Kamen Rider Zangetsu

The elder brother of Kamen Rider Ryugen, Takatora Kureshima is the series antagonist to Kamen Rider Gaim. As the head of Yggdrasill Corporation’s R&D department, Takatora is given the first Sengoku Driver, becoming Kamen Rider Zangetsu using the Melon Lockseed.

Like the 4 AC releases before this, Zangetsu comes in the same window box and comes with the Melon Arms, instructions, Musou Saber, and Melon Defender.

Zangetsu’s body is almost identical to Gaim’s, the only differences being the helmet and an almost pearlescent white color. In Melon Form, Zangetsu gains access to the Melon Defender, a Cantaloupe themed shield.

Zangetsu looks great with the Melon Arms. The cantaloupe skin texture on the armor is really great and the colors just mesh wonderfully together. The Melon Arms armor isn’t restricting like the Budou and Banana Arms and you can get a pretty good range of motion. Unfortunately, the weakness in the poorly designed Souchaku Henshin style hands becomes more an issue with each Arms Change release. The Musou Saber can be held just fine, but the large size of the Melon Defender makes its very difficult to grip tightly unless held to the side of the arm.

Because of the similarities in Gaim and Zangetsu’s bodies, he looks great in all the other fruit armors. I don’t think Gaim looks great in Melon Arms mainly due to the color combination and as always, Baron just looks plain silly.

Arms Change Kamen Rider Zangetsu is another strong entry in the gimmick line. Personally he’s my second favorite rider of the four Sengoku Driver Riders. While the frustrating hand design makes holding the Melon Defender annoying in more dynamic poses, Zangetsu is still fun to play around with. I may be in the minority, but I think this is the last figure in the Arms Change line that is truly enjoyable to play with. While subsequent releases look great, getting the figures to hold the Sonic Arrow and DJ Gun is just too frustrating. With the upcoming release of the SH Figuarts versions and Bandai’s decision to release certain Arms Change figures are exclusives, I think it’s time to jump ship.