Best and Worst Final Villains in Kamen Rider
 

In your opinion, who is The Best and Worst Final Villains in Kamen Rider?

In no order:

The Best
-Daguva since he felt like a legitimate threat in the series and his final fight was cool.
-Evolt since his personality coupled with his constant beating of the riders made me smile everytime I see him. Amazing suit too.
-Horobi cuz I loved him since the beginning and his slow growth into reformation was nice to watch. Takaiwa played him and it was cool to have a Nawata vs Takaiwa to start Reiwa.
-Hajime/Chalice? Does he count? I just really like Hajime.
-Kaito/Baron. He had good intentions, but poor execution. His suit is amazing too and his actor really sold me on him. I need his SHF...
-Daido/Eternal best suit and his movie was amazing. He has personality too.

The worst (or the ones I didn't like. Don't really hate them.)

-Gold Drive and some doomsday machine really felt weird that Drive's final villain was some machine and the real final battle was with the secondary riders. Good fight, but Banno never really stuck to me other than being an all around dickhead.
-Maki/Ptera Greeed he was kinda eh for me too but his fight with TaJaDor was pretty cool. I don't know he was kinda just the "human bad" enemy.
-Cronus He should honestly be in the middle since I like him, but him constantly dragging on the show with him losing and winning over and over kinda got tiring.
-Swartz his 'plan' never really cliqued with me and was just Decade season 2. Tho, it was kinda fitting cuz he IS Another Decade?

The best could have been Ohma Zi-O, but we had to settle for the Time-jackers, easily the worst in the franchise.

I guess the best for me are the Greeed, like as a whole. I can't really pick one out one of them specifically since it's their story as a group and the way the bounce off and conflict with each other that makes me like them so much. Pour one out for Ankh's evil left side that took on a mind of it's own, who was pretty cool yet I doubt most people think about him much if at all.

So is this a Heisei era-only thing?
I keep forgetting this is a site for people under 25... Shadowmoon,anyone? I feel so old when I engage here...

Best for me is Evolt hands down.
He is here from the start and yet they didn't make him being beaten at every upgrade or something.

Worst is hard to pick. surprisingly KR has a lot of main antagonist that seems badly written or introduced.
I'm going to say Kai from Den-O.
But could have mentioned Banno (Drive), Maki (OOO), Swartz (Zi-O), Adel (Ghost), and the list could continue a bit.

Evolto best villain. Manipulation from beginning to the end, charismatic to boot and a legitimate threat to the Riders. Not to mention he has awesome fashion sense.

Well I am actually 28 now but I do at least know Shadow Moon even if probably not much about Showa in general other than just in crossovers and so on! Like I've said often though I do mostly prefer 2000s Heisei to 2010s Heisei!

EDIT:That was meant as a reply to DH21965, people always seem to reply quicker than me! :lolol

Bit disingenuous to assume ppl here are only for ppl under 25 and only watch Heisei/Reiwa, don'tcha think?

I mean, yeah, I'm currently 18 but my first rider was J. So, I'll bite. The Fog mother was creepy looking and I wish there were more monster designs that were this disgusting in modern shows.

Destrudos in Ultraman Z seems to somewhat hit the nail being an abomination of kaijus and Ultroid Zero's head just hanging there.

In all fairness it can be a bit annoying when people assume you don't know something just because you weren't around then, I mean it's not hard to research about old TV and stuff!

For me personally:

Best:
Bano/Gold Drive: Probably one of the best evil scientist characters in the franchise. His motivation is interesting, being afraid of everything he can't control, and a lack of empathy. It was also refreshing to see the trope done well after how bad Duke was.
Gremlin: Perfect villain for Wizard's final. He's a dark mirror of Haruto and Kamen Rider protagonists in general. You just love to hate him.
Hajime: Very good finally with lots of build-up through the show. You can totally believe the friendship and reactions of the cast being pushed into this horrible situation.

Worst:
Kaito/Baron: I hate this guy, and not in the love to hate him kind of way, just hate him as a character. He's a hypocritical idiot that constantly flip-flopped on his beliefs and was nothing more than an asshole and walking trope. Doesn't help that the actual bad guy of the show, Sagrara, gets away scot-free because of him.
Daguva: Beyond an interesting concept, this guy is a big fat nothing! Which just makes it a fight between two dudes in costumes.
Horrobi: I know I'm gonna get shit for this, but I'll get this off my chest. Aruto and Horrobi have no real connection or rivalry throughout the show. Why, if this was always the plan did it feel like this final battle had no build-up at all? And even when it happened, it wasn't about how Humagears should be treated, it was about revenge. You know why? Because that was the only reason this fight would be interesting in the slightest. And worst of all, Horobi's hatred for humanity has nothing to stand on and is hollow. It's not built from experience, it is simply the will of the Ark, which really robes any last chance he could be interesting.

