Sakuta Ryuusei

朔田流星

A character on Kamen Rider Fourze.

Also known as Kamen Rider Meteor 仮面ライダーメテオ.

Played by: 吉沢亮 Yoshizawa Ryo

History

Sakuta Ryuusei is currently a third-year exchange student at Ama High. He originally comes from Subaruboshi High School and practices kung-fu at a local temple. One day, his best friend and fellow member, Jirou, got a Zodiarts Switch. He wanted to be stronger than Ryuusei but when he pressed the Switch, it backfired on him and put him in a coma. While visiting Jirou at the hospital, Ryuusei received a mysterious package from Tachibana which contains the Meteor Driver and Switch. He was given a mission to find the Aries Zodiarts who has the ability to save Jirou because he is able to wake him up so he could turn off the Switch since it's currently stuck on the "on" position. At the same time, he cannot let anyone know that he is Meteor or Tachibana will revoke any attempts of Ryuusei becoming Meteor.

Ryuusei first meets the Kamen Rider Club as Meteor when they were dealing with the Perseus Zodiarts. He helped in the fight by dealing with Libra while Fourze defeats the Perseus Zodiarts. Soon afterwards, he becomes an exchange student and attends Ama High. He manages to find the Rabbit Hutch but was initially denied of being a member of the Kamen Rider Club by Gentarou. During the second battle with the Lynx Zodiarts, Meteor allows him to escape since he show potential of becoming a Horoscope and manages to outclass Fourze in the process. When the Lynx Zodiarts was defeated by Fourze, Ryuusei punches Gentarou because he ruined a chance for Aries to appear. That act allow Ryuusei to be a member of the Kamen Rider Club even though it was just being an apprentice member.

Eventually Ryuusei's identity as Meteor was figured out by Kijima. Tachibana was able to discover this via the Meteor Switch and revoke his permission to allow Ryuusei to become Meteor but was offered a second chance. Tachibana tested him by telling him that he must reach the lighthouse at a certain time to receive the Meteor Storm upgrade but at the same time, he had to return back to the Kamen Rider Club since they allow him to visit Jirou while being the hostages of the Cancer Zodiarts. Ryuusei ended up returning to the Kamen Rider Club and thought he missed the chance to get the upgrade but that wasn't the case. Tachibana gave him the Meteor Storm upgrade because he didn't abandon the Kamen Rider Club. With the new upgrade, he was allow to become Meteor again and defeated Cancer with it.

Under the orders of Tachibana, Ryuusei went to Subaruboshi High School to investigate the presence of Zodiarts. He saw Libra on the grounds and fought with him. That was enough to have the Kamen Rider Club going to Subaruboshi as well. He found out that the exchange student from Ama High had taken control of the school and was the Aries Zodiarts. Instead of going with Tachibana's idea of helping Fourze to defeat Aries, he decides to join him in defeating Fourze. This act went very badly for Gentarou as he actually kills Gentarou. Tachibana immediately revokes permission from Ryuusei and thus revealing his identity as Meteor to the Kamen Rider Club. Tachibana later calls him a traitor for his actions. Jirou was soon revived by Aries and was able to press the Zodiarts Switch off. After Jirou realized what Ryuusei did to get him back, his condition worsen. Feeling the guilt of these actions, Ryuusei decides to fight Aries without the powers of Meteor in order to save the Kamen Rider Club from execution. Afterwords, Tachibana allows Ryuusei to become Meteor once again but he still has to keep his identity a secret to people outside of the Kamen Rider Club which includes Oosugi.

Personality

Ryuusei's personality at first was two-faced. On the outside he appears to be timid and cowardly since he tends to run away when Zodiarts attack. Really he's rather observant, not really liking the Kamen Rider Club because he didn't want to have friends anymore after what happened with Jirou. Even though he's a smart fighter, he tends to let his pride and arrogance get in the way of making good decisions. This arrogance allow Kijima to discover the fact that Ryuusei was Meteor. His pride as a fighter causes him to anger easily such as his first battle with the Cygnus Zodiarts and with the Leo Zodiarts. In the case of Leo, he did not want to run away even though Tachibana told him to which at one point, he forced Ryuusei to run away by teleporting him out of the area.

Once his identity as Meteor was known by the Kamen Rider Club, he dropped the timid act and became more like himself in front of them. He also wants to atone for killing Gentarou so he becomes more friendly towards him and even protects him from the advances of Takamura Yukina during the Kyoto trip.

Trivia

• Ryuusei actually means "meteor" in Japanese. It's a nod to his alter ego, Kamen Rider Meteor. The "Saku" in Sakuta means "new moon" or the first day of the lunar month. It could possibly refer to his status as the newest Rider.

• Ryuusei's Fighting Style is Jeet Kune Do, the marital arts system founded by Bruce Lee. To emphasise this, he shares certain mannerisms with Lee. For example, he wipes his nose in the same way when he says his catchphrase, has used Lee's signature One Inch Punch and when he fights his "Kiai" (The short exhalation before or during a strike or technique) are often identical to Bruce Lee's.