Kamen Rider 555

is a Japanese tokusatsu television series. It is the 13th installment in the popular Kamen Rider. It is a joint collaboration between Ishimori Productions and Toei, and was originally broadcasted on TV Asahi from January 26, 2003 to January 18, 2004. It was also dubbed into Korean as Masked Rider &Phi;'s (가면라이더 파이즈).

Story overview
The Smart Brain Corporation, the world's most powerful corporation, is trying to take over the world using Orphenoch, 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 (Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider, and Kamen Rider), to find and protect the Orphenoch King, who can fix a defect within Orphenoch DNA which causes their genetic structure to break down, leading to death.

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

A young loner, Takumi Inui, is unwillingly drawn into the conflict between the Orphenoch and humans and becomes Kamen Rider to save the life of Mari Sonada, one of the Ryuseiji. The Smart Brain Corporation begins targeting him in an attempt to retrieve the Kamen Rider.

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

When the Tokyo police discover the Orphenoch 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 Orphenoch in an attempt to find ways of destroying them, though this does not go well.

The Orphenoch King eventually awakens within a young boy named Terruo, 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.

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.

The TV series focused on three sets of Rider Gear: Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider, and Kamen Rider. 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 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: Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider

Riot Trooper Army
The show featured a series of mass-produced henshin belts called Smart Buckle, which enabled the wearer to transform into a generic Riot Trooper. The Riot Trooper was introduced in the movie, and later added at the end of the TV series.

Naming Conventions
Each set of Rider Gear is code-locked, in addition to being only usable by Orphenoch. 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.

Orphenoch
The series Kaijin; they are humans who are resurrected either naturally or by 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 Orphenoch 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 Smart Brain.

Characters
Among the many characters of Kamen Rider 555 are Takumi Inui, the young man who becomes the hero of the series, and his friends and allies Mari Sonada, Keitaro Kikuchi, Masato Kusaka, and Yuji Kiba. Together, they fight against the evil Orphenoch in the struggle to save humanity.

Paradise Lost
, was released during the run of the series, on August 16, 2003 and was 81 minutes long. A few new characters and Rider Gears were introduced in the movie. The character of Leo/Kamen Rider, played by Peter He, became the first non-Japanese Kamen Rider, although the Saban adaptation of Kamen Rider, Masked Rider (TV series), featured American actor TJ Roberts as the main character.

Paradise Lost takes place in an alternate universe which answers the question "What would happen if Orphenochs ruled the world?" In the near future, the world is ruled by the Smart Brain Corporation, with 90% of the population being Orphenoch, and the once prominent human race is nearing extinction. Takumi Inui, Kamen Rider Faiz, was once regarded as mankind’s savior until, in an attack by Smart Brain troops, he was presumed dead. Since then, human rebel groups have staged attacks on Smart Brain's complex in an attempt to steal the top-secret Emperor Belts, with no success. Kiba Yuji, Naoya Kaidō and Yuka Osada attempt to ease tensions between both races but their peace meeting is interrupted by Smart Brain troops and their newest warrior, Kamen Rider Psyga. Takumi, believing himself a young cobbler named Takeshi, regains his memory and becomes Kamen Rider Faiz again to settle things with Smart Brain once and for all.

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

 * Kento Handa: Takumi Inui / Kamen Rider Faiz / Wolf Orphenoch
 * Yuria Haga: Mari Sonoda
 * Ken Mizorogi: Keitaro Kikuchi
 * Masayuki Izumi: Yuji Kiba / Horse Orphenoch
 * Yoshika Kato: Yuka Osada / Crane Orphenoch
 * Mitsuru Karahashi: Naoya Kaido / Snake Orphenoch
 * Kohei Murakami: Masato Kusaka / Kamen Rider Kaixa
 * Atsushi Harada: Shuji Mihara / Kamen Rider Delta
 * Rie Kasai: Rina Abe
 * Gō Ayano: Aki Sawada / Spider Orphenoch
 * Kayato Watanabe: Teruo Suzuki


 * Taro Ishida: Detective Joji Soeno
 * Koji Iwakawa: Detective Sawamura
 * Manami Miwake: Hikaru Soeno
 * Atsushi Ogawa: Masahiko Minami


 * Kenneth Duria: Mr. J / Crocodile Orphenoch
 * Jun Yamasaki: Itsuro Takuma / Centipede Orphenoch
 * Waka: Saeko Kageyama / Lobster Orphenoch
 * Rei Fujita: Kitazaki / Dragon Orphenoch


 * Hitomi Kurihara: Smart Lady
 * Katsuyuki Murai: Kyoji Murakami / Rose Orphenoch
 * Koji Naka: Hanagata / Goat Orphenoch


 * Katsumi Shiono: Orphenochs (Voice)
 * Hiroshi Yanaka: Arch Orphenoch (Voice)
 * Takehiko Kano: Narrator

Suit actors

 * Seiji Takaiwa: Kamen Rider Faiz / Kamen Rider Kaixa / Kamen Rider Delta / Centipede Orphenoch / Wolf Orphenoch
 * Makoto Itō: Kamen Rider Kaixa / Horse Orphenoch
 * Yoshifumi Oshikawa: Kamen Rider Delta / Autovajