Characters / Kamen Rider Geats / Keiwa Sakurai

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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 Sakurai 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 [main series], Takahiro Yoneoka [Jyamato Awaking] (suit)

The Job-Hunting University Graduate

^{Click here to see him from episodes 43 to 45 as the...} ...Leader of the Gang Riders

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 applying to Keiwa in general

• All for Nothing: After Keiwa finally gets his wish at the cost of his emotional health and his friendships, his entire family immediately dies again.
• Ambiguous Situation: Keiwa is the only Rider in the finale that is shown still holding his ID Core, and is studying by himself. This leaves it fairly open-ended as to whether or not he remembers Ace, since he demonstrated the ability to vaguely remember the events of the other Dawn episode at the very start of the series.
• 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: Once he learns that Mitsume is the Goddess of Creation, he doesn't stop being a hero, but he is notably very bitter on the subject of Mitsume and insists that he'll make her atone for what she's done. As time goes on, he becomes more irrational and unreasonable about it, ignoring that Mitsume is just as much a victim of the DGP as everyone else because she was coerced into serving as the Goddess.
• Anti-Villain: Becomes one after Sara's loss late in the series. 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 and Genesis arcs, resulting in Keiwa's existing dislike of him escalating into outright hatred when Daichi's schemes get Sara killed. Eventually, Keiwa drops this after Ace's pep talk and Sara's revival. He tells Daichi that in a world where everyone deserves to be happy, that extends to Daichi as well as long as he has any humanity remaining in his heart.
• 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 without the 2000 years that Ace has had to emotionally process the loss, Keiwa is instead dealing with fresh and raw wounds that make him unstable and a danger to himself and everyone around him. This makes him much more like Ace's first incarnation, who Ace has implied was similarly unable to cope with the trauma and was ultimately Driven to Suicide.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: A tragic example. Keiwa's fixation on his wish to revive the victims of the DGP, and his obsession over making Mitsume atone for taking people's happiness as the Goddess of Creation, slowly causes him to slide into upholding the DGP's status quo just long enough for him to get his wish. 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 Face–Heel Turn, and he's all too willing to side with the DGP and use Tsumuri's power — the same as the Goddess's own — for his own ends. He lampshades it in #42 when he talks about his plan to reclaim what the DGP took away by using the DGP.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: While Keiwa did eventually get his wish granted (albeit through questionable means), there's just one glaring issue with how it came out — not all of the casualties of the DGP were benevolent or selfless, and as a result, gangs of malevolent Riders pop up all over the city. Worse yet, in a classic example of the monkey's paw curling, this just results in Keiwa's parents and Sara dying again because they get caught up in one of the Gang Riders' attacks as soon as the world resets.
• 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, and this selfishness serves as a major catalyst of his Face–Heel Turn after her death at the hands of Michinaga (and Daichi by proxy).
• 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.
  • After his wish is granted and he gets to speak to Sara again, Keiwa briefly returns to his old self, but is immediately put through a rude awakening when the Gang Riders wind up killing her and their parents before he even gets a chance to see her again.
• 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. The fact that Keiwa has been unable to fulfill his wish of saving the previous victims of the DGP compounds Keiwa's growing feeling of worthlessness and powerlessness about his inability to catch up to the others. He then loses Sara, the rock that's kept him from falling fully into despair, when Michinaga kills her, and snaps from the despair, anger, and grief. Even his wish goes south once he finally gets it, as Sara and his family are suddenly blown up within five minutes of his wish coming true because he failed to account for the criminals that were also victims of the DGP. This crushes his hopes to the point that he willingly agrees to assassinate Ace for Zitt in exchange for another wish, while Kekera successfully pushes him to take over the Gang Riders to do so.
• 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. This inability to process tragic events by relying on or talking through his feelings with others worsens his mental stability; since he's the only one who knows how he's truly feeling, he's the only one who can do anything about it. Only he can't.
• Character Development:
  • In the Scheme DGP, while he still retains his gentle, kind-hearted nature, he's far firmer 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 that Girori shows him Ace's wish and explicitly trivializes it, calling 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 still resents her 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 he chooses to follow his heart and do whatever he thinks is necessary, even if it's wrong to get his wish granted. This turns him into a Well-Intentioned Extremist that blames the wrong people to justify his extreme actions — for example, he kidnaps Tsumuri and helps turn her into a Replacement Goldfish for the Goddess of Creation so that he can get a wish out of her, viewing it as using the DGP to correct the DGP's mistakes.
  • His heart-to-heart with Ace in #46 teaches him to stop trying to deal with his feelings alone and share his emotional burdens with other people. When Ace tells him that the others are trying their best to save Sara, and encourages him to hate people's cruelty, but not people themselves, it leads Keiwa to a Heel–Face Turn and gets him to start seeing the best in people again. He defends Michinaga from Kekera, and finally acknowledges Michinaga's efforts to be The Atoner once Michinaga properly gives him an apology for hurting Sara. Heck, he even patches things up with Daichi of all people.
• 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).
• The Chew Toy: In-Universe, he's this to Kekera — Kekera's firm belief that Misery Builds Character leads him to put Keiwa through constant suffering in an attempt to make Keiwa grow into his ideal type of hero.
• 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 dismissing the other Riders' desires 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 that becomes obsessed with making his "ideal world" come true.
