Neil Aldrin

Neil Aldrin is Star Rider, one of the main protagonists in the series of Astro Rider.

Overview
Neil is a transfer student coming to Astro Academy from Star High School, who put a facade of being a friendly person; when he really kept everything to himself. After his mission is revealed, he drops the facade around the Rider Club. No Rider Club members, except Marcus, knew that he was actually Star Rider, as he was under orders from Roba. After the incident with Arieos, the entire Rider Club, save possibly Lovell, know of his identity, and Roba tasks them with keeping his identity from the enemy.

He is a member of the Anti-Overlord Union, supported from the satellite named the Star-Lite and a mysterious being called Roba. He started fighting against the Zodiac Overlords after witnessing his old friend, Hiro Tatsumi foolishly using a Zodiac Switch while causing it to self destruct and hospitalize him, putting him in a coma. Unable to forgive himself for failing to prevent Hiro's injury, Neil was given a package by Roba to become Star Rider, a name that his grandfather had taken, in order to track down Arieos. Things have started rocky between Star Rider and Astro Rider due to their different objectives. He is however willing to cooperate with Astro Rider in the battle against the Zodiarts. When he first transfered from Star High to Astro Academy, Neil sought to join the Rider Club.

To ensure his mission goes without fail, Neil puts up a bright, cheerful, and albeit timid facade so no one would be the wiser. Eventually, during the Rider Club's battle with Lynxo, Neil appears as Star Rider and reveals his agenda to them as he holds Astro Rider at bay to ensure Lynxo's escape in hopes that he might evolve into Arieos. After he defeats Scorpionos, Neil successfully joins the Rider Club in order to observe them better and putting up a further facade of being a technical genius, he is entrusted by Marcus to assist Ken in the creation of several Astro Switches and the MagnoPhone. While going onto the field with the rest of the club members, he plays further on his supposedly timid trait by running away when he sees a Zodiart, should he need to fight the monster personally.

Though his cover serves him well so far with the rest of the club, he is actually not much of an actor and often lets his principles or his smarts take priority over maintaining his cover. Those with a keen eye like Tam and Cancecon can detect something off with him based on those "leaks" alone, the latter calling him out to set up a partnership while intending to uncover Star Rider's identity. Cancecon eventually manages to trick him into revealing his identity as Star Rider, with Neil attempting to silence him before learning that Roba was already alerted to his secret being compromised and had shut down the Star Rider System as a consequence.

He gets a second chance in redeeming himself and is put in a dilemma between keeping his promise thus saving his Rider Club friends, and retaining the use of the Star Rider System. Neil chooses the former, earning Roba's approval and gains the Storm Switch along with retaining the use of the Star Rider System. Though he intends to look for the escaped Cancecon to settle things with him once and for all to keep his identity covered, he is unaware that Cancecon is no longer a threat and told by Roba that his cover is now secured.

Unfortunately, when Neil meets Arieos when said Zodiarts takes over Star High, he begins to lose his focus due to being so close to reviving Hiro. So, Arieos offers him (or rather, Star Rider) a deal; he will revive Hiro in return for destroying Astro Rider. Neil accepts. Star Rider aids the latter and betrays the Rider Club, and destroys Astro Rider with a one-inch punch to the chest, near the heart. Disgusted by his actions, Roba shuts down the Star Rider System, revealing Star Rider's identity to the Club and his school friends.

Arieos keeps up his part of the bargain and revives Hiro, but despite being awakened from his coma, after Neil tells Hiro of what he did, Hiro's health continues to fail. Hiro says he only took the Zodiac Switch that hospitalized him to be strong like Neil, but his weakness dragged Neil down. Neil feels guilty for betraying the Rider Club and realizes that he truly did want to be Marcus' friend.

As a result, he takes on Arieos despite having lost his powers and is almost killed until a revived Marcus intervenes. Neil is shocked, and tries to apologize, but Marcus had already fully forgiven Neil for his actions and the two Riders finally become true friends. After Arieos is destroyed, Neil is forgiven by the rest of the Rider Club who agree to help keep his identity secret.

While training with Roba, he discovers his identity as Virgara and tries to attack him, causing him to be sent to the Dark Nebula. When Marcus sucessfully destroys the vase he was ordered to destroy, Roba brought back Neil and Tam from the Dark Nebula, revealing that it was actually the Star-Lite. Before Roba/Emoto died though, he left the transformation option to automatic, allowing Neil to transform without needing authorization and no longer kept his identity as Star Rider secret anymore.