Sakuya Tachibana

"Because of this Rider System being made quickly, my body...is tattered!"

- Tachibana's infamous quote from the series

Sakuya Tachibana (橘 朔也) is Kamen Rider Garren (仮面ライダーギャレン), the second Rider to appear in the Kamen Rider Blade series. Sakuya was the second wearer chosen by the BOARD organization to use the very first Rider System they created, transforming him into Kamen Rider Garren. The first was his senior, Kiryu.

Biography
Sakuya was originally a researcher of the Humanity Foundation who graduated from the Sazahaibu University and was selected to be the user of Rider System 01 after Go Kiryu was found to be incompatible with the system. By the start of the series, Sakuya begins to suffer a form of cellular breakdown with only sealing the Undead slowing down the process. That, combined with his feelings towards Kazuma being his backup when he can't manage it, Sakuya blames Karasuma for his condition. When he attempted in vain to seal the Locust Undead, Sakuya is forced to abduct Karasuma just prior to the Undead attacking BOARD. Though he intended to get the answers he needs, Karasuma was in a coma and put on life support with Sakuya safeguarding him until Hirose finds him. Though he leaves Karasuma in her care, it was revealed that the "Karasuma" he safeguarded was only a decoy. After his doctor and dear friend Sayoko Fukasawa relays Karasuma's message, that his subconscious fear is causing the breakdown, Sakuya encounters Isaka, the Peacock Undead, who personally attempts to retrieve him for his Leangle project. After escaping Isaka, Kotaro manages to talk Sakuya to not to let his fear control him though Sakuya denies that. He arrives to save Blade from the Trilobite Undead, however Garren's fusion rate goes down during his fight with the Undead. After being saved, Sakuya begs Karasuma for a means to be free of his fear, but Karasuma say he can't.

Though Sakuya attempts to resume a normal life by dating Sayoko, the Zebra Undead forces him to reveal himself as a Rider in front of Sayoko before vainly fighting the Undead before Blade arrives to aid him. In spite of Sayoko asking him to leave with her, Sakuya turns her down. While at BOARD's original location, Sakuya vainly battles the Peacock Undead, who defeats Garren and takes him with the intent to have Sakuya work for him by removing him of his fears with exposure to Schuld Kestner seaweed, an extinct plant that intensifies the aggressive nature of the subject. Though he became more aggressive and worked under Isaka for more of the seaweed, Sakuya was unaware of the eventual damage it would do to his nervous system. Though Sayoko warned him in vain, Sakuya shrugged it off until he learned that Isaka had murdered Sayoko for meddling in his affairs, defeating the Peacock Undead and sealed him. Later, as his way of repenting for being manipulated by an Undead, Sakuya takes Mutsuki under his wing.

During the final few episodes, Kamen Rider Garren came face to face with the Category King of Diamonds and battled it out with him. The Undead told him that if he was sealed, Joker would be declared winner and that all of humanity would suffer because of his choice. Garren discarded this and answered, "I will believe in my friends." The battle ended with Garren nowhere to be found and the King Undead sealed leaving the Joker as the winner however, it would cause an unintentional death of billion species due to Joker's uncontrollable Undead nature. He is found upon the arrival of the Chief telling Kazuma that he was saved because of him. He arrived and assisted an unarmed Blade King Form, finished off the remaining Black Roach Undeads with the King Rouzer, and wished him good luck against Hajime. Due to his Rider system still being broken, Sakuya fought multiple Black Roach Undeads alone as a normal person while waiting for Kazuma to stop Hajime's suffering. After all Black Roach Undeads suddenly disappear, he and Mutsuki went to the forest where Kazuma and Hajime fought, only to find Hajime alone who is trying to follow Kazuma but lost track of him. They soon realized that Kazuma has become an Undead and disappeared in order to prevent himself from fighting Hajime in person again. After Kazuma's disappearance, Sakuya sees a photo of Kazuma together with him and remembered their good times, prior to Kazuma becoming an Undead.

