Takeshi Asakura

"Being a Rider really is fun..."

- Asakura commenting on his involvement in the Rider Battle

Takeshi Asakura (浅倉 威) is Kamen Rider Ouja (仮面ライダー王蛇), a Rider in the Kamen Rider Series Kamen Rider Ryuki. He is the sixth of the 13 Kamen Riders the story revolves around and serves as one of the main villains in the series.

Series
Asakura was born in 1977. At age 13, he murdered his entire family in a fire, though his younger brother survived. Since, Asakura developed a reputation as a sadistic felon with a love to fight, maim and otherwise destroy anything in his random fits of rage. As a result of his sadistic nature, prior to becoming a Rider, Asakura was personally responsible for both ending the piano career of Tezuka's friend Yuichi Saito and murdering the older sister of Miho Kirishima. Eventually, his arrogant personality results with his defense attorney, Shuichi Kitaoka refusing to represent him and left him to rot in jail. Because he was in prison and could not feed his destructive nature, Takeshi gladly accepted Kanzaki's offer to join the Rider War and forms a pact with Venosnaker, using his newfound powers as Ouja in its many forms to break out of jail, avoid the law, and get his revenge on Kitaoka.

Ouja fought only to fight and was the first Rider to actually kill other Riders, killing Kamen Rider Gai and Kamen Rider Raia and taking their Contract Monster afterwards. Ouja also destroyed Kamen Rider Imperer's deck, causing him to die in the Mirror World. While the other Riders had a desire that would be granted if they won the Rider War, Asakura was simply having fun, and said that if he won, he would wish for the Rider War to start over so he could keep enjoying himself.

Ren helped Asakura fake his death once so he can fight in the Rider War without police interference. But when he was publicly revealed to be alive, Asakura was soon later captured, going in and out of jail for several instances. In one such case, he uses Metalgelas while in a police van to dispose of his police captors before escaping into the Mirror World. After a fight with Kamen Rider Ryuki Survive and Kamen Rider Tiger, he had been seriously injured and handed back to the authorities once again by Shinji. Soon he escaped again, with aid of his lawyer at that time whom he had knocked out and switched clothes with the lawyer to escape.

In the process of learning of Kitaoka's identity as a Rider, Asakura attempted to lure him by staging a hostage situation to get Kitaoka. Asakura had Venosnaker kidnap Goro Yura so Ouja can pressure Zolda into bringing Knight, Ryuki and Raia to a specific meeting place. However, Goro escapes by picking the lock of the handcuffs. Though he lost to Zolda, Ouja survived and senselessly killed Kamen Rider Gai in the process.

Upon learning of Kitaoka's identity as a Rider, he formed a personal grudge against him that manifested in many attempts to harm Kitaoka. The two would fight many times throughout the series. Miyuki Tezuka (Kamen Rider Raia) also held a personal grudge against Asakura for ending the piano career of his friend, Yuichi Saito.

During the series, he came under fire from his three monsters when they were hungry for life energy. They came close to devouring Asakura if not for his strong determination. After hunting down three Mirror Monsters, Ouja was able to feed his contract monsters. Kamen Rider Knight and Zolda tried to prevent his monsters from feeding so that they would turn on him and remove Asakura from the Rider War. but Kamen Rider Ryuki intervened and allowed the monsters to feed because Asakura had actually saved a small girl from the three monsters they hunted.

At the end of the series he finally has his showdown with Zolda. Ouja, using his "Doomsday" Final Vent, destroys Magnugiga before fatally injuring Zolda. Though happy with his victory, Ouja finds out seconds later that "Zolda" was actually Goro, as Kitaoka gave him his vent deck prior to succumbing to his cancer during the fight. Just as he returned to the real world in utter disarray of being denied the right to kill the man he hated the most, Asakura finds himself surrounded by the authorities in the warehouse he was in with snipers covering them. Defiant to the end, Asakura grabs a metal rod and runs at the cops screaming as they gun him down, brought to justice at last.

But because Kanzaki restored time to its proper course after Yui's death, Asakura was given a second chance in life with no memory of being a Rider and keeping a low profile, but still having a rude personality, as he was kicking Shinji's bike because it was in the way.

13 Riders
In the 13 Riders Special, Asakura was already a Rider and in jail until Venosnaker busted its master out. He later kills Kamen Rider Scissors. He reappears at the end where he activates Final Vent together with the others in one ending.

Kamen Rider Ryuki: Episode Final
In the movie, Episode Final, Asakura was targeted by Miho Kirishima, who became Kamen Rider Femme to hunt him down for revenge. Though she was outmatched by the stronger opponent, Kamen Rider Ryuga's destroying of Genocider reverted Ouja to Blank Form. Weakened, Femme stabbed right at Ouja's blank deck, destroying it. Shortly, Ouja's armor disintegrated and Asakura dissolved in the Mirror World as he attempted to take Miho down with him.

