This is a partial character sheet for Kamen Rider Kuuga. Visit here for the main character index. Subjective trope and audience reactions should go on the YMMV page.
An ancient race of violent, animal-like monsters that kill people for their ruthless game called Gegeru, in order to climb the ranks and challenge the N Tribe for their title. They were sealed away until humans uncovered the burial grounds for the original Kuuga, and by disturbing it, awaken N·Daguva·Zeba, who resurrects 200 members to partake in a modern day Gegeru. Most notable about them is the fact that they have their own language, and it was not translated during initial airing.
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In General
- Always Chaotic Evil: They're basically an entire race of super powered serial killers.
- Animal Motifs: All of their monster forms are based on animals.
- Body-Count Competition: Their game is basically one, about killing humans within the rules they set up
- Evil Counterpart: Along with Daguva, both Go·Badaa·Ba and Go·Gadoru·Ba parallel Kuuga in different ways. Badaa, like Kuuga, is a Badass Biker whose animal tattoo just so happens to be the motif of the first Kamen Rider. Gadoru, as the leader of the Go Tribe, is able to change between forms, five in total, each paralleling one of Kuuga's base four forms and his Rising form. It also helps that his animal motif is a rhinoceros-beetle.
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Fashion-Victim Villain: Perhaps as a result of being a prehistoric Human Subspecies revived in the modern age, many of them have an eccentric manner of dress, especially the lower-ranked ones, with some exceptions. Averted with the higher-ranked Grongi, who overall dress sensibly. - Mythology Gag: Go·Badaa·Ba is a grasshopper-based Grongi with a red scarf and a bike. To a lesser extent, Xu·Vazuu·Ba is reminiscent of the yellow-scarved Shocker Riders.
- Palette Swap: Go·Badaa·Ba and Xu·Vazuu·Ba; both are grasshopper-based Grongi with minor design differences, the most prominent of which is the color of their scarves. This is justified as they're twins.
- Serial Killer: They're essentially an entire tribe of serial killers who view murdering a select number of people as a cultural game.
- Self-Imposed Challenge: In-Universe. Each of them puts one on themselves when it's their turn as part of their game. Failing the challenge can get their kills voided or boot them out of the game.
- Transformation Trinket: It's eventually revealed that the belts all Grongi wear function nigh-identically to Kuuga's Arcle, fusing with their nervous systems and giving them the ability to transform into powerful combat forms. They're probably the only Kamen Rider monsters where their true forms are their human forms.
- Transmutation: The Grongi of the Go Group have the ability to transmute items into weapons.
- The Unfought: Most of the 200 members are Killed Offscreen by Kuuga or Daguva.
- Wicked Cultured: Some of the Go class; one reads the collected works of Camus, while another plays Chopin at the piano.
The N Group
N·Daguva·Zeba/Unidentified Lifeform 0/Unidentified Lifeform B13
Portrayed by: Kenji Urai
The Stag Beetle Grongi, and the ruler of the Grongi tribe. He is the first Grongi to be awoken and was the one to revive all 200 of the rest of his tribe (although he slaughtered a large number of them as they were too weak to fight Kuuga). Dubbed Unidentified Life Form 0, Daguva took the form of a young man in white towards the end of the series once Kuuga defeated the Xu, Me and Go tribes. Towards the finale, he attempted to bring about the 'Ultimate Darkness' to turn humans into a violent race like the Grongi. Yusuke eventually confronted Daguva in the mountains and after cracking each other's belts, were both forced into their human forms where they fought hand-to-hand. In the end, despite dealing Yusuke a critical blow, Daguva was killed.- Ax-Crazy: He's thoroughly insane and psychotic and has a love for killing and fighting.
- Big Bad: The one who leads the Grongi Tribe.
- Blood Knight: He spends a lot of the Final Battle laughing his head off and having the time of his life, even as he's being beaten to death.
- Brought Down to Badass: He was willing to continue his last battle with Godai when they both end up back in their human forms, even if it meant he physically (and fatally) lost (as far as he ultimately knew)
- The Corrupter: Desires to become this for humanity and make them as vile and violent as his kind.
- Dystopia Justifies the Means: His end goal is a world of perpetual conflict where every single person despises each other.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: His plan ultimately fails because he was incapable of understanding that Godai could destroy him and end the bloodshed without becoming just as violent as he is.
- Evil Counterpart: Just like Yusuke, he's a handsome man who turns into an insectoid combat form, controls the elements (he can shoot flames, call down lightning and create massive snowstorms) and is a supremely powerful fighter. Unlike Yusuke he's a heartless sadist who lives only for his next fight, win or loss. His true form is actually an inversion - Kuuga's powers were derived from Daguva, not the other way around.
- Faux Affably Evil: He is very polite, almost friendly, whenever he interacts with Kuuga or with anybody who earns the right to challenge him. However, that doesn’t stop him from trying to murder them after talking with them and he has no qualms killing anybody who happens to annoy him.
- Light Is Not Good: His wears a white suit in his human form and his perfect form is white with gold accessories but is rotten to the core.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Is equal in strength to Kuuga Ultimate, implying he's every bit as potentially destructive. If nothing else, he's capable of mass slaughtering people with pyrokinesis with no effort and capable of Weather Manipulation.
- Playing with Fire: Has the ability to light people on fire. Not 'shoot them with fire', point his hand at them and they're suddenly on fire.
- Position of Literal Power: The leader of the Grongi and by far the most powerful and evil member of their race.
- Satanic Archetype: He's a man in white who's the sadistic ruler of a race of effectively demons and who plans to corrupt humanity into evil and wicked creatures.
- The Social Darwinist:
- Daguva absolutely despises the lowly and weak, doesn't care about any human (or Grongi) lives, and is willing to use any means necessary to make humanity as violent and hateful as he.
- The first thing he does after waking up and resurrecting his brethren is kill 162 of them (out of 200) due to them being too weak to fight.
- The Sociopath: He has no regard for life whatsoever and is willing to cross any moral boundary to accomplish his goals.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Despite his extremely visible apocalyptic powers and his ruthless sadism, Daguva never yells, acts arrogantly, or trash talks like his subjects. Instead, he speaks softly despite being the most evil of his brethren.
- To Create a Playground for Evil: Daguva has no problems with killing every low ranking Grongi Tribesmen and causing mass destruction just for the sake of evil. However, his end goal is to make humanity as brutal and violent as himself, not wipe them out.
- Vocal Dissonance: Throughout the series, Daguva has been depicted as a ruthless sadist with apocalyptic powers and his true form is definitely intimidating. However, his voice is disturbingly soft and youthful, which seems unfitting for his sadism and monstrous appearance.
- Weather Manipulation: Can induce heavy rains or blizzards just by being present. He weaponizes this to call down lightning strikes as well.
- Xanatos Gambit: His final fight with Kuuga, he wins and he goes on to bring about the Ultimate Darkness, Yusuke wins and Kuuga becomes his successor. Subverted since Yusuke wins the fight yet he never became evil, thus foiling Daguva's plan.
The La Group
The Rose-Tattooed Woman/Unidentified Lifeform B1/La·Balva·De
Portrayed by: Mie Nanamori
The Rose Grongi and the "judge" of the Gegeru. She is initially clad in black, and offers rose petals to her fellow Grongi as some kind of symbolic gesture. Ultimately killed by Kaoru Ichijo with the Nerve-Breaking Bullets.- Arch-Enemy: She and Ichijo confront each other three times over the course of the show. The first two times she easily knocks him on his ass, and by the third time she's easily able to get under his skin by comparing her race to humanity. He kills her in a fit of rage, and she dies smiling, having proving her point and rendering the victory hollow.
- The Baroness: Despite her attractive human form, she acts mainly like the scheming manipulator.
- Blood from the Mouth: When shot, and her last words are a struggle to get out.
- The Dragon: The closest thing the Grongi have to one.
- Foil: To Gadoru, Daguva's other lieutenant and the physical muscle to her more delicate scheming.
