Jin Takayama

"In order to protect humanity...I had to abandon mine."

- Jin to Professor Hoshino

Jin Takayama (鷹山 仁) is one of the main protagonists of the 2016 net series Kamen Rider Amazons. He uses the Amazons Driver to become Kamen Rider Amazon Alpha (仮面ライダーアマゾンアルファ), or Amazon Alfa.

Amazons (1st Season)
Jin was originally a researcher for the Nozama Pharmacy, and presumed to have an important hand in the creation of the Amazon Cells. After the lab accident which caused 4000 Amazons to escape, Jin vowed to personally wipe each and every remaining Amazons off the face of the Earth. In order to do that, he injected Amazon Cells into his own body to become stronger, becoming Amazon Alpha. It is presumed he was also involved in the creation of the Amazons Driver, with Nozama Pharmacy kept unaware of the driver's existence. Prior to the series, he planted a GPS tracker on Nozama Peston Service truck, using their movement to track the other Amazons.

Following the Nozama Peston Service, Jin makes his appearance in the driver's seat of their truck as they struggle to deal with multiple Amazons. Disembarking, Jin identifies himself as an Amazon before transforming. Proceeding to pick the Spider Amazon as his first target, Jin attacks and swiftly kills the monster by ripping its heart out.

After finding out there was another Amazon named Haruka Mizusawa who was similar to him, Jin brought Haruka back to his place, offering Haruka to stay for the night. Jin then attaches an Amazons Register onto Haruka's arm and tells Haruka about the Amazons.

Jin continued to hunt down the remaining Amazons, just as the Nozama Peston Service was doing the same. Following the Service to hunt Dragonfly Amazon, he fought the Amazon briefly, but for unknown reason disengaged and watched silently as it ate Jun Maehara and defeated Mole Amazon, until Haruka Mizusawa arrived and defeated it as Amazon Omega.

Asking whether Haruka agreed to join him in his quest, Jin got the cold shoulder, being attacked instead and later withdrew silently.

Eventually Makoto Shido found the GPS tracker Jin has planted and feed him false information, redirecting him to a harbour as the Service hunt Amazons in an apartment. However, upon the Service pinned by the Ant Amazons, Reika Mizusawa gave the true location to him, allowing Jin to help them. While telling the overwhelmed Amazon Omega that Amazons don't fight in pretty manners and that living means devouring life of others, Jin as Amazon Alpha managed to gain upper hand against Queen Ant Amazon. But Jin was then occupied by the Soldier Ant Amazon as the Queen moved to attack Makoto Shido. He watched in awe as Amazon Omega brutally cut the Queen into two.

After the Ant Amazons incident, Jin was knocked out by Makoto Shido under orders from Nozama Pharmacy.

Jin was taken back to the Pharmacy to be studied, and was later imprisoned in a electrified cell without any food supply. When Haruka Mizusawa visited him, asked how he decided to fight and how he controlled his Amazon power, Jin told him his past and how he became an Amazon by his own volition. He also said that he had doubt regarding the project, but Reika Mizusawa stated that everything was well until the incident. Jin was later re-stated his goal, to exterminate all Amazons ever existed.

After the Mizusawa family left following the reactivation of Butterfly Amazon, he was visited by Yugo Tachibana, who offered him a deal. However, Jin refused to even hear his condition, and finally managed to escape thanks to Nanaha Izumi who posed as a staff member of the Pharmacy, stunning Yugo and giving Jin the food he needed. On his motorcycle, he passed across Haruka, whom he greeted with a smile.

Jin later asked Nanaha to put another tracker on the Nozama Peston Service truck, which is implied to fail. However, even without the tracker and only by deducing from the news, he arrived before the Service to fight Shrike Amazon. Amazon Omega joined the fight, but hesitated to deliver the killing blow when he saw the Amazon reverted to human form and stared at him begging for mercy. The Amazon escaped, and Jin then scolded Haruka as this means it will kill other humans.

Jin was not present when Amazon Omega defeated the Shrike Amazon, but arrived in time to prevent Haruka from killing a criminal human, stating that he will protect all humans regardless.

Later, Jin received an e-mail from Yugo Tachibana, who arranged a meeting between him and a "new type of Amazon", and went rushingly, forgetting his usual goodbye kiss with Nanaha Izumi. In the ensuing battle with Amazon Sigma, he was utterly defeated in 4 moves, the last of which wounded him badly on his right neck. Realizing the missing kiss, Nanaha Izumi arrived in time in their truck before Sigma's Violent Strike was executed, on which Jin swiftly escaped but not before taking his phone, which he set prior to the battle and recorded the whole ordeal.

