Kamen Rider 555


 * This article is about the television series. For the series' main character, Faiz, see Takumi Inui.

Kamen Rider 555 (仮面ライダー555（ファイズ）) is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It is the 13th installment in the Kamen Rider Series. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei, and was broadcast on TV Asahi from January 26, 2003 to January 18, 2004. The catchphrase for the series is "Racing Instinct." (疾走する本能).

It was also dubbed into Korean as Masked Rider Φ's (가면라이더 파이즈 Gamyeon Raideo Paijeu). It aired alongside Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger for the Super Hero Time 2003 progamming block.

Story
The Smart Brain corporation, the world's most powerful corporation, is trying to take over the world using Orphnoch, the next stage in humanity's evolution, to covertly kill off the human population. In pursuit of this, they develop three suits of power armor, called Rider Gear (Delta, Faiz, and Kaixa), to find and protect the Orphnoch King, who can fix a defect within Orphnoch DNA which causes their genetic structure to break down, leading to death.

The Rider Gears are stolen by Hanagata, the Goat Orphnoch and former chief of Smart Brain. He sends them to his foster children (dubbed the Ryuseiji, after the school they attended) so they can stop the Orphnoch from achieving their goal. However, Rider Gears were designed to be worn by Orphnoch, and humans are unable to activate the systems without undergoing genetic modification.

A young loner, Takumi Inui, is unwittingly drawn into the conflict between the Orphnoch and humans and becomes Kamen Rider Faiz to save the life of Mari Sonoda, one of the Ryuseiji. The Smart Brain begins targeting him in an attempt to retrieve the Faiz Gear.

However, there is division amongst the Orphnoch, as those who wish to co-exist with humans rather than kill them, begin resisting the Smart Brain, who in turn targets them as well. Most of these "renegade" Orphnochs are either killed, remain neutral or begin siding with the Ryuseiji against the Smart Brain.

When the Tokyo police discover the Orphnoch are behind a series of bizarre murders, they begin operations to defeat the creatures, largely unaware of the various factions involved. They even begin performing experiments on captured Orphnoch in an attempt to find ways of destroying them, though this does not go well.

The Orphnoch King eventually awakens within a young boy named Teruo Suzuki, whom Naoya Kaido and Keitaro Kikuchi saved and befriended. Now, it is up to the holders of the Rider Gears to band together and fight for humanity's survival.

Riotrooper Army

 * Main article: Riotroopers

The show featured a series of mass-produced transformation belts called Smart Buckle, which enabled the wearer to transform into a generic Riotrooper. The Riotroopers were introduced in the movie, and later added at the end of the TV series.

Orphnoch

 * Main article: Orphnoch

The series kaijin; they are humans who are resurrected either naturally or by the Smart Brain, with enhanced physical attributes and the ability to transform into monsters. Their goal is to annihilate humanity either by turning other humans into more Orphnoch or killing them off completely. However, there are those who believe they can still live peacefully alongside humans; those who possess that mind set quickly become targets for elimination by the Smart Brain.

Rider Gears
The equipment used in the series to transform is referred to as Rider Gear. It was created to be worn by the Orphenoch to protect their Orphenoch King. Each Rider Gear contains a belt known as a Driver used to form armor that protects the wearer and amplifies their strengths and abilities. The armor's theme is based on a letter from the Greek alphabet, and contains the letter somehow within the aesthetic design. The Gears also have a method to input command codes, a cell phone number keypad for most, which can activate armor and various weapons. The sound effects of a dialing in any of the Rider Gear phones were later referenced in episode 17 of Kamen Rider Kabuto.