Missing Ace
In the alternate final episode, Kazuma Kenzaki seals Hajime Aikawa, he and Chief Karasuma decided to put away all the sealed Undeads after they discover all Category King cards combine into a Vanity Card as the second Joker existed. As they were transporting the sealed Undeads away, they got ambushed by the Albino Joker. Just as Chief Karasuma tries to escape with the cards, the Albino Joker kills him as he unseals some of the Undeads. Four years later, he hires Junichi Shimura, along with Natsumi Miwa and Shin Magaki to reseal the Undeads as he can't rehire Kazuma and Mutsuki due to the fact that some of the unsealed Undeads are Category Ace of Spades and Category Ace of Clubs. Sakuya later fights the Spider Undead and reseals it as Mutsuki regains the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Leangle. Later, Sakuya orders everyone to work together to reseals all the Undeads much to Natsumi's and Shin's chagrin.

Later, Mutsuki tells Sakuya that he suspects something strange about Junichi as he communicates with the Giraffa Undead with a strange language. But he declines it as Sakuya tells Mutsuki that Junichi learned to speak foreign languages from abroad. Later, he is shocked to discover that both Natsumi and Shin were killed by the Albino Joker as he realizes that the Joker is among all of the riders. When Amane is being targeted by the AlbiRoaches, Sakuya brought her to safety as he reveals that her father opened the Relief's Stone Door moments before he died. Due to this, she was targeted by the Albino Joker as her dad's replacement for the Relief's sacrificial lamb in order to gain it's power. Kotaro reveals to everyone that Junichi himself is the Albino Joker as both of his victims hold the cards 4 and Jack (both of which are a pun of his name (i.e. "Jack" and "Shi")). After Albino Joker kidnaps Amane and traps her into the vanity card, Sakuya and the others fight Albino Joker in Jashin-14 form. Sometime after Jashin-14's defeat, he and the others celebrates Amane's birthday at the Jacaranda Cafe.

Decade
He appears flying in Jack Form, along with Psyga and Blade Jack Form, in a attempt to destroy Decade but like the rest of the rider's, are killed.

OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
Sakuya Tachibana returned as Kamen Rider Garren, making a brief cameo appearance in the film, teaming up with Hajime Aikawa and Mutsuki Kamijou, as well as the rest of the Kamen Riders.

As Garren, Tachibana was also 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.

Sakuya was found to be cruelly ambushed by Hajime as Chalice. After being saved by Kyoichiro, he revealed that his cover to attack Shocker alongside Kenzaki was blown and was being attacked so they would become a full fledged Shocker Riders. Asking for Kyoichiro for help, he alongside Go and Yuto moved to save Kazuma. But it was all a ruse to capture Go and Yuto instead as Sakuya, and Kazuma had been brainwashed from the start.

But later, he aided the Riders against Shocker after they despised how Shocker acts and also freed from the remains of Shocker's brainwashing inside them after Takeshi Hongo alongside Hayato Ichimonji broke free from Rider Robo.

Surviving the onslaught of the History Modifying Machine, Garren fought and destroyed Shocker's Marshal Machine with the Burning Smash shortly before the Rider Robo was destroyed along with the machine by. Among the remaining Riders who witnessed the farewell of Kyoichiro Kuroi as the perversion of history was reversed, Garren's place in history was restored.

Kamen Rider Blade (video game)
Kamen Rider Garren, with Blade, Chalice, and Leangle, is playable in the Kamen Rider Blade video game.

Kamen Rider: Battride War
Kamen Rider Garren appears as a Second Rider in the video game Kamen Rider: Battride War. In the level Double Jokers, which took place during the final episode, Sakuya somehow knows Blade's plan of turning himself into Joker in order to put the Battle Fight and stops Blade worrying of losing his friend, only to be defeated.

Kamen Rider: Battride War II
Kamen Rider Garren appears as a Second Rider in the video game Kamen Rider: Battride War II.

Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis
Kamen Rider Garren made his playable debut in the video game Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis. His models has been upgraded with Rouze Absorber to match the appearance of his only TV series/movie's final form in this game. Garren is mostly suitable as a long-range character. Like Blade, Garren uses a Rouze Card points via attacks, but unlike Blade is that Garren's boost-up (Bullet Armadillo) is much safer without having this effect removed after Garren riding his bike, and Garren's Jack Form is his only for final form as of Garren's last TV series appearance. Yet, Garren's Jack Form is lack of Rouze Card points, as Garren has less Rouze Card based attacks.

Forms
For Sakuya to change into Garren, he inserts the sealed ♦A: Change Stag Rouze Card and positions the buckle in front of his waist. The belt expands automatically around his waist, like a deck of cards wrapping around. Sakuya makes an arm motion, clinches his fist and yells out "Henshin!" and flips a portion of his buckle. The buckle announces "Turn Up!" at this point. This causes a blue projection with a stag beetle image to come out before him, knocking Undead away. He then runs into the projection, which will complete the transformation into Garren.

Device

 * Garren Buckle: Transformation belt
 * Rouze Absorber: Essential to access Jack Form
 * Rouze Cards: Allow Garren to attack, depending on which card is used

Weapon

 * Garren Rouzer: Personal weapon

Vehicle

 * Red Rhombus: Garren's Rider Machine

Rouze Combos
(Jack) Burning Smash Garren's signature card combo; The combo enables Garren to do a flaming drop kick, coupling 5's "DROP" effect imbued with the fire-attribute of the 6's "FIRE" effect. In Jack Form, the compound effect is further increased with J-Garren's flight capabilities.
 * Cards Required: Drop Whale (5) + Fire Fly (6)

Burning Divide This card combo enhances the "Burning Smash" combo with the addition of 9's "GEMINI" effect. With this added effect, Garren splits into two clones and they do a flaming drop kick on the opponent for double damage.
 * Cards Required: Drop Whale (5) + Fire Fly (6) + Gemini Zebra (9)

(Jack) Burning Shot This card combo allows Garren to shoot out flaming fireballs like a machine gun from his rouzer. In Jack Form, Garren uses his flight capabilities to his advantage by showering shots from a higher altitude while the power of Jack Form enhances the shots.
 * Cards Required: Bullet Armadillo (2) + Rapid Pecker (4) + Fire Fly (6)

Fire-Upper Combo Garren's signature card combo; The combo enables Garren's to execute a flaming uppercut, coupling 3's "UPPERCUT" effect imbued with the fire-attribute of the 6's "FIRE" effect.
 * Cards Required: Fire Fly (6) + Upper Frog (3)

Bullet-Fire Combo The combo enables Garren to use his Garren Rouzer to fire single fireballs at a target, coupling 2's "BULLET" imbued with the fire-attribute of the 6's "FIRE", it is similar to the Burning Shot albeit slower and only shoots single fireballs.
 * Cards Required: Bullet Armadillo (2) + Fire Fly (6)

Portrayal
Sakuya Tachibana is portrayed by Kousei (Hironari) Amano (天野 浩成). Amano later portrayed Kouhei Hayami/Libra Zodiarts in Kamen Rider Fourze. As Kamen Rider Garren, his suit actor was Yoshifumi Oshikawa (押川 善文).

Memes

 * The scene in the first episode wherein Garren spied Blade fighting Locust Undead from afar was made into various comedic situation where fans would place either Garren in other images peaking another character or parodying it in somewhere else. This scene is memorable as "Why are you just watching!!" (なぜ見てるんです!!), which was the line delivered by Blade before he enacted the infamous Ondul meme.
 * As mentioned above, the quote from episode 3 when Tachibana proclaims how the Rider System damaged his body has become a viral meme in the Japanese fandom, due to the way he delivered the line: "My body is tattered!" (俺の体はボロボロだ!).
 * Tachibana is perhaps most infamously known for the final scene of episode 7, where the camera zooms in onto him screaming for his life as the Trilobite Undead approaches him.
 * In episode 15, just before delivering the Burning Divide attack towards the Peacock Undead, Garren shouts out the name of his girlfriend, who was killed by said Undead. This scene has been parodied within the Japanese fandom.