[MaskedRiderAsakura]

Mitsuzane Kureshima - I absolutely LOVE this character. He's such a well-written and complex character IMO. When it boils down to it, Mitsuzane is tired of living under everybody's shadow. Throughout the entire course of the show, he's always going along with somebody else's plan, struggling to maintain any sort of autonomy. He becomes Kouta's sidekick, then he goes along with his brother's plan, then he goes along with Sid's, then Ryoma's, then Redyue's, then Ryoma's again. He's constantly being manipulated and/or influenced by the people in his life, but doesn't even realize it because he believes HE'S the master manipulator and it's not until he realizes how royally he screwed up and everything he's lost in his desire for control where he genuinely becomes a better person for it. He's almost written like a tragic Shakespeare character (except for the inevitable tragic ending).

The actor does a fantastic job of portraying all of these different sides of the character as well. Seriously, Mitsuzane has played EVERY single role you can possibly think of throughout the series. From heroic sidekick, to anti-hero, to anti-villain, to flat-out villain, to a full-fledged hero in his own right and it's not easy to pull off all of these different changes within a character convincingly, but damn...he did it.

Asakura Takeshi - Well, of course He's not the deepest, most complex character in the world, but man is he enjoyable. He came at the perfect time in the story to up the stakes. Before he came along, we were stuck with a bunch of Riders who weren't really fully committed to the whole "Riders kill one another" thing. Scissors was a complete joke, Zolda would rather wait for everyone else to kill each other and Gai saw the whole thing as a game. Then comes Asakura, who straight up doesn't give a fuck. He literally exists within the Rider War just to kill, and that makes him the perfect guy to escalate the conflict. It also helps that Asakura is such a troll, who will laugh in your face as you mourn one of your fallen comrades. He's the perfect contrast for the main Rider as well: a guy who doesn't want to fight vs a guy who seems to exist ONLY to fight. Plus, the Cobra motif is badass.

Dan Kuroto/Professor Banno - I put these two in the same category because I like them both for more or less the same reasons. Both are deliciously hammy and over-the-top. Both have kickass Rider suits that are a dark-mirror of the main Rider. Both are hilariously petty. Both have the reputation of being hero-killers. Dan has a bit more character development and depth, but I still love Banno.

Dan Masamune - I like Masamune for the opposite reasons for why I like the above two. Outside of his few hammy moments (particularly later on in the series), he's very understated, very cold and very professional. He once again has an awesome design, he really felt like a Final Boss in the context of Ex-Aid because he was so stupidly broken before Hyper Muteki came along.

Honestly, there's like 5 other villains I could put on here, but this post would quickly turn into a novel.