The TV series focused on three sets of Rider Gear: Faiz Gear, Kaixa Gear, and Delta Gear. During the TV series, Hanagata, the foster father of the Ryuseiji and former chief executive of Smart Brain, attempted to create several new Rider Gears, using two lost people to test out the first two. The two belts failed to create Rider armor, resulting in the wearer’s deaths. When Itsuro Takuma of Lucky Clover wore the third one it disabled him for a few seconds before it dissolved. The fourth dissolved without ever being worn. The Kamen Rider 555 movie, Paradise Lost, introduced two additional sets of Rider Gear: Psyga Gear and Orga Gear

Naming Conventions
Each set of Rider Gear is code-locked, in addition to being only usable by Orphnoch. These codes, input through the phone of each Gear, are a set of numbers that relate to the theme of each Gear. For the Faiz Gear, the code is 5-5-5, or "fives", phonetically similar to the word Faiz. For the Kaixa Gear, the code is 9-1-3. In Japanese, 9 is "Kyuu" ("K" or "Ka" sound taking ) 1 is "Ichi" ("I" or "Ii" sound) 3 is "San" ("Sa" sound) Thus "Ka-i-sa" ("9-1-3"). Delta Gear's phone was voice-activated, yet nonetheless also was coded with 3-3-3, a reference to the Greek letter delta, a triangle.

The Japanese pronunciation of Psyga's number uses the same method as Kaixa: 3 is "San" ("Sa" sound), 1 is "Ichi" ("I" or "Ii" sound, similar to Kaixa's name ) and 5 is "Go" ("Ga" sound, taken from the letter "G" in Go ), thus: Sa-i-ga ("3-1-5"). The Orga Gear, patterned after Greek omega, the final letter, is code-locked to 0-0-0.

Live Stage-Show
A live stage-show of Kamen Rider Faiz featured three unique riders named Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

Paradise Lost

 * Main article: Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost

Kamen Rider 555 The Movie: Paradise Lost (劇場版　仮面ライダー555　パラダイス・ロスト), was released during the run of the series, as a double feature alongside Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger: Abare Summer is Freezing! on August 16, 2003. The film was 81 minutes long. A few new characters and Rider Gears were introduced in the movie.

Hyper Battle Video
Kamen Rider 555: Hyper Battle Video (仮面ライダー５５５（ファイズ）　ハイパーバトルビデオ) features a boom box called the Faiz Sounder developed by the Smart Brain corporation appears at the laundromat where Takumi, Mari, and Keitaro work at, causing them and everyone else to break into song and dance. The Faiz Sounder was created as a result of a contest for Televi Magazine for a new weapon for Kamen Rider Faiz.

Lost World
The S.I.C. Hero Saga side story for 555 published in Montly Hobby Japan magazine was titled Kamen Rider 555: Lost World (仮面ライダー555 -ロスト・ワールド-). It serves as a prologue to the alternate story that was 555: Paradise Lost, and features the new character Riotrooper Ver. 2 (ライオトルーパーver.2). The story ran from October 2005 to January 2006.


 * Chapter titles
 * 1) Faiz (ファイズ)
 * 2) Kaixa (カイザ)
 * 3) Delta (デルタ)
 * 4) Psyga (サイガ)

Video game
A video game based on the series was produced by Bandai for the PlayStation 2. It was a fighting game which featured many of the characters from the TV series. There were several modes of gameplay for either a single play and two players. It was released only in Japan near the end of the TV series on December 18, 2003.