Advent Calendar
With the Rider War reaching its climax, Ryuki, Knight, Ouja, Zolda and Odin are the surviving Riders left. While Ouja is fighting Knight, he crushes him under some rubble. Ryuki shows up and challenges Ouja into a fight. Using the Survive Shippu card he stole from Knight, Ouja transforms into his Survive form, with Venosnaker evolving into Venoviper. As Yui happened to be nearby, Ouja summons Venoviper while holding Yui as its hostage. He then uses his new Unite Vent card with all the Advent cards he's gathered up until now from the Riders he defeated, with the Darkwing card also stolen from Knight. All of his monsters, as well as Dragreder, who just happened to be nearby, combine to form Genosurviver. However, since Dragreder still belongs to Ryuki, its head starts snapping at Venoviper's head. When Genosurviver starts to run out of control, it tries to attack and destroy Mirror World. Kitaoka shows up saying that he knew "something weird" was going on in Mirror World, since he was in his car when its windscreen just cracked. He transforms into Zolda, summons Magnugiga and performs the End of World, killing Ouja, Genosurviver and himself.

Ryuki sees the rubble with Knight under it. At that moment, he is possessed by the spirit of his deceased older brother, Shinichi Kido. Looking at the dead bodies of Ouja and Zolda, Yui says he did it, and while it happened, he and Dragreder had turned black.

Ending Journey
In Kamen Rider Decade, Ouja is summoned in the World of Hibiki by Kiva-la, wielding a kanabō which he uses to summon a Bakegani from the mountain side after knocking Kiva-la aside.

Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker
Asakura later appears in All Riders VS Dai-Shocker to fight the organization. However due to his sadistic nature he sides with Dai-Shocker along with KickHopper (Yaguruma). He attempts to stop Diend and Natsumi only for Diend to summon Gai, Raia, and PunchHopper to fight him and Yaguruma. He fought Gai and Raia, the two riders he killed in the series. The outcome of the fight is unknown.

OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
Kamen Rider Ouja was part of a group of reinforcement riders led by Akira Date/Kamen Rider Birth to aid the primary riders in defeating the Rock Great Leader. All the Kamen Riders got on their bikes and performed the All Rider Break attack which destroyed the Great Leader.

D-Video Special: Kamen Rider 4
Due to the re-alterations of time made by Shocker, Ouja later appeared, along with Kamen Riders 4, Sasword, Dark Kiva, and Baron to fight against the Kamen Riders as they catch onto Shocker's latest schemes. During the final loop, Ouja is destroyed alongside Dark Kiva by Deadheat Mach's Hit Macher Full Throttle.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid


"Fight! Keep fighting! If you don't fight...you will die..."

- Asakura's last words before fading away once again

Asakura was later revived along with the Beast Rider Squad as part of Foundation X's scheme in researching the Rider Gashats. He attacks Hiiro Kagami's nurse assistants, Mizuki and Satsuki, as well as Emu Hojo. Asakura as Ouja would later be defeated by Brave's Level 4 form, leading to Asakura fading away once again.

Rider Time Ryuki
Takeshi Asakura was among 13 people mysteriously kidnapped into the Mirror World and forced to join a survival battle royale. Unlike the other ones, he still kept his memories and quickly transformed into Kamen Rider Ouja.

On the 4th day, he confronted Kamen Rider Knight, who he claimed to be his archenemy. During their fight, Ouja was ambushed by a monster but it was intercepted by Kamen Rider Zolda. As Knight engaged the monster, Ouja confronted the newly appeared Rider, but Zolda quickly detransformed, revealing himself to be Goro Yura. Realizing him to be the lackey of Shuichi Kitaoka, Asakura took his leave, but Yura insisted to follow him as a servant, even when Asakura violently beat him. Later, Asakura accepted Yura as his servant and had him prepare a meal for him. Appealled by Yura's cooking skill, Asakura promised that he would spare Yura for the time being.

On the 5th day, when Shinji Kido's group was betrayed by Kamen Rider Raia and attacked by Scissors, Gai and Tiger, Ouja suddenly appeared and used a Final Vent kick to murder Tiger. When Ouja tried to strike a helpless Shinji Kido, he was intercepted by Kamen Rider Knight. . As Knight blocked the strike, Ouja joined the battle with Gai and Scissors. Zolda activated his Final Vent, causing a huge explosion, with Ouja laughing right beside him.

