Eason Chan once said: “Only those who stand in the light are heroes.” Who said that high popularity must belong to those heroes of justice? Here we have compiled some popular villains, Kamen Riders, to let you know that villains are not necessarily unpopular!
Popular “Villain” Kamen Rider
Shadow Moon：As one of the candidates for the “King of the Century”, Shadow Moon is definitely the number one villain knight. Although he is not the first villain Kamen Rider (Shuka Rider in No. 1 is also considered a villain), his handsome metal-style appearance, walking and mechanical sound effects are impressive. The tragic fate and the brainwashing setting made him forget the past brotherhood with Minami Kotaro and just wanted to destroy each other. After being finally defeated by Minami Kotaro, all the past memories were restored, and sadness enveloped the audience. In this scene, although he is a villain, through delicate description, Shadow Moon has successfully built a popular character in the hearts of the audience.
After successfully creating a popular character, Toei would give up so easily and immediately resurrected the whipping corpse in Kamen Rider Black RX the following year. Shadow Moon has also been resurrected in movies such as Heisei (Decade, Zi-O) and whipped corpses again.
In recent years, there was a remake of Kamen Rider Black, and Shadow Moon also appeared, but it was a pity that the original metal armor was removed in order to match its biological characteristics.
Kamen Rider OujaKing Snake:The famous madman has no tragic past, he is just a murderer who simply likes to fight, kill and destroy. It doesn’t talk about tactics, just crush the opponent violently, plus the classic use of enemies as defense, plus the actors perform the characters crazily to the fullest. Uncle Snake is a rare example of Kamen Rider. Toei likes to whitewash some popular characters in the past, so that they can at least be somewhat positive and avoid ending up dead (after all, the children are special photos), but King Snake does not follow this route and continues to continue his madness and evil, becoming an extremely evil existence.
King Snake is so popular that many years later, he was given a new ability and appearance, which is a dream come true for his fans. Bandai has new toys on sale!
With the successful example of Shadow Moon, basically a villain Kamen Rider (or a darkened version of Kamen Rider) will be added in the future. The colors are changed and there are new characters, and Bandai has new toys for sale!
Kamen Rider Psyga ：Kamen Rider is the first Chinese star in the history of Kamen Rider, Peter Ho, to transform into a Kamen Rider. He first appeared in Kamen Rider 555 The Movie “The Lost Paradise”. The dialogue is spoken in English throughout, but there is not much dialogue, so this is often laughed at by tokusatsu fans. Although Psyga is not the boss in the play, he impressed the audience deeply because he was supported by a handsome actor, dressed in white armor with blue cold light, and used a jetpack to ruthlessly hunt down the villains in battle.
Why can’t Psyga be said to be the first Chinese Kamen Rider in history? Because Hong Kong Shaw Brothers had “Chinese Superman”, and the settings in it were “referenced” to Kamen Rider, so the first place can only be Li Xiuxian.
Kamen Rider Eternal：Our E-Brother will definitely get a ranking. E-Brother appears in Kamen Rider W The Movie “A to Z/Gaia Memory of Destiny”. The actor is also played by Mitsuru Matsuoka, the lead singer of the popular band SOPHIA. The white shape, obvious flame shapes on the hands, and the blue flame cloak give the audience a strong visual impact.
Although Brother E is the leader of the villainous NEVER immortal mercenaries, he possesses strong charisma and camaraderie. In addition, he is one of the few villains with his own unique lines and action moves, which left a deep impression on the audience. Later, because of his high popularity, Toei released a special side story detailing his story of becoming NEVER. The tragic shaping made him become the most handsome villain Kamen Rider!
Brother E’s classic line “Come on, enjoy the fun of hell!” and his sarcastic response to W’s classic line “Are you still counting things now?”, the bad image can certainly win people’s hearts.
