Ryo Murasame

"If you are unable to atone yourself, then you just have to keep on fighting!"

- Dr. Kaido to ZX

Ryo Murasame (村雨 良) is Kamen Rider ZX (仮面ライダーZX (ゼクロス)), the tenth fictional superhero in the Kamen Rider franchise to bear the eponymous title. ZX holds the distinction of being the first Rider who did not star in his own television series. The character debuted in an eponymous manga series which began serialization on the July 1982 issue of the Japanese publication Television Magazine. ZX was then featured in a short radio drama broadcast during a special episode of All Night Nippon hosted by Shotaro Ishinomori on August 14, 1982 commemorating the character's official debut, before making his live-action television debut in the special Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!!.

History
Ryo and his sister were shot down while flying in the Amazon jungle by a terrorist organization known as the Badan Empire and had both of them captured. Later, Badan kills his sister and turns Murasame into a cyborg warrior named ZX and brainwashes him; however, an accident enables him to regain his memory. Murasame becomes a Kamen Rider to avenge his sister. His first encounter with the past Kamen Riders is when he mistakes both Kamen Rider Super-1 and Riderman as soldiers of Badan. V3 arrived and stopped ZX, telling him that they're all enemies of Badan and want to destroy the Space Break System. Along with Riderman and Super-1, they explain to ZX, the history and meaning of being a Kamen Rider, and, finally, he decides to join them, as the 10th Rider, Kamen Rider ZX. Later he fight and successfully defeat Eisuke Mikage (Tiger-Roid).

Afterwards, Badan's base was located, and all 10 Riders went towards it. Ambassador Darkness welcomed them and sent all of Badan's troops against the Riders. V3 faced Dokuga-Roid and his Combat-Roids again, and after a long battle managed to destroy him by throwing him onto a fallen Yamaarashi-Roid. Afterwards, V3 and Rider 2 teamed up against Jūjin Ōmukade, a revived Geddon monster. however, before the battle could be finished, Ambassador Darkness attempted to use hostages to make the Riders surrender. His plan fail due to Super-1's interference and Ambassador Darkness decides to use the Space Break System, only to destroy Badan's remaining troops. After V3's call, the ten Riders gather their power with Rider Syncro, weakening Ambassador Darkness and allowing ZX to finish him off with his ZX Kick. After Darkness is defeated, evil energy gathers in the shape of a giant skull, The Generalissimo of Badan, giving farewell to the Riders and laughing at them.

V3 bestows upon ZX the official name Kamen Rider 10 and soon all Riders part ways again to continue their battle against evil around the world.

RX
ZX, alongside the other Ten veteran Kamen Riders, fought against secret forces of the Crisis Empire spread throughout the world, defeating them in each country. However, Crisis' main forces, in Japan, still remained and they prepared a final offensive. Rider 1 called all Riders to a meeting in a secret facility in Arizona in the United States, to prepare for the upcoming battle, where they'd go to help Kamen Rider Black RX, the Kamen Rider that was defending Japan at the time. The 10 Riders split into two groups, which fought against each other. Group 1: Rider 1, Rider 2, V3, Riderman and X; and Group 2: Amazon, Stronger, Skyrider, Super-1 and ZX. During the training, V3 and Riderman often could be seen fighting together. After Crisis made a public announcement regarding its invasion of Japan, the 10 Riders finally left to the final battle.

After Crisis' war declaration, they immediately sent Gran Zairus, which landed on Earth like a meteor, destroying an entire island. Naval Commander Bosgun moved to attack Black RX, soon receiving help from Gran Zairus, who could resist all of RX's attacks. When Gran Zairus is about to finish him off, the 10 Riders finally arrive, rescuing RX and quickly escaping. ZX and the others introduce themselves to Kotaro Minami, Black RX. Bosgun finds them, and proposes a duel against Black RX, however, Kotaro's friend, Kyoko Matoba, V3, Skyrider and Super-1 soon notice Chaps hiding around the area to prepare an ambush, finishing them off. Following Rider 1's words, Kotaro decides to face Bosgun in a fair match while the other Riders watch, and finishes him off.

Meanwhile, Gran Zairus easily rips through the Japanese defense forces and brings down the city with his unmatched power. Kotaro leaves to fight him again, and, after some hesitation, Stronger and the other Riders follow him.

The 11 Riders face Gran Zairus, but even a combined Rider Punch with the power of the 11 Riders is useless against him. Gran Zairus transforms into a flaming rock, burning above 1000ºC, and easily knocks out ZX and the other Riders. In the end, Black RX takes the battle and manages to destroy Gran Zairus, forcing it to self-destruct, but seemingly explodes with it.

