Imagin

This article is about a race of monsters in Kamen Rider Den-O.

Imagin

Led by:

Kai

Monster Types:

Evil Imagin
Gigandeaths

Battled:

Teamed up with:

Chronological/Production Order
Previous	Next
Worms	Fangire

"Say your wish. I can grant any wish. You can pay me with one thing only."

―Imagins' speech to chosen people^[src]

Imagin (イマジン, Imajin, from "imagine" and "Djinn") are a monster race that are the antagonists (and in a handful of cases, secondary protagonists) in the Kamen Rider Series Kamen Rider Den-O.

The Imagin were designed by Yasushi Nirasawa (韮沢靖, Nirasawa Yasushi), who previously worked on the designs for the Undead in Kamen Rider Blade, the Horrors in GARO, and the Worms in Kamen Rider Kabuto. These designs are detailed in the "Imagin Works: Say Your Wish…" (イマジンワークス SAY YOUR WISH…, Imajin Wākusu SAY YOUR WISH…) artbook.

Background

"According to this book, Imagin are monsters from the future. But if they were to travel through time...they must form a contract with a human and use his memory...which is his most precious time."

―Black Woz explains the origin of Imagin through the Gaia Library^[src]

The Imagin were originally beings from the distant future who lost their physical forms due to an event in the past erasing their own time, becoming dependent on the memories of others in order to survive. The Imagin forgot their pasts but retained their personalities, as a result. Led by Kai, they arrive to the year 2007 to find weak-hearted humans and through them go back in time to find the key figure to the Junction Point, and destroy said person so their future can become a reality again. Imagin possess humans upon forging a contract, fashioning a physical form through their host's imaginations.

The hosts, recognized by the sands of time spilling from their bodies, are offered a single wish by the Imagin. In exchange, the Imagin is able to dive into the most treasured moment of the person's past. As displayed, however, the host must remember making the contract for the Imagin to successfully travel to the past. Additionally, due to the greatly delicate nature of the contract, if the contract holder forgets or dies before the contract is completed, the Imagin bound to him or her would fade out of existence as was the case with Sieg. ^{[The Prince's Goodbye Lullaby]} Often times the wishes asked by the hosts are "fulfilled" in violent and haphazard ways with innocent beings often getting hurt in the process. Opening the human like a door, a portal is revealed that leads to the appropriate time, severing their ties to the human in the process. From there, the Imagin takes over a host's body or simply manifests itself in its physical form and begins causing massive chaos. In turn, due to the laws of time, everything and everyone destroyed in the past no longer exists in the present and indirectly creating more Imagin from the destruction of their timeline. However, as Ryotaro learned in time, the restoration of these things rely on just being remembered. Also, if an alteration to the past prevents the contract from ever being made in the first place, the damage will be negated completely due to it never having happened, as was the case with the Ivy Imagin. However, it appears that should the Imagin have been destroyed in the past, its destruction is not undone. This is doubtful though, as shown in other episodes. It has also been shown that Imagin who already have a physical form can freely possess people and fly to the past without the need for a contract.

Later history

Dai-Shocker

As one of the races of the Nine Worlds, the Imagin are part of the Dai-Shocker alliance, a coalition of all villain organizations fought by the Kamen Riders, who have ambitions to conquer the multiverse.

The Albinoleo Imagin, as well as all three types of Mole Imagin, Axe Hand, Drill Hand, and Cross Hand, were part of the Dai-Shocker army that was fought and wiped out by a gathering of 25 Kamen Riders in the World of Decade after Dai-Shocker started their invasion of the worlds. ^{[Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker]}

The Scorpion Imagin was one of several monsters who accompanied Apollo Geist in the World of Black RX. It was destroyed by Decade using Faiz Axel's power. ^{[RX! Dai-Shocker Attack]} ^{[Black × Black RX]}

The Cobra and Gecko Imagin were members of the Dai-Shocker remnant, Super Shocker, that appeared in the World of the Rider War. ^{[Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010]}

Shocker Greeed

GurongiandImagin(Let's Go Kamen Rider) — Albinoleo Imagin representing the Imagin at the Shocker alliance conference.

The Imagin were among the various evil organizations and monster races which were allied with Shocker in an alternate timeline where they conquered the world thanks to the Shocker Greeed. The Albinoleo Imagin, Owl, Scorpion, Oct and Mantis Imagin were among Shocker's army of monsters. ^{[OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders]}

Shocker-Zangyack Alliance

Several Imagin - Gecko, Bat and Mole - under the Alligator Imagin were part of the revived Dai-Shocker assembled by Decade to wipe out the Super Sentai, ensuring the survival of the Kamen Riders. After Dai-Shocker's alliance with Dai-Zangyack was revealed, both organizations were wiped out by a gathering of Kamen Riders and Super Sentai. ^{[Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen]}

Space Shocker

One revived Imagin, the Gecko Imagin, was a member of Space Shocker, an evil amalgamation organization similar to Dai-Shocker, which aimed to conquer the universe. It was actually a front for the revival of the Space Crime Syndicate Madou. ^{[Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z]}

World within the Magic Stone

The souls of defeated Imagin, among the other monster races fought by the Kamen Riders, surfaced in the world within the Magic Stone which was ruled by the evil wizard Amadum. Amadum's army of monsters were fought and destroyed by the 15 Heisei Riders when they were summoned to this world. ^{[The Kamen Rider Rings]} ^{[Neverending Story]}

While in control of someone else

KRD Urataros pose — Urataros while in control of Natsumi, notice Rod Form's starting pose