On the 6th day, Asakura was seen eating some food prepared by Goro. He was pleased at the food as usual, but he still could not understand why Goro was serving him, as Asakura was Kitaoka's enemy. He thought that Kitaoka may "turn in his grave" should he know Goro was his servant. Asakura admitted he had never actually hated Kitaoka, but it was Kitaoka who hated him. He then remarked that "hatred is a thing that you can trust".

As Asakura was the seemingly only participant with memory still intact, Ren and Shinji came to his place to ask him about the past. Asakura's only response was that their past was fighting and killing each other, and they were destined to keep fighting and killing like that for eternity.

Some time later, an outraged Ouja was looking for Ren and Shinji, telling them to come out and entertain him more. Ouja started to strike random objects in a fit of rage, but the two Riders were still nowhere to be found. A vexed Asakura later vented his anger on Goro due to having nobody to fight with. He threatened to kill Goro if Goro did not find an opponent for him right away. Just at that moment, Dark Shinji came and offers to "play" with Asakura. Finally happy with a chance to fight, Asakura transformed and charged at Dark Shinji. The two fought a brief while before Knight appeared and attacked Ouja, remarking that Kido's opponent was not the madman but him. Ouja was amused, and began fighting Knight. Knight told Ouja that he was merely wanting to die, then used his Final Vent on him right after, fatally wounding Ouja, forcing him to flee.

As Goro found his "master" on the verge of death due to the attack, he used the Magna Visor in human form to shoot at Ouja. It was revealed here that Goro's memory about the past was also intact like Asakura, and that he only agreed to serve and follow Asakura earlier so that he may have a chance to kill him. He had been loyal to Shuichi Kitaoka all along, and he wanted to fulfill his late master's wishes to end Asakura once and for all. Goro transformed into Zolda and used his Shoot Vent to attack Ouja, wounding him even more. Engulfed in flames, Ouja still defiantly charged at Zolda and used his Veno Saber to stab him in the chest. The two combatants were subsequently forced out of their transformations. Asakura was on the ground unconscious. Goro, thinking that he had fulfilled his master's wish, started to disintegrate because of Ouja's inflicted stab wound.

"NOT YET! More... More..."

- Asakura's last words before he disintegrated, still wanting to fight even more.

However, Asakura was revealed to be alive. He grabbed his Veno Saber in his human form to fight Shinji and Ren. As he was about to kill Shinji, Ren shielded him from the attack and received a mortal wound from Asakura as a result. Asakura, still wanting to fight and kill more and more, screamed in dissatisfaction as he disintegrated.

Personality
Asakura is a violent, bad-tempered, murderous, and sadistic man, finding joy in fighting, maiming, killing, or otherwise destroying anything in his random fits of rage. He is actually so drawn to violence that he feels an unbearable tension which can only be eased through fighting. He has no sympathy or remorse for his actions, and will attack anyone simply because he is "vexed". In fact, when he's "vexed", he would even go as far as to hurt himself, just to ease his tension. This is shown when he is confined in a jail cell, he becomes so frustrated that he begins banging his head on the wall until he draws blood.

His unhinged nature is such that he kills his entire family without any sign of repentance in a fire when he's only 13 years old. Furthermore, upon finding out his brother survives the event, he tracks him down only to feed him to Venosnaker. In fact, Asakura's wild personality even allows him to tame his three Mirror Monsters (two of which previously belong to the Riders he has killed). Asakura alone racks up the highest body count of all the Riders in Kamen Rider Ryuki, being directly responsible for the deaths of Gai, Raia, Imperer and Zolda.

His love for fighting is so much it is all it takes for him to join the Rider War. Unlike other Riders who join in order to have their wishes fulfilled, Asakura is just simply having fun with killing and fighting. In fact, he does not even know there is a "wish" for the winner until near the end-game stages of the War. Even upon learning that fact, he only states his wish is to make the Rider War endless, so that he can continue his destructive routine more and more to feed his urge for violence.

Despite his mad and deranged personality, Asakura is far from being mindless. He is perfectly capable of intelligent manipulation and does not make stupid decisions. This is shown when he uses Gai as a human shield, then kills him in cold blood right after he has served his purpose. He is even perfectly willing to use a young girl as a bait for three Mirror Monsters for his own benefit, and when he does not need her anymore, he leaves her without a word.

Asakura's utter disragard for human life, the versatility of his Advent Deck, along with his murderous and manipulative tendencies make him one of (if not the most) suitable candidates chosen by Shiro Kanzaki for the Rider War.

