Kamen Rider Series/Heisei Series Phase 2



Neo-Heisei (ネオ・平成) is a term used exclusively by English-speaking fans to refer to a subsection of the second and current era of the Kamen Rider Series, the Heisei period.

The Neo-Heisei era is specifically used to refer to the post-Decade era, with Kamen Rider Decade having been the 10th Anniversary Kamen Rider show of the Heisei period.

This serves as a test period, which will last five years (September 2009-September 2014). If this period has been a success, for one more time the Kamen Riders series will be in the style of that period. With the announcement of a short month-long hiatus between the end of Kamen Rider Wizard in August and the start of Kamen Rider Gaim in October, it is unknown what this means for the Neo-Heisei period.

The Neo-Heisei era started with Decade's successor, Kamen Rider W, which premiered in September 2009 and ended in August 2010. W was followed by Kamen Rider OOO (September 2010 - August 2011) and then Kamen Rider Fourze (September 2011 - August 2012). The current Kamen Rider Series entry is Kamen Rider Wizard which started broadcast in September 2012.

Neo-Heisei trends

 * The Neo-Heisei era has a differing broadcast schedule for its shows with the schedule of the first half of the Heisei era. This change has been brought about by the shortened episode count of Kamen Rider Decade. The first series of the Heisei revival, Kamen Rider Kuuga premiered in January 2000, and ended in January 2001, being succeeded by Kamen Rider Agito the week after. From then on, every Heisei show until the start of the Neo-Heisei era started in late January (or in Ryuki's case, early February) and ended in January of the next year. However, Kamen Rider Decade, which premiered in January 2009, was slated as having only 30 episodes as stated by Masahiro Inoue in an interview in the March 2009 issue of Kindai Magazine. A subsequent interview in Otonafami magazine confirmed that only 30 episodes were filmed, with 31 episodes airing total. Thus, Decade ended in late August (the 30th) and W started in early September (the 6th), and now Neo-Heisei shows end on the last Sunday of August and start on the first Sunday of September.
 * With this new broadcast schedule, the summer movie of every show now premieres during the final weeks of said show and only around a month before the arrival of the new series. Thus, starting with Kamen Rider Double's introduction in Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker (August 2009), the Rider of the upcoming show makes his "early-bird cameo". This introduction features the new rider helping out the current (soon to depart) rider.
 * Another result of the new broadcast schedule is that while the bulk of early Heisei series ran alongside one particular Super Sentai series, Neo-Heisei shows find themselves paired up with two Sentai shows across their run, the first half of the series airs alongside the second half of their first Sentai partner, while the second half of the series airs alongside the first half of their second partner.
 * As started Kamen Rider W, it is a recurring trend that only two Riders appear in the broadcast run: the Primary Rider and the Secondary Rider. Though, every series has had more new Riders appear through expanded universe material, particularly their own summer movies, which go on to appear again occasionally. The main series only deals with the Primary and Secondary Riders. This trends stopped in Kamen Rider Wizard, which introduced more Riders in the series.
 * Kamen Rider W: Double & Accel
 * Kamen Rider OOO: OOO & Birth (and Proto-Birth)
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Fourze & Meteor
 * Aside from Wizard and Beast, there is also the White Wizard and three different Kamen Rider Mages.
 * Wizard's change in trend continues in Kamen Rider Gaim, whose promotional material before the start of the series reveals the appearance of five Riders.
 * The henshin devices of riders in the Neo-Heisei era are given consistent names, being referred to as "Drivers" (e.g. Double Driver, OOO Driver, Fourze Driver, WizarDriver, Sengoku Driver). Driver was previously used to refer to the henshin gears of the riders of Kamen Rider Faiz and Kamen Rider Decade.
 * The Mage's Belt in Kamen Rider Wizard is an anomalous break in this trend.
 * Each Neo-Heisei series has its own set of Collectible Devices, first seen with the Advent Cards in Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002-03), with the recent tradition being kicked off by the Rider Cards of Kamen Rider Decade, which were used by Decade to access the power of previous Kamen Riders. As with Decade, the Neo-Heisei Kamen Riders use their collectible devices for various purposes, such as changing into their various forms, using special attacks, and other techniques. These collectible devices also work very well with merchandise, each set of collectibles has had their own "Legend Rider" range featuring the likenesses of previous Kamen Riders, some of which appear in the arcade game Kamen Rider Battle: Ganbaride and Movie War crossovers:
 * Kamen Rider W: Gaia Memories
 * Kamen Rider OOO: O Medals
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Astroswitches
