Ren Akiyama

Ren Akiyama (秋山 蓮) is one of the main protagonists of Kamen Rider Ryuki who participates in the Rider Fight as Kamen Rider Knight (仮面ライダーナイト) for the sake of his comatose fiancee Eri Ogawa.

TV Series
He is a cold loner who fights constantly and is frequently unemployed. He received his Advent Deck before the start of the series. He accepted Kanzaki's offer to join the Rider war to give his fiancée, Eri Ogawa, a full recovery, who has been in a mysterious coma ever since an encounter with Darkwing. Ren later contracted with Darkwing and became Kamen Rider Knight.

After Shinji Kido, he would still persist to fight any and all Riders. But the ordeal of his memory loss had him leave the Tea Atori to clear his head. Meeting Miyuki Tezuka, who reveals himself as Raia, while pointing out that though he accepted his fate as a Kamen Rider, Ren had doubts in his heart if he could actually take a life. He later inherited the Survive Shippu Card from Tezuka. Over time he eventually softened up and slowly came to return Shinji's constant offers of friendship. Throughout the series they formed a somewhat of a rivalry, which Ren took more seriously than Shinji because of the Rider War.

Shiro eventually declares him as the last Rider. All the other Riders had died, but it was Shinji's death in Episode 49 that devastated him, as he had finally accepted Shinji as his best friend. Ironically enough however, Shinji's dying words galvanized Ren into bringing the war to an end. Shiro Kanzaki brought him to fight the remaining Rider, Kamen Rider Odin. As Ren was about to lose, Shiro Kanzaki was tormented by his sister Yui Kanzaki's words, and self-destroyed Odin, thus making Ren the final Rider. The wish appeared, and Ren used it to save Eri's life as he had originally intended. Returning to the hospital where Eri laid, she wakes up to see Ren's engagement ring on her finger, and a loyal Ren, lying against the wall. Unbeknownst to her at the time, the battle with Odin had proved too much, and Ren died. After Shiro restored time to its proper course after Yui's death, Shinji (and also Ren) were revived with no memory of being Riders, thus they are unable to recognize each other in one of the final scenes of the series. It can also be noted that his fiancée, Eri still lives as of she was put into coma in the first place due to Darkwing.

13 Riders
In the 13 Riders TV Special (alternate story), he sees Shinji taking over the Ryuki deck after its last owner dies, and demands the deck be returned, until he sees the list of names. He warns Shinji, but later after setting Shinji up as plotted with the other Riders (in a form of a truce between the Riders) he couldn't bring himself to finish Shinji off, with their friendship developing. In the end, he pushed Ryuki out of the way and took the blow of Kamen Rider Verde's Death Vanish Final Vent. He shook the damage long enough to kill Verde with his Hishouzan Final Vent (similar to how Miyuki Tezuka died in the series, pushing Ryuki out of the way to receive Kamen Rider Ohja's Veno Crash Final Vent). Shortly afterwards, he died in Shinji's arms after giving him the Knight deck, making Shinji Kido the second character to be two separate Riders in the same series.

Episode Final
In the movie, Ren, together with the remaining fighters fought one another. He too, like Miho Kirishima had mistook Shinji as Kamen Rider Ryuga from a battle he witnessed (Ryuga and Femme were fighting with each other) and in his case thought that Shinji had realised the meaning of the Rider War and demanded they battle, until he saw the real Shinji absorbed into Ryuga he understood and battled Ryuga as well. Later seeing Yui dead, as Shinji and Ryuga battle, he witnesses Shinji finishing Ryuga off, after which he confesses his friendship to Shinji. However he marks his words that he must win, which Shinji promises to fight with, where Ren also agrees to Shinji's terms not to die before the fight with the Hydragoons. They then together as Kamen Rider Knight Survive and Kamen Rider Ryuki Survive battle the horde of Hydragoons as the film ends.

S.I.C. Hero Saga
Ren appears in two S.I.C. Hero Saga which is Kamen Rider Ryuki: Advent Calendar and in Kamen Rider Ryuki: World of If.

Advent Calendar
In the Advent Calendar, with the Rider War is reaching it's final, Ryuki, Knight, Ouja, Zolda and Odin are the surviving Riders left. While Ouja fought Knight he causes Knight to buried under some rubbles. Ryuki shows up and challenges Ouja into a fight as he stole Knight's Survive Card and and transformed into Ouja Survive with Venosnaker evolves into Venoviper. He then uses his new Unite Vent card with all the contracted monsters' cards he's gathered up till now from the Riders he defeated with Darkwing card which he also stole from Knight. All of his monsters, as well as Dragreder which just happened to be nearby, combine to form the Genosurvivor.