Kamen Rider Evol：After talking about Brother E, let’s talk about Mr. E. After all, E is a very charming villain. Unlike other villains who have deep grudges in the past, he destroys planets just for fun or his own evolution. As a villain, he has a super high IQ. Almost the entire plot of Kamen Rider Bulid was planned or controlled by him. The protagonists are all played by him. He is definitely the strongest IQ villain in Heisei. Actor Maekawa Yasuyuki, he can switch from playing the role of a kind and gentle coffee shop owner to the expression of “Demon King of Destruction” in one second. His explosive acting skills are definitely the reason why Mr. E has become a very popular villain. Paired with the main voice of E, Tetsuo Kanao, the ordinary lines bring out evil and sarcastic emotions, making people really want to “punish him on behalf of the protagonist”.
Mr. E’s classic “CIAO” (Goodbye in Italian), although it is a simple word, its frivolity and action, as the plot progresses, later becomes an action that makes the protagonists and the audience angry. It can be seen that the overall production team is working hard.
Kamen Rider Genm：Our eternal “god” – Tan Lito is here and appears in Kamen Rider Ex-Aid. The reason for his high popularity is probably his good looks and constant creation of Internet memes. When he first appeared in the play, he originally had the personality of an elite president. However, as the plot progressed, the actor didn’t know whether he had permission from the director, and his appearance began to deteriorate. He used exaggerated actions and uttered the insane line “I am a god”, which made the audience think he was insane. After initially thinking that he was crazy, he gradually began to accept his madness. Coupled with the actor’s good-looking appearance, the audience could not dislike this character.
Although he was initially set as the evil president, as his popularity grew, Toei came back to whitewash him, bringing him back into the show and explaining his madness so that everyone could accept this “bad” Kamen Rider.
Although Genm was a bit whitewashed in the TV version, in later spin-offs, his setting was classified into the “anti-hero” category. What remains unchanged is his exaggerated looks and crazy performances. For the sake of performance, he is willing to show his buttocks. Do you think you are Tony Leung!
Kamen Rider Gold Drive：The above-mentioned villain Kamen Rider is popular, probably because of his charm, madness, and pathos, but this one is popular purely because the audience wants to kill him. Kamen Rider Gold Drive is the big boss behind everything in Kamen Rider Drive, the evil scientist Barbaro Tenjuro.
In order to become the creator of life, he wanted to become a god, and he did not hesitate to control and play with Roidmude life at will, controlling them to conquer the world. In order to pursue immortality, he digitized his consciousness and stored it in Ban’s Drive Driver belt. You can also use the belt to possess Roidmude and become Kamen Rider Gold Drive to gain powerful power! He does whatever it takes to achieve his goals, even using his own children to achieve his goals.
The audience only liked Gold Drive in the scene where he was killed by his son Gang (Kamen Rider Mach). It was super cool to see him get beaten up. This scene has also become a famous scene in Heisei Kamen Rider as “the best father and son are filial”.
Kamen Rider Horobidestroy: Kamen Rider Zero -One is a famous villain Kamen Rider with a calm and neat fighting style (the leather suit is played by the second uncle). Although the actor is set as a robot, his unintentional and evil smile has captured the hearts of many girls and boys, and is responsible for the appearance of the early Reiwa era. He has awakened from the cold killing weapon to his father’s heart for his son. This emotional change and the growth of the character will definitely bring tears to many viewers.
Why is Kamen Rider Ark not so popular? I personally think it is a pity that it lacks personal plot in the plot. It just blindly eliminates human beings and has no so-called emotional growth of the characters. Maybe due to the epidemic at that time, the role was reduced a lot.
Why are these villains so popular? Usually it’s because they don’t just do evil, they don’t simply want to rule the world, but they have distinct characters and plots (such as the tragedy of Eternal and the brainwashing tragedy of Shadow Moon). They have their purposes, but some are helpless decisions, which makes the audience hate them but also feel a little pity for them, and sometimes they are attracted by their charm. As said at the beginning, “You are a hero only if you stand in the light.” But those who are attractive may not always stand in the light.
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