 This article is about a Rider/Villain in Kamen Rider Gaim.
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Kougane (コウガネ, Kougane), or Kogane in different publications, is Kamen Rider Mars[1] (仮面ライダーマルス, Kamen Raidā Marusu), who is the main antagonist in Kamen Rider Gaim: Great Soccer Battle! Golden Fruits Cup!. It later returns in the series finale possessing a teenage girl to transform into Kamen Rider Jam (仮面ライダー邪武 [ジャム], Kamen Raidā Jamu, lit. Evil Warrior), serving as the series' final villain.
History
Golden Fruit Cup
Kougane is the manifestation of an artificial Golden Fruit created by an Over Lord in the past. His awakening eventually accelerated the race's extinction as they fought to the death. Lapis, a young Over Lord sealed him at the cost of his own. Nonetheless, his curse on the Femushinmu remained, leaving them endangered. Ryoma Sengoku discovered his seal and unintentionally released him, resulting in his own death. Kougane's existence causes the Armored Riders to lust after each other for the "Golden Fruit". Slowly, the Armored Riders start to kill each other off as Kougane masquerades as Yuya to get to Kouta. The deaths of the fallen Armored Riders strengthens Kougane's "Golden Ringo" Lockseed. When it is revealed that he is not really Yuya, Kougane transforms into Armored Rider Mars and defeats Kouta. Corrupting Gaim into Gaim Yami, the two go after Lapis. However, Ryugen, Baron, and Marika interfere, with Lapis disrupting the mind control on Kouta. Kouta transforms into Gaim Kachidoki Arms and chases Mars in a fight that ultimately allows most of the deceased Riders, whose hearts were not fully corrupted like Sigurd and Duke, to return to aid Kouta. Mars emerges as a flame horse and is defeated by the Armored Riders as the world returns back to normal, also resulting in Lapis' disappearance.
Post-Helheim Invasion
Kougane survives his encounter in the movie and returns after seven months has passed since the Helheim plants and Inves were removed from Earth. Taking the form of a locust, he possesses a teenage girl as leverage in case if he's at a disadvantage. Using the Black Ringo Lockseed, he is able to assume the form of Armored Rider Jam, a substantially weaker form than Armored Rider Mars, due to the energy in the Golden Ringo Lockseed being completely drained after his original defeat. He seeks out the other Armored Riders for forcing him into disgrace only to realize that Lapis had altered everyone's memories to make it appear as if it were a dream.
Taking on Kougane first is Jonouchi, honoring the late Ryoji Hase by transforming into Kurokage. However, Kougane easily defeats Jonouchi without any effort. Next in line to fight against Kougane is Mitsuzane, who puts up a fight despite being at a disadvantage with Jam and Grasshopper Monster against him. Kougane reveals that he's using a human body as his vessel, causing Mitsuzane to cancel his transformation. However, Kouta appears, revealing that he left one loose end and that's Kougane. Kouta destroys the Grasshopper Monster in his wake and forces Kougane out of the girl's body. Kougane is killed by Mitsuzane and Kouta's Rider Kicks as they pushed his own Darkness Au Lait back at him. At the end of the series, the girl who was possessed by Kougane earlier is teaching two young boys, who were the two kids Kouta and Kaito had helped out a long time ago, about the sacred tree and dancing.
Arms
Like with the other Armored Riders, Kamen Rider Mars/Jam's forms are called Arms (アームズ, Āmuzu). His Sengoku Driver does not either play any sort of music or announce something before every transformation, while his personal Lockseeds are styled in pure Japanese.
By pressing the Sengoku Driver's Cutting Blade down on the Lockseed after transforming from one to three times, Mars/Jam can activate one of three finishing moves based on his current Arms form: Squash (スカッシュ, Sukasshu), Au Lait (オーレ, Ōre), or Sparking (スパーキング, Supākingu). In addition to the Sengoku Driver's finishing moves, Kougane as Jam can perform a Fruits Charge (フルーツチャージ, Furūtsu Chāji) finishing attack by inserting a Lockseed into the Drive Launch of his Musou Saber.
Ride Wear
The Ride Wear (ライドウェア, Raido Uēa) is Mars' default form undersuit, which is briefly seen during Mars' transformation sequence before the Armor Part attaches or when he changes Arms. However, this form is completely vulnerable to any incoming attacks when shot at directly in the suit rather than at the Arms that is descending down on the Rider.