Kitaoka shows up and transforms into Zolda and summons Magnugiga and uses End of World, blowing everything away. Ryuki sees the rubble with Knight in it blown away too and with his love, anger and all of his sorrow his body possessed by the spirit of his late order brother, Shinichi Kido. Looking at the dead body of Ouja and Zolda (who also died after caught in the explosion of his own attack), Yui says he did it, and when doing so he and Dragreder had turned black means that now he is Ryuga. Ren shows up revealing that he was never here, the Knight that Ouja defeated was a copy made with Trick Vent. He and Shinji are the last two Riders remaining (Odin works as the Rider who only granting wish rather than fighting) and have to fight. With Shinichi emerge as the victor, Odin was summoned while granting a wish which is to reviving all of the victims of the Rider War.

World of If
In the World of If, after Eri Ogawa died in the hospital, Ren himself quits being a Kamen Rider while throwing away Knight's Advent Deck. While wandering at the streets, Shiro Kanzaki shows up and give him an Advent Deck and turned him into Odin's puppet. Ouja, as the final Rider, stands before Odin. His wish is for the Rider War to continue for all eternity. While in the middle of the battle, Alternative Zero jumps in and join forces with Ouja in order to fight Odin. Ouja activates his Final Vent; Venoviper transforms into a bike and charges at Odin, spitting poison along the way. A moment before it his him, though, he activates his Time Vent and vanishes, then reappears on Venoviper's seat, behind Ouja and strikes him quickly.

Right before he dies, Asakura sees Odin's face, through the hole in his helmet melted through by Venoviper's poison, revealing Ren's face. The mask completely crumbles away and Ren comes back to his senses. He looks down at his body and realized what happened. With a full anger, he yells by the name of Shiro Kanzaki as he appears and laughing in glee. Now that Odin is the victor of the Rider Battle, and now he can finally grant Yui a new life. Ren notices that the Alternative Zero and has a weird feeling about him as he heads over and yanks out the deck. Turns out it was Yui all along. She revealed that she borrowed it from Kagawa to stop Shiro, and reaches out to him. But he has no body, and can't grasp her hand. Yui faints while dies as Shiro failed to grant her a new life and mourning her death.

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

Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen
Knight is one of the Rider Team which consist of Black, G3, Zolda, Hibiki and Gatack that fought against Gokai Red only to be defeated by his Gokai Sabre Slash. It's unknown if he reappeared or not during the final battle.

Chou Super Hero Taisen
Knight is a participant in the Sentai-Rider battle tournament Forming part of Team Flying with Kamen Rider OOO Tajadol Combo,Skyrider, and.

Advent Again
In 2019, a mysterious person restarted the Mirror World Battle Fight. On the fourth day, Ren was found by Takeshi Asakura. Takeshi, unlike the other participants who had no memory of the previous Rider War, told him that he remembered their past of killing each other which Ren replied that he (seemingly) remembered too.

Ren fought Ouja and was seemingly overwhelmed by him, as the latter got interrupted by a Mirror Monster. Goro Yura appeared as Zolda rescued Takeshi. After Ren had taken his leave, Kamen Rider Abyss ambushed  him for a short moment but  Ren quickly killed him with Hishouzan. It freaked Ren out as he has never killed anyone or has forgotten his fear of killing people. He let out a scream in horror and anguish.

On the fifth day of the battle, Ren transformed and joined the fray of the set up by Tezuka, rescuing a helpless Shinji from Asakura.

Another Alternative
As Zolda activated his Final Vent, Ren and the others all had to flee from the battle, causing a huge explosion as a result. Ren was later seen with Shinji in a parking lot. Ren knew Shinji's name, but Shinji mispronounced Ren's name as "Ron", just like in the past. The two wondered whether they had met before or not, with Ren not having any clue on the matter. Shinji thanked Ren for saving him earlier, but Ren stated that he did not save Shinji because they seemed to know each other. Instead, Ren remarked there was a voice in his head which kept telling him to stop this meaningless Rider War. Ren also admitted to Shinji that he had no memory about his past whatsoever. Shinji approved of Ren's motive, but Ren thought Shinji only wanted to stop the War because he was afraid of losing (Shinji had lost his Advent Deck). Shinji offered Ren a drink, only for the latter to spew the content on his face. Ren thought he and Shinji could not have been very close in the past. The two then decided to go and ask Asakura about the past.

Upon meeting Asakura, Ren stated that he did not believe in the mysterious woman's words. He said even if the winner was found, but none could get out of the Mirror World, then everything was meaningless. Asakura laughed and told Ren that their past was about fighting and killing each other, and that they had to continue fighting and killing for all eternity.

Some time later, an outraged Ouja was calling out Shinji and Ren, telling them to come and entertain him more. The two had retreated to an abandoned house. The mysterious woman appeared before them suddenly and declared that the time remaining was one day. Both Shinji and Ren were irritated, asking the woman why she was doing all this. The woman started to tell the two Riders her story: She was a woman named Sara. In the past, a man named Tatsuya Kano hit her with his car, putting her into the hospital. The man would then visit her frequently in the hospital, and the two started dating each other. However, the injury from the accident still did not allow her body to recover completely, and she was put back into the hospital again. Tatsuya, not wanting to lose her, became Another Ryuki and started killing countless people in the real world in hopes that the lives he killed would be able to resurrect her. Not wanting Tatsuya to kill more people, Sara's Mirror self restarted the Rider War. Because the real world Sara only had one day left to live, she said one day was the time remaining for the winner to be found.After Dark Shinji merged with Shinji and killed Jun, Ren and Kimura watched in horror and disbelief.