Jin then met the Nozama Peston Service and showed them the video, stating that Amazon Sigma was another type of Amazon who was made by injecting Amazon cells into the dead Jun Maehara.

After his full recovery, Jin was urgently asked by Reika Mizusawa to chase Shogo Kano, who stole the activation device of Tlaloc. In his chase, he was interfered by Amazon Sigma, who claimed to be able to kill Jin in 4 moves this time. This was proven to be true; Sigma's knee-kick on Jin undid his transformation and was about to knock him out, when suddenly he resisted, stating that he didn't want to fall. Nozama Peston Service arrived in time with Haruka Mizusawa, helping Jin out and giving him food to recover.

Joining the fray, Jin managed to land his Violent Slash on Sigma, followed by Haruka's Violent Strike, which put Sigma in verge of death. However, it is Mole Amazon who landed the finishing blow.

Later, Jin sent Nanaha to go on vacation herself. Then he visited Nozama Pharmacy, threatening Reika Mizusawa to start Tlaloc. Agreed by Takaaki Tenjo, Reika has no choice but to oblige. Jin met several Amazons on his way outside the Pharmacy, all of which he battled on under the Tlaloc rain.

After Tlaloc, Jin was missing. He reappeared when the reformed Nozama Peston Service attempted to hunt the surviving Amazons, after Haruka Mizusawa appeared. Showing his face, now deformed on the left side (implied as Tlaloc's effect), he resumed to exterminate the Amazons. Fighting Haruka, who sided with Amazons' living in peace, both wounded each other badly on their necks, and both subsequently withdrew.

Wounded, Jin was stranded in a desert, until Nanaha Izumi found him. Crying, Jin admitted that he actually wanted to go on vacation with her.

Amazons (2nd season)
During his time as a geneticist, before the original Amazon incidents, Jin conducted genetic research under the mentoring of Iyu's father.

Five years after the Tlaloc incident, Jin's sanity deteriorated as his maniacal obsession to eliminate any and all Amazons he came across intensified. This pattern of behavior eventually drew the attention of Haruka, now the protector of benign Amazons and humans alike. The two would battle on numerous occasions, but because of Jin's ever-increasing insanity, Haruka always emerged triumphant. And perhaps out of pity or mercy, Haruka would spare Jin time and time again.

After so much conflict and violence, Jin's insanity eventually subsided, allowing him to heal both mentally and physically. But a new nightmare emerged to terrorize Jin's mind in the form of a pregnant Nanaha. Jin desperately sought out his teacher and fellow geneticist, Professor Hoshino, in hope that he would offer some advise and expertise to the situation. But because of his love of family, in the end, Hoshino decided to protect the child, much to Jin's dismay. In his rage, Jin assaulted Hoshino. The incident carried unforeseen consequences as the professor was cut by broken glass during the assault, glass from the test tube containing the DNA sample of Chihiro's Amazon cells and, as a result, Hoshino began to gradually transform into the first of the new-type Amazons.

Ignorant of the ramifications of his attack, Jin focused his attention on the threat his child posed, shunning him for the danger that he would become. His frantic search would bring him face-to-face with his nemesis Haruka, who informed him that Nanaha fled with their child, now named "Chihiro". Haruka proposed peace, but Jin, enraged, remained steadfast in his convictions and transformed, attacking Haruka. Both Amazons engaged in a fierce battle. But tired and weary, Jin managed to strike a decisive blow with his arm impaling Haruka's chest. Though hurt, Haruka mustered the might to slash Jin across the eyes his arm blades, blinding Jin and thus preventing him from searching for Chihiro. Both men badly wounded, withdrew from the battle in a draw as Haruka stumbles away while Jin is left groaning on the ground.

In the present, he returns into action to take down the new type Amazons, smiling as he reunites with his son, telling Chihiro that he came to kill him. Before Chihiro could recover from his shock, Jin asks his son about Nanaha. However, Team Amatsuki joins with Team Kurosaki and evacuates with Chihiro before he could receive an answer. Jin lingers around, stumbing about due to his impaired sight before he discovers a wreath - the same one Nanaha wore and wrapped Chihiro with when he was still an infant. He then discovers a shack, where Nanaha was originally staying at before she moved. Noticing a mural with a woman bearing angel wings, Jin recalls Haruka telling him Chihiro's namesake. Realizing that the mural was where Nanaha came up with the name, and realizing her intentions, Jin weeps.

