Kinjiro Takehara

Player Name: Airdra
Player Contact(s): Airdra
Are you over 18? Yes
Do you have any other characters in game?: Rakia Amarga at flantastic
Who invited you?: NA

Character Name: Kinjiro Takehara/Joji Takehara
Canon: No.1 Sentai Gozyuger
Canon Point: End of Episode 36
Age: 87, but appears to be 17
History: Link! Please ignore the personality section there because I don't think that's been updated since his first appearance. The history section itself only seems to go up to episode 36.

Is this character an AU? What type?: He's straight from canon.
Personality: Kinjiro is a fascinating study in making the most unhinged decisions as a result of grief over his dying wife's last request and being presented with a magic wish-granting ring. (Or perhaps...he would be more of that if this were anything other than a children's show designed to sell toys.) There's "I want a second chance at life, and I'm going to be more carefree this time" and then there's "I want a second chance at life and I am going to go back and enroll in my grandson's high school for the full carefree do-over experience."

In his defense, he doesn't seem to realize it's his grandson's high school up until he's being introduced to the class and sees his grandson sitting there in the classroom, causing him to quickly think up the new name of Kinjiro. And yet...the "in his defense" is a bit damning when you realize he was living with his grandson and didn't know such a basic detail of the kid's life. It also gets weirder when later in the series, it is revealed that actually...this whole time, he has been hanging out with his grandson like he is Just Another Ordinary Youth. Is he making up for something? Is he trying to support his grandson's desires to have fun? Is he just really damn weird?. Perhaps it is a little of all three.

While Kinjiro is having a ball revisiting his youth, his primary motivations are to have an exciting life full of experiences that he missed out on while he was too busy being an overly strict stick in the mud the first time around. He's taken his wife Fusako's plea for him to lighten up to heart. When his youth wears off, he's pretty spry for an old guy and once continuously danced to modern pop music for five minutes and thirty seconds straight, a feat his childhood rival Gaku, who had also gotten a second chance at youth from a ring, couldn't possibly hope to manage. Kinjiro welcomes new experiences with open arms, and it is that openness to new experiences that truly defines this second youth for him. He's extremely shaken when Gaku insinuates that he must be doing this in search of eternal youth. That's not what this is about. This is about new experiences and keeping an open mind. He can do that, he thinks, even as an old man, even if it's more difficult that way.

He claims he wants to be "one of the party people" and "the number one party person," but his ideas of parties are really pretty tame because this is a children's show. It's just loud music and vibes and he's enough of a dork to try to make record scratch or air horn noises himself to amplify the party energy. When Party Number One shows up to wreak havoc upon the town, Kinjiro is not actually the one who saves the day by getting everyone amped up and letting them have fun, but he learns from the experience. There's not enough party ego there for him to get his feathers ruffled, either--just a touch of disappointment. Mistakes aren't the end of the world!

He's an energetic and cheerful sort, and it's when he's quiet and not engaging with people that his friends worry about him. It's a change from the grumpy old man he was when he first found the Gozyu Eagle ring, and this isn't a change that happened in the blink of an eye; he had to work on it. He'll do it for you, Fusako. He'll gamely rush into battle against a No-One or help his friends out with the strange interpersonal issues that come up when you're part of a particularly dysfunctional Sentai team. If he has to cheat at cards to save his friends, then by golly, he's going to cheat at cards, even if he feels a little bad about it.

Powers and Abilities: Kinjiro has two major non-transformation-related abilities as part of his contract with the Gozyu Eagle ring. First and foremost is his youth. Secondly is his excellent eyesight, which gives him great distance vision as well as more detail-oriented vision like being able to see an opponent's hand in a card game by seeing a reflection of their hand in their eyes. Maintaining his youth and using this excellent vision expends more energy than just existing as a senior citizen. In order to keep up his energy levels and thus not end up collapsed somewhere, Kinjiro must eat eggs, which are perfectly nutritionally balanced to keep up with his dietary needs. If he doesn't eat enough eggs, it's back to being an old man. He tends to keep some hardboiled eggs on his person for this reason, but it's not unheard of for him to forget to re-up his stores in the heat of the moment.

The Gozyu Eagle ring, combined with the gold TegaSword he carries (and as a genre convention, that thing is bulky and yet somehow on him at all times; I headcanon that the ring simply summons it up as needed), allows him to transform into Gozyu Eagle. Gozyu Eagle is stronger, faster, and more durable than an ordinary human, and as Gozyu Eagle, Kinjiro also has the ability to sprout a pair of wings and take to the skies. In battle, he wields the Eagle Shooter 50, a green bow that's capable of firing just one arrow or a volley of arrows. The TegaSword he wields is also capable of being used as a melee weapon.

In addition to using the Gozyu Eagle ring, Kinjiro is also in possession of several other rings he's won from other Ring Warriors. This allows him to take the form of these other warriors as well, making use of their unique powers. He's got four additional rings in all, with the following powers:
- Kyoryuger: Allows him to transform into Kyoryu Red and wield Kyoryu Red's abilities, as well as generate jammin' samba music.
- Kiramager: Allows him to transform into Kiramai Red and make use of Imagination Manifestation, bringing whatever he draws to life for a brief time (i.e. drawing additional Gozyu Eagles to help him out in a fight).
- Bioman: Allows him to transform into Red1 and scan electronic waves.
- Dairanger: Allows him to transform into Ryu Ranger and wield Qi Power, which in practice seems to allow the user either to set something on fire or to transform an object (i.e. transform oneself into a playing card to slip out of a locked room).

Inventory: Smartphone, Gold TegaSword, Gozyu Eagle ring, alternate Sentai rings (Kyoryuger, Kiramager, Bioman, and Dairanger), a plastic container of peeled hardboiled eggs

Sample: TDM threads here and here

When presented with a choice, is the character more likely to stick with tried and true methods? Or make something new up on the fly? Making stuff up on the fly suits Kinjiro best. He's adapted to modern teenagerdom more quickly than he would have thought; he's not out here griping about smartphones and tablets and instead makes frequent use of these new tools, and doing something just because it's the old way and therefore better doesn't sit well with him. Something new and unfamiliar sounds interesting and fun, actually!

What is more important to your character, preserving the past or forging a future? Kinjiro is absolutely more concerned with forging a future. A guy doesn't sign up for a second chance at youth and go gallivanting off on an adventure without looking forward. The past is important, but it also serves as stepping stones to the future, and the old ways are not better simply because they're old. Sometimes, the old ways were just all that was available at the time, and why turn your nose up at progress?

How does your character influence their own story? What about the stories of others? Going at it from a genre convention standpoint, because Kinjiro is only a regular literally old Green and not a Red or the sixth member of the team, his ability to influence his own story is somewhat limited. He doesn't have Hoeru or Mashiro's plot armor to remain wholly himself throughout universe resets or be given a chance to pick a universe for survival. He doesn't get the chance to take the spotlight as much as several other members of his team and in some ways is kind of drawn through the overall story in the wake of other characters' more plot relevant shenanigans. He doesn't have any mysteriously missing or evil friends or relatives (and he is the cryptid missing relative as far as his own family is concerned), nor have any of the Gozyugers' enemies sought him out for any sort of plot-charged rivalry. He does make the choice to take the weird ring on his bonsai and accept the ring entity's offer of granting a wish, setting him off on this adventure, but he does tend to support others' more plot-relevant stories more than his own.

Are you alright with your character’s canon being used as a Recommended Reading?: why would I inflict this canon upon everyone else Yes!