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Wizard Rings
 * Kamen Rider Gaim: Lockseeds
 * Each Neo-Heisei series also has a set of Support Robots, which actually initially appeared in the form of the Disk Animals of Kamen Rider Hibiki, but became prominent in the Neo-Heisei era:
 * Kamen Rider W: Memory Gadgets
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Candroids
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Foodroids
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: PlaMonsters
 * The lead Rider has unique rules involving his forms:
 * The second new form he obtains debuts in the first part of a two episode arc instead of the second (e.g. OOO's Latorartar Combo, Fourze's Fire States, and Wizard's Hurricane Dragon).
 * The Super Form, or a version of the Super Form, first debuts in the Movie War film (with Fourze being the exception), and then usually appears around episode 20 of the series.
 * The Final Form appears around episode 32.
 * With the exception of Double, the lead Rider's forms have some type of title:
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Combos
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: States
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Styles
 * Kamen Rider Gaim: Arms
 * Each lead Rider has a red-colored form based on elemental fire:
 * Kamen Rider W: HeatMetal, HeatJoker & HeatTrigger
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Tajadol Combo
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Fire States
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Flame Style, Flame Dragon & Special Rush
 * In every Neo-Heisei series, the Riders have some type of nickname for their finishers, which are announced by their equipment:
 * Kamen Rider W: Maximum Drive
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Scanning Charge/Giga Scan (OOO) & Cell Burst (Birth)
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Limit Break
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: (something) Strike
 * Each Primary Rider from the post-Decade Heisei Era represents a number through their belt slots, parts and names, and the series named, including Decade himself whose transformation slot is only 1, as well as being the first Rider to meet his first successor (Double):
 * Kamen Rider W represents #2 as in the number of transformation slots and the letter "W" represents two alphabetics of the letter "U".
 * Kamen Rider OOO represents #3 as in the number of transformation slots and there are three alphabetics of the letter "O".
 * Kamen Rider Fourze represents #4 as in the number of transformation/weapon access slots and the name of "Fourze" (a combination of 4 (Four) and 0 (Zero)/40).
 * Kamen Rider Wizard represents #5 as there are five elements among the Transformation Rings and five fingers on the Hand Authors placed on the transformation belt (WizarDriver) and the primary weapons (WizarSwordGun and AxCalibur).
 * Kamen Rider Gaim represents #6 as the "lock" (ロック, Rokku) in "Lockseed", when stripped of the sokuon kana, becomes the number six (六, Roku) in Japanese.
 * In the Neo-Heisei shows, the lead Rider and the secondary Rider often have similar yet distinct abilities and powers. This trend began with Kamen Rider Decade, where both Riders use Rider Cards, but Decade has a smaller selection but can transform into them with full access to their powers, while Diend has access to more, but can only summon copies of them without their full range of powers. This continues in each of the following series.
 * Having previously been the suit actor of the majority of primary riders in the early Heisei era (except for Kuuga and Hibiki), Seiji Takaiwa has served as the suit actor for every Primary Rider in the Neo-Heisei era so far.
 * Fighting alongside Takaiwa is Eitoku who, starting with Kamen Rider Diend in Decade, has gone on to be the suit actor for every secondary Neo-Heisei rider, except for Kamen Rider Beast.
 * A resurgence of crossovers, as the early Heisei era rarely featured crossovers between series (one rare example is the Hyper Battle DVD Kamen Rider Ryuki: Ryuki vs Kamen Rider Agito). Kamen Rider Den-O & Kiva: Climax Deka was the first Heisei crossover movie (April 2008), though that it was largely due to the popularity of Kamen Rider Den-O. Being an anniversary series, the very premise Kamen Rider Decade involved various elements of the Kamen Rider Series coming together.
 * The Movie War series, starting with Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010 (December 2009), each Neo-Heisei series has a Movie War crossover with the previous series, premiering in December, somewhere inbetween episodes 10 and 15 of the current series. Just as the summer movies introduce the primary rider of the new series, the Movie War features an "early-bird cameo" by the Secondary Rider of the current series. As with the primary rider's introduction in the summer movie, the new secondary rider appears in costume only, not appearing in human form, but is voiced by his actor. Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie War Core (December 2010) featured a crossover between Kamen Riders Double and OOO, the first two primary riders of the Neo-Heisei era, followed by Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max (December 2011), which also featured Double and the Seven Legendary Riders as well as Fourze and OOO, teaming the first three Neo-Heisei riders with the seven original Showa riders. This is set to be topped by the Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum (December 2012), which will feature Kamen Rider Wizard teaming up with not just Fourze, but all three of the previous Neo-Heisei primary riders and their secondary riders as well.
