Mitsuru Sano

"Why is this happening? I... I... just wanted to be happy..."

- Mitsuru's final words before vanishing.

Mitsuru Sano (佐野 満) is Kamen Rider Imperer (仮面ライダーインペラー), one of the 13 Kamen Riders in the tokusatsu TV series Kamen Rider Ryuki.

History
Although Mitsuru came from an affluent family, he worked in a parking garage, occasionally cleaning rich people's cars. His father sent him out into the world so that he could learn the hardships of life and not be spoiled by a rich upbringing. However, due to his poor lifestyle, he believed friendship, respect, and love could be bought, and thus accepted Kanzaki's proposal to become a Kamen Rider in order to become rich and lead a happy life. He became a mercenary of sorts, attempting to sell his strength as a Kamen Rider to the various factions within the remaining Riders.

He first approached Shinji Kido and Ren Akiyama, flattering them with praise after seeing them fight. Though Shinji was fooled, Ren brought him back to his senses and refused him. Sano attempted to appeal to even Shuichi Kitaoka and Takeshi Asakura, failing to gain employment from either.

Sano finally turned to Satoru Tojo and Hideyuki Kagawa for assistance. Kagawa, though knowing Sano did not fully understood his motives, allowed Sano to work with him and Satoru.

After his father died, he inherited his father's business and became the boss of a major company. Because of his new found lifestyle, he wanted to give up the Rider war and enjoy his wealth. However, Kanzaki reminded him of his contract with Gigazelle and its fellow Zelles as well as what would happen to Sano if he did not fulfill his side of the contract with them. Shaken, Sano decided to use part of his inheritance to buy the services of the other Riders, as he himself had tried to offer. Showing up at their doorstep with a suitcase of contract money, he appealed to Shinji and Ren, but was flatly refused. Sano tried the same tactics on Kitaoka, and seemingly succeeded, but Sano cancelled the contract days later after deeming Kitaoka "unreliable."

Sano's contract with Kagawa was later cut off when Kagawa was killed (by Satoru), but he still kept Satoru as a good friend and even hostelled him when Satoru was injured from battles before. It was then Satoru confessed his convictions and called Sano a friend.

Though Satoru was grateful to Sano for caring for him, he later back-stabbed Sano, who was later wounded and left for dead. Though he survived the attempt on his life (which Satoru thought he did finish Sano off), Sano was ambushed by Ouja while attempting to make his escape back to the real world. Ouja then destroyed Imperer's Advent Deck with his Veno Crash attack, making him unable to leave the Mirror World and dissolve within minutes, screaming and begging for help.

Ironically, Imperer, like Kamen Rider Gai and Kamen Rider Scissors, as well as the Alternatives, did not reappear in the epilogue after Kanzaki reverted time.

13 Riders
In the 13 Riders special (alternate retelling), Sano was only seen as Imperer at the final battle with Kamen Rider Tiger as tag-team partners. In one ending, he and the remaining fighters used their Final Vents on Shinji (as Kamen Rider Knight Survive).

OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
Kamen Rider Imperer 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.

Fighting Style
Imperer is a melee based Rider. He utilizes Muay Thai - Style attacks such as knee strikes enhanced by his Gazelle Visor. He also uses the Spin Vent as his primary weapon. However, his biggest fighting advantage is in numbers, since his Contract Monster Gigazelle is accompanied by Megazelle and Omegazelle (later additions were Magazelle and Negazelle). His significant number of Contract Monsters can easily overwhelm other Riders.

However, Imperer's numbers strategy can be disrupted, forcing Imperer to fight Riders by himself. Another weakness is that the accompanied Contract Monsters are not really Imperer's, since they just follow Gigazelle, and often prove themselves to be inconsistent, either helping or attacking Imperer.

Kamen Rider Imperer
Ability Perimeters Imperer's unique among the other Riders because unlike the rest of them, his color scheme's inconsistent with his respective monster. Being melee-based with Muay Thai-style attacks, Imperer doesn't have much fighting experience, using the Gazelle Visor (ガゼルバイザー) on his right knee to use his Spin Vent card which gives him a double-drill Gazelle Stab gauntlet. Aside from his Spin Vent, Imperer relies on his mass amount of Zelles to do the fighting for him, after which he lands the final blow. His Final Vent Drive Divider (ドライブディバイダー) has the Zelles stampede a target before Imperer unleashes a powerful knee strike to the enemy's head.
 * Height: 195cm
 * Weight: 94kg
 * Sight: 10km
 * Hearing: 18km
 * Maximum Running Speed: 100m/5s
 * Maximum Jump Height: 50m
 * Punching Power: 10t (AP: 200)
 * Kicking Power: 20t (AP: 400)

Appearances: Ryuki Episodes 40-44, 13 Riders

Contract Monster
Imperer is the only Rider to have more than one Advent Monster from the start (unlike Kamen Rider Ouja, who had to kill Kamen Rider Gai and Kamen Rider Raia to gain Metalgelas and Evildiver). Besides his contract monster, Gigazelle, he is also joined by Megazelle and Omegazelle because these Gazelle-type Mirror Monsters travel in groups. Although these monsters aided Imperer, he had no cards for the others, save for the primary Gigazelle; this sometimes results in Megazelle and Omegazelle attacking Imperer.

Gigazelle : Resembled a humanoid Gazelle.

Portrayal
Mitsuru Sano is portrayed by Takashi Hyuga (日向 崇). As Kamen Rider Imperer, his suit actor was Masashi Shirai (白井 雅士).