Takeru Tenkuji

"My life is burning bright!"

- Ghost's proclamation before a finisher

Takeru Tenkuji (天空寺 タケル) is the eponymous protagonist of Kamen Rider Ghost, as well as the son of Ghost Hunter Ryu Tenkuji. On his 18th birthday, Takeru was killed by the Katana Ganma. However, with the help of Sennin, he uses the Ghost Driver and Ghost Eyecons to become Kamen Rider Ghost (仮面ライダーゴースト) in order to fight against the Ganma.

Childhood
Takeru was the son of ghost hunter and Daitenku Temple owner, Ryu Tenkuji. After the death of his father, he was entrusted with the duty of a ghost hunter as Ryu passed on Miyamoto Musashi's hand guard to Takeru. He was also placed under the care of Onari, one of the Daitenku Temple's monks.

Later years, 18th birthday and Death
Takeru would spend several years in his late father's lab studying the Stories of the World's Greatest People to become a ghost hunter, but eventually felt closer to despair when he wasn't able to witness any of them.

On his 18th birthday, he was mailed a blank Ghost Eyecon from his late father, which was sent in October 2005, allowing him to see ghosts but at the same time becoming a target of Katana and Yari Ganma. He boldly faces them, but his lack of combat training eventually leads to his own death. He was soon revived as a ghost by Sennin, giving him the Ghost Driver and the duty to collect all 15 Heroes' Eyecons to revive himself within the period of 99 days. He was also entrusted with Yurusen, a small phantasm that would teach him how to use his powers. Now as the warrior Kamen Rider Ghost, he utilized his newfound power to fulfill his role as a Ghost Hunter to first defeat his murderers and then to prevent more targeted civilians from becoming sacrifices of Ganma.

To further assist Takeru, Onari forms an investigation group called the Mysterious Phenomenon Institute that bends on solving paranormal cases that may be related to the Ganma.

Clash of Specter
During his quest to collect Ghost Eyecons and killing the Ganma, he encountered another obstacle in his path in the form of Makoto Fukami, who possesses a Ghost Driver of his own and becomes Kamen Rider Specter. His goal is also to collect the Heroes' Eyecons for unknown reasons, and even goes so far by attempting to steal some of Takeru's Eyecons. This nearly shatters Takeru's confidence and gives him a paralyzing fear of Specter defeating him again until Akari's encouragement and support give him the resolve to regain faith in himself and the will to fight.

Kamen Rider Drive: Surprise Future
In the Kamen Rider Drive summer movie, Takeru briefly appeared and aided the Special Unit by fighting and destroying some of the numberless Roidmudes. While the TV ad trailer did not show Drive present during this fight, the scenes allude to Kiriko and Genpachiro possibly witnessing the fight of the supernatural warrior.

Kamen Rider Drive
As Kamen Rider Ghost, Takeru first appears before Shinnosuke Tomari in a dream the detective experiences during a near-death experience following the destruction of the Sigma Circular. Finding himself in a forest, Shinnosuke is advised by the new Kamen Rider to avoid the dark portal next to him, through which the ghosts of three dead Roidmudes, Super Evolved Freeze, Sword, and Thief, emerge. Ghost introduces himself to his predecessor as he directs him to a bright light which returns him to the real world before defeating the Roidmude spirits, destroying them with a series of slashes from his Gan Gun Saber.
 * Note: Ghost's second encounter with Shinnosuke takes place sometime before episode 4.

Later, Shinnosuke encountered Takeru again when he was searching for his Newton Eyecon and retrieved it. Shinnosuke recognized him from his dream but Takeru did not recognize him and introduced himself. Takeru let Shinnosuke borrow the Eyecon to save Kiriko when she was taken hostage by the Neo-Shade leader Keisuke Okamura so the terrorist could get the Eyecon. At first, the Eyecon uses its power to create an illusion of the Drive Driver to tempt the former Rider to use it so he could have his powers back. Shinnosuke used his police revolver instead to shoot Keisuke in the shoulder to disable and arrest him, freeing Kiriko. Shinnosuke then gave back the Eyecon to Takeru who was watching from afar and the young Rider told his companion Yurusen that he might meet the police detective again someday.

Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis
Ghost appears as the current hero in Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis.