I will agree that Horobi and Aruto have no real rivalry in the show. The two had small bits of banter in the first quarter, but their connection only ever returned during the end of the 3rd quarter and then the 4th quarter.

However, I will say that Horobi's hatred for humanity, at first, isn't through his own volition and is there because the Ark programmed him to act like that. Much like how early Jin behaves as well. It wasn't until they defeat the Ark where Horobi gets his own reasoning to his hatred of humanity. He even spells it out: "As long as humans exist, there will always be the possibility of an Ark returning."

Amazon's final villain sure did exist and mean nothing!

For bad guys I don’t think there are any "worst" ones out there IMO, just ones that didn’t work as well and in that case I’m not even disappointed much so I don’t really feel like counting down the worst villains.

Good ones are easier, so I'm listing the ones that stood out to me in some way:

General Shadow - He's great. The banter with Mr. Titan was always fun and I really liked how they introduced a villain who was always sabotaging the bad guys efforts because as it turns out he’s part of an “eviler” evil organization which gets more focus in the second half of the show so he reappears as a general. I really liked how he was featured throughout the show because of this. His design is also very weird and unique in a good way.

Shadow Moon - That's a no-brainer and should be featured in every single post on this thread. The perfect Anti-Rider, so magnificently intertwined with the protagonists fate, a badass suit and just an overall presence that can hardly be matched to this day. When Shadow Moon shows up shit gets real.

Takeshi Asakura / Kamen Rider Ouja - Sometimes you need a villain that is just disgustingly evil and this guy's it. When they tried to set up a tragic backstory for him only to reveal that he was behind it the whole time I was floored, I fully expected them trying to build a little sympathy for this dude only to double down on his assholery and that’s great.

Naoya Kaido / Snake Orphenoch - hear me out on this one. I don’t know if he technically qualifies but this guy is one of the few things I actually like about Faiz. I liked him even when he was just the weird clown, but his backstory was so heartbreaking I couldn't help but reserve little bit of space in my heart for him.

Kirihiko Sudo / Nasca Dopant - Just a very easy villain to enjoy as he isn't really evil. He wants to do good things for the city he loves and raises valid points, but is ultimately ended due to being on the wrong path.

Dr. Maki - I like this dude. He's weird but the show plays with him perfectly, to his odd behavior, his backstory which isn’t as simple as it seems, and his involvement with the Greed.

Phoenix - hear me out once more. Phoenix isn't a great villain. But, he had the potential to become a really cool redeemed character that could’ve been a fantastic Rider. But like with so many other things Wizard just couldn’t be bothered to actually make a decent and interesting decision, hell-bent on staying mediocre at best. And that's what makes him memorable to me.

Professor Ryoma / Kamen Rider Duke - Much like Dr. Maki I enjoy this character for his dedicated weirdness. He isn’t as much of an oddball as Maki but his obsession and fun character traits make him a joy to watch.

Drive - no, not Kamen Rider Drive, but all the boss Roidmudes. Chase, Heart, Brian and Medic are fantastic villains. So much fun to watch, such fun enemies. They outdid themselves for what they needed to deliver and have become staying characters in the franchise for a reason. Kamen Rider Brain being the last Heisei Rider wasn't a coincide; they wanted to end it with style.

Kuroto Dan / Kamen Rider Genm - I liked him when he was a bad guy as well as a meme lord. The actor is too blame mostly but man did he a great job.

Evolto / Kamen Rider Evol - The second entry that should be on every list. Just amazingly well done. An important factor throughout the entire show, an enjoyable character to watch and a presence only really outdone by Shadow Moon himself. Just an "ode to joy" to Build's greatness.

Horobi / Kamen Rider Horobi - For the first Reiwa show they done a great job with the bad guys. Much like Evol, Horobi is an important factor throughout the entire show, but his excellence rally shine sin the last third of the show when his morals are tested.

To be fair, Ohma Zi-O wouldn’t have worked as a traditional bad guy. He's too omnipotent for it to be convincing that he loses to anything.

That is what I like about him most, he's a "Great Old One" of the Kamen Rider franchise, something that lurks beyond time and space and is too unfathomable in his abilities for any other entity to be a threat to him.