Cast

 * Takumi Inui (乾 巧): Kento Handa (半田 健人)
 * Mari Sonoda (園田 真理): Yuria Haga (芳賀 優里亜)
 * Keitaro Kikuchi (菊池 啓太郎): Ken Mizorogi (溝呂木 賢)
 * Yuji Kiba (木場 勇治): Masayuki Izumi (泉 政行)
 * Yuka Osada (長田 結花): Yoshika Kato (加藤 美佳)
 * Naoya Kaido (海堂 直也): Mitsuru Karahashi (唐橋 充)
 * Masato Kusaka (草加 雅人): Kohei Murakami (村上 幸平)
 * Shuji Mihara (三原 修二): Atsushi Harada (原田 篤)
 * Rina Abe (阿部 里奈): Rie Kasai (河西 りえ)
 * Aki Sawada (澤田 亜希): Gō Ayano (綾野 剛)
 * Teruo Suzuki (鈴木 照夫): Kayato Watanabe (渡辺 彼野人)
 * Joji Soeno (添野 錠二): Taro Ishida (石田 太郎)
 * Sawamura (沢村): Koji Iwakawa (岩川 幸司)
 * Hikaru Soeno (添野 ひかる): Manami Miwake (三訳 真奈美)
 * Masahiko Minami (南 雅彦): Atsushi Ogawa (小川 敦史)
 * J (ジェイ): Kenneth Duria (ケネス・ヅリア)
 * Itsuro Takuma (琢磨 逸郎): Jun Yamasaki (山崎 潤)
 * Saeko Kageyama (影山 冴子): Waka (和香)
 * Kitazaki (北崎): Ray Fujita (藤田 玲)
 * Smart Lady (スマートレディ): Hitomi Kurihara (栗原 瞳)
 * Kyoji Murakami (村上 峡児): Katsuyuki Murai (村井 克行)
 * Hanagata (花形): Koji Naka (中 康治)
 * Kazufumi Mizuno (水野 和史): Kengo Ohkuchi (大口 兼悟)
 * Tetsuo Itagaki (板垣 哲生): Atsushi Fukazawa (深沢 敦)
 * Takako Shimaji (島地 貴子): Chika Nakagami (中上 ちか)
 * Teruo's Shadow (照夫の影): Shun Kobayashi (小林 俊)
 * Orphnochs (オルフェノク): Katsumi Shiono (塩野 勝美)
 * Arch Orphnoch (アークオルフェノク): Hiroshi Yanaka (家中 宏)
 * Narration, Driver Voice (ナレーション、ドライバー音声): Takehiko Kano (假野 剛彦)

Guest actors

 * Chie Morishita (森下 千恵): Mika Katsumura (勝村 美香)
 * Yuji Kiba's Father (木場 勇治の父): Shinichi Kase (加瀬 慎一)
 * Yuji Kiba's Mother (木場 勇治の母): Midori Takei (竹井 みどり)
 * Akai (赤井): Katsuyuki Yamazaki (山﨑 勝之)
 * Eiichi Toda (戸田 英一): Shigeki Kagemaru (影丸 茂樹)
 * Professor (教授): Ichiro Ogura (小倉 一郎)
 * Gorgeous Man (ゴージャスな男): Masaki Tachi (舘 正貴)
 * Crab Orphnoch (クラブオルフェノク): Satoshi Matsuda (松田 悟志)

Suit actors

 * Kamen Rider Faiz, Centipede Orphnoch, Wolf Orphnoch: Seiji Takaiwa (高岩 成二)
 * Kamen Rider Kaixa, Horse Orphnoch, Goat Orphnoch: Makoto Ito (伊藤 慎)
 * Kamen Rider Delta, Auto Vajin: Yoshifumi Oshikawa (押川 善文)
 * Crocodile Orphnoch, Rose Orphnoch, Arch Orphnoch: Jiro Okamoto (岡元 次郎)
 * Crane Orphnoch, Lobster Orphnoch: Takeshi Mizutani (水谷 健)
 * Spider Orphnoch: Naoki Nagase (永瀬 尚希)
 * Snake Orphnoch: Hideki Hato (葉都 英樹), Keizo Yabe (矢部 敬三)
 * Dragon Orphnoch: Jun Watanabe (渡辺 淳)

Songs

 * Opening theme
 * "Justi&phi;'s"
 * Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
 * Composition: Kazuto Sato
 * Arrangement: Kōtarō Nakagawa
 * Artist: ISSA (of DA PUMP)
 * Episodes: 2-49


 * Ending themes
 * "Dead or alive"
 * Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
 * Composition: Katsuya Yoshida
 * Arrangement: Akio Kondo
 * Artist: Shinichi Ishihara
 * Episodes: 2-20
 * "The people with no name"
 * Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
 * Rap Lyrics: m.c.A.T
 * Composition: Cher Watanabe
 * Arrangement: RIDER CHIPS
 * Artist: RIDER CHIPS featuring m.c.A.T
 * Episodes: 21-32, 39
 * "EGO ~ eyes glazing over"
 * Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
 * Composition & Arrangement: Cher Watanabe
 * Artist: ICHIDAI (of ROLL DAYS)
 * Episodes: 33-38, 41-48
 * "Justi&phi;'s -Accel Mix-"
 * Lyrics: Shoko Fujibayashi
 * Composition: Kazuto Sato
 * Arrangement: Kazunori Miyake
 * Artist: ISSA (of DA PUMP)
 * Episodes: 40, Movie