- The Heavy: As Daguva doesn't have that much of a physical presence early in the series, she acts as the one giving orders to the Grongi and deciding who gets to attack next, as well as the terms of their 'game'.
- Mouth of Sauron: Her orders and plans come from Daguva, even if they're only seen together a few times in the endgame.
- The Unfought: Downplayed Trope. Her monster form is never seen, Godai never fights her directly nor meets her, and she's killed by the Ichijo. That said, she gets in one last jab against Ichijo being not so different from herself.
- Villain Respect: She seems to be fascinated by how much humanity has changed, outright telling a few Grongi not to underestimate them, Ichijo in particular. During her final confrontation with Ichijo, she's outright pleased that he gunned her down in a fit of rage. Her final moments even have her state that, should she ever reincarnate, she'd like to meet him again.
La·Dorudo·Gu/Unidentified Lifeform 47/Unidentified Lifeform B9
Portrayed by: Tenmei Basara
The Condor Grongi and the second "judge" of the Gegeru. He carries an abacus which he uses to count the number of kills by the Go Group Grongi, at least, until Ichijo destroyed it with a Marking Bullet, and he's forced to to fight for his life against Gadoru as Ichijo arrives to the scene, and is ultimately killed by Sugita and Sakurai, who shoot him dead with the completed Nerve-Breaking Bullets.- Flight: He reveals in episode 45 that his Grongi form has wings that allow him to fly, explaining how he gets around to monitor their games.
- The Stoic: Usually monotone and composed when interacting with others.
Nu Group
Nu·Zajio·Re/Unidentified Lifeform B14
Portrayed by: Tadashi Takatsuki
- The Unfought: Got killed by Daguva just as he finished his final work.
The Xu Group
Xu·Gmun·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 1
Portrayed by: Tetsuo Sakaguchi (voice)
- Disney Villain Death: Averted. He seems to die when kicked off out of a helicopter, but later turns up to trying get revenge by working with Goma to kill Kuuga.
- I'll Kill You!: He yells at Kuuga with this threat before he explodes.
- Mythology Gag: The very first Monster of the Week in Heisei Rider is spider-themed, just like that of the original series.
- Starter Villain: For not only Kuuga, but also for the entire Heisei era.
Xu·Goma·Gu/Unidentified Lifeform 3/Unidentified Lifeform B2
Portrayed by: Mitsuru Fujio
Goma was one of the longest lasting Grongi, surviving the Xu tribe, the Me tribe, and all but the final three members of the Go tribe.
- Arc Villain: The most recurring Grongi after Balva and the only one to show up in monster form and fight Kuuga multiple times without dying. His death demonstrates how much worse an imperfect Daguva is. And then Daguva gets the rest of his powers back...
- Butt-Monkey: Gets tossed around easily by the Grongi and sent howling into the night after his first battle with Kuuga. Even his death is an undignified mess, with his bloodied corpse tossed into a tree after trying to attack Daguva.
- Character Tic: Has a tendency to flick his earring.
- Dirty Coward: Spends most of the series running and hiding from Kuuga or the other Grongi until he gets his One-Winged Angel forms. But even that doesn't save him from Daguva.
- Meaningful Name: Goma's name comes from Japanese terms for "bat" (for obvious reasons) and "opportunist" (his frequent attempts to partake in the Gegeru). The "Goma" part of his name can also mean "Strong Demon" (強魔 Gōma), which he becomes through obtaining Daguva's power.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Grongi only start taking him seriously after he gets his 11th-Hour Superpower.
- Our Vampires Are Different: He's not actually a vampire, but his burning aversion to sunlight and habit of feasting on blood give him a certain vampire bat theme.
- Unknown Rival: Despises Balvaa for rejecting him, and not giving him a second chance at the Gegeru. She considers him a nuisance at best.
- Too Dumb to Live: The power he obtains from a small piece of Daguva's belt goes to his head, and he attempts to challenge the Grongi leader directly. Sure enough, it gets him killed easily.