Personally I want Ohma Zi-O back in the next anniversary show much like they brought back Decade fr Zi-O. Not even necessarily as a villain but as a being that shows up from time to time to seemingly advance the protagonists journey, but with his own goals in mind.

Yes I realize past Zi-O erased Ohma Zi-O but that doesn't matter much, they can just write him back into the continuity whenever they feel like it.

That's not even necessarily the point that makes their confrontation work IMO, the point is that Aruto wants Horobi to be his own free being that is able to follow a dream, and Horobi refuses while his actions speak a different language.

The differences they have are not because of conflict in a traditional Rider-sense specifically, but because Aruto wants to help Horobi and Horobi won’t let him.

My favorite are the Grongi fron Kuuga. My least favorite...

Man, I barely even remember the villains from RX. So them.

I'm surprised nobody has brought Orochi from Hibiki as worst villian for Kamen Rider. I mean it comes out of knowhere with no buildup and was defeated offscreen. Just so we can have that lame timeskip in order to get some cheap drama with Hibiki and Asumu. The Orochi also seemingly has no connection with the Orochi from the Hibiki Movie and that just makes things confusing. We also never got to see what this great disaater was actually look like. Overall The Orochi was just a huge waste of time. With no buildup or satisying conclusion.

Since everyone has taken the usual choices I'll go with Amadam from the Kamen Rider Ring two-parter he's very enthuastic combined with his various cosplays of past Movie Villians was pretty cool. And his ties to the whole concept of the Cross of Fire makes him one of the best villians to me. Plus he's part of Wizard lore that isn't talked about much. He was an evil mage that was sealed up in Ancient times. From the opening narriation we know magic once existed but slowly faded as science and technology proggresed. So this feels like rectifying never really exploring past of magic by having an evil ancient mage as the final bad guy for Wizard.

Best:

Evolt. He was always a step ahead of the heroes and somehow manages to be both entertaining and despicable at the same time through his unique combination of comedy (can't make coffee, scared of octopus, treats his fights with Sento and Ryuuga like he's a father playing baseball with his sons) and depravity (consuming planets, possessing a guy for 10 years, murder, manipulation).

Genm Level 1000000000. He can throw Mars as a projectile! I feel like Another Ending is actually the "100% Ultimate Ending" since it resolves Shin Dan Kuroto Kami-sama's arc and brings him back in to focus as the main villain once more and it's his character at his most classic. It's like watching peak EX-Aid again.

Barlckxs. I have a theory that Over Quartzer is the fifth and final incarnation of Sougo and that SOUGO is symbolic of the accumulated evil of all past Sougos. It's pretty awesome to see Sougo finally becoming the greatest and kindest daemon king as Zi-O Oma to show that he has overcome his evil while accepting the errors of the past with the moral that it's okay to have chaos in history. It's also great casting since ISSA really does look like an older Okuno.

Sigma. A machine with a monotone female voice and the power to create an eternal global freeze. Considering how many were killed and injured in the first global freeze, the implications of what this thing can do is scary to think about!

Worst:

Unidentified Lifeform #0. His presence was threatening but as a final boss, he's disappointing.

Jam. Just the ridiculous concept of Kougane from that soccer movie coming back in some girl's body to get revenge and the fact that he was defeated by that unforgivable a**hole Mitsuzane who would have been a much better final villain if he didn't suddenly decide to be a "hero". What the hell!

Yeah these are basically my feelings on Oma Zi-O to be honest, I always feel like everyone who just says Oma Zi-O is "A Bad Guy" is underselling his character by a lot.

For the record, I'm not disappointed that Zi-O the show didn't end with Grand Zi-O kicking Ohma Zi-O and making him explode or something. I like Ohma Zi-O, or rather the concept of him, a ton. The hero's future self with this all encompassing power over time and space. I waited the entire series for the show to start digging into Sougo and what could have made his future self turn out that way, but that never happened...

Had the show's final segments focused entirely on Sougo and crew fighting 'destiny', and Ohma Zi-O ultimately coming to accept that his younger self has a brighter future than the ruined world he made for himself, Zi-O would probably have shot up immediately to my top three series. It's part of why Zi-O's actual endgame was so disappointing to me (I mean on top of just being really bad and stupid in it's own right).

I really liked how W simultaneously had double the final bosses and none. It's the investigation and the bonds of our two protagonists that take priority, so while Terror and Utopia are pretty fun in their own ways; I love that they take the backseat completely to what's happening with Shotaro and Philip.

Also gonna give a shoutout to Daguva, Kai, Maki and the mountain from Hibiki episode 29 -- all of them unconventional but perfect for what they were.

