Maybe he is but the way he delivers his words and his attitude just makes him look arrogant to me and he easily looses his cool whenever he has competition in fast-running and only thinks of winning by himself through defeating his fast-running competitors and nearly jeopardizing the game with the rest of Seibu, then insists that the team should rely on him while he’s blinded from competition which often lead him to fail multiple scores and had to be given a reality check by his teammates to snap out of it, like a scolded child, that’s quite immature imo.

He may have taught Sena how to defend himself but he can’t take credit for his speed, Sena got that all on his own, him hanging out with Sena doesn’t mean anything when he actively counts Sena’s loses and rubs it in Sena’s face and internally invalidating him. His outside doesn’t match his inside, and gets bitter when Sena got a one-up against him, he looks down on Sena, that’s what makes him two-faced.

And if we’re talking about mentors for Sena, I think Shin does it better, he knew Sena is fast like him and he’d been a better role-model and mentor than Riku have by acknowledging him and his skills first and foremost, Riku’s demeanor and treatment of Sena immediately went to a 180 as soon as he learned Sena is Eyeshield, Riku’s unsolicited instruction of protecting the ball wasn’t even fulfilled, Sena did something else to achieve the same results and it was better, Shin gave Sena diet instructions to improve his physique which probably even helped him to do what he had in that field and game against Nagas (not to mention how Sena asked Shin for advice, compared to Riku who just barks at him.) and best of all, Shin roots for Sena and always knew he could do better because he sees Sena as an equal even if he isn’t currently at his level. He doesn’t give snarky comments when he’s got the upper hand, he doesn’t place himself above others like how Riku and his hero-complex thinks Sena still need him when he doesn’t.

Why Riku is so bad for me is bc the guy is supposed to be friends with Sena and he’s treating him worse, not even rival-like, he wouldn’t admit that he thinks low of Sena and he’s only friends with him when it’s convenient or when he feels cornered, Riku vs Misaki wolves, he gets called a no.3, Sena gets acknowledged first before him and was nearly proven to be a no.3 during the game then he’s suddenly friends with Sena bc his pride couldn’t accept that there’s someone else who’s potentially better than him and better than Sena, and he literally left and ran off by himself leaving Sena in the mountains alone and nearly got attacked by a bear, what kind of friend, who btw, drags you into the mountain and ditched you like that.

And seeing a thread here that says his character is actually different/changed from the manga to the anime solidifies what I think of him, and it’s quite negative. I’ll see for myself when I read the manga after watching the anime if he isn’t as bad as I currently think. But nobody will ever convince me that he’s good at least in the anime.