Xu·Mevio·Da/Unidentified Lifeform 5
Portrayed by: Chikako Shiratori (human form), Kumiko Saijo (voice, Grongi)
- Eye Scream: Xu·Mevio·Da got shot in the eye by police, with bloody results.
- Panthera Awesome: The first of few of her race shown with a feline motif.
Xu·Vazuu·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 6/Unidentified Lifeform B5
Portrayed by: Nobuyuki Ogawa
- Jump Physics: As part of his murder method.
Xu·Zain·Da/Unidentified Lifeform 22/Unidentified Lifeform B3
Portrayed by: Akira Nogami
- Berserk Button: He really hates the sound of humming engines. So much so that he attacks anyone in the vicinity of one, including the vehicle itself.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Very rough and easily irritable. Unlike the generally complex methods of other Grongi, his reason for killing is... Anyone near an idling vehicle.
- Rhino Rampage: He's based on a rhinoceros and he's easily angered by the sound of idle car engines, brutally attacking it and anyone near him.
The Me Group
Me·Vajis·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 14
Portrayed by: Shu Kawai
- Bee Afraid: In more ways than one. He can fly incredibly high and incredibly fast, and can fire his stingers like bullets.
Me·Geega·Gi/Unidentified Lifeform 21
Portrayed by: Masashi Shirai
- Mad Bomber: He kill his victims by spouting explosive ink towards them.
- Made of Explodium: His ink, which is so volatile it detonates almost the instant it touches anything.
- Stealthy Cephalopod
Me·Byran·Gi/Unidentified Lifeform 23/Unidentified Lifeform B7
Portrayed by: Hironobu Ohashi
Me·Garido·Gi/Unidentified Lifeform 24
Portrayed by: Nao Ishibashi
- Badasses Wear Bandanas: Wears one in his Grongi form.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Even among the oddball Grongi, he definitely fits. He's strong enough to fight, but his game involves driving a mundane truck backwards to squish his targets to death. Even the other Grongi like Goma question it.
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: He has a very high-pitched, raspy voice, which just adds to his strange appearance and deranged behaviour.
- Evil Sounds Raspy: Incredibly so, to the point that you have to wonder if his actor hurt his throat doing the voice.
Me·Gadra·Da/Unidentified Lifeform 25
Portrayed by: Yoshiro Nishikawa
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Not only lasts for one episode, but also doesn't get that much screentime either.
Me·Ginoga·De/Unidentified Lifeform 26A
Portrayed by: Yu Aoyama
- Came Back Wrong: After being destroyed by Kuuga's strengthened Growing Kick, he regenerates from his remaining arm, but he's reduced to a mindless mutant who lacks the original's regenerative or poisoning abilities.
- Crossdresser: Has long white hair and wears effeminate clothing like a white sun hat and high-heeled boots.
- Healing Factor: Is able to regenerate at a cellular level, becoming stronger as a result with resistance to the infliction he receives from a fight.
- Kiss of Death: Me·Ginoga·De's killing method. While the poison he injects with it almost kills Godai, "killing" him only caused his belt to power up enough to allow Godai to defeat the rest of the Grongi.
- Odd Name Out: He's the only Grongi whose Unidentified Lifeform codename includes "A" in it, due to their being two of him, with the clone being labelled 26B.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His spores only work in areas with a specifically warm temperature. Due to this, there's only so many areas he can choose to hunt, specifically near the exhaust fans of air conditioning units.
- White Hair, Black Heart: Has long white hair in human form and is a poisonous Grongi.
Me·Galme·Re/Unidentified Lifeform 31/Unidentified Lifeform B4
Portrayed by: Masaharu Mori
- Hollywood Chameleon: They're so stealthy that the police develop a custom grenade just to forcibly avert the trope for a while.
- Mook Promotion: Was originally from the Xu Group before being promoted to the Me Group off-screen.
Me·Garima·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 36/Unidentified Lifeform B6
Portrayed by: Miho Iijima
- Menacing Stroll: Despite carrying a giant scythe blade in public and very visibly moving towards her targets, at no point does she ever feel the need to move beyond a casual walk.