Afterwards, ZX and the other Riders helped evacuate the city's population and started to plan defensive measures for the next battles. However, soon the 10 Riders saw themselves facing Spirit World Demons, resurrected Crisis warriors. V3 faced the Harmful Imp and Ant Runt alongside Rider 1, successfully counter attacking, and later defeated Erigitron by himself, but they soon recovered from their attacks with no damage. When the battle seemed hopeless, Colonel Maribaron, the one behind this attack, revealed that the monsters wouldn't die as long as she kept a set of golden feathers with her, but Black RX returned, alive, stealing the feathers, stopping and destroying the monsters by himself.

After Black RX returned, the 10 Riders decided to spread themselves to observe and take on the Crisis forces, while Black RX protected his friends. Like usual, V3 and Riderman left together.

Wanting revenge against Black RX, a powered up General Jark, commander of the Crisis forces, Jark Midler, kills Sunkichi and Utako Sahara, who had helped Kotaro in the past, while taking their children as hostages. However, Kamen Rider Amazon saves the children and is quickly followed by V3, Riderman and X. V3 orders Amazon and X to take the children to Kotaro, while V3 himself and Riderman face Jark Midler. However, there's an overwhelming difference in power between them, and V3 can't even damage him. Some time later, V3 and Riderman are launched through the air, falling downtown, near a combat zone where Kotaro was helping. In a fair duel, Black RX ends up victorious over Jark, destroying him while the other Riders watch in amazement.

The Emperor Crisis calls Kotaro for a personal meeting. However, ZX and the others decide to follow him too. The emperor offers Kotaro the chance of becoming the commander of Crisis' invasion forces, however, after Kotaro refuses, General Dasmader appears alongside a group of Chaps and attacks Kotaro. ZX and the other Riders arrive and face the Chaps troops, but soon the entire cave is destroyed by the Crisis Fortress called by Dasmader. Black RX boards the fortress and destroys Dasmader, the Emperor and even Crisis itself. Meanwhile, the other Riders managed to survive the attack and meet RX after the battle was over. Following Rider 1's words, they all decide to part ways and fight evil around the world.

Kamen Rider Spirits
In the Kamen Rider Spirits manga, Murasame is an evil rider of Badan Empire. Having his memory erased by Badan, Murasame becomes emotionless and fights against the 9 Kamen Riders and humanity. When Murasame regains his memory and realizes that his sister Shizuka was killed by Badan, he turns against them and eventually joining forces with other riders to destroy Badan and its evil leader Judo. However, he refuses the title of Kamen Rider initially, later he starts to call himself Kamen Rider ZX, although not considering himself official yet.

All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker
To stop the fusion and destruction of the worlds, Tsukasa Kadoya (Kamen Rider Decade) announced a tournament gathering all Riders to find who was the strongest. ZX participated in the tournament fought against Kamen Rider Ryuki, though he did not make it to the final where Decade emerged victorious. ZX and the other defeated Riders disappeared into a dimensional wall and were taken for dead, leading Dai-Shocker to initiate its offensive.

Eventually, Decade turned against Dai-Shocker and faced its troops alone. However, a large dimensional wall appeared in the battlefield, and from it, all Riders thought to be dead reappeared. ZX marched on foot with the other Riders as #1, #2 and V3 rode in on their motorcycles. United, all the Riders proceeded to face off against Dai-Shocker's army. When Shadow Moon was thrown onto the Dai-Shocker Castle, ZX participated in the All Rider Kick, using his standard kick alongside the other Riders to destroy Shadow Moon and the Dai-Shocker castle.

Soon after, Dai-Shocker's final weapon, King Dark, emerged from the ruins of the Dai-Shocker Castle and attacked. Decade was transformed into Final Form Ride Jumbo Decadriver and merged with Kamen Rider J summoned by Diend to face it. To help Decade, ZX, alongside the other Riders, turned into giant Kamen Ride Cards to power up the giant Decade's Final Dimension Kick, destroying King Dark. After the battle was over, ZX and the other past Riders bid goodbye to Decade and his friends before leaving through a dimensional wall.

Let's Go Kamen Riders
A mishap caused by the Greeed Ankh unintentionally altered the timeline which enabled Shocker to utilize a Cell Medal to create the Shocker Greeed which defeated the Double Riders and seemingly erased the legacy of the Kamen Riders from history. In 2011, after Kamen Rider New Den-O's attempt to repair the damage, he along with Kamen Rider OOO and M-Ankh awaited execution. However, it was revealed the Double Riders had their brainwashing removed by a Shocker scientist.

The Double Riders joined with New Den-O and OOO to fight Shocker's forces, but were eventually defeated. When the order was given to kill everyone, V3 suddenly appeared, asserting that there were more than four riders. V3 was soon followed by all the other revived riders that came after him, including ZX, as even though Rider history was changed, the people's memories haven't changed.

After the riders were united, they faced off against Shocker's Great Leader. Later, when joined by a force of extra riders, ZX and all the other riders got on their motorcycles and performed the "All Rider Break", ramming into the Rock Great Leader and defeating it once and for all.