 * Other theatrical Neo-Heisei crossovers include the Kamen Rider Series 40th Anniversary movie, OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders, and the first crossover movie with Super Sentai, Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen.
 * Foundation X, which was first introduced as the "evil organization" of Kamen Rider W, continues to have a (albeit reduced) presence in the other Neo-Heisei Kamen Rider shows, having appeared in episodes of Kamen Rider Fourze and as the villains of Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max. They most recently appeared in Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Everyone, Space is Here! (August 4th 2012). This is reminiscent of the influence the Great Leader (originally the Great Leader of Shocker) had on later evil organizations in the Showa era. Foundation X has yet to make an appearance in Kamen Rider Wizard however.
 * Each Neo-Heisei era villain group has their own Henchmen squad:
 * Kamen Rider W: Masquerade Dopants
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Waste Yummies
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Stardust Ninja Dustards
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Ghouls
 * The finale of each Neo-Heisei series contains a link to the next series:
 * Kamen Rider W: In episode 48, The Abandoned U/Eternal Partners, which was technically the second-to-last episode but served as the finale (the true final episode took place one year in the future), Foundation X scraps research on the Gaia Memories and instead takes an interest in the O Medals.
 * Kamen Rider OOO: In Finale: The Medals of Tomorrow, Underwear, and Arms Held, Kengo Utahoshi and Yuki Jojima appear with an Astroswitch. This is the first time characters from the next series are seen.
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: In Final Episode: Youthful Galaxy, Kamen Rider Wizard himself, Haruto Soma, appears out of costume wearing his Flame Wizard Ring.
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: The Ring of Kamen Rider and Neverending Story is a two-part crossover with all fifteen Heisei/Neo-Heisei main Riders, including Gaim.
 * Each Neo-Heisei series has had an update to the video game Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes, which was first released for Kamen Rider Decade and the 10th anniversary of the Heisei Kamen Rider Series. These initally had the title format of Kamen Rider Climax Heroes (show name), but Kamen Rider Wizard subverted that trend:
 * Kamen Rider W: Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes W
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes OOO
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Kamen Rider: Climax Heroes Fourze
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Kamen Rider: Super Climax Heroes
 * Each Neo-Heisei series features a character with a mysterious past that is linked to the main villains of the show. They are all killed before their series ends, but come back to life some time later:
 * Kamen Rider W: Philip
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Ankh
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Kengo Utahoshi
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Koyomi
 * Each Secondary Rider generally has a more major role in the series in the Neo-Heisei era than the previous Secondary Riders.
 * With the exception of Accel, the Secondary Rider's Final Form debuts before the lead Rider's Final form:
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Birth Day debuted 6 episodes before OOO Putotyra Combo.
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Meteor Storm debuted 4 episodes before Fourze Cosmic States.
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Beast Hyper debuted a mere 2 episodes before Wizard Infinity Style.
 * Each show lasts 48 episodes (with the exception of Kamen Rider W, which lasted 49 episodes, though the last one was an epilogue). Kamen Rider Wizard had 53, making this series the longest of all Neo Heisei series.
 * Each series has an increasing numerical motif.
 * Kamen Rider W: 2 Gaia Memories are required for Kamen Rider Double to transform and activate a Half-Change.
 * Kamen Rider OOO: 3 Core Medals are required for Eiji to transform and activate a Combo.
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: 4 Switches are required to be plugged into the Fourze Driver for Gentaro to transform, activate a States (mostly in the Circle Basement slot) and access his arsenal.
 * Kamen Rider Wizard: Haruto can utilize his magic into 5 different elements and use it in different styles (Flame, Water, Hurricane, Land, and Infinity) to transform. Of note, this is the first series were the number motif was subtle.
 * Kamen Rider Gaim: An open Lockseed resembles the number "6".