Personality
Takeru is a timid young man who at first is a bit nervous and scared when he became a superhero. His ability to make himself physically solid as a ghost was also hard to control at first as it depended on his emotional state and his emotions were in conflict due to his worrying and depression of his deceased state. Upon hearing that he only had 99 days to live, he felt he couldn't achieve his goal of obtaining the other Eyecons. He was a bit self-defeating at first due to a lack of confidence, something that faded away by the time he meets Shinnosuke Tomari.

However, upon encountering Specter for a second time, he begins to doubt himself as Specter told him that he was soft and that he'd never beat him or get what he wants with his soft heart, something that Takeru has had for a long time.

Takeru also seems to get angered by anyone who does not value their own lives or the lives of others, as being dead has given him the perspective to cherish/protect all life and enjoy the time he has left while trying to restore himself.

Powers and Abilities

 * Limbo
 * Having been resurrected by Sennin through the Ghost Eyecon after his death at the hands of the Ganma, Takeru is granted a limited half-life, with the limit being 99 days. This limit will be lifted should Takeru assemble all 15 hero Eyecons, which would also complete his resurrection. However, should he fail in his objective, Takeru will die permanently. As a ghost, Takeru possesses a number of traits which distinguish him from living humans in addition to his use of the Eyecons to transform into Kamen Rider Ghost.
 * Invisibility/Intangibility
 * Like the Ganma, the deceased Takeru is naturally both invisible and intangible to living people. He has the ability to make himself visible and solid at will, allowing him to interact with humans. However, as noted by Yurusen, this ability depends on his emotional state, with Takeru initially fluctuating between being visible and invisible before he soon masters the ability. Like any ghost in popular fiction, Takeru can use his intangibility to phase through solid objects such as walls or the ground and reemerge elsewhere.
 * Indestructibility
 * According to Yurusen, due to Takeru already being dead, he cannot be killed a second time. However, as Takeru soon finds out, he can still feel pain as he experiences when he is attacked by the Ganma or feels a force of impact such as a fall from a building. This makes Ghost not a truly unstoppable obstacle to the Ganma, as an overwhelming sensation of pain can cause him to pass out or temporarily be unable to counterattack.


 * Forcefield
 * Whenever Takeru wishes to be alone, he can generate a forcefield around himself to prevent others from disturbing him.

Damashii
Ghost's forms are called Damashii (魂), accessed using the Ghost Eyecons. He also bears a headpiece called the Persona (ペルソナ), which gives off a glow effect with the rest of his body. The Persona changes with Ghost's numerous Damashii forms, as well as serving as a prefix title for all of the Damashii forms' helms. Differentiating himself from Kamen Rider Specter, Ghost normally bears the Wisp Horn (ウィスプホーン) on his head in most of his Damashii forms, allowing him to use it either for perceiving and sensing Ganma within a 5 km. radius or as a weapon.

By pulling and pushing the Ghost Driver's lever a second time after transforming, Ghost can activate an Omega Drive (オメガドライブ) finishing attack tied to the Ghost Eyecon currently being used. If he pulls and pushes the lever four times, he can instead execute an Oomedama (オオメダマ) special attack.

Devices

 * Ghost Driver - Transformation device
 * Ghost Eyecons - Transformation trinkets. They also granted the ability to observe the Ganma when Takeru was alive.
 * Ghost Gadgets - Ghost's Support Robots and Gan Gun Saber mode-accessing devices

Weapons

 * Gan Gun Saber - Standard sidearm weapon
 * Unnamed gloves - Ghost Newton Damashii's personal weapons:
 * Repulsion Glove - Right hand
 * Attraction Glove - Left hand
 * Sunglasslasher - Ghost Tokon Boost Damashii's personal weapon

Vehicles

 * Iguana Ghostriker - Combined form of Ghost's personal vehicles:
 * Machine Ghostriker - Ghost's Rider Machine
 * Captain Ghost - Ghost's pirate galleon-like mecha

Portrayal
Takeru Tenkuji is portrayed by Shun Nishime (西銘 駿). As a child, Takeru is portrayed by Hinata Yamada (山田 日向), who previously portrayed Sho Sakai in Kamen Rider Wizard.

As Kamen Rider Ghost, his suit actor is Seiji Takaiwa (高岩 成二) who has been the suit actor for the majority of leading Heisei Kamen Riders (except Kuuga and Hibiki).

Rider No.
As the leading rider protagonist of Kamen Rider Ghost, Ghost is labelled Kamen Rider #32 (仮面ライダー32号) and Heisei Rider #17 (平成ライダー17号).