After he leaves the shack, Jin looks at the mural, stating that he now realizes what Nanaha wanted, and resolves to take care of Chihiro. Due to having found the wreathe used to bundle Chihiro when he was infant, Jin is able to find his scent. When he discovers him, he notes that he smells a lot like blood and asks where it came from, though he later remarks that it doesn't matter. He then proceeds to inform Chihiro that he knows Nanaha's wish: should Chihiro forsake his humanity, Jin would have to kill him. Chihiro is left in utter disbelief at this, and is forced to defend himself when Jin transforms into Amazon Alpha and attacks him. He also refutes Chihiro's claims that he wants to live, saying that it won't happen, and nearly manages to kill his son when he transforms into his Amazon Origin form. Jin is left completely shocked and caught off guard by the sudden transformation, and is forced out of his when Chihiro retaliates, taking the opportunity to escape.

Like Team Kurosaki and the remnants of Nozama Peston Services, Jin goes hunting for Chihiro with the intention to end his life. He is also currently unaware that Nanaha is actually alive and has become an Amazon, engaging in battle with Haruka and Mizuki.

Jin doesn't take long to find Chihiro again, now in the former base of Team Kiss. After confirming that Chihiro was the one who killed Nanaha (which is actually not the case), both transforms and fights ferociously, but Amazon Alpha manages to land a critical blow to Chihiro, knocking him out of transformation. When it seems over for Chihiro, Hiroki Nagase helps his teammate, shooting Amazon Alpha in his neck and cancelling his transformation, allowing Chihiro to escape during the time. Enraged, Jin knocks Hiroki out.

Jin continues to chase Chihiro, finding Iyu in a grass field after her battle with Amazon Neo. Jin immediately recognizes Iyu as Professor Hoshino's daughter, and begins engaging the worn out Chihiro in another battle, easily defeating him. However, before he manages to land the killing blow, Iyu pierces his chest from the back.

Despite being heavily wounded, Jin had managed to survive his injuries. He is found by the Jellyfish Amazon, who strokes his cheek with its tentacles when he awakens, ripping off some of them and asking it if it was trying to eat him. He proceeds to bite into the tentacles to try and restore himself while the Jellyfish Amazon retreats, though Jin tries to trace it by scent. He becomes startled when he recognizes the smell as Nanaha's. Haruka then arrives with Mizuki; both are surprised to see him in such horrible condition. Asking if he is following the Amazon, he asks Haruka whether the Amazon was Nanaha, which he confirms. Horrified, he asks when this happened. Haruka informs him that Nanaha became infected with the Lysogenic Cells while she was pregnant with Chihiro, and states that because he helped her, he should be the one to kill her. Jin, however, refutes this, believing that because he loves Nanaha and Chihiro, he should be the one to end them, including the other Amazons as well. Haruka tries to reason with him, telling him they're family, but Jin refuses him once again, stating that he has no right to have a family, before devouring the rest of the tentacles he ripped from Nanaha, and proceeds to track her down.

Not long after, Jin manages to find the Jellyfish Amazon in a beach. After thanking his blindess for being unable to see Nanaha in Amazon form, he proceeds to transform in deepest lament. He starts attacking Nanaha while regretting her love for him, presses forward despite being ferociously assaulted by the Amazon's tentacles, until Mole Amazon interrupts their fight. He makes short work of the nuisance, then manages to pierce the Jellyfish Amazon's abdomen. Shido and his team use this chance to fire a heavy scattershot round, trying to end the Amazon, however the surviving Mole Amazon blocks the shot and thus climatically explodes, engulfing both Jin and Nanaha in fire.

Accepting his impending death, Jin embraces Nanaha, who apologizes for making him do another favor for her. Jin then realizes, that the mural of an angel he saw before was not Nanaha's request to kill Chihiro, but to kill herself instead. After commending him for being a good father, Nanaha pushes Jin out of the explosion, saving him.

The final showdown commences; Jin and Haruka encounter Chihiro near the shack with angel mural. When Chihiro thinks that everything was his fault, Jin denies, admitting that it was his sin instead, and that he will send his son to Nanaha's place. The three remaining Amazons transform; Alpha and New Omega once again work together against mutual threat of humanity.

Jin was later seen wandering aimlessly, lamenting of why Nanaha didn't let him go together with her and their son.