The Imagin have the ability to take control of their Contract Holder, if said Contract Holder is put in certain amount of danger, before, during or after the Contract is forged, they have this ability. In addition, not all Imagin can simply take over their Contract Holder, but others as well, while this occurs (presumably) the person's consciousnesses is sent into an area of the mind where the Imagin's primary color scheme is the background, as shown when Urataros, Kintaros and Ryutaros were battling Decade, using his friend Natsumi Hikari as their host. ^{[Super Den-O Beginning]}

In some cases of Imagin possession, a person's eyes change color to that of the Imagin, the hair altered into style with a streak of it also changed to the color of the Imagin. In some cases, even the host's attire changes to reflect the Imagin's personality. There are also rare Imagin showing the ability to split into two or more entities that can survive independent of each other. Normally, when this happens, there is a clear difference between them, either physical or they'll have completely different personalities. The Imagin used by Kamen Riders also have shown the ability to turn into weapons similar to the weapons or attacks they use, this was first shown with Deneb and his ability to change into the Denebick Buster used Kamen Rider Zeronos' Zero Form, New Den-O is a more prominent user, primarily using Teddy as the Macheteddy and in Cho-Den-O Trilogy he uses Urataros and Kintaros as the Uratazao and Kintaono. Unlike most Kamen Rider villains, who normally have greedy or selfish motives for their actions, the Imagin attack the past due to self preservation, wanting to keep their race alive.

Singularity Points

A "Singularity Point" (特異点, Tokuiten) in Kamen Rider Den-O is a human who has the ability to exist outside of time itself, and be unaffected by changes in their own past. This ability also allows them to suppress an Imagin's will when it takes over their body and is not tempted by the free wish an Imagin can grant. Because of this, the Imagin contracted to Singularity Points are usually unable to take a physical form in the present time, and directly possess their Singularity Point, instead. They usually reside within time itself and when they are not possessing their Singularity Point, they stay on some sort of Train of Time, such as the Den-Liner or the Zero-Liner. The Singularity Points also have the ability to become Kamen Riders, and the Imagin that possess them lend their abilities in combat when called upon. In other instances, the Imagin use their Singularity Point's body as they wish when the Singularity Point loses consciousness. As long as the Singularity Point is conscious, they can expel the Imagin from their body. It seems that some Imagin are harder to expel than others as Ryutaros, Sieg and the Ghost Imagin have shown when they possessed Ryotaro. It was also shown by Ryotaro though, that if a Singularity Point concentrates hard enough, they may actually be able to expel said Imagin. In some cases of Imagin possession, a person's eyes change color to that of the Imagin, the hair will grow or change in style with a streak of it also changed to the color of the Imagin.

Types of Imagin

There are a variety of types of Imagin. Each type have their own traits that defines their own type.

Taros

Taros are the Imagin who receive their motif from folk tales with a "Tarou" as the protagonist.

These are by far the strongest type of the Imagin, as they sport far greater fighting capacity and they can only be fight equivalently among themselves.They also have complete control of their Imagin physique,capable of utilize the abilties of it in max capacity and all of them are capable to utilize the power of Kamen Rider Den-O to stop other Imagin from furthering their plans.

Momotaros - Only initially cares for the joy of fighting, he learns to respect being comrades with his host.
Urataros - Bonded with a Singularity Point, being the only one who sees it as a merit.
Kintaros - Emotional and physically strong; only wished to grant wishes; saved from oblivion by Ryotaro.
Ryutaros - Childish and annoying; likes Ryotaro's sister Airi; originally intended to kill Ryotaro but changed his mind later for Airi's happiness.
Negataros - First confirmed evil Taros. attempted to create an evil organization to rule the world.
Teddy (Neotaros) - Dutiful and well-mined, bond with Kotaro to serve as his comrade.

Kamen Rider Zi-O

Futaros - A friendly Taros contracted with Ataru Hisanaga to bring the Kamen Riders back into existance after Super Time Jacker Tid creates the Real World.

Good Imagin

Imagin that are essentially don't agree with the overall goal of the Imagin, either because they don't care for it, or they have other agendas (mostly to support Den-O).

Sieg
Deneb

Evil Imagin

The evil Imagin, which make up the majority of the Imagin population see the Taros as villains or traitors to their cause.

Gigandeaths

Whenever an Imagin is defeated, they sometimes reform their bodies along with a berserk state of mind, warping into one of three types of massive creatures called Gigandeath (ギガンデス, Gigandesu?, from "Gigantes"). The number of Gigandeaths emerging from an Imagin can be from a single Gigandeath, to two different types, to an entire army of them. These monsters are mindless and are filled by the urge of destroy. A Gigandeath is harder to destroy than a Imagin as Den-O uses the Den-Liner to destroy them. All three Gigandeaths are augmented into the Nega DenLiner's arsenal.

Trivia

There were a lot of mysteries that weren't told about the Imagin such as what kind of future they lived in or what happened to their physical bodies not being told in series.
It is interesting to note that none of the Imagins have any attachments to the future they lived in.
Even though the Imagins that are on Den-O's side have gained physical forms, most of them didn't travel through time by themselves but through other time traveling means.
In addition to folklore references, the good Imagin also represent (and simultaneously parody) character archetypes that Japanese youths may see as rolemodels. The core four stand for modern, individualistic archetypes: The rebel (Momotaros), the ladies' man (Urataros), the athlete (Kintaros) and the artist (Ryutaros). Meanwhile, the additional ones represent traditional, rather old-fashioned archetypes: The regal ruler (Sieg), the humble servant (Deneb) and the loyal protector (Teddy).
Almost every Imagin has their name or part of it written on their body, usualy in a way where it's not obvious and blends in with their design.