Alive A Life
Ryuga then attacked Kimura, wanting Kimura to die for him, saying that if he won the Rider War, he could escape to the real world and exist as a real being. Ren transformed into Kamen Rider Knight and used Trick Vent to distract Ryuga. Ryuga swiftly defeated the Trick Vent copies, only to find out Ren and Kimura had already escaped.

Ren was later seen riding his motorcycle, wanting nothing to do with the events anymore. However, he was surprise-attacked by three Mirror Monsters, regaining his memory upon being hit in the head by one of them. Finally realizing that it had been Shinji's voice that told him to stop the Rider War all along, Ren transformed and killed the monsters. Just as Ouja was fighting Ryuga, Knight intervened and said that Shinji was his opponent, not Ouja's. 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.

Ren tried to make Shinji remember the past and come to his senses by revealing to him that the voice inside his head was Shinji's. Nevertheless, Dark Shinji stated it was useless to try and bring his real counterpart back, as he no longer existed. Ren shouted at him, telling Shinji to come back, otherwise he would have to kill Shinji. The two transformed and begin a duel, with Ryuga being the winner. As Ryuga was about to land the killing blow on Knight, the real Shinji began to surface and forced Ryuga to stop the attack. Ren said that Dark Shinji could never win because he would never understand the bond between him and the real Shinji. Knight then attacked Ryuga, forcing him back into human form. Ren, thinking that Shinji had returned to normal, de-transformed and came by his side. However, Dark Shinji was still in control of the body, he grabbed his Black Drag Saber and fought Ren in human form. Just as the two were struggling against each other, Asakura, also in human form, used his Veno Saber and interrupted their fight. Asakura prepared to stab Shinji with Veno Saber, only for Ren to shield his friend from the attack, getting mortally wounded as a result. It was at this point that Shinji finally regained his memory, as well as subdued his dark self for good.

As a dissatisfied Asakura disintegrated, Shinji came to his dying friend's side. Ren recounted the events of the past Rider War, saying that Shinji died before him at that time. Ren told Shinji to live this time. Shinji pleaded Ren not to die, but to no avail, as the wound he had received did not permit him to live any longer. Shinji revealed to Ren that Ren indeed was the man who kept appearing in his dreams since day one. Ren asked Shinji to come and check on his lover - Eri Ogawa - to see whether she was happy ot not. This makes Ren the second surviving and the tenth eliminated rider in the Rider Fight. In his last moments, Ren assured his friend that they would definitely meet again in a world without fighting and killing. He wanted to know if they could continue "annoying" each other once they got there like they used to do. A tearful Shinji agreed with Ren, just as the latter disintegrated in his arms.

Blade Joker!? 2019
Diend gets the upper hand by summoning Kamen Rider Baron and Knight to gang up on Woz. He tells Woz that they can have those treasures back and uses his Attack Ride: Neo Invisible card to get away. The summons of Baron and Knight vanish soon after.

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

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

Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis
Kamen Rider Knight made his playable debut in the video game Kamen Rider: Battride War Genesis, with Satoshi Matsuda reprises his role.

In all forms, Knight can still be able to summon his Advent Monster, unlike Ryuki whose Advent Monster summoning is very limited for his default form Base Mode only. Knight is considered as an aerial combat-based character.

Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbarizing
Kamen Rider Knight appears as a playled character in Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbarizing.

Personality
Ren is a cold, harsh person, and hardcore loner. He is very talented as he always able to serve the customers in Cafe alongside Shinji. But despite his cold personality, he is actually a kind person and can become emotionally distracted when someone he consider close is injured or dying. Even when he got amnesia, his personality didn't change.

Ren is a contradictory person, telling Shinji to not hesitate at the prospect of killing, yet unable to do so himself, only forging on due to saving Eri. He opposes companionship, yet in reality, very much needs it. Although his relationship with Shinji had a rocky start due to him naturally being opposed to friendship, he considering Shinji his only friend and willing to go to great lengths to help him. In fact, as cold and stoic as he is, he is shown weeping in sorrow at his friend- Shinji Kido's sacrifice, further emphasizing the hidden emotion and friendship that he has for him.

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
 * Dark Visor - Knight's Visor that enables him to use Advent Cards
 * Dark Visor-Zwei - Upgraded version of the Dark Visor used to transform into Knight Survive
 * Gold Visor - Odin's Visor that enables him to use Advent Cards

Vehicles

 * Ride Shooter - Motorcycle used by any Rider to enter the Mirror World
 * Darkraider Bike Mode - Serves as Knight Survive's bike

Portrayal
Ren Akiyama is portrayed by Satoshi Matsuda (松田 悟志). As Kamen Rider Knight, his suit actor was Makoto Itō (伊藤 慎).