• 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 Antagonist:
  • Late in the series, Keiwa ends up becoming this to Kaito Kumon. Both are secondary Riders who gain a new form (Bujin Sword Tycoon and Lord Baron respectively) after crossing the Despair Event Horizon by failing to protect the people they care about, pulling a Face–Heel Turn in the process. As a result, both Kaito and Keiwa deliver No Holds Barred Beatdowns and Curb Stomp Battles to the Mad Scientists whose experiments with plant-like entities and godhood-seeking complexes were responsible for all the tragedies they faced. While Kaito succeeds in killing Ryoma, Ace stops Keiwa from killing Daichi. They also end up getting into one last final battle with the lead Riders of their respective series in order to remake the world in their image. Kaito dies to Kouta, but Keiwa survives due to Ace purposely throwing the fight, and Ace convinces him to believe in his ideal world where everyone can be happy, making Keiwa pull a Heel–Face Turn as a result.
  • He's also this to his direct predecessor, Daiji Igarashi. They both gain a new form related to their inner demons, but Daiji gets rid of his inner demon while Keiwa embraces his. They also cross the Despair Event Horizon after failing to protect the people they care about, going full on Knight Templar and joining their series' Big Bad during their Face–Heel Turn before turning back to the heroes’ side, but Daiji opposes his family and was willing to sacrifice them to "save the world" since they continue to oppose Giff. Keiwa, in contrast, becomes apathetic towards the world, and is willing to sacrifice other people and their happiness to revive his family at the expense of everyone else.
  • Both Hiiro Kagami and Keiwa are secondary Riders who become embittered after losing a loved one. They both pull a Face–Heel Turn, becoming temporary Anti Villains who join their series' Big Bads to restore their loved ones through unscrupulous means; however, they're also being used as Unwitting Pawns in the process, particularly when they're tasked to eliminate their respective primary Riders, and have to face their growing doubts over what they're doing before eventually turning back to the heroes' side. Though Hiiro starts off as a cold Jerkass Anti-Hero who later Took a Level in Kindness, and lost his girlfriend Saki prior to his series, Keiwa starts off as an idealistic Nice Guy (with some well-concealed cynicism) before gradually becoming colder and more cynical after learning of the full circumstances behind his parents' deaths, and loses his sister Sara late in his series.
• 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. An additional difference on Keiwa's part is that he becomes a worse person later (similar to the aformentioned Daiji), while Fuwa mellows out throughout the series.
  • Arata Kagami and Keiwa are the naive Audience Surrogate secondary Riders of their series who are paired with a Smug Super protagonist and end up pursuing a career as a police officer at the end of their series. However, 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. Kagami also endures being put through extraordinary situations or being made a Butt-Monkey, but prevails through it to become a stronger, more confident man, while Keiwa is a deconstruction of this archetype, breaking from the stress of his situation and becoming a Fallen Hero as a result.
  • 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, both disagree 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 both are confronted with the dilemma of whether they have the right to deprive the other Riders of their wishes. They're also 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. And finally, though both waver in their ideals, with a villain taking the moment to manipulate them, ultimately Shinji is unable to go through with killing other Riders to win the Rider War despite wanting to save Yui, while Keiwa's ideals finally break after Sara's death, leading him to become dangerously self-absorbed and delusional as he decides that the ends justify the means.
• Corrupted Character Copy: Of Kouta Kazuraba. Both of them are ordinary, orphaned young men who look for jobs to support their supportive older sisters, and both of their families eventually get roped into a massive conspiracy involving the major organizations of their respective stories. Additionally, Kouta and Keiwa both fight against a purple Rider nicknamed "Micchy" and a standoffish Rider with a construction background who are willing to go to extremes to root out a corrupt system (Michinaga fits both descriptors in Keiwa's case), both their Super Modes are themed after Shoguns, and both obtain godlike powers. However, Kouta only fights against Mitsuzane to get through to him and regain their friendship, and though Kouta does kill Kaito to prevent him from destroying the world, Kouta ultimately uses his new power as the Man of the Beginning to relocate the Helheim Forest to somewhere where the Inves cannot do harm. Keiwa, on the other hand, eventually undergoes a Face–Heel Turn after losing his sister, and while Keiwa's fight against Michinaga initially started off to protect people and other Riders from his attacks, it escalates into revenge once Michinaga kills Sara. Additionally, when Keiwa becomes the Desashin, he does so through underhanded methods by kidnapping Tsumuri, and uses the wish she grants him to resurrect those killed by the DGP — however, it endangers the world instead of saving it, as many of the Riders thus resurrected have far fewer moral scruples.
• Cruel Mercy: After acquiring the Bujin Sword Buckle, Keiwa's protracted beatdown of Michinaga in #41 ends with him sparing Michinaga at the start of #42, albeit after using enough finishers to leave Michinaga bloodied up. He cites this trope as the reason he's leaving Michinaga alive, stating that he'd rather see Michinaga live with the guilt of what he's done to Sara. He would later (albeit unwillingly) do the same to Daichi, beating him within an inch of his life and leaving him a broken mess in the hospital.
• Deal with the Devil: He agrees to capture Tsumuri and turn her over to Zitt in exchange for getting a wish. When his wish doesn't turn out the way he hoped, he agrees to another deal with Zitt — if he defeats Ace, he gets to make another wish. This arrangement lasts until #46, when Ace finally convinces Keiwa to trust in other people instead of trying to fix everything on his own or dance to the DGP's tune.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Keiwa is an in-depth look at what would happen to an idealist that's subjected to a battle royale game in several aspects.