Kamen Rider Amazons: The Last Judgement
Set 2 years after the events of the 2nd season, Haruka, along with Jin Takayama, are being hunted by 4C as the last surviving Amazons. It is revealed that Jin is held captive by Einosuke Mido to create Amazon offspring from his blood, as revealed by Mido himself when Haruka find him, as he tells Jin that he "surpassed him as Alpha" and that he is "Neo Alpha". When Jin is set free by Haichi, he still plan to kill every Amazon, which led him to fight Haruka once more, but managed to subdue him. As he escapes, he finds Neo Alpha and fights him to get revenge for what he did to him. As the fight ends, Mido attempt to kill Jin, but Jin cuts his right arms and kills him.

He then proceed to kill the rest of the children, but Jin is stopped by Haruka, and claims that he will kill everything he tries to protect.They both transform and engage in a fierce battle. When the two Amazons deliver their final attack on each other, Haruka emerges victorious. Fatally wounded, Jin sees the spirit of his wife Nanaha and dies peacefully.

Chou Super Hero Taisen
An iteration of Amazon Alpha from the Game World ambushed Emu Hojo, and Poppy Pipopapo with Amazon Omega and Amazon Neo. Transforming into Ex-Aid Double Action Gamer Level X, Emu held off the three Amazon Riders, allowing Poppy and Naga to get away, only to be left at a disadvantage as he was unable to split into Level XX due to his Rider Gauge running low. However, by eluding the Amazons long enough, Ex-Aid was able to reach a Reverse Energy Item which had the effect of revitalizing Ex-Aid while weakening the Amazon Riders, allowing the Double Action Gamer to quickly defeat the trio by stomping on them.

Personality
As noted by Hajime Hoshino, his professor back when he was in college, Jin used to be a very amicable person with a heart of gold. However, that all changed due to Jin's strong sense of responsibility and mission, expressed in his self-defined goal to kill every single Amazon out there, as penance for his role in their creation, going so far as to becoming an Amazon himself. However, it also means that he will eventually kill benign Amazons, as well as himself, at the end of his quest. As someone who has been literally eating only things that he plants or kills since he began his quest, Jin has since adopts a nihilistic, kill-or-be-killed approach to life, caring for little else other than staying alive.

Having voluntarily transformed himself into a monster to hunt down monsters he created, being human or not matters little to him and he has never any problem accepting himself being an Amazon, nor any problem killing other Amazons. Despite so, he has shown capacity to care for others, seen in his interaction with Nanaha as well as having saved Haruka several times from running amok and jeopardizing his own safety.

In battle, he is shown to be very confident of his own abilities, often preferring to make a loud, eye-catching entrance in a carefree manner before starting a fight, as well as taking his time to toy with his opponents instead of seeing them as serious threats to be taken out as soon as possible.

Prioritizing the elimination of Amazons before everything else, he draws a clear line between who he protects and who he destroys, the former being humans and the latter, Amazons. The question of good and evil is moot to him, evidenced that he would protect a human even if said human is a serial killer, yet kill an Amazon who has never harmed anyone. As Haruka, at the point still wavering who he wants to protect and destroy as he takes morality into account, Jin mocks him frequently for being indecisive and hypocritical. This mentality led him to go to lengths to ensure Operation Tlaloc get off the ground when the weather is right, so much so as to completely ignore the safety of Haruka, Mamoru, and himself, as well as to blatantly threaten Reika.

Surviving and deprived of food after said operation, he has no problem consuming Amazons that he has hunted, seeing them as little more than sustenance for him to continue his personal war. At this stage, he gained notoriety for being a heartless Amazon killer, hunting and killing any Amazon within sight to the best of his ability, as well as making himself Haruka's archenemy for refusing to back off. His personality also changed from the usual calm and haughty to borderline psycopathic, screaming wildly in battle and laughing inappropriately. However, shortly afterward he was seen crying on Nanaha's lap, with Nanaha being able to see through him--that his cheerful facade is but a front to suppress the hurt and guilt of having indirectly hurt so many.

After the events of Season 1, flashbacks revealed that Jin's personality switched haphazardly between his usual self and his psychotic personality, the latter of which spawned as a result of Operation Tlaloc. He became maddened and deranged at a few points, even violently attacking Nanaha before realizing what he had done. He even began to exhibit traits of an Amazon that he previously didn't show, such as biting flesh, having bit Nanaha once in one of his episodes. He eventually comes back to his senses, though the moment is short-lived when he learns that Nanaha is pregnant. His self-imposed duty to eliminate Amazons however, never wavered, and even considered his own unborn child one of them, believing him to be a danger and should be killed, hence Nanaha's reasoning for leaving. Even when Haruka tries to appeal to him, Jin remains adamant, refuting the former's claims that there is another way for Amazons to feed without hunting humans.