The Ride Wear that Mars's Sengoku Driver has is easily identifiable through its Rider Indicator (ライダーインジケーター, Raidā Injikētā) faceplate. The Rider Indicator only identifies what Ride Wear a Sengoku Driver contains for simplicity and can be replaced with extensions such as the Genesis Core or Senyo Joint.
Golden Arms
- "Golden Arms: Ōgon no Kajitsu! (Baroque choir with harp music)"
- ―Transformation announcement[src]
- Height: 209 cm.
- Weight: 117 kg.
Ability Perimeters[2]:
- Punching power: 18.5 t.
- Kicking power: 19.6 t.
- Maximum jump height: 19 m.
- Maximum running speed: 100 m. per 6.8 sec.
Golden Arms (ゴールデンアームズ, Gōruden Āmuzu) is Mars' default golden apple-based European Knight form. Accessed through the Golden Ringo Lockseed, this form's Arms Weapons are the Sword Bringer and Apple Reflecter. This form debuts in episode 37.
Golden Arms (and the Golden Ringo Lockseed) is powered through the energy of other Armored Riders. Initially rusted, it starts to unrust when the Armored Riders turn on each other and their deaths are then fueled into the Golden Ringo Lockseed. While this means that Mars Golden Arms is the collective force of all of the fallen Armored Riders, it also means that the Golden Ringo Lockseed requires more and more energy to maintain itself as its power starts to slip.
This is first observed during Mars' debut against Kouta where while not omnipotent, Mars overpowered Gaim Orange Arms, fared well against Gaim Banana, Donguri, Durian, and Jimber Lemon Arms. As Mars, Kougane was weakened further when he used his powers to try and to consume Kouta to boost his power, but an unexpected effect happened where Kouta instead turned dark instead of being consumed. After Kouta breaks free from the brainwashing, Gaim Kachidoki Arms was able to fight against Mars Golden Arms with relative ease. By the point where Gaim assumed Kiwami Arms, Mars was wallowing in pain, resorting to assume a Flame Horse form. After that was defeated, Mars loses most of his energy, resulting into the deceased Riders aiding Kouta. Mars used the rest of his power to summon fire clones of himself, but they are easily dispatched with little effort as shown by Ryugen shooting once to destroy them and Kurokage kicking them for them to fade.
In the aftermath of the defeat of the remaining Armored Riders, the Golden Ringo Lockseed was completely drained of its energy, corrupting it into the Black Ringo Lockseed, meaning that Kougane loses the ability to transform into Armored Rider Mars.
Appearances: Episode 37, Golden Fruits Cup!
Flame Horse
Mars' body merges with The Flame Horse in the final battle of the movie to fight the Armored Riders and New Generation Riders.
Appearances: Golden Fruits Cup!
Ride Wear
The Ride Wear (ライドウェア, Raido Uēa) is Jam's default form undersuit, which is briefly seen during Jam's transformation sequence before the Armor Part attaches or when he changes Arms. However, this form is completely vulnerable to any incoming attacks when shot at directly in the suit rather than at the Arms that is descending down on the Rider.
Jam is one of only a few Armored Riders who are defaultly equipped with a Musou Saber side weapon. However, unlike the others, his Sengoku Driver does not come with a holster, while the Musou Saber itself was not even visible until it appeared without notice in the middle of battle.
The Ride Wear that Jam's Sengoku Driver has is easily identifiable through its Rider Indicator (ライダーインジケーター, Raidā Injikētā) faceplate. The Rider Indicator only identifies what Ride Wear a Sengoku Driver contains for simplicity and can be replaced with extensions such as the Genesis Core or Senyo Joint.
Darkness Arms
- "Darkness Arms: Ōgon no Kajitsu! (Sinister choir with harp music)"
- ―Transformation announcement[src]
- Height: 209 cm.
- Weight: 117 kg.
Ability Perimeters:
- Punching power: 18.5 t.
- Kicking power: 19.6 t.
- Maximum jump height: 22 m.
- Maximum running speed: 100 m. per 6.2 sec.
Darkness Arms (ダークネスアームズ, Dākunesu Āmuzu) is Jam's default apple-based Japanese Samurai form. Accessed through the Black Ringo Lockseed, this form's Arms Weapon is the Dark Daidaimaru, while the helmet Jam wears is the Black Mask (ブラックマスク, Burakku Masuku) with the Steering Eye (ステアリングアイ, Sutearingu Ai) visor. This form debuts in episode 47.