  • While he starts out like said idealists, complete with being the most crushed at realizing he's in a life-or-death game with no backing out, he's so naive that he gets tricked by Ace quite a few times. Additionally, while most other battle royale protagonists tend to get a few Fire-Forged Friends early on by nature of their selflessness and moral character, Keiwa goes into self-righteous territory by unwittingly dismissing other Riders' wishes as less important compared to his — he initially expects the finalists of the Encounter DGP to throw away said wishes by acting as bait for the boss so he can defeat it and wish for world peace, but they all reject him out of hand.
  • Keiwa also deconstructs the notion that the idealist survives their early fights via plot armor before they take a level in badass on their own. Initially, it holds true for him, as only gets through most of his early fights by sheer luck, but it eventually turns out that some degree of this "luck" came from someone supporting him behind the scenes who has mysterious and suspicious reasons in doing so. Turns out that said supporter aims to put him through enough misery that he becomes a "real" Kamen Rider, hiding his pain behind a stoic front of justice. Once his "luck" eventually runs out, Keiwa falls so far behind and is put into so many dire predicaments that he pressures Tsumuri to create a power up for him to even the playing field.
  • Most "idealists" in the archetype may have at least one kill by the end of their story, even if they were forced into it, and their target is usually an Asshole Victim. Though Daichi and Michinaga fit that criteria when Keiwa targets them, he's going after them because he wants to take revenge on them, not to bring them to justice. And while revenge kills in these types of stories are often portrayed as a good thing, it's made clear that regardless of how much his targets deserve everything they have coming to them, his hatred has put his motivations so far off the mark that Ace actively stops him from killing Daichi.
  • Idealistic characters who shoulder their burdens alone usually ensure that others are rewarded at great personal cost to themselves, but Keiwa's refusal to trust his feelings to others not only costs him dearly, but hurts other people — when he finally gives in to cynicism, his self-inflicted pain and mistrust lead him to brush off others that want to help him, and he resorts to extreme plans to achieve his goals because he won't trust in anyone else. He's so adamant about doing things his way for immediate short-term gains without thinking of the bigger picture that it directly leads to furthering his own misery.
  • The biggest deconstruction, though, focuses on the idea that the idealist will never succumb to the seedy underworld of the life-or-death game they're subjected to, and will either rise above it — despite losing close friends or even family to either it or the system running it — or outright find a means to dismantle it if they acquire the right amount of power, such as organizing a resistance group. Keiwa is unable to maintain his resolve to defy the DGP due to his latent cynicism, and once Michinaga destroys the Parasite Jyamato infesting Keiwa's sister, seemingly killing her, Keiwa finally, completely breaks, and chooses to work with the system oppressing him to get what he wants, rather than trying to beat it; he no longer has the will to strive for improbable best case scenarios.
• Decon-Recon Switch: While Keiwa's character arc is a realistic look at how an idealist would cope with a battle royale survival game and deal with tragic losses constantly being stacked on their shoulders, it also ultimately reinforces some of the most important lessons that the idealist winds up learning or embodying in "survival game" series — there are some problems that can only be solved by trusting in other people to help you, and doing so is how you truly make long term changes. While you may have to endure some difficulty and put in effort to follow your ideals, relying on easier, more extreme methods aren't necessarily better in the long run even if the benefits are more immediate. Working with the DGP management to try and use their Reality Warping powers to his own ends only winds up hurting Keiwa's efforts to get what he wants, and actively hinders him by making him an easy pawn for the DGP to control. In contrast, Keiwa's fervent desire to believe in a world where it's possible to get Sara back allows Ace to revert the world back to the post-Grand End state that Ace initially created in the Genesis arc, and with these reversed circumstances plus Ace's encouragement, Keiwa manages to save Michinaga from Kekera and gets his sister back in the bargain.
• 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 what to do, whether it be a job or otherwise, to accomplish said goal. 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 that wish that when he feels that he can't live up to it — 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 in order to get his wish granted. His Heel–Face Turn after this puts rest to his uncertainty, and in the finale he's shown studying up on how to become a police officer in the world where Ace has erased the DGP.
• 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. It gets even worse in #43, as his wish is granted, but his parents and Sara die almost immediately afterward, as his wish brings back Riders who were also total scumbags and one of them leads a riotous gang that catches Keiwa's family in one of said riots.
• 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. 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 for the first arc, his storyline runs concurrently with Ace's and he receives almost the same amount of focus that Ace does.
• Didn't Think This Through: After Michinaga accidentally kills Sara, Keiwa goes through a mental breakdown so bad that he's willing to hand over Tsumuri to the DGP and get her forcibly turned into the next Goddess of Creation to make her grant his wish to revive all of the DGP's victims. However, not all of those people are wholly benevolent or even moral in any way, something Keiwa knows all too well from personal experience. His wish results in a Crapsack World ruled by criminals who abuse the Rider powers given to them and kill his family, as well as God knows how many people, effectively rendering the reason Keiwa went through with his betrayal moot. Additionally, by giving the DGP staff a Goddess of Creation to abuse, he's ensured that the DGP is still running and can cause further harm despite making a wish intended to fix all the damage they've caused—with the implication that Zitt engineered the results of Keiwa's wish to make him even easier to manipulate when it went wrong.
• 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.
• The Dragon: He unwittingly becomes this for Kekera, who manipulates him into becoming a Fallen Hero and uses him as a vehicle for his entertainment, as well as Zitt, who wants to use him in his machinations to weaken Ace.