- Sinister Scythe: Used a double bladed scythe, due to being a mantis. It breaks in half thank to Kuuga, forcing her to Dual Wield it instead.
- Tempting Fate: Tells her victims that she slashed to beware turning around before they fall.
The Go Group
Go·Buuro·Gu/Unidentified Lifeform 37
Portrayed by: Koichi Takano
- An Arm and a Leg: Tears off one of his own wings in his first fight with Kuuga to avoid being killed by one of Kuuga's shots. It's grown back by the next episode.
- Blow Gun: His weapon of choice, which he uses to fire darts into the shoulders of his targets that pass through the bloodstream and into their heart, resulting in a fatal heart attack.
- Bookworm: Is often seen reading The Complete Works of Albert Camus. He does this to get a better understanding of human civilization.
- Flight: As the owl Grongi, he is one of the few that is capable of flight.
- Healing Factor: He's able to grow back one of the wings he lost in his first fight with Kuuga.
- Rule of Three: It took three bullets from Kuuga to kill Buuro.
- Sinister Shades: Is always seen wearing circular shades in his human form.
Go·Bemiu·Gi/Unidentified Lifeform 38
Portrayed by: Seiko Ito
- Complexity Addiction: Worth noting due to the sheer complexity of her chosen ruleset. She has to kill a specific number of people relating to musical notation, and only at aquatic locations with names related to musical scales, and it has to be to the tune of Chopin's Revolution.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: In her human form she's a brunette with very pale skin and only wears dark clothing, making her look rather sinister.
- Elemental Weapon: Her whip is able to freeze whatever it touches to below-zero temperatures.
- Evil Wears Black: All of the clothes she wears are black, and so is her make-up.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her human form is that of an attractive woman who wears either a black cheongsam with a slit to show off her legs or a form-fitting swimsuit and is often under Male Gaze shots. She even gets two Sexy Surfacing Shot scenes where she climbs out of a pool.
- Snakes Are Sinister: She's themed after sea snakes and has a sinister demeanor.
- Villain Ball: Playing Chopin's Revolution in a piano that was placed in a location which is concurrently investigated by the Police, allowing Ichijo to learn her Gegeru's pattern, and leading to her death. Dorudo even warned Zazalu later on to not repeat her mistake in "underestimating the Linto".
- Weapon Specialization: Her choice of weapon in battle is a whip with freezing properties.
- Wicked Cultured: Has a love for classical music and can play Chopin in the piano. One person who complained what she was listening to instantly got murdered by her.
Go·Gamego·Re/Unidentified Lifeform 39
Portrayed by: Kazuyoshi Sakai
- Epic Flail: His weapon in battle and what he uses for his kills.
- The Gambler: A mild version, but he bases his targets on the results of a roulette wheel spin. It ends up making him remarkably easy to find, since all his attacks happen in a straight line.
Go·Badaa·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 41/Unidentified Lifeform B8
Portrayed by: Nobuyuki Ogawa
- Badass Biker: In both human and Grongi form. He outclasses Godai multiple times on their respective bikes, and it's not until Godai gets a clear upgrade that he's defeated. He also fits this into his Self-Imposed Challenge, which requires him to only attack people riding bikes.
- Cool Bike: His bike can transform from a simple motorbike into a Grongi death machine.
- Scarf of Asskicking: He even keeps it during his transformation!
Go·Jalaji·Da/Unidentified Lifeform 42
Portrayed by: Masayoshi Okawa
- Asshole Victim: His death is brutal, as he's reducing to fighting for his life while Kuuga savagely beats him to death in graphic detail, but it's impossible to feel bad for him given what he did. His death crucially represents a demonstration of the violent lengths even a Nice Guy like Godai will be pushed to in the face of the Grongi's violent cruelty, with the need to control that violence being what forms Godai's character arc.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He inflicts this on his victims as his needles cause them to develop fatal encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain.
