You know...I've been thinking about Ryuki the last couple days and the more I think about it, Shinji is probably one of my favorite rider protags. So Imma talk about why he works so well for me.

Ryuki is a show thats a tad more realistic in a sense (bleh, yeah sorry for using that word but bear with me). You've got lots of clashing motivations and every other rider barring Raia being out for themselves.

You've got the selfish ones fighting for their own desires (Imperer), to save their own life (Zolda), to save someone they love (Ren), the downright psychopathic ones (Gai and Ouja) and others using their powers for their own gain in other ways.

Hell even Raia's reason for wanting to stop the Rider War is tied directly into Kanzaki killing his friend because his friend refused to take the deck so its a slightly selfish motive behind a good act.

Then you've got Shinji, a guy who literally stumbled into the Rider War. Kanzaki never intended for him to have a deck and can't bribe him with anything like he did the others.

This is because Shinji's reasons for competing are a whole lot simpler than the others: He just wants to save people from monsters preying on them. People are dieing and he has the power to help so he is gonna do what he can.

The other riders constantly call him naive for not looking out for himself in the Rider War when he tries to convince them to stop fighting. Ultimately, he can't solely look out for himself, because thats not who Shinji is and thats not what he believes his powers are for.

Even when he founds out that Yui will die if the winner doesn't use the wish on her, it ultimately doesn't change his outlook. Yeah he gets recklessly overzealous when his motivation briefly shifts to trying to save her, but he goes right back to his previous reason.

Despite fumbles in Ryuki's writing here and there, Shinji's last moments perfectly capture who he is as a person. He doesn't die fighting another rider...he dies shielding a little girl as the city is being overrun by monsters. Thats who Shinji Kido is when you get down to it.

Ultimately given Ryuki's setup, technically Ren is the show's main character how things turn out and his reason for fighting, but Shinji is the show's hero.

Overall Shinji is my kind of hero.