Depending on each translators’ TOS, stories are either directly linked, found on the Translation Masterlist - or found on your own with some research (I’ve labeled these ones with ‘TL exists’ to confirm it can be found on a website that isn’t on the masterlist and doesn’t permit/is unclear about linking.)

❤️ Click on card for more info, CGs, and story synopsis.

❤️ Story synopses taken from the Translation Masterlist or Enstars wikia.

❤️ Star icon: recommended story based on personal opinion.

Main character points about Chiaki:

He has a lot of childhood trauma from being hospitalized and then bullied in early high school. The psychological problems that result from this persist to this day in stories, which often cause everyone around him who don’t know his backstory to be very annoyed with him and his actions.

• Hospitalization: it’s implied that he’s immunocompromised in some way as he was very sickly as a child, and in Yumenosaki has to sometimes stay home if there are highly contagious diseases in the area. This makes him sensitive to summer and winter temperatures. He had little opportunity to make friends when he was hospitalized, and feels he owes his parents a lot for all the trouble he caused them. In Climax, he states he decided to be an idol to repay his parents, and Ryuseitai being the strongest unit at that time in Yumenosaki was a practical choice.
• Bullying: already lacking social skills/connections from being hospitalized as a child and being a huge tokusatsu nerd, he was ostracized by his peers for taking Ryuseitai and being an idol seriously - which clashed with the culture of Yumenosaki at the time. Naturally being weak, he couldn’t fight back much. Loving tokusatsu, putting his head down and working hard were his coping mechanisms. He became even more isolated and alone, doing everyone’s work for them while hoping maybe if he worked hard enough, his own dreams would come true. He had a depressive meltdown when he admitted he’s been turning a blind eye to bullying and injustice around him.

Both of these key early factors combined make Chiaki someone who

• bottles his feelings up and relies overly on himself as to not trouble anyone else
• has communication problems, runs away from genuine confrontation
• feels solely responsible for the state of everything around him
• relies heavily on tokusatsu to cope with reality/himself
• is painfully self-aware, prone to self-criticism

A theme that defines Chiaki’s personal arc is ideals vs reality. This is something he continues to struggle with, and the stories often resolve with a compromise between the two. While he’s painfully aware of reality, with the motivation he gained from [Meteor Impact], he aims to make all his dreams come true despite reality - which often causes problems with his unit or management. Mainly because he tries to do so alone most of the time, ‘protecting’ the others from ‘reality’, while also forcing everyone go along with his own vision of Ryuseitai - ultimately, with the aim of protecting the one place he belongs to, and the one dream that came true for him, especially considering Ryuseitai almost ‘died’ in Yumenosaki.

His actions lead his juniors to think he has little substance beyond looking cool for them, yet he did believe in them and train them to be successful idols. It would be accurate to say that the rest of Ryuseitai is always saving Chiaki and being Chiaki’s heroes, and Chiaki is the one who taught them how to be heroes* while just acting like a hero.

*(Hence, Kanata fondly refers to Chiaki as his ‘hero-senpai’.)

4-5* Stories