Blazephyr

"Eiji... I'm no longer the hand that you should need to reach out."

- Ankh's last words to Eiji

Ankh (アンク) is one of the main characters of Kamen Rider OOO. He is the bird Greeed and anti-hero/rogue throughout the series. Unlike his fellow Greeed, he has allied himself to the protagonist Kamen Rider OOO, mainly because of his inability to assume his full form and his lack of trust towards the other Greeed. However, when he regains his physical form, Ankh becomes OOO's enemy until he joins with OOO once again shortly before the final battle; Ankh was unable to kill Eiji due to emotions developed during the time he had spent with him, although his switching sides once more was contributed to his new found capacity for feeling deeper emotions. He was attacked by Maki while defending Eiji resulting in the Taka Medal containing Ankh's consciousness being cracked. When he let Eiji use this Medal against Maki in the final battle, it split in half, but remained otherwise intact. His Core Medals are: Taka (Hawk), Kujaku (Peacock), and Condor.

Overview
In The Kamen Rider OOO novel, when Ankh was first created, he resided within his 10 Core Medals not as the Greeed known as Ankh, but as the King of Birds. At that point Ankh felt free and was able to see the beauty in this world, he loved the vast blue sky more than anything. But as the 10th Core Medal was taken away, Ankh spawned from the Core Medals with his sense smell, vision and taste becoming distorted. He was unable to see the world in the same way he previously did and left with a feeling of being incomplete. He and the other Greeeds became the embodiment of greed. The King witnesses the birth of the Greeeds and says “Happy Birthday!” as he takes their Core Medals.

What sets Ankh apart and leads him to his betrayal to the other Greeeds begins when he meets a blind girl. This girl dreams of being able to a beautiful scenery accompanied with bluebirds. Ankh seems to be able to connect to the blind girl. They eventually become friends through their mutual desire to see the world in a beautiful perspective, even though Ankh hates humans. Ankh goes on to tell the girl that he’s actually a bird. The girl believes him and asks “Mr. Bird, what color are you?” Ankh responds with “I’m red…” leaving her rather disappointed as he’s not blue. Eventually Ankh tells her that he can help her see, and creates the Condor Yummy through her desire to see. The Condor Yummy attacks random people gouges their eyes out and gives them to the girl. She opens her eyes and sees corpses with their eyes gouged out, causing her to go insane. She no longer has the desire to see again, and the Condor Yummy disintegrates into Cell Medals. Shortly before she dies, the girl asks Ankh to once again become the King of Birds in order to protect the weak. Ankh feels bad for not being able to save her, in a similar way to Eiji and the girl he couldn’t save during the war.

Ankh joins up with the other Greeeds and agrees to take down the King together in order to retrieve their Core Medals. The King is insanely strong and controls a large portion of Europe. He uses the combos very efficiently, with Gatakiriba he clones himself and destroys neighboring countries and their armies. He uses Tajadol’s flight as his advantage and burns down villages that try and oppose him. With Latorartar’s speed, he infiltrates enemy camp and strikes quickly. He uses Sagohzo and Shauta to cause earthquakes and tsunamis to take down the Spanish Armada. The Greeeds manage to get their Core Medals back too, but even when they are in their full form they can’t take on the King. In order to defeat him, they resort to using Yummies created from the King’s greed. Uva, Kazari and Mezool creates the Cockroach, Lion and Whale Yummies, they are almost as strong as a full form Greeed because of the King’s strong greed. But none of this is enough as Ankh reveals that he was working with the King all along, but the King betrays Ankh. When the First OOO attempted to absorb the power of all the Core Medals, the King was turned into a stone coffin sealing the Greeed and Ankh's right forearm containing the Core Medal with his consciousness while the rest of his body was mummified and preserved in Europe. Right before Ankh is sealed, he imagines and sees the blind girl, flying together and looking down on the beautiful world.

In present times, he unseals himself and the other Greeed completely, while stealing some of the others' Core Medals in the process to get an advantage over them. However, he loses one of his Taka Medals when Eiji Hino takes it by accident. He originally intends to force Eiji to return his medal, but when the Kamakiri Yummy attacks when trying to retrieve other Core Medals he has stolen from his fellow Greeed, Eiji saves him. To return the favor, while intending to make Eiji a pawn in his scheme, Ankh saves the human by giving him some of the Core Medals he has and enabling him to transform into Kamen Rider OOO.

After the Yummy is destroyed, Ankh takes the body of the detective Shingo Izumi, who was mortally wounded in the attack, causing Shingo's hair to spike up with a dull blonde color. As Ankh explains, he intends to use Shingo's body as his temporary vessel, thus keeping Shingo barely alive, so he could move about unnoticed while feeding on as many Cell Medals as he can to regain his complete form. However, when Eiji proves far more strong willed than he thought, Ankh is forced into promising him to give Eiji the OOO Driver so he could save lives rather than just to gather Cell Medals for Ankh.

Eventually, Ankh reveals his reasons for wanting the Core Medals is so he can evolve into a stronger being. However, after reabsorbing his two Core Medals and only able to project a single rainbow-hued wing from his shoulder, Ankh's inability to regenerate attracts Eiji's concern. The mystery deepens when a being resembling Ankh's left forearm appears and creates two Omu Yummy in an attempt to take his counterpart's Core Medals, eventually forced to regenerate into a near-complete being to support Kazari and Maki while attempting to absorb Ankh and become whole.

After his counterpart has been destroyed, Ankh retakes Shingo's body as his remaining Core Medals cannot maintain his new body. Having regained his full powers as a Greeed, taking back his Taka Medal from Eiji, Ankh offers to help Maki in gaining the Purple Core Medals in return of becoming the vessel for all the other Core Medals. Reviving Uva, Ankh then joins forces with the other Greeed and rallies them against Eiji. However, counting on Eiji's newfound ability to destroy Core Medals, Ankh formulates a reckless plan to have OOO eliminate the other Greeed so he can use their Core Medals to convert Shingo's body into a Greeed form. Later, Ankh goes to fight with Eiji, but ends up talking with him about how he is disgusted by Eiji's lack of desire when Eiji has thing he desires the most: life. Just as things seem to calm, Maki appears on a cliff, and adds another Purple Core to Eiji, making him unstable and forcing him to assume the purple-eyed Tatoba form. Ankh tries to calm him down, but when Maki adds another Core, this forces him to fight Eiji, now as the Eiji Greeed, in his newly-regained complete form. After the fight, when Ankh refuses to kill Eiji, or let Maki kill him, due to the memories of their time together, disgusted at the Greeed's new found appreciation of life and comradeship, Maki changes his plans and takes the Medals from Ankh by force, while leaving him with one set of Core Medals. However, the Taka Medal that contains his consciousness is severely cracked, but surprisingly had an epiphany and felt satisfied for the first time. He tries to get back to Eiji, but collapses in a forest, bleeding Cell Medals. Hina finds him but Ankh tells her not to mention about his shattered Core Medal to Eiji.

Ankh soon makes his way back to Eiji, (jokingly) asking for the year's worth of ice cream that they had as part of the deal. After Uva is turned by Maki into a Medal Vessel, Ankh assumes his complete Greeed form and assists Eiji in fighting the horde of Waste Yummy. The two soon turn their attention to the Kyoryu Greeed, leaving the Waste Yummy to Birth and Birth Prototype. After a brief confrontation, Eiji attempts to finish off Maki with a massive Cell Medal-fueled slash from the Medagabryu. With this failing, Ankh gives him the Medals necessary for him to assume the Tajadol Combo, including the cracked Taka Medal containing his consciousness. Realizing Ankh is sacrificing himself, Eiji transforms.