Kamen Rider in the Neo-Heisei era
Advertisements throughout the months of May, June, and July 2009 built up to the debut of Kamen Rider W who was introduced as the eleventh addition of the Heisei Era, first appearing at the 10th Anniversary Project MASKED RIDER LIVE & SHOW event, and was featured in Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker. The title characters star as detectives investigating crime waves about kaijin known as Dopants in the fictional city of Futo. Like much of the previous entries of the Heisei Era, the titular Rider, Kamen Rider Double, can transform into multiple forms, using devices shaped like USB hard drives called Gaia Memories. The Dopants that they fight are really people that use unrefined Gaia Memories for their own purposes. Double is also the first Kamen Rider to transform from two people at once. This series is also the first instance where the show airs on the same day it's predecessor (in this case, Decade) airs it's finale. The series premiered on September 6, 2009. Continuing into 2010 with Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010, W ran for a full year from September 2009 to September 2010, instead of January to January. Also in 2010 were the second, third, and fourth films of the Cho-Den-O Series, collectively known as Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider The Movie: Cho-Den-O Trilogy. Along with Den-O and Kabuto, it became one of the most successful Heisei Kamen Rider series.

In late 2010, Kamen Rider OOO was introduced as the twelfth addition of the Heisei Era Kamen Rider Series. The title character is a world traveler that is pulled into a fight with kaijin called the Greeed that was resurrected from a 800-year sleep to find themselves incomplete by such a Greeed, reduced to the status of a forearm, who gives him the means to transform into Kamen Rider OOO. Like Kamen Riders BLACK RX to Agito, and Den-O to Double, Kamen Rider OOO can change forms, but unlike the others, OOO can transform using three Core Medals, special coin-based artifacts based on animals that make up a Greeed's ability to stay alive without falling apart. There are nine Core Medals for each set, three each designated for Head, Arms, or Legs. As so far, OOO has the most transformations in Kamen Rider history, having able to use a possible 126 different combinations of Core Medals.

The year 2011 celebrated the 40th anniversary of the franchise. The festivities included the Kamen Rider Girls idol group, the film OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Rider, released on April 1, 2011, and OOO's successor Kamen Rider Fourze, which references the previous heroes in its characters' names and within the plot. A special crossover film titled Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen was released in 2012, featuring the main heroes from all Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series produced until then.

TV series

 * Kamen Rider W (仮面ライダーＷ（ダブル）) (2009-2010)
 * Kamen Rider OOO (仮面ライダーＯＯＯ（オーズ）) (2010-2011)
 * Kamen Rider Fourze (仮面ライダーフォーゼ) (2011-2012)
 * Kamen Rider Wizard (仮面ライダーウィザード) (2012-2013)
 * Kamen Rider Gaim (仮面ライダーガイム) (2013-2014)

Theatrical releases

 * 2009: Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010
 * Kamen Rider Decade: The Last Story
 * Kamen Rider W: Begins Night
 * Movie War 2010
 * 2010: Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider The Movie: Cho-Den-O Trilogy
 * Episode Red: Zero no Star Twinkle
 * Episode Blue: The Dispatched Imagin is Newtral
 * Episode Yellow: Treasure de End Pirates
 * 2010: Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate
 * 2010: Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie War Core
 * Kamen Rider Skull: Message for Double
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Nobunaga's Desire
 * Movie War Core
 * 2011: OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders
 * 2011: Kamen Rider OOO WONDERFUL: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals
 * 2011: Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max
 * Beginning: Fight! The Legendary Seven Riders
 * Kamen Rider OOO: Ankh's Resurrection, the Medals of the Future, and the Leading Hope
 * Futo: The Conspiracy Advances: Gallant! Kamen Rider Joker
 * Kamen Rider Fourze: Nadeshiko, Descend
 * Movie War Mega Max: Gather! Warriors of Glory
 * 2012: Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen
 * 2012: Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Everyone, Space Is Here!
 * 2012: Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum
 * ​Kamen Rider Fourze
 * Kamen Rider Wizard
 * Movie War Ultimatum
 * 2013: Kamen Rider Gaim &amp; Wizard: Movie War X