Best:
Dr. Maki. It's nice to have a villain who does what he does for his own nihilistic worldview. Blatantly evil, but I like him because he does what he does because he feels something only has value once it's gone.

Evolt. Big destroy the world bad guy. Nothing too special, but his forward thinking and manipulation makes him so much more interesting than others.

Worst:
Schwarz, because I legitimately couldn't give a fuck.

Baron, because I felt his turn was forced and arbitrary. While I get his whole power thing, it feels like he completely abandoned his entire plot.

Gold Drive, since he has virtually no connection to Shinnosuke, despite being a major part of Krim, Mach, Heart, and Chase's plots. Additionally, him sidelining Heart really sucked.

N Daguva Zeba. A villain built up over the course of the series. Does literally nothing for entire series. Has a 2 minute fist fight before dying. How can people think Kai is a bad villain while being in love with him?

Looking back, this is a major issue I have with Drive -- Shinnosuke just doesn't have a connection to anything else going on. And that's fine in a vacuum, and I like Shinnosuke himself and obviously his dynamic with Krim is a highlight of the series; but when practically every other character is involved with all the plots going on? I can't help but imagine that if the main character was Chase, or Kiriko, or even Gou or Heart it would have been a much stronger season.

I don't at all mind Mach being the one to finish off Gold Drive, but even before that point... you'd think Shinnosuke being so close to Krim (like to the point of sharing a body) would allow him to be right beside him in whatever epic grudge match with Banno, maybe even getting angry on Krim's behalf, but he kinda just... doesn't have much of an opinion on anything past "Banno sure is a bad guy and we oughta stop him".

Part of why I like Daguva it's because he the antithesis to Godai. Godai throught the show has endured both physical and mental trauma in order to protect people smile. Contrasting that Daguva inflicts pain with his gruesome murders in order to satisfied his own sadistic happiness.

It's also the way the show portrays him for most of the show he's in silhouette always just out of reach. Daguva portrayed like a straight up horror movie monster. The fear that at anytime Daguva shows up at that something neither Kuuga or the Police can handle.
https://kamenriderrecap.files.wordpr...-out-of-me.jpg

And on that note his murders; his 4 big "fights" before his final fight is always obscured or not fully seen. We see a recording of Daguva revival and proceeding to murder the archelogist in what is essentially a found video horror short. Daguva alone killed 152 other Grongi in Nagano alone in a day. That's terrifying as Kuuga and the Police takes about 2 episode to kill a single Grongi it the power scaling seeing his true strength from just the statistic. (There also the part where Daguva took the blood of the slain Grongi and used it to draw his own symbol on the wall that pretty metal.)

https://kamenriderrecap.files.wordpr...kuuga-mark.jpg

During the battle against the Powered Up Gooma, Godai got his ass beat and Daguva just one shots him like nobody buisness once again showing how powerful Daguva is without stating it. And finally the attack on Daguva on the highway we don't get to see it all that much but what we do is horrifying. Everything on fire cars,civilians and Kuuga himself.The rain making it harder to see as well as the shaky cam. We have this POV shot that made me feel claustrophobic as we see Kuuga Amadam being cracked during the battle. What's worse he's in his Amazing Mighty Form which the previous episode was all about hyping up as incredibly powerful being swept away like nothing.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-E3n6SxjnC...600/Eps.47.jpg

All the while no music plays and all we hear are Godai painful grunts and Daguva laugther. Throught all of these examples Daguva strength is portrayed by not what we see but rather what we don't. We know how his victim end up but the gruesome details are mostly left out. That allows my imagination to fill in the blanks for me.

Finally... I think the suit looks really cool! The contrasting white against Kuuga Ultimate Black is stunning. White and Gold is just a great color combination to me. The sculpted muscles are fantastic really showing the strength of Daguva. And the Grongi accessories are ornate and very fun to look at!

https://lacamaradelobservador.files....imateformd.jpg

This is EXACTLY what I wanted from Zi-O and I get frustrated that we didn't get anything close to this.

Because he looks SO damn cool.

...I'm aware that's a poor reason, but holy crap he is such an awesome design.

Best IMO is N Daguva Zeba. I really liked that he was a straight-up evil mirror to Yusuke. Joker from Blade was also very interesting. Odin from Ryuki had a good concept but wasn't developed enough to make him truly memorable.

Worst? I havent seen most series in a while so idk if I can fairly judge them. Maybe the bad guy from Den-O, who felt thrown in at the last minute? Or the one from Agito? I don't remember him being particularly impressive.

Oof, yeah Orochi was not good. Second half of Hibiki has a lot of problems.