As the battle continues, Ankh continues fighting with Eiji in spirit, lending his power to both a punch from the Taja Spinner, periodic shielding of Eiji from Maki's attacks, countering Maki's final fireball so that Eiji's final Giga Scan can hit home. As Maki dies and is sucked into the black hole formed on his chest, the Taka Medal housing Ankh's consciousness flies out of the OOO Driver and splits in half. As Eiji begins falling to earth, Ankh, in his forearm form, wakes him with a few slaps to the face, and tells Eiji he got what he wanted. Eiji asks protests, saying if he wanted life, then why is he letting himself die. He tells Eiji that thanks to him and the others "a pile of Medals like me can 'die'...I don't think I could ever find anything more satisfying", thus finding the thing he craved for so much, in death. Ankh also tells Eiji, as he begins to fly away, that he is no longer the hand Eiji should reach for. With that, Ankh fades away, leaving behind one half of his Taka Medal. The other half ended up with Hina, assuming the form of Ankh's possession of Shingo and smiling at her sweetly before dropping into the sand. Keeping both halves with him, Eiji vows to somehow restore his friend, traveling the world to find a way to do so, while unaware that a spectral Ankh arm is following him in these travels.

In Movie War Mega Max, an Ankh from the future appears at the airport Eiji is returning home in shortly before the fight with Kamen Rider Poseidon. Eiji finds this strange, as the Taka Medal is still cracked, but he'll tell him how he returned later. They hear of Kamen Rider Poseidon, and formulate a plan. He assumes Eiji's form, and begins fighting Poseidon's Waste Yummy. However, once he got close enough to Poseidon, after Poseidon takes down both of the Birth Twins, he plunges his arm into the Rider's back, and changes his voice back into his own to let everyone know he's back. Then, putting two together, he figures out that Poseidon's Medals came from the black hole created when Maki died. He rips some Core Medals out of Poseidon, barely dodging the Rider's attack, and leaps onto a nearby construction platform. The real Eiji arrives, and Ankh tosses him the Taka, Tora, and Batta Medals, allowing Eiji to become OOO again. However back at the Cous Coussier, Eiji says that during the fight, he sensed the pain, but Ankh just shrugs it off, glad to have more Medals again. It's short lived, as the Cous Coussier is ambushed by Waste Yummies. Chiyoko tells Eiji and Ankh not to hold back, and they fight.

They follow the Waste Yummies back to their creator, Poseidon. He transforms, but Eiji refuses to transform, as he remembers what it was like being under the influence of a set of out-of-control Medals. Though it nearly gets Eiji killed, Michal Minato eventually overpowers Poseidon. When Michal explains his story, Ankh laughs at the irony of Kamen Rider Aqua being afraid of water, Eiji and Hina throwing things at him for not being more sensitive. He then, again proving his crude nature, agrees when Michal says the Poseidon Medals possessed him because he was weak. Eiji hits him with a sweater, and Hina tries to hit him with a metal barrel, but Eiji says that is too far. They sleep in the motorcycle yard they've camped in, and Poseidon resurfaces, but Ankh and Eiji had predicted that. They make a plan to get a hold of the Poseidon-possessed Michal before he can transform, and they manage to recover more of the lost Core Medals, enough so that OOO has a full set of each Combo. However, Poseidon forms his own body, but when he tries to kill Eiji, Michal, and Hina, Ankh protects them all with a fireball counter. The next day, he and Eiji go to fight Poseidon. As they take on a squad of Waste Yummies, Ankh still refuses to answer how he returned. Eiji then asks if the fight with Poseidon will be their last. Ankh simply say that if he wants to know he'd better live, Eiji responding that Ankh should too. Ankh continues supplying Medals and fighting Waste Yummies as OOO fights Poseidon, even supplying a set of his own once Aqua arrives so that the finishing blow can be struck. After Poseidon is defeated, Eiji knowingly asks Ankh if he'll be leaving too. Ankh simply smiles, then vanishes into the time anomaly. Hina is confused, but Eiji holds the broken Taka Medal of the present, now having no doubt that he will be able to revive Ankh.