- He himself is subject to one by Godai. First he's tackled out a window from three floors up onto hard pavement. Then Godai begins brutally pummeling him against the ground, visibly busting open Jalaji's cheek and splattering the ground with blood. When Jalaji tries to run, Kuuga just grabs his and pulls him into another beating against a pillar. After knocking Jalaji to the ground, Godai mounts up on his bike and summons the Gouram to ram into the bastard and carry him off. It's here that Jalaji gets his one actual swing in by trying to stab Godai only to be countered by a Super Transformation into Titan form and hurled into the ocean by Kuuga coming to a sudden stop. He then spends the last moments of his life sobbing in terror and futilely hurling needles at the armored Titan form before being slashed, knocked over and brutally impaled by its finisher.
- Hate Sink: He's by far one of the worst Grongi out there without a single humanizing trait.
- Sadist: Jalaji commits his crimes precisely because he enjoys himself watching living beings suffer.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's only a Monster of the Week, but his sheer, unbridled cruelty and sadism is what brings out the destructive anger and power that fuels Kuuga, something Godai is forced to grapple with through to the end of the series.
- Tears of Fear: It's not immediately apparent, but when Kuuga is slowly walking towards him with intent to kill, Jalaji can be heard faintly sobbing in terror.
- Would Hurt a Child: His Gegeru involves killing second year high-schoolers, no older than 14 years old. The fact that he does this with no remorse is what drives Kuuga to go absolutely ballistic on him.
Go·Zazalu·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 43
Portrayed by: Chiaki Asakura
- Femme Fatalons: Has a hobby of painting her nails in human form. It's actually part of her ruleset, and helps her keep track of where she needs to kill next.
- Hollywood Acid: Go·Zazalu·Ba's scorpion venom. It's dangerous enough that Godai is scared of defeating her and accidentally causing her acid to explode everywhere.
- Scary Scorpions: She's based on a scorpion and has the explosive venom to back it up. Her choice of words is also very venomous.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: It makes her stand out a lot compared to her more calm and restrained team members.
Go·Jaaza·Gi/Unidentified Lifeform 44/Unidentified Lifeform B10
Portrayed by: Sumire Arai
- Boring, but Practical: While cowardly, she only attacks the weak and in enclosed spaces where they can't escape. This allows her to gain a significant number of kills very quickly. She also makes sure that she only has to perform two major attacks on humankind in order to save time.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Assumes the form of a glasses-wearing woman in a dark green suit and targeted those she considered too weak to fight back. She also publicly informed people online before she did so, fully confident that nobody could stop her.
- Threatening Shark
Go·Babel·Da/Unidentified Lifeform 45/Unidentified Lifeform B12
Portrayed by: Kensho Sakurai
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Doesn't get much screentime in Grongi form during his turn.
Go·Gadoru·Ba/Unidentified Lifeform 46/Unidentified Lifeform B11
Portrayed by: Masato Gunji
- Arc Villain: Aside from Balva and Goma, he is one of the few Grongi to fight, and defeat, Kuuga more than once. Usually the Grongi only take two episodes to beat, while Gadoru's game took three.
- The Brute: While neither stupid or slow, he relies mostly on his overwhelming power to crush his enemies, as Goma found out the hard way.
- Climax Boss: The Grongi that targeted the police directly, defeated Kuuga with ease, and came closest to killing Ichijo. Kuuga only beats him by tapping into more of the golden power and running the risk of turning into a second Daguva.
- Evil Counterpart: Another one to Kuuga, having all of his powers but none of his kindness.
- Foil: To Balvqa. He's exceedingly masculine to her feminine, but as loyal to Daguva as she is and attempts to challenge him fairly, unlike Goma.
- Mirror Boss: Has all of Kuuga's powers and even form changes just like Godai. He even has his own golden form that matches Kuuga's Rising Mighty form. He does not have a counter to Amazing Mighty, which kills him.
- Shadow Archetype: He is the heartless warrior that everyone fears the fighting will turn Godai into.
- The Stoic: Rarely raises his voice, to contrast some of the other recurring Grongi like Goma.