At present, Jin still acts aloof, but his fighting style has grown more violent and brutal, mirroring Haruka's in the past, possibly due to his blindness. He still shows his willingness to kill every Amazon, even the New Types, as well as his own son. This fact is further reinforced when he discovers the mural of an angel, which apparently had Nanaha's wish to "take care of Chihiro."

That said, it is possible that Jin, in spite of his stance on Amazons, may hold some familial love for Chihiro, given that Nanaha's "wish" was to protect him while he was still human. He even considers Chihiro's act of killing Nanaha to be his own fault, given that he was the one who impregnated her. This is further reinforced when he learns that Nanaha became an Amazon because she was pregnant with Chihiro. However, Jin also does not think highly of himself because of this, agreeing with Nagase's unfinished statement that he is a "piece of s**t" when he knocks him out for his interference, and does not consider himself a family man when Haruka tries to tell him to stop because Nanaha and Chihiro are his family.

Jin's feelings regarding finally come to ahead during his battle with Nanaha as the Jellyfish Amazon, and then his final confrontation with Chihiro. He believes that the events that have transpired were his own fault, not Chihiro's, and now only wants to put his son at ease by taking him to where Nanaha was. However, after the battle, he laments why Nanaha didn't want him to die with her or Chihiro, but seems to resolve to live as he wanders the world alone.

Family

 * Nanaha Izumi - Girlfriend (Later Wife), deceased
 * Chihiro - Son, deceased

Powers and Abilities
As of the researchers in Nozama Pharmacy and the genetic template for creating Amazon cells, he has in-depth knowledge regarding the cell's biological makeup, and subsequently properties and behaviors of Amazons. However, he is most well known and taken seriously for his abilities as a fighter, transformed or otherwise. Though never seen by others to fight in his human form, he nevertheless boldly displays his confidence in his abilities by casually walking into battlefields unarmed and in a devil-may-care attitude, and later fighting hordes of Ant Amazons all the way up to the rooftop of an apartment building, in human form, unarmed and emerging unscathed.

Possibly as an expression of his full acceptance of what he is as well as being a human originally, he never has any problem keeping his cool while in his transformed state, resulting in despite often seen dispatching of Amazons in brutal, cold-blooded manner, is never seen to behave in a bestial manner prior to commencing Operation Tlaloc. Curiously, he is also the only Amazon without an Amazon Register armband, and he is never shown to require any medications to keep his Amazon cells in check. This is presumably due to him being a genetic template for the cells themselves, as well as being able to provide sustenance to his Amazon Cells through his half-human nature--done by having said cells eat his human cells, while in turn consumes regular food to replenish those lost human cells.

His competence in hand-to-hand combat extends to his transformed state, using regular human-like fighting techniques almost exclusively and is shown so far of being capable of easily besting any other Amazon, even when being vastly outnumbered. His fighting prowess, however, is so advanced that he is able to defeat and kill Kamen Rider Amazon Neo-Alpha, an opponent that even Haruka as Amazon New Omega, struggles to defeat, using only a regular Amazons Driver. After the battle, he even has enough stamina and strength to make one final stand against Haruka.

During Operation Tlaloc, he finally lets himself loose due to euphoria from soon achieving his goal of wiping out the Amazons, boosting his impressive fighting abilities even further. Despite being affected and hideously disfigured by the Anti-Amazon gasses, he retains his full abilities as an Amazon, but has gotten more bestial and ferocious in desperation of hunting all surviving Amazons. During this period, he suffers frequently from psychotic outbursts due to pain, as he is unable to heal properly due to his regenerative abilities being far slower than a regular Amazon's, and exerting himself excessively all the time.

In the second season, his evasion skill dropped drastically due to practically being blind after his final altercation with Haruka. However, his hearing and sense of smell are still very acute and he comes to rely on them exclusively in combat. He comes to deliberately open himself up to attacks, which the opportunity he then uses to grab hold onto his opponents and beats them ruthlessly, pinning them to the ground most of the time to reliably execute them later.

Jin's healing factor is noticeably weaker than Haruka's or Chihiro's, as it takes a long time for his eyes to fully heal.

Devices

 * Amazons Driver

Portrayal
Jin Takayama is portrayed by Masashi Taniguchi (谷口 賢志), who previously portrayed in . As Amazon Alpha, he is portrayed by suit actor Hirokazu Iwakami (岩上 弘数).

In popular culture
A toy of Amazon Alpha alongside Amazon Omega on the Junglaider makes a cameo in the anime spin-off,  Gaiden: Omocha War; coincidentally also released on Amazon Prime like Amazons.