This form is substantially weaker than Mars due to the fact that the Golden Ringo Lockseed was depleted of all its energy, turning it into the Black Ringo Lockseed. Kougane has stated that he has only been able to regain very little of its power back. Despite that, by pure numbers, he does have the strongest punch out of all the Armored Riders, beyond even Gaim, is second to only Kachidoki Arms for kicks and barely is stronger than Duke, can jump as high as Gaim and Baron in Pine Arms and Mango Arms, and barely outpaced by Baron and both Zangetsu and Zangetsu-Shin. In fact it possesses the same punching and kicking power as the Golden Arms, but is faster and can jump higher. Despite this fact, Jam appears to have very low defensive capabilities to the point where even Ryugen was able to injure him alone whereas Mars was able to fight against the surviving Riders in the Soccer World.
This Arms' finishing attack is known as Apple Bullets (リンゴ弾, Ringo Dan), and has has two variations depending on which function Jam activates from his Sengoku Driver.
- Squash: Jam summons up to 15 energy apples, then slashes an energized Dark Daidaimaru to send them flying so as to bombard the enemy.
- Au Lait: Jam summons a bigger energy apple, then jabs the Dark Daidaimaru into it, sending it flying at the enemy.
- Sengoku Driver
Appearances: Episode 47
Golden Fruit
Kougane's true form, an artificial version of the Golden Fruit (黄金の果実, Ōgon no Kajitsu). During the final battle, it houses itself in a flaming goalpost, surrounded by Mars' fire clones. It was destroyed by Gaim and Kamuro.
Appearances: Golden Fruits Cup!
Powers and Abiilities
- War Manipulation
- As the embodiment of the artificial Golden Fruit, Kougane can use the grasshopper-shaped Evil Seeds (邪悪の種, Jaaku no tane) to manipulate the Armored Riders of the World of Soccer into fighting each others.
- Living Hive
- Kougane can either produce or transform his body into a swarm of Evil Seeds.
- Crack Creation
- Kougane can create cracks freely as portals from the real world to Lapis' world.
- Rider Absorption
- After the victims are consumed by anger and rage, he can absorb and contain their abilities via their own Lockseeds to empower the Ringo Lockseed.
- Corruption Inducement
- Humans with a certain level of resistance, such as Kouta Kazuraba, will not be absorbed and only become brainwashed with their powers corrupted.
- Disguises
- Kougane is able to assume multiple human guises, like his best-known appearance as a middle-aged man, or Yuya Sumii.
- Possession
- Kougane is also capable of possessing humans by using the Evil Seeds. In the series finale, Kougane possessed a teenage girl.
- Instant Transformation
- As Jam, Kougane can simply transform by raising his left hand with a black aura surrounding his body and the whole arsenal and Ride Wear appear instantly.
Equipment
Devices
- Sengoku Driver - Transformation device
- Lockseeds - Gives access to Mars/Jam's Arms changes, depending on which lock is used.
Weapons
- Mars:
- Arms Weapons - Weapons that come with the Arms:
- Sword Bringer - One of Mars Golden Arms' personal weapons
- Apple Reflecter - One of Mars Golden Arms' personal weapons
- Arms Weapons - Weapons that come with the Arms:
- Jam:
- Musou Saber - Jam's side weapon in every single one of his forms
- Arms Weapons - Weapons that come with the Arms, besides the Musou Saber:
- Dark Daidaimaru - Jam Darkness Arms' personal weapon
Others
One Evil Seed positioned on Peko's back.
- Evil Seeds (邪悪の種, Jaaku no Tane) - Kougane's grasshopper-shaped minions. They contain his sentience, and move through Kougane's will. The Seeds infect their target by corrupting them, bringing out their inner-evil. After the evil succeeds in suppressing the target, Kougane absorbs them into the Ringo Lockseed. If the evil fails to suppress the target, the seed transforms the target into its dark form. The seeds can also form into another monster or can be used by Kougane to possess another individual.
Behind the Scenes
Portrayal
Kougane is portrayed by Kataoka Ainosuke VI (六代目 片岡 愛之助 , Rokudaime Kataoka Ainosuke)[3]. While under the guise of Yuya Sumii, he is portrayed by Hiromi Sakimoto (崎本 大海, Sakimoto Hiromi). In the series' finale, a girl possessed by Kougane is portrayed by Honoka Ando (安藤 穗乃果, Ando Honoka)[4][5]. As Kamen Rider Jam, he is voiced by Atsushi Ono (斧 アツシ, Ono Atsushi).
