cooking them breakfast are seen as suspicious by Sae and Daichi, and when he tells Daichi his concerns about how the Jyamato are somehow related to deceased players, Daichi convinces him to keep his concerns between the two of them. Daichi then betrays Keiwa's trust by twisting the truth of Keiwa's hesitance to fight the Jyamato to frame him as the Desastar, while simultaneously discrediting Keiwa's true motivations by denying their conversation ever took place.
• Supporting Protagonist: Keiwa is the viewpoint character of the Encounter DGP (episodes 2 through 9), being a Naïve Newcomer who sees just how treacherous the DGP can be firsthand.
• The Team Benefactor: Keiwa's extreme luck is offset by his equally extreme charity, with the result that he provides the entire team with a steady supply of Boost Buckles during the Encounter DGP, where most of the Riders need Boost's power in order to succeed.
• Third Time's The Charm: In #13, a driver-less Ace asks Keiwa to borrow his Desire Driver, promising not only to return it, but give him all of his Raise Buckles. Keiwa obliges, despite Ace having already tricked him twice before. This time, Ace keeps his promise and Keiwa's generosity is rewarded.
• Token Human: In a sense. Of the four main Riders, he's the only one with an utterly mundane background or existence due to Ace being revealed as a continuously-reincarnating person, Neon being an Artificial Human Replacement Goldfish, and Michinaga becoming a human-Jyamato hybrid. This winds up being a problem later, as Ace and Michinaga's strength in particular winds up contributing to Keiwa's sense of inferiority compared to both of them, especially once Keiwa begins suffering blow after blow to his worldview.
• Took a Level in Cynic:
  • #11 reveals disqualified Riders have the desires behind their wishes erased from their psyches to ensure they won't come back. Keiwa was already more cynical than he appears to be on the surface, as shown in #1, but his change of personality after his elimination takes his cynicism up a notch. Not only does he believe that world peace is too much for one man to achieve, he gives up on smaller efforts like even looking for a job after multiple failures, resorting into get rich quick schemes via lottery instead.
  • #41 makes it clear that this cynicism is something buried deep inside him and not just a one-off from the first episode, as losing Sara brings it back with a vengeance; first, he bitterly questions what the point of wishing for world peace even is when he's too weak to protect his sister, and later on he demonstrates that his cynical edge has largely eliminated any sense of empathy he has for other people, as evidenced by how he uses Tsumuri's sympathy for his loss to get the Bujin Sword Buckle, then pummels Michinaga and goes straight for a finishing strike as soon as it becomes practical for him to do so.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Tanuki soba, which is notable because aside from its shared motif with Keiwa, it also shows that he values the simpler things in life. Him favouring sushi over this in #10 is a massive red flag that something isn't right with him.
• The Unchosen One: He is not chosen for the "Scheme" DGP, but asks the Game Master to enter it mid-season after regaining his memories. With an assist from Ace, it works, and he takes Ittetsu's slot.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Gets this from Ace in #8, when he tries to force everyone else to sacrifice their wishes for his sake by acting as the bait for the Final Boss to let Keiwa kick the can and become the winner.
  • He also gets this from Michinaga, as his desire to revive everyone who has been killed would perpetuate the Desire Grand Prix and inflict the misery of death and lost dreams on them as the price for his wish, just like any other wishes granted by the Goddess of Creation.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Downplayed. While he is shown as a Friend to All Living Things type, his rant towards Ace in the middle of #1 shows that he's more cynical than he appears to be on the surface; he expresses frustration about his life being cut short, and how aimless his life was to start with.

Tropes exclusive to him as Kamen Rider Tycoon

Ninja! Ready, Fight!

Dual On! Ninja and Boost! Ready, Fight!

Ninja! Hit! Fever Ninja!

Twin Set! Take off complete! Jet and Cannon! Ready, Fight!

Black General! Bujin Sword! Ready, Fight!

