ā | Hel-lo. | ā |
~ Sora's catchphrase. |
ā | Sora: You go around snatching hope from people and you call yourself a Wizard? Haruto Soma: You lost your human soul a long time ago. You don't count as a person. Sora: You've got me there... |
ā |
~ Sora Takigawa's last words. |
Gremlin is one of the Greater Phantoms under Wiseman and a major antagonist in Kamen Rider Wizard.
His true identity is Sora Takigawa, a human used for the Sabbath who was able to resist his inner Phantom and merge with it, maintaining his personality in the process.
He seeks the Philosopher's Stone in order to use it to fully become human again. He later becomes the final antagonist of the main series after killing Wiseman.
He is portrayed by Takahisa Maeyama.
History[]
Past[]
Sora Takigawa was originally a hairdresser who was popular with customers for his friendly and playful disposition. When his girlfriend broke up with him however, Sora lashed out and murdered her by stabbing her with a pair of scissors, leading him to discover his love of killing.
Sora then began a serial killing spree, targeting women with long dark hair who wore white dresses and resembled his girlfriend. Several of Sora's victims were customers who he had developed an obsession with and killed to make sure they wouldn't leave him, cutting off a strand of their hair each time to keep with him.
At some point, Sora was abducted by Wiseman and used as a sacrifice for the Sabbath ritual. Like Haruto, Sora was able to hold onto his hope and survive the ritual, but unlike him Sora merged with his Phantom in the process, becoming Gremlin.
Despite this, Sora maintained his full personality and control over his Phantom. He at some point began working for Wiseman as one of his Chief Phantoms, but this was only a cover for his true goal - to obtain the Philosopher's Stone and become fully human again.
Searching for Gates[]
Gremlin first appeared when he delivered a new stone to Haruto, which Wajima used to craft into a new ring.
When Phoenix went rogue from the Phantoms, Gremlin helped lead Haruto to him so the two could have another fight. After Phoenix's death, Gremlin took his place as Medusa's partner and began working with her to find more Gates to awaken Phantoms from.
Wiseman later learned of Gremlin's intention of taking the Philosopher's Stone and chained him and interrogated him about his true motives.
However, Gremlin was able to convince Wiseman of his loyalty, leading Wiseman to falsely promise Gremlin the Philosopher's Stone and name him his new right-hand man.
Haruto eventually began looking into Gremlin's life as Sora Takigawa and discovered that Sora had acted very much like Gremlin did, leading him to hypothesize that Sora had somehow kept his human personality during the Sabbath much like he did.
Haruto would confront Gremlin at a playground to ask him about this, to which Gremlin revealed that he was indeed Sora and that he had resisted and fused with his Phantom during the Sabbath. Gremlin stated that this made him and Haruto very much alike but Haruto rebuffed the notion.
When Medusa eyed model Chiaki Shimizu as a Gate to create a Phantom from, Gremlin became obsessed with her after seeing her, as she had long black hair and wore a white dress, and intervened in a fight between the Phantoms and the Kamen Riders to protect her.
After Gremlin was knocked into the water, Haruto swam in to rescue him. Gremlin would later intervene in another fight between the Riders and Phantoms to lead Chiaki to safety. He convinced Chiaki to come to his personal hairdressing place so he could fix her hair, only to cut off a strand of it before attempting to kill her.
However, Haruto and his friends, who had figured out Sora's true history as a serial killer, intervened and saved Chiaki from Gremlin.
Going Rogue[]
Gremlin eventually figured out that Wiseman's real plan was to use the Sabbath and the Philosopher's Stone to revive Koyomi, his daughter, and that he didn't really plan on giving him the Stone at all. This led Gremlin to go rogue from the Phantoms and start plotting to play both them and the Riders against each other in order to obtain the Philosopher's Stone.
When the White Wizard kidnapped Koyomi, Haruto reluctantly went to Gremlin for help in tracking Wiseman down. Gremlin revealed Wiseman's true plan to Haruto and attempted to convince him to act as his hostage so he could gain some leverage over the White Wizard, but Haruto declined and went to search for Koyomi on his own.
After the second Sabbath was thwarted thanks to Kousuke Nitoh and the Chimera Phantom, Gremlin went to Fueki's house to obtain the Philosopher's Stone from Koyomi.
Fueki transformed into White Wizard and told Gremlin that killing Koyomi wouldn't get him the Stone, but Gremlin stated he was willing to wait and see if the stone was left behind after her death. Koyomi then took the opportunity to escape and run away from the house, leading Fueki, Haruto and Gremlin to all chase after her.
Along the way Fueki encountered Gremlin and the two fought. The White Wizard was able to overpower Gremlin and defeat him, but after Gremlin called Fueki "father", the White Wizard became furious and pinned Gremlin to a tree with his Hamel Cane. Gremlin then played dead until the White Wizard left, before pulling the Hamel Cane out from within his chest and going after Kokomo.
Obtaining the Philosopher's Stone[]
After Haruto defeated the White Wizard, Gremlin attacked Fueki from behind and killed him with the Hamel Cane. Gremlin then used the Hamel Cane to kill Koyomi and extract the Philosopher's Stone from her, before absorbing it into himself and transforming into Evolved Gremlin.
Evolved Gremlin then assaulted Tokyo with a horde of Ghouls, intent on using the Stone's power to siphon all the Mana from every Gate in the city into himself and killing everyone who wasn't a Gate in the process.
In response however, the three Kamen Rider Mages the White Wizard had recruited - Mayu Inamori, Yuzuru Iijima and Masahiro Yamamoto - all showed up and transformed into their Kamen Rider forms to defend civilians and fend off the mob of Ghouls.
Gremlin eventually confronted and fought all three of them at once, but after he defeated them Haruto Soma appeared and transformed into Kamen Rider Wizard for one last battle against Gremlin, in order to put Koyomi's soul to rest by taking back the Philosopher's Stone from him.
Gremlin and Wizard fought, but while Gremlin initially held his own against Wizard, Wizard was able to reach inside of him and pull out the Philosopher's Stone, which Koyomi's spirit transformed into the Hope Ring for Wizard to use.
Reverted back to his regular Phantom form, a furious Gremlin attempted to attack Wizard, but Wizard fought him off and killed him with the power of the Hope Ring.
Right before dying, Gremlin mocked Haruto for stealing hope from another human, but Haruto responded that Sora was never human to begin with before Gremlin faded away.
Kamen Rider x Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen[]
Gremlin was a member of the Underworld Empire Badan's army of undead past foes of the Kamen Riders. During the battle between the Kamen Riders and Badan, Gremlin fought against Kamen Rider Shin.
Personality[]
Sora is sadistic and cruel by nature, despite appearing playful and carefree with a habit of making a girly giggle when things go his way. But he can get serious at times. He prefers to call other Phantoms by their Gates' names.
Forms[]
Gallery[]
Gremlin[]
Gremlin (Evolved Form)[]
Trivia[]
- Gremlin/Sora is the only villain in Kamen Rider franchise so far who actually wants his power down instead of up, as he only wants his new power temporarily before he ends up becoming a human once again.
- He is similar to real life serial killer Ted Bundy both of whom were impressionable young men who hid their psychopathic nature under a thick veil of charisma. All while behind the scenes lured women, killed, and raped them.
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Villains | ||
Phantoms World of Monsters Kaijin Army Others |