As Kamen Rider Mars, his suit actor is Yasuhiko Imai (今井 靖彦, Imai Yasuhiko), who also served as the suit actor for Kamen Riders Bravo and Kurokage (Ryoji Hase). As Kamen Rider Jam, his suit actor is Satoshi Fujita (藤田 慧, Fujita Satoshi), who also served as an understudy for Kamen Rider Marika.
Notes
- His name is derived from the word Kougane (黄金) which means "gold" in Japanese, tying to his origin as part of the Golden Fruit.
- According to Kamen Rider Gaim producer, Naomi Takebe, the criteria of the character was to focus on the ability to convey the aura of a god.
- Because Kataoka comes from a kabuki background, Mars' transformation pose was designed to feature some relatively slow motion moves in a Kabuki style.[6]
- Similar to the villainous Rider of the previous summer movie, Mars has a dominant gold color.
- Both are also non-human Riders.
- With Kougane himself is also a non-Inves monster, he is considered as the third non-Inves monster in Kamen Rider Gaim series, succeeding Pitcher Plant Monster and Grasshopper Monster.
- Both are also non-human Riders.
- Mars/Jam's transformation announcement is similar to Zangetsu's Melon Arms announcement in the sense that they both invoke a higher sense of authority. In this case, the presence of a God and the presence authorized by a God.
- They are also both spoken in full Japanese.
- His Golden and Black Ringo Lockseed transformation announcements is a mix between a full Japanese catchphrase and an orchestrated tune that has the highs and lows similar to that of Baron's announcement.
- His rider name "Mars" is also based on the god of war from Roman mythology (Ares in Greek) of the same name.
- "Mars", when spelled out in katakana, refers to a genus of apple trees (Malus), which also describes his morality placement, as "Malus" is also Latin for "evil".
- Mars is the second [[::Category:Gaim Riders|Gaim Rider]] to have a final form that does not involve a Lockseed, with the first being the villain from the previous Gaim movie, Kamen Rider Bujin Gaim.
- Jam's suit is a heavy kitbash of other suits. The Pre-Arm suit is a recolored Kamuro/Zangetsu-Shin suit, along with its Rider Indicator. The mouthpiece is also similar to Gaim's/Bujin Gaim's/Lapis'. The back of its helmet, Black Mask, is recolored from Lapis. The Daidaimaru is recolored from Bujin Gaim's standard Daidaimaru. The only addition made purely for the suit is the visor, the violet trim around of which is the kanji Ja (邪), the first kanji in Jam (邪武), which means "Evil".
- Jam is the third Rider to utilize an apple-type Lockseeds, after its original Rider form Kamen Rider Mars and the Silver Apple Rider Kamuro.
- Despite being apple-based, Jam's weapon is one that is usually associated with orange-based Arms (Orange, Blood Orange, Fresh Orange, and Black Orange specifically).
- Kougane's transformation sequence into Jam may be for intimidation only; during his second battle, he transformed into Jam by will alone, completely skipping the transformation sequence, similar to Kouta's ability to transform directly and immediately into Kiwami Arms after becoming the Man of the Beginning.
- Keeping with the fruit theme of Gaim, Jam's name is a reference to jams, a type of fruit preservative composed of fruits stewed in sugar.
- Kougane as Jam is the second Final Boss of the series to be a Kamen Rider, the first one being Kamen Rider Odin. However, only Odin has had a long term presence in his series, while Kougane as Jam only appeared in his series' final episode.
- Kougane's Golden Ringo Lockseed turning into the Black Ringo Lockseed is a parallel to the Forbidden Fruit when it was held in Redyue's hands.
- Along with Bujin Gaim and Fifteen, each of Kougane's roles in the summer movie and final episode resemble that of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Bible under the New Testament called the Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John the Evangelist at 6:1-8. As Mars, he represents "War" because of his ability to cause the Armored Riders and New Generation Riders to turn on each other, causing a war between the factions. As Jam, he represents "Pestilence" due to his companion, the Grasshopper Monster, and being able to control the swarm of locust monsters, like that of the Ten Plagues of Egypt.
Legend Rider Lockseeds
- The following Legend Rider Lockseeds are styled for Mars/Jam, as well as Zangetsu:
References
- ↑ ImgUR
- ↑ 2014.11.07 - Chou Zenshu 2014. Kamen Rider Yoroi-take Chou Zenshuu. pages 108-110.
- ↑ Hero Shock
- ↑ Honoka Ando's Twitter Post
- ↑ Screencapped image of Final Episode revealing the appearance of Kougane.
- ↑ Henshin Justice