#and so i must tell you about gills esp since people didn't even know there was a third rider in agito

[t-u-i-t-c]

An Introduction to Kamen Rider Gills/Ryo Ashihara

Since I've seen some people interested in Kamen Rider Gills, here's a brief introduction to him with limited spoilers for Kamen Rider Agito (2001).

This is Kamen Rider Gills, he is the imperfect and "feral" Kamen Rider form of Ryo Ashihara, and the tertiary rider in Kamen Rider Agito (2001).

This is Exceed Gills, Kamen Rider Gills' second form.

This is Ryo Ashihara, he's not quite sure what Kamen Rider Gills is or how he became Gills. Throughout the series he is on a journey to find purpose after becoming Kamen Rider Gills tears his life apart.

Key Points (Gills)

He's imperfect, so for a while Ryo experiences extreme/painful side effects, even before being able to transform for the first time

His bike is the Gills Raider and it is a living thing, this is not something that is brought up in the series but in side content

He yells as he fights, and his mouth will sometimes open when he does- yes he does bite

He mainly relies on his biological weapons, such as his armor and claws

His transformation sequence does not involve a belt, as Ryo usually just does his pose and says "Henshin" leading Gills to come forth from there

Exceed Gills does have tentacles that come from his back and other additions

He can regrow limbs

Key Points (Ryo)

(I have a lot to say about Ryo, but I'll keep this to only things we learn early on to not spoil anything major. I do want to note that Ryo is a very interesting character to me and there is a lot more to him than I can list here without spoiling too much.)

He is shown to have a connection to Shouichi Tsugami from the first episode, though it will not become clear what it is until later

He was a competitive swimmer and was focusing on swimming before becoming Kamen Rider Gills

He is constantly going through it, whether he's experiencing side effects, being attacked by others, defending others, or something else, you can guarantee he's feeling something

His only family was his father, who's a key figure in Ryo's story

He was in a near-fatal car accident prior the start of the series and is shown to be returning to his college swim club after having recovered in the first episode

His transformation into Gills started after the accident, but only began to affect Ryo and become clear after his return in the first episode

Tends to be very considerate of other people and their safety, even when he's really going through it

Maintains his kindness through thick and thin

Ryo & Gills

While Ryo and Gills are the same, there's also a sense of difference between them as Ryo tends to refer to Gills as something separate. This, however, seems to be more a reflection of Ryo's unfamiliarity with Gills and the identity than Gills actually being a separate entity. This idea can be seen in Ryo's transformation sequences, in which he and Gills will stand side-by-side, but we can tell that Gills acts as Ryo would when he fights. Due to Gills being more feral than say Kamen Rider Agito he does tend to act more rashly than Ryo, but the goals and basic mindset seem to still be there, and become easier to see as time passes.