• Badass Cape: The Delude Mantle, granted by Bujin Sword Form. As it's also a warning of Keiwa's deteriorating mental state, it unfortunately doubles as a Mark of Shame.
• Boring, but Practical: Unlike Tycoon’s regular Ninja Form, Bujin Sword Form has no gimmick or a unique weapon. All it gives is an absurd amount of power and a basic katana, but that's basically all he needs.
• Born Lucky:
  • Tying to his Animal Motif, Tycoon's personal accessory, the Tycoon Bandage, gives him a luck stat boost, allowing him to get the Boost Buckle out of chests four times in a row. Unfortunately, until #7, Keiwa frequently loses it, due to varying reasons: either he gets suckered out of it (in #2), gets it stolen (in #6), or gives it away to someone else (multiple times). It turns out that a lot of this in the Encounter DGP was due to Kekera giving Tycoon a large share of the secret missions for obtaining the Boost Buckle in the first place.
  • In #6, it's implied that Keiwa's luck saves him by ensuring Michinaga draws Keiwa as his partner again, allowing them both to advance to the next round.
  • His return in #12 sets up the entire team to get their victory in the current round; he gets both his and Ace's paired Buckles back, and then everyone gets a copy of Fever.
• Breaking Old Trends: Most secondary Riders are generally blue, such as Cross-Z, G3, Gatack, and even Ni-go. Tycoon, on the other hand, is green, a color normally seen on tertiary riders like Gills, Zolda, and Ryugen and somewhat on main riders like the majority of the Showa riders, Double or Zero-One.
• Confusion Fu: The Ninja Buckle grants him abilities of doing unorthodox and unexpected moves to attack enemies.
• Cool Sword: Wields four of them over the course of the series.
  • Ninja Dueler: Granted via the Ninja Buckle.
  • Raising Sword: Granted via the Command Twin Buckle.
  • Zombie Breaker: Briefly via the Zombie Buckle.
  • Bujin: Granted via the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Energy Bow: In Armed Arrow mode, he uses a crossbow that fires energy arrows.
• Double Weapon: His primary weapon is the Ninja Dueler, a double-bladed sword that can separate into twin daggers, provided via the Ninja Raise Buckle.
• Finishing Move:
  • Arrow Strike: Tycoon fires a full-powered energy blast from the Raise Arrow.
  • Ninja Strike: Tycoon's body is engulfed in green energy as he deals several slashes to the enemy with the Ninja Dueler.
  • Ninja Tactical Slash: Tycoon unleashes Sword Beams with the Ninja Dueler.
  • NinjaBoost Grand Victory^note Ninja upper body, Boost lower body: Tycoon summons a gigantic shuriken and hurls it towards the target while riding it. He then jumps off it into the air, fire wreathing his leg as he unleashes a Rider Kick on the target.
  • Golden Fever Victory (Ninja): Tycoon performs a more powerful version of his Ninja Strike.
  • Command Twin Victory (Cannon Mode): Tycoon charges the Toron Cannons and fires four energy spheres at his foe that detonate upon impact.
  • Zombie Strike: Tycoon summons several energy claw constructs from beneath the target, binding them in place. He then charges up the Berserclaw and unleashes a Rider Slash.
  • Bujin Sword Strike: Tycoon raises the Bujin katana and charges it with black and green energy, drawing it around him in the shape of a full blood moon, before he delivers multiple Rider Slashes to the target.
  • Bujin Sword Victory: Has two variations.
    • Black energy engulfs Tycoon as he swings the Bujin katana, unleashing a powerful wave at the enemy.
    • Tycoon shrouds his foot in black and green energy and performs a Rider Kick.
• Fuuma Shuriken: Tycoon can summon several green energy shuriken in battle. Boost Time allows Tycoon to ride on a giant one.
• Gratuitous Italian: The scabbard of Bujin Sword's katana is called the Cardivate Scabbard. "Cardivate" is a corruption of the Italian word "cardavate" (a form of the verb "cardare," generally meaning "to tear away at fibers.") In that particular form, the word can be extended to mean "you repeatedly tore away at the fibers."
• Highly-Visible Ninja: His Ninja form gives him bright green armor that is less stealthy than his Entry Form.
• Iconic Item: His preferred Raise Buckle is Ninja, which shares his color scheme.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Bujin Sword Form grants him one dubbed the Bujin as his main weapon.
• Mark of Shame: The Delude Mantle, Bujin Sword's cape, is basically a huge warning to everyone around Keiwa that he's buying into his own ideals about what's right and wrong, and is an active threat to the people he thinks he's helping.
• Meaningful Name: When writing Tycoon's name in its literal romaji form, taikun, it serves as a Significant Anagram to Tanuki and was used as an alternate name for the title of Shogun.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Feverslot Buckle, which allows him to use a randomized power from any Raise Buckle. He later gets a second one with the Command Twin Buckles which comes in Raising Form, Command Form: Cannon and Command Form: Jet.
• Mythology Gag: Befitting his role as the series' most traditionally heroic character, Tycoon's design is heavily inspired by Kamen Riders #1 and #2; on top of having a primarily-green color scheme and similarly-shaped eyes, the "nose" and "teeth" of the helmet evoke the original Riders' grasshopper mouthparts, and the silver edges of his "ears" resemble antennae.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast:
  • Bujin Sword's cape is called the Delude Mantle. This should be the first hint that Keiwa is too irrational in this form to do more good than harm.
  • Bujin Sword's name roughly translates to "War God Sword."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His visor is red when using the Ninja Buckle, and Keiwa is generally a Nice Guy... until you threaten or hurt his loved ones.
• Reverse Grip: Wields the Ninja Dueler this way in its split form.
• Super Mode: Bujin Sword Form, granted via the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • He takes a big one in #8 where he outright matches the Knight Jyamato, and eventually saves Sara and the other captured civilians even though it means he gets seriously injured and got eliminated afterward, even with the use of the almost mandatory Ninja Buckle.
  • His return in #12 demonstrates that he hasn't lost a step in skill despite his absence from the early parts of the Scheme DGP; he's shown to be a much more skilled and confident fighter who easily and calmly keeps pace with the evolving Jyamato in the current game, in contrast to the Encounter DGP where he joined early but was full of doubts about what to do or how to fight.
  • In #16, he's able to actually keep pace with Ace for a while, and beyond that shows another non-fighting improvement by using his instincts and a little cooperation to become a Guile Hero and counter Girori's schemes with one of his own, something that even Ace admits he didn't expect.
  • A malicious example: In #41, he goes from being a naive dupe to expertly manipulating Tsumuri by playing on her emotions in order to gain more power through the Bujin Sword buckle, becoming an honest to goodness edgelord in the process.