Fighting Style
Ouja is a melee based Rider like majority of the Kamen Riders. However, he is extremely sadistic, showing no mercy as well as superior tactics over his opponents. He fights relentlessly, but only if he is sure he will win, and isn't hesitant to use other Riders as factors or pawns in his battles. His Sword Vent is his most frequently used weapon. He becomes even more powerful when he forms Contracts with Metalgelas and Evildiver. This allows him access to Gai's Strike Vent and Raia's Swing Vent, making him a more versatile as well as a more deadly force. His Contract Monster Venosnaker participates in his battles, and is often seen as Dragreder's evil equivalent in the series (this has been replaced by Dragblacker). His durability due his wild nature also allows him to keep on fighting despite he is already in the state of dying and no longer a rider, proven when he almost killed Miho despite she is still in her Rider form and still hold enough time to kill Ren after being fatally wounded by Hishouzan and Magnugiga Launcher shoot vent.

However, Ouja is not without weaknesses. He's more vulnerable towards long-ranged opponents, his own unstable nature outclasses his fighting potential, he rarely uses his special card Steal Vent (possibly because he is comfortable with his choice of weapon, as well as only using it to disarm Riders, which is an ineffective strategy), and he rarely takes advantage of the more powerful Genocider, using the united Contract Monster as a more menacing or intimidating distraction in the battlefield. This may also prove that the united Contract Monster is difficult to control, but is restrainable.

Contract Monsters

 * Venosnaker
 * Evildiver
 * Metalgelas
 * Genocider

Equipment

 * Advent Deck - Transformation device and Advent Card holder
 * V-Buckle - Transformation belt
 * Advent Cards - Trinkets that enable a Rider to summon Contract Monsters, access equipment, and use special abilities
 * Veno Visor - Ouja's Visor that enables him to use Advent Cards

Vehicles

 * Ride Shooter - Motorcycle used by any Rider to enter the Mirror World

Kamen Riders

 * Shuuichi Kitaoka/Zolda: Asakura's enemy who refuses to be his lawyer until he escapes from jail thanks to Shiro Kanzaki. Throughout the series, he is hellbent on killing Kitaoka, seeing it as one of the main reasons why he entered the War. However, in Rider Time: Ryuki, Asakura admits he has never really hated Kitaoka, but it is Kitaoka who always hates him instead.
 * Ren Akiyama/Knight: Ren helps Asakura escape from the police on one occasion just so that he can fight him without interference. However, when Asakura crosses the line by injuring Shinji's arm in a fight prior to transforming, Ren fights him to claim Ryuki for himself fairly. In Rider Time: Ryuki, Asakura states that he and Ren are "so close that they have to kill each other". Asakura finally manages to kill Ren by impaling him with his Sword Vent, but Ren also fatally wounds him with his Final Vent, which ultimately results in his death.
 * Shinji Kido/Ryuki: At first, Asakura sees Shinji as a bumbling fool. Nevertheless, after learning his identity as a rider and having fought him twice (with the second time resulted in his nearly losing), he feels vexed of his righteousness yet intrigued and sees him as one of his rivals that he has to kill personally. However, Asakura fails to do so either in the TV Series or In the Movies. In Rider Time: Ryuki, Asakura himself disintegrates in front of Shinji before inflicting him any harm.
 * Satoru Tojo/Tiger: After Tiger injures him badly in a sneak attack, which results in his being thrown into jail once more, Asakura takes it upon himself to eliminate Tojo. In fact, on more than one occasion, Asakura chooses to fight and kill Tiger first even while in the process of battling his archenemy Kitaoka, emphasizing his hate towards the backstabber.

Others

 * Shiro Kanzaki: Despite his destructive nature and love for fighting, Asakura is surprisingly civil (and even somewhat friendly) towards Shiro. He even offers him food on two occasions. This is possibly because Shiro is the one who gave him his powers in the first place.

Portrayal
Takeshi Asakura is portrayed by Takashi Hagino (萩野 崇). As Kamen Rider Ouja, his suit actor was Jiro Okamoto (岡元 次郎), his sub was Keizo Yabe (矢部 敬三).

Name

 * Ouja's name is variably written as "Oja", "Ohja", and "Ohjya" in media released by TV Asahi, Toei Company, and Bandai.
 * His Rider name, Ouja, could also literally meant "King Evil" (王邪), as he is the long standing evil Kamen Rider in this series.
 * Asakura translates to 'Morning Storehouse.' It is the name of a former village, a city, and a district in Japan, as well as that of a daimyō clan.
 * He shares his first name with Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1, the first Kamen Rider.

Dub names
In the Korean dub of Kamen Rider Ryuki entitled Masked Rider Dragon, which aired in South Korea, Kamen Rider Ouja is renamed Masked Rider Viper (가면라이더 바이퍼 Gamyeon Raideo Baipeo).