I think my best would be either Evolt or Horobi, for pretty much the same reasons everyone has already said. But I want to talk about someone who hasn't been mentioned yet: Mitsuaki Gamou, AKA the Sagittarius Zodiarts, from Fourze. It's been a while since I saw Fourze so I don't remember him in perfect detail, but I remember liking how he could be so blatantly evil while scheming in his secret villain lair and then go out into the school and flawlessly switch to being the benevolent, respectable principal who inspired students to reach for the stars. It didn't come as a shocking twist like Evolt since they revealed pretty much right away that he was the main bad guy, but it definitely gave him a nice sense of menace and manipulative-ness.

For worst villain, either Kaito Kumon, who started out an interesting character until his philosophy devolved into "whatever the plot requires it to be," or... whatever nonsense was going on in the last arc of Ghost. Some kind of giant eye thing? Made by combining the generic usurper prince guy's clones with the monsters who were reused so often that even the heroes started to see them as just a chore? And it was all made possible by the plans of evil Steve Jobs? I still think Ghost had the potential to be great, but the execution was a mess and the ending especially so.

If we're talking specifically villains who are the guy the hero fights at the climax of the story, then some good ones my brain instantly jumps to would be:

- Daguva, who, much like the series he comes from, is precise and uncluttered in his execution. There's not much to him, but everything that is there is of massive importance to Kuuga as a whole.

- Horobi, who was a favorite of mine from early on in Zero-One, and unlike a lot of other favorite major antagonists I wish qualified for this topic, he actually managed that last boss position in the end, so I can mention him here. Go Horobi!

- Shadow Moon, who loses some cool points for spending so much time standing around doing nothing in a lair like any other generic toku big bad, but oh man does he know how to make it count whenever he takes real action. What can I say? He's one of the greats for a reason.

- Heart, who was almost in that disqualified category I mentioned when talking about Horobi, until I decided while writing this he totally counts; it's just that Drive's final fight with him manages to be even more subversive than Kuuga's showdown with Daguva, and that's really saying something. But hey, the story eventually lands back on him, and that's great, because he was a super memorable and charismatic antagonist that was always fun to watch.

As for worst, I mean, I don't know? It's not something I spend too much time thinking about. I guess if you all disagree that Heart is in the running, than call Sigma the worst for stealing his thunder. :p

You can blame COVID for screwing this series up!

You literally cannot.

I'm most upset at all the episodes of Kirameiger we've lost on that front, it deserved a full year! :cry

All 5 of them.

According to my calculations, Kiramager will have 46 episodes with the usual New Year pre-emption, making it the second shortest season after JAKQ. I suppose it's fortunate (relatively anyway) that you-know-what happened early in the show's run since the staff had more time to plan around it, so they won't have to throw together a final arc at the last moment like the Zero One staff had to deal with.

Personally, I'm more concerned about Kiramager VS Ryusoulger.

Oh, it just seemed like it wasn't on for weeks, plus I still haven't seen those things that were on the couple of weeks before like that Zero-One President's Special or that 4-part thing and stuff, because I'm lazy. :(

Worst-Swartz from recently and on top of my head gremlin and probably orphnoch king. No build up for the later. Even kaito from gaim is pushing it.

Best-Evolt from recently minus the dragonball undying and friends/rival forgiven forever bs. Prefer him in the first half more. Joker is a good one coming from a tightly pack rarely any filler series. It just make sense more so than gaim vs baron just to tie up the loose end from the beginning.

Over 10 episodes isn’t buildup?

I have to say I’m not entirely sure what definition of “no build up” we’re using when, for instance, Daguva was established from the very beginning of the show as this mysterious, inevitable threat and came into more prominence in the last third.

Technically Team Build never forgave Evolt? Just a temporary truce. Even Banjou remarks at the end for him to "never come back".

the multiple toshiki inoue villains that don't actually get beaten and are still alive or the multiple toshiki inoue villains that just show up in the final episode and also don't get beaten

god the second half of hibiki sucked

I think Joker Undead are still the best final villain. His relationship with other character especially with Kenzaki are really interesting to watch.

Hmm...the worst final villain in my opinion is Apollo Geist from Kamen Rider Decade. Apollo Geist's death, his character and his battles are really lame and super boring in my opinion....


I personally really dislike the writer decided to make Evolto become antihero and still alive in Cross-Z V-Cinema. I personally prefer if they make Evolto are permanently dead in Build final episode....

Also, the Cross-Z V-Cinema is one of most boring Kamen Rider movie but I love Cross-Z's new form design....