Super Hero Taisen
ZX was among the Kamen Riders caught up in the 'Super Hero Taisen' incident. He was presumably sent to the dimensional rift, under the pretense of being defeated, by Captain Marvelous while he was apparently hunting the Riders. When his and Tsukasa's ruse was revealed, ZX and the other Riders appeared through the dimensional wall. ZX then fought alongside all the other Kamen Riders and Super Sentai against Dai-Shocker and Dai-Zangyack's Shocker-Zangyack Alliance. He is seen during the final battle fighting Grand Beast Rei with GoseiRed, and the Hurricangers, and later seen grabbing Zangyack Commander Daiyarl.

Kamen Rider Taisen
Under the direct order of Takeshi Hongo, Ryo Murasame disguises himself as his archenemy, Ambassador Darkness, in order to investigate the Badan Empire's plan, as well as make sure Gaim is the last surviving Rider from Rider Battle and to revert all the Riders out of their Lockseed forms. All the Riders are defeated and turned into Lockseeds, leaving Gaim alone and outnumbered by the Empire. Ryo finally made his move to expose his cover to the Empire that he was spying on the Empire's plan. He transformed into ZX and helped Gaim release all of the primary Riders from their Lockseed forms to defeat Kamen Rider Fifteen and the Badan Empire once and for all.

In the conclusion, he fights Tsukasa when Takeshi reveals that their feelings toward Heisei Riders was not a lie.

Kamen Rider SD
ZX: A relatively new Kamen Rider. In a sharp contrast to his original television counterpart, the animated version of ZX is very lighthearted, and quite eccentric. He has taken a liking to messing with Black RX, as well as gambling with him for money he doesn't have. His fighting style is similar to a ninja, including the art of instant disguise (he turns into a gangster and a female tennis player) and high agility. He finds Black RX's problem with love very hilarious, although he does his best to help, which only makes things worse. His team squad includes Black RX and Rider 1. He rides on a modified version of the Helldiver Motorcycle.

Kamen Rider: The Bike Race
ZX appears riding the Helldiver in Kamen Rider: The Bike Race, a racing game featuring the majority of Kamen Riders and Rider Machines up to Kamen Rider Agito.

Kamen Rider ZX
ZX has the most cybernetic body out of any Kamen Rider created thus far. His body has many hidden abilities reminiscent of a ninja, including shuriken and chain-sickles. His finishing attack is a Rider Kick called the ZX Kick (ZX(ゼクロス) キック), in which ZX's body glows red before delivering a devastating kick. Interestingly, it does not always cause the target to explode like other Rider Kick finishers.

The Kamen Rider Spirits story also made changes to the original film's description of ZX's power. While the original story only describes ZX's abilities as similar to a ninja, in the manga ZX also has a regeneration ability, a smokescreen, jet boots, a Virtual Image Projection Unit in his belt buckle that creates illusionary copies of him, a katana, and a dagger called Electro-Knife that he stores in his right thigh. This difference in ZX's abilities left some fans confused. It has been officially confirmed that ZX's true abilities are exclusively the ones shown in Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!!

ZX Belt


The ZX Belt (ZX(ゼクロス)ベルト) is Ryo's transformation belt that allows him to transform into ZX. The belt is equipped with a holographic projector that allows Ryo to disguise himself and impersonate others. An example of this being his guise of Ambassador Darkness in the film Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai.

Helldiver


The Helldiver is ZX's personal motorcycle.

Cross Shuriken
A shuriken pulled from ZX's forearm guard. Functions as a normal shuriken. First used against Riderman and Super-1. Later used to destroy a dummy of the Mega Reversal Machine in Kamen Rider Taisen.

Focus Bomb
A hand-grenade pulled from ZX's shin guard. When it is thrown, it will explode upon contact. He shown first used against Tiger Roid in the special, and later shown used against Ryuki in Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker.

Micro Chain
A small black kusarigama with a long, thin chain attached to it. This may be thrown to lasso enemies and to send an electrical shockwave through the chain, stunning the foe in preparation for a finisher. First used against Tiger Roid. Later used to release the Rider Lockseeds in Kamen Rider Taisen.

Hi-Heat Blade
A blade hidden in ZX's right foot, can cut through anything. Only appeared in Kamen Rider Spirits manga.

Portrayal
In Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!!, Ryo Murasame was portrayed by Shun Sugata (菅田 俊), who would reprise the role thirty years later in Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai. As Kamen Rider ZX, his suit actor was Mitsutoshi Shiroya. He was previously voiced by Akira Kamiya (神谷 明) when ZX, then known only as the "Tenth Rider", was featured in a short radio drama broadcast during a special episode of All Night Nippon hosted by Shotaro Ishinomori on August 14, 1982 commemorating the character's official debut.

Rider No.
As the leading Rider protagonist of Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!!, Ryo Murasame (Kamen Rider ZX) is labeled Kamen Rider #10 (仮面ライダー10号), as he was christened in the special, and Showa Rider #10 (昭和ライダー10号).