• 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.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Deconstructed. Keiwa spends most of the series as a Nice Guy who tries to look for the best in people, but he has his limits. First, he develops a burning hatred of Mitsume because of her complicity in the DGP's actions — ignoring entirely that she was only the DGP's tool and had no say in the matter. Then, Daichi forcing Sara to become a Parasite Jyamato and Michinaga's callousness towards civilians for The Needs of the Many and justifying Sara's death at his hands brings Keiwa to hate them both so much that his hatred consumes him and makes him easy for Kekera to manipulate. This understandable inability to let go of his hatred and resentment is what sets him on his destructive path during the Genesis arc, and he only grows out of this and has his Heel–Face Turn when Ace reminds him to focus his hatred on what people do and not people themselves.
• Everyone Has Standards: Though he's willing to give his Buckles to others to help them, he's naturally not fine with his Buckles being stolen or taken from him without any good reason; he makes an active effort to get his Boost Buckle back from Morio after Morio steals it from him, and is disgruntled at Michinaga and Sae attempting to forcibly take his Buckles without his consent.
• Evil Is Easy: His surfacing cynicism after Sara's death is shown this way. Rather than working with the others to build an ideal world and risk failing to get what he wants, he agrees to work with Zitt to guarantee his ideal world by kidnapping Tsumuri and letting him turn her into the Goddess. As it turns out, this path just turns him into Zitt, Kekera, and Beroba's pawn, and he gets no real fulfillment out of it, as the consequences of his wish get his family killed and the DGP continues to manipulate him for their own gain.
• Expy: Of both previous idealistic Rider protagonists written by Yuya Takahashi:
  • He is very similar to Emu Hojo. They are both Nice Guys and idealists who want to make others happy, with Emu wishing 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, as 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.
  • Both Keiwa and Aruto are orphaned young men that are put through enormous amounts of trauma over the course of their respective stories. Their similarities become more apparent near the end of both Zero-One and Geats, where after a loved one of theirs dies due to being caught up in the conflict, they both become examples of the franchise's most morally upright characters who become Fallen Heroes due to failing to cope with the ongoing pain and suffering they have to deal with, and unwittingly cause a huge war with their actions.
• Face–Heel Turn: From a noble, selfless, and heroic man who wished for world peace to a bitter and revenge-filled Well-Intentioned Extremist at odds with his former fellow heroic Riders following Sara's loss.
• Fallen Hero: Keiwa starts out the series as one of the most heroic and selfless Riders in the cast, but repeated trauma — culminating in the death of his sister Sara, his remaining family — leads him to abandon the things that made him heroic in the first place, except his intentions.
• 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, 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 and freedom.
  • One of his most notable flaws is that he doesn't stop to think through what he's doing and tends to go with his gut over his head. This is foreshadowed as early as his job interview in the first episode: he states that world peace is his goal, but when his interviewers ask what else comes after that, he can't answer.This is initially used to establish how naively optimistic he is, his lack of forethought also shows in the earlier examples of his tendency to throw himself at problems, and bit comes back to bite him when he finally gets his wish to revive all who have lost their lives to the DGP. While it does revive his and others' lost loved ones, he perpetuates the DGP's crimes by giving Tsumuri over to Zitt in exchange for the wish in the first place; after the wish is granted, evil Riders are revived as well, and one of them murders Keiwa's family almost immediately after his wish is granted. Zitt then kickstarts the Apocalypse Game, intending to use Tsumuri as the next Goddess of Creation for future DG Ps. Even once he does suspect something, Keiwa chooses to believe that the simple solution is to become the Desashin once more and make another wish for his family's revival.
• Foil: To Ace in several ways.
  • 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. Ace's wishes look frivolous on the surface, but prioritize his long-term goals very well, while Keiwa's wishes are more bluntly straightforward yet fundamentally flawed.
  • 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 genuinely good even with his unscrupulous traits, self-harm is typically associated with severe mental and/or emotional trauma, and indicates that Keiwa is not in the state of mind to actually bring the benevolent version of his wish to life.
  • 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 Keiwa completely leaning into Knight Templar territory with The Power of Hate. To drive the point home, the black and green color scheme of Tycoon Bujin Sword contrasts with the white and red color scheme of Geats IX.
• 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 to the following episode, Tycoon's preferred Raise Buckle turns out to be Ninja. Much later, the paper katana turns out to be a nod to Tycoon's Final Form, Bujin Sword... but by that point, Keiwa has gone past the deep end, only seeking vengeance against Michinaga and Daichi.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: While Keiwa does reconcile with Michinaga for destroying Sara when she was turned into a Jyamato, and entrusts Michinaga with keeping the End Game Riders from hurting each other in #48, he still tells Michinaga to go easy on the End Game Riders before he leaves to continue the fight elsewhere.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Melancholic
• Friendly Rival: Keiwa started off as a Naïve Newcomer who Ace happily takes advantage of to get an edge in the DGP, then ends up becoming a Worthy Opponent to Ace, seeking to compete with him in a fair and square way.
• 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 accidentally kills Sara outright and coldly admits to it (with the later justification that he did what he had to do), Keiwa's response after a period of grieving is to immediately go after the buffalo Rider's hide, manhandling him in Tycoon Bujin Sword Form and kicking Michinaga around after the fact.
• 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 goal 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, as 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.
  • During his final fight against Kekera, he puts on a show of being outmatched until Daichi manages to control the Jyamato threatening the hostages that Kekera has set up. Once they're safe, he goes all-out and destroys Kekera with the power of the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Heal the Cutie: Ace's willing sacrifice to become the God of Creation moves Keiwa enough for him to regain his lost idealism, and he turns his back on the DGP and Kekera once and for all to suppor the other Riders.
