Kanzaki Shiro vs. Imajins vs. Yummies: Which was the best?

[Black Fang]

All three of Yasuko Kobayashi's Rider shows involve the fulfillment of people's wishes in one way or another. In Ryuki, Kanzaki creates the Rider Game to tempt people to fight and achieve their wishes. In Den-O, Imajins fulfill their hosts' wishes as part of a contract. In OOO, the Yummies are born from their hosts' greed and act on that greed in various ways.

I would say Ryuki's events were more noticed by ordinary people like in Kuuga and Agito. But of these three, which show portrayed this and the impact of these actions the best?

 

[NateRiver]

Kanzaki Shiro, hands down.

 

[hmf_master]

Kanzaki Shiro, hands down.

I hands down agree

 

[Smilodon]

As much as I liked OOO, beyond Ankh and Eiji and Date and Kougami, the theme of greed wasn't illustrated as well (Though that may be because of the executive meddling and retooling that occurred in the season. We may have had a lot more greed heavy story if Date had become a homunculus in the middle of the season).

I do adore that Ankh wanted to eventually become and experience everything in it's full colors though.

But Shiro did it the best for sure. I think the main motivations of each Rider joining on the battle was very compelling, and some had good reasons to fight each other making it very gray and not just black and white. It was like 13 Kino Kaoru's had appeared out of nowhere. I liked how we had a whole range of reasons as to why people joined the Rider War, from something incredibly selfish like Imperer, to wanting to save themselves or others from a certain fate like Kitaoka and Ren, to fighting for a self-righteous belief and fighting for enjoyment. Everyone had their stakes for that wish and I felt like it was just a lot better and enjoyable than having 'Oh, look a contract and cell medal and your life's wishes can come true'

 

[Artic_Rival]

Kanzaki has hax.

You can't fight the hax.

 

[Khaiden]

I'd pick Kanzaki Shiro too, but for different reasons. I like how he strategically used the desires of others for the Rider War.

I like to believe Magnugiga is the only contract monster (i.e. Contract Machine) that didn't need to feed, and so he chose Kitaoka who already had enough worries himself. He chooses Ohja to speed up things, because not even Kitaoka, who needed people to kill each other as he charged up his Final Vent to blow up whoever's left, could do it.
Which is why I love Shinji even more, he is the reason the Rider War gets messy in the first place and makes things happen as they did.

 

[Lynxara]

I usually make the argument, with respect to tokusatsu villains, that nothing is scarier than knowing the villain is a "real" person instead of just a monster. So as far as that goes, Kanzaki Shiro has a huge advantage over any Yummy or Imagin. I can't remember anything memorable about any of the Yummy plots, while most Imagin plots were only memorable because the human they contracted with wanted something particularly messed up. Again, as far as that goes, not even a memorable guest character is going to be able to be as compelling as a recurring character like Kanzaki Shiro.

 

[lazycoconut]

I didn't much like the Yummies as MOTWs, and the Greeed characters (with the exception of Ankh, who I love) were a little hit-and-miss for me. Den-O didn't capture me as much as I would have liked, so I vote Kanzaki Shiro with everyone else. I think that was a really well-done storyline.

 

[Galaxian]

Kanzaki Shiro, in fact I will rank him among the top villains in Kamen Rider. No only did he have an intimidating presence in the show, but the reasoning behind his actions were understandable.