Personality
Ankh is a dishonest wildcard. As a Greeed he has little regard for humans, seeing them for their flaws, with Eiji being one of the few exceptions. Ankh also believes that he has the right to get whatever he wants and detests having to give something away if there's no benefit for him. He is also at odds with the other Greeed, both because of the history he had with them, as well as stealing their Core Medals. He focuses only on obtaining enough Cell Medals to regain his body and to become Multi King. He has however been shown to repay debts to people, giving Eiji the means to become OOO, though this mainly because he wanted to use Eiji as a tool in his quest. Though Eiji plays him at times, Ankh prefers working with Eiji over with his fellow Greeed as the human is honest about his motives. He had since underwent a personality change, where he can no longer bring himself to harm Eiji or Hina without substantial reasons.

He serves as Eiji's companion and Medal Manager, supplying him with Core Medals stolen from other Greeed. Since possessing a human body, Ankh has been able to experience real emotions and the full effect of the five senses, something a Greeed is normally not capable of unless it possesses all nine of its Core Medals. The most prominent example of this effect is his ability to taste food, resulting in him developing a strong liking for popsicles to the extent of taking them without second thought such as taking them from a cart and making Eiji pay and scaring off children. True to his bird nature, Ankh also shows a preference for high places, frequently shown on trees, resting somewhere high in his quarters shared with Eiji, and jumping out of the window instead of going out through the door. Ankh avoids eating poultry due to his connection to birds.

He is also commonly seen carrying an iPad or an iPhone4 for gathering information and keeping track of the Core Medals. He is however not above betraying Eiji for his own benefit, whether it be regaining one of his Core Medals or joining the other Greeed to get new power while betraying the Greeed in a well formulated plan. Ankh's faith in this plan is so strong, he is willing to give the other Greeed all their Core Medals back unconditionally, a result of being spoiled by his experiences with human senses, which in turn fueled his growing disgust with his fellow Greeed.

In the Net Movie, Ankh was knocked out and his personality was changed.

Abilities
As the Bird Greeed, Ankh is able to create a Bird-type Yummy, and deform into Medals and reform again and disguise himself as a human, the original Ankh's being the appearance of when he possesses Shingo while the lost Ankh's human form is a young boy with a red and black outfit with his right sleeve purple matching his blank purple skin. Even as his weakened forearm form, Ankh can fly through the air and pick up beings the size of humans, as well as summon items like Medals and OOO's belt and take control of bodies to use as hosts, as he did on Shingo with his hair becoming a dull blond and spiked up. He can also read his host's thoughts usually to look through memories regarding important information. Ankh can remain separated from Shingo's body, but in order to keep Shingo alive, the separation cannot exceed ten minutes. In Episode 36, Shingo's body is stable enough to survive on its own, but Ankh maintains control regardless due to the resurrection of Mezool and Gamel. After his counterpart is destroyed, Ankh regains all of his abilities that were possessed by his counterpart. Later, he regained his original form called Ankh (Greeed Form).

Yummies created

 * Condor Yummy
 * Hagetaka Yummy

Etymology
"Ankh" comes from the Hindi word for eye (आँख ā̃ṅkh), as in a hawk's eye, one of Ankh's motifs is a hawk and has an eye on his palm, Ankh in his complete Greeed form also has only one eye like Horus,the Egyptian god protector of Pharaohs. This is also because the blind girl which he met and his first selfless desire to get a pair of eyes for her to see the world with the help of Condor Yummy though she was traumatized due to Ankh's actions and died of insanity. Similarly, an ankh is a type of Egyptian item that is also a character that reads "Eternal Life". His name was originally planned to be "Ash" (アッシュ) from the Japanese word assuru (圧する), meaning "to oppress" or "to dominate", which would fit well into his personality and the Bird Yummy stealing attributes from people after restraining them.

Appearances

 * All Episodes of Kamen Rider OOO (Episode 1-48)
 * Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie War Core
 * OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
 * Kamen Rider OOO WONDERFUL: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals
 * Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO Movie War Megamax
 * OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders: ~Let's Look! Only Your 48 Riders~
 * Kamen Rider OOO Hyper Battle DVD: Quiz, Dance, and Takagarooba!?
 * Kamen Rider OOO Allstars the Net Movie: The 21 Leading Actors and Core Medals

Related Articles

 * Ankh (Lost)