• The Heart:
  • His selflessness and kind demeanor are such that 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, as 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.
  • His kind and warm personality made a lasting impression on Michinaga specifically. Though Michinaga is a Jerkass most of the time, he helps out Keiwa occassionally and sometimes gives him a little sympathy. When Keiwa succumbs to despair and joins with the DGP management, Michinaga accepts responsibility for how his actions have contributed to Keiwa's fall, turning him to the same path he walked ever since he lost his best friend Tohru. Michinaga then makes it his personal mission to make amends for what he's done by trying to get through to Keiwa and searching for a way to save Sara.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: He starts off as Ace's ally and Friendly Rival until the final game of the JGP—when he learns of Mitsume's nature as the Goddess of Creation and the role she indirectly played in his parents' deaths, he believes they were unjustly sacrificed to give birth to Ace. This puts him and Ace at odds during the Desire Royale—when Ace starts opposing the DGP to save Mitsume, Keiwa chooses to preserve it to grant his ideal world and make Mitsume pay for her sins. After the failed Grand End he ends up joining Ace's DGP, though he remains bitter about Mitsume; when Sara dies, Keiwa cooperates with the DGP management, Beroba, and Kekera to kidnap Tsumuri and turn her into a Goddess of Creation to exploit her powers and grant his wish of reviving his family. Ace gets through to Keiwa with one last battle between the two of them, which leads to Keiwa rejoining Ace's DGP and fighting alongside him to help create a world where everyone can be happy.
• Heel–Face Turn: Once Ace is finally able to talk him through his grief over losing Sara and encourage him to trust in the people that are trying to support him, he finally makes his return to the heroes' side in #46 by stopping Kekera from attempting to kill Michinaga.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: A major part of Keiwa's Face–Heel Turn comes about because he perceives himself as being too weak to make a meaningful difference when it matters the most; even before that point, his self-doubt is evident early on in the series, particularly during the "Encounter" arc.
• The Hero's Journey: This is basically Keiwa's character arc and he follows it quite nicely. Unsurprising since he's the deuteragonist of the series.
• 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. Unfortunately, losing Sara brings this back with a vengeance, as he's more than willing to ignore the hypocrisy of using Tsumuri's powers to "save the world", and looks down on Ace for not making sure that Mitsume "properly repented for her sins".
• 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.
• Hypocrite: He wants to revive the victims of the DGP, and later comes to hate the DGP — especially Mitsume, their unwilling Goddess of Creation — for their culpability in taking those lives. He is particularly focused on Mitsume because her powers are what fueled the incarnations of the DGP that both killed his parents and ruined his life, even though she was literally their tool and could not stop herself from granting wishes. Once Sara dies, he becomes so uncaring that he basically does exactly what Suel did to create the DGP in the form that literally ruined his life by helping Zitt kidnap Tsumuri, turn her into the next Goddess to kickstart the next DGP, and force her to grant his wish.
• 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, but even once he learns, he very swiftly stops giving a damn once Sara is killed.
• 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.
• Irony:
  • The Rider who is the most disturbed with the DGP's deadly consequences, and how it turns people's lives and happiness into fuel for the winner's wish, turns out to be the one who takes the longest time to fully separate himself from it; Keiwa actively pursues a wish from the DGP until the climax of the Genesis arc, even going so far as to willingly side with the DGP (if reluctantly) to do so while the other Riders have completely turned against it.
  • In the Divergence arc, Daichi dismissed Keiwa as a simple person after figuring out his wish. In the Genesis arc, this trait actually catches Daichi's attention instead—after gaining Sara's memories of her happy life with Keiwa, Daichi dedicates himself to figuring out how the Sakurai siblings found happiness in such "simple" lives.
• Irrational Hatred: Even after Win explains Mitsume's backstory, he still insists that Mitsume is just as responsible for the tragedies that have occurred as the other DGP staff are, and remains hellbent on making Mitsume "atone" for her sins. After Mitsume's death, he extends that hatred to both Ace and Tsumuri. He manipulates Tsumuri to get the Bujin Sword Buckle from her, then kidnaps her to be turned into the second Goddess of Creation, and curses Ace for letting Mitsume weasel out of her responsibility to atone (as he sees it).
• Knight Templar: His self-righteousness turns into this after his Face–Heel Turn. While he claims that he hasn't changed at all to Michinaga, the fact that he brutally beats him for killing Sara and willingly turns Tsumuri over to Samas and Zitt proves this isn't the case. He also doesn't see anything wrong in his actions when Ace and Neon confront him over this — he views his cruelty to his targets as a deserving punishment for what he perceives as their "crimes".
• Laser-Guided Karma:
  • Keiwa uses The Power of Hate to wish for what becomes the Bujin Sword Buckle, but insists that he's still fighting for the right thing in seeking his ideal world. The result is a form that, as powerful as it is, puts the sheer hypocrisy of that sentence up for everyone to see.
  • After his Face–Heel Turn, Keiwa invokes this in the form of what he views as appropriate punishments on his targets. He brutally beats Michinaga, then leaves him alive so that he can live with the guilt of killing Sara, and kidnaps Tsumuri to help turn her into the second Goddess of Creation to punish Ace for not making Mitsume "atone" for her sins.
  • Keiwa gets a taste of this directed at him — he gets his wish granted by questionable means (kidnapping Tsumuri, then coercing her into granting his wish), and shortly afterward, his revived family is killed by one of the DGP Riders that his wish revived.
• 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. Even once he learns the truth from win, Ace still keeps him out of things later on by never telling him that Mitsume agrees with Keiwa insofar as needing to atone for what she's done.
• 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: After his Face–Heel Turn, 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. He also tries to get other Riders to help or agree with him by promising to make sure they can get what they want, such as giving Neon the "chance" to fulfill the promise she made to pick out furniture with the now-dead Sara.
• Mirror Character: Ironically, after Sara's death, Keiwa becomes one to Michinaga. While they both have different wishes and goals, they both lost their loved ones to the DGP — Keiwa's parents died in a previous game, and ultimately Daichi and Michinaga were both responsible for Sara's death, while Michinaga's best friend Tohru participated in the DGP, was ambushed by fellow Riders, and left to die. Their losses leave them cold and embittered, and drive them to start a vengeful crusade against those responsible for their pain, becoming prejudiced against those they feel responsible (Kamen Riders for Michinaga, Creation Deities for Keiwa), and are influenced by their own supporters into joining antagonistic factions led/influenced by them for a chance to grant their wishes by exploiting a Goddess of Creation's powers. They also resent Ace for what he represents in their eyes and treat him as both a rival and a primary obstacle to their goals, and seek to defeat him to get their wishes granted, but ultimately end up defeating their former supporters at the end of the series and dedicate themselves fully to Ace's cause.
• 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, followed by turning her over to the DGP in order to turn her into a Goddess of Creation, then ordering her to (successfully) grant his wish despite the fact that she didn't completely become one.
• 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 prized items like the Boost Buckle for the sake of helping someone else. He also does his best to save civilians and seek happiness in others, and after his Heel–Face Turn, he willingly forgives people for their mistakes, and gives them second chances to make up for what they've done. 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 and gratitude for people helping him out, such as Ittetsu.
• 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 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. As the series goes on, he slowly becomes less and less reasonable, and once he loses Sara, he undergoes complete Sanity Slippage and loses this trait.
• 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 and, 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. He only continues from there, being creepy towards Tsumuri when he talks about his plans, coldly shrugging off Ace and Neon's attempts to reach out to him in #42, and brutally beating Daichi for his role in Sara's death.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: His villainous stint has him laying a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on Michinaga, following it up by giving Daichi one of the most brutal thrashings in the series, both in retaliation for Sara's death and the other atrocities they committed throughout the series.
• 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.
• Puppet King: While Keiwa does defeat Kirito Asari/Kamen Rider Turbon and Kekera dubs him the new "leader" of the Gang Riders, he never exercises control over Beroba and Kekera's actions, so they attempt to kill Neon and her family, and even recruit evil Riders such as Kazuo Numabukuro/Kamen Rider Brali and Kanato Sumida/Kamen Rider Da-Paan into their ranks behind his back. Considering both Beroba and Kekera are influencing Keiwa, they are considered his Co-Dragons in Chief and are actually the real ringleaders behind the Gang Riders.
• Punny Name: In Eastern name order, "Sakurai Keiwa" sounds an awful lot like "sekai heiwa", Japanese for "world peace". Lampshaded with his ema in #49, which simply reads "World Peace — Sakurai Keiwa"^note Sekai heiwa — Sakurai Keiwa
• Red Herring: There are clues that lead up to him being the Desastar, such as #17 highlighting the Joker card he got to indicate that he's a potential 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. Ironically, Daichi eventually takes an interest in just how "normal" Keiwa and Sara are because he can't understand how Keiwa is able to find any satisfaction with his very simple desires.
• 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.
• Rival Turned Evil: Though he's more of a Friendly Rival to Ace than Michinaga, he becomes colder towards Ace when he learns that Mitsume, the Goddess of Creation that fuels the DGP's wishes and consumed his parents for wish fuel, is Ace's mother. Losing Sara on top of learning that makes him just as bitter toward Ace as Michinaga was, until he's able to put his resentment behind him and become Ace's ally again for the last episodes of the show.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on one once Sara dies and he obtains the Bujin Sword Buckle, going after the people responsible for her death, including Kamen Rider Tarbon once he ends up killing her just after he revived her.
• 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 whenever he does the pose. 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.
• Sanity Slippage: After #31, he's so broken by the reveal of Mitsume's nature as the Goddess of Creation and the role that she indirectly played in his parents' deaths that he belives what Daichi says regarding about her after Kekera "verifies" that the Goddess has sacrificed others to fulfill the Desashin's wish (including Keiwa's parents), in spite of Keiwa being so aware that Daichi's a Manipulative Bastard that he literally tells Neon and Sara not to trust Daichi later on in the Yearning arc. This reveal, plus the incomplete information he's working with, causes him to hold Mitsume responsible for the sufferings of the world. Even after learning the truth later, losing Sara pushes him so far over the Despair Event Horizon that he hyperfixates on carrying out his wish, justifying the cruel and drastic steps he takes to get it.
• Secretly Selfish: Played With. #41 reveals that the reason he wants to achieve world peace is to make sure Sara is safe, and he says that striving for world peace doesn't matter anymore if Sara's gone. He did help and protect other people and Riders before her death, making an effort to treat them kindly because it was the right thing to do, but Sara getting put in danger brought out the worst of both his protectiveness and his selfishness. Her death outright becomes a catalyst for his Face–Heel Turn.
• 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. While he did get that wish in #43, he failed to consider that not everyone was as benevolent as he expected.
• 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.
• Shadow Archetype: Keiwa ends up becoming one to Sae later in the series, despite Keiwa starting off as a significantly nicer person than her. They're DGP participants who are deeply affected by their parents' deaths prior to the series—and their remaining family members, specifically their own siblings and Sae's mother, end up endangered by DGP games. Both Keiwa and Sae are willing to go to great lengths to save their families, including taking each other's Buckles; while Sae bows out from the DGP entirely, feeling no need for the DGP anymore, and her family remains safe for the remainder of the series, Keiwa keeps participating in it, both fixated on righting the DGP's wrongs and on protecting Sara once Kekera ropes her into joining it. This eventually leads to her death, and sends Keiwa down a dark path where he betrays his friends, cooperates with the DGP management, Beroba, and Kekera, and sacrifices other people's happiness in order to save his family, a much more pronounced version of Sae's willing antagonism toward others for the sake of her own.
• 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.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Keiwa's character arc as a whole is essentially this trope as applied to the idea of putting a kind-hearted everyman through extraordinary situations to display their heroic qualities. Keiwa breaks from the stress and his inability to stand on even footing with both Ace's incredible skill and Michinaga's power after he becomes the Jyamashin with Beroba's help. When Kekera (deliberately) continues to try and push him into becoming a hero by putting him through multiple tragedies, Keiwa instead descends into darkness and begins taking whatever means he feels necessary to create his ideal world.
• Sympathy for the Devil: He objects to Ace attacking a non-delinquent Jyamato, thinking that it might not be a threat. After his Heel–Face Turn at the climax of the Genesis arc, he consoles Daichi when Daichi admits to regretting his actions as a Jyamato, and acknowledges the role that Kekera played in making him the type of Kamen Rider that Kekera loves to see, outright thanking Kekera for making him into a Rider.
• 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 Jyamashin Buffa'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, but he also gives up on smaller efforts like even looking for a job after multiple failures, resorting to 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. He bitterly questions what the point of wishing for world peace even is when Sara's no longer around, and his cynical edge pushes him to only use the methods that guarantee the results he wants, even if those methods harm others — instead of working toward an ideal world with Ace and the other Riders, he uses Tsumuri's sympathy for his loss to get the Bujin Sword Buckle, then sells her out to Zitt so that that he can get his wish to revive Sara and the DGP's victims granted.
• Took a Level in Idealism: After Ace proves to Keiwa that there's still hope for an ideal world where everyone is happy, including Keiwa, and encourages Keiwa to have some faith in him, Ace is able to become the God of Creation and revert the world back to the state it was in before Keiwa's wish. Keiwa is deeply moved by how Ace is willingly giving up some of his own freedom in order to do so, and is heartened by the news that the others are doing everything they can to save Sara. This leads Keiwa to to save Michinaga from Kekera, denounce Kekera for manipulating him, and accept Michinaga's apologies for hurting Sara and everything else he's done.
• 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.
• Tragic Villain: His Face–Heel Turn doesn't really solve his problems or get him what he wants, and just makes him more miserable; because villainous Riders are revived with his wish, his family gets killed right after his wish takes effect, making all of his efforts completely pointless. Tsumuri also notes that he's still miserable when he asks her to grant his wish again, and asks him if granting it will really make him happy; he angrily tells her that it will, but it's clear he's in denial about it.
• 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.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Keiwa's wish to revive all the DGP's victims allows Zitt and the DGP to kickstart the Apocalypse Game, where many of those revived from his wish go on a worldwide crime spree that gets his own family and many other people killed. Even after his Face–Heel Turn, turning the world into a chaotic mess isn't the outcome he desires.
• Unwitting Pawn: Keiwa's desire for a peaceful world as well as his desire for vengeance after Sara's death is exploited by the DGP to turn him into their weapon against Ace. It's even implied that the reason Keiwa's wish went horribly wrong was because Zitt, the Game Master known for Bad Ends put his thumb on the scale.
• Villain Teleportation: Like many a villainous Rider before him, Keiwa spontaneously gains the ability to teleport even in civilian form after acquiring the Bujin Sword Buckle, but only when he needs to exit a scene.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He keeps his goal of saving the DGP victims after his Face–Heel Turn, but no longer has any qualms about using unscrupulous means to achieve that goal.
• 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. After this fails, Keiwa asks if everyone is fine letting the world be in danger for their wish, and Ace specifically asks him if he'd care about the rest of the world if he and Sara were safe; Keiwa has no response to this. #41 proves the point Ace was getting at when Keiwa flatly states that he doesn't care about world peace anymore with Sara dead, and Kekera points out the hypocrisy of Keiwa's willingness to give up to manipulate Keiwa into "taking action".
  • He also gets this from Michinaga in #37, 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 other people as the price for his wish, just like any other wishes granted by the Goddess of Creation. Michinaga follows this up in #44 by telling Keiwa that he ruined their opportunity to save Sara by making his wish, and explicitly calls Keiwa out for letting Kekera and Beroba pull his strings. Michinaga also makes a Call-Back to Ace's question in #8 after Keiwa shrugs off the torment that Beroba put Neon through during the Lamentation, Yearning, and Genesis arcs:
    Keiwa: "Those goons did that on their own."
    Michinaga: "So no one else matters as long as you get to be happy!?"
  • #42 has Tsumuri call him out for being an Ungrateful Bastard by turning her over the DGP despite her sincere attempts to help him. Keiwa doesn't particularly care and views it as the DGP fixing a problem that they were responsible for causing in the first place. The fact that he kidnapped Tsumuri also puts him at odds with Ace and Neon, leading Ace to point out that he's no beter than the DGP management.
• 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. Once Sara dies, it forces his dormant cynicism to the surface, amplifying his negative traits to an extreme. After Ace lets Keiwa pound on him to prove a point, then willingly takes on the burden of becoming the God of Creation, Keiwa finally manages to recapture his idealistic spirit.
• You Are What You Hate: His encounter with Kanato in the Genesis arc has him rejecting Kanato's overtures when he talks about how they both crossed the Despair Event Horizon; unlike Kanato, Keiwa doesn't want to Kill All Humans, but Kanato points out that Keiwa still has enough apathy towards the world to sacrifice others for his own family. While Kanato is right, Keiwa seems to make an effort to prove that they're Not So Similar, which causes him to feel conflicted enough over his own actions that Ace is ultimately able to reason with him at the end of #45.

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!

^{Click here to see...} ...Bujin Sword Form episode 47-onwards
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. This changes after his Heel–Face Turn; while it keeps the name, it's more a reference to his crafty, quick-witted fighting style and his tendency to deceive his enemies before striking hard.
• Boring, but Practical: Unlike Tycoon's regular Ninja Form, Bujin Sword Form has no gimmick or unique weapon. All it gives is an absurd amount of power and a basic katana, but that's basically all he needs. This can be averted, though, if he chooses to use other Buckles to supplement Bujin Sword Form; he uses BujinMonster and BujinBoost during his duel with Ace, with the latter combo proving to be very strong.
• 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.
• Combat Pragmatist:
  • When using the Bujin Sword Buckle, Keiwa's fighting style doesn't have any flashy swings or technique, opting for a level of cold brutality that drastically differs from his Ninja techniques. He attacks Michinaga mid-transformation, willingly goes for several finishers on Michinaga as soon as he gets the chance, and doesn't hesitate to go for a neck slice to try and kill Daichi after beating him half to death and leaving him begging for Kekera's help.
  • When he fights against Ace in #45, Keiwa makes use of Bujin Sword's Delude Mantle to cover his body before thrusting the sword out from behind it, obfuscating where his strikes are going to come from next.
• Confusion Fu: The Ninja Buckle grants him abilities to do 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 Katana: Granted via the Bujin Sword Buckle.
• Dark Is Evil: The jet-black armor of Bujin Sword Form is a clear indicator that Keiwa has become a Fallen Hero, moreso after losing Sara again in the world he wishes for and succumbing to despair. This transitions to Dark Is Not Evil once he gets his wits together and gets himself back on the right track in #46.
• 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.
• Energy Bow: In Armed Arrow mode, he uses a crossbow that fires energy arrows.
• Force and Finesse: Both his Ninja and Bujin Sword Forms have this dynamic with each other and with Buffa's forms.
  • When compared to Buffa, Ninja and Bujin Sword act as the Finesse to Buffa's Force; Ninja Form relies on acrobatics and special elemental skills, while his Bujin Sword Form uses powerful, but technical and graceful sword strikes to maximize damage. Buffa, on the other hand, is a reckless brawler that relies on power moves and tactics to get an edge on pretty much every form he uses, even the ones that aren't suited to it.
  • When compared to each other, Ninja is the Finesse to Bujin Sword's Force; Bujin Sword lacks Ninja's elemental skills and acrobatic flairs and is much more straightforward in terms of attacks and style.
• 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.
  • GreatBoost Victory^note Boost upper body, Bujin Sword lower body: Tycoon unleashes a flurry of Rider Punches enhanced by green flames.
• 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." Fitting, since this form came from Keiwa steadily being torn down by the DGP.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: His Ninja form gives him bright green armor that is less stealthy than his Entry Form. Ironically, the much more inconspicuous Bujin Sword Form is often used for attacks in broad daylight, a far cry from a ninja's typical hunting hours.
• Iaijutsu Practitioner: He becomes this when using his Bujin Sword 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 Katana as his main weapon.
• Mark of Shame: The Delude Mantle, Bujin Sword's cape, is initially 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. This is less the case after his Heel–Face Turn.
• Meaningful Name: When writing Tycoon's name in its literal romaji form, taikun, it serves as a Significant Anagram to Tanuki.
• 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. Prior to his Heel–Face Turn, this indicates that Keiwa is too far gone to do any good with this form.
  • Bujin Sword's name roughly translates to "War God Sword"; later episodes subsequently demonstrate that this is no exaggeration, as it's capable of matching Geats IX in a straight fight and is just as capable of fighting and defeating a Premium VIP form.
• No-Sell: When Buffa goes up against Bujin Sword Form, none of his attacks can hurt Keiwa. Headbutts don't phase him. Grapples can be powered out of. His chainsaw can't cut through his katana. Successive finishers with the Zombie Buckle only manage to knock him back somewhat.
• Power Limiter: Bujin Sword Form's red eyes are called the Judgement Tycoon Eye, which filters much of the form's aggressive powers. This only becomes active after Keiwa makes his Heel–Face Turn.
• 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. Bujin Sword Form inverts this; when its eyes are darker, they look more narrow and threatening, but when it gets red eyes, they look more friendly.
• Reverse Grip: Wields the Ninja Dueler this way in its split form.
• Simple, yet Awesome: The Bujin Katana looks like an ordinary katana, but this also gives it a reflective surface, which allows Keiwa to use it as a makeshift mirror to see attacks from the back.
• 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.
  • 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, and uses it to beat down both Daichi and Michinaga, actively thrashing the latter several times.
  • #47 has Keiwa holding his own against Premium Kekera using Ninja Form for the majority of the fight, even gaining the upper hand at one point. He only uses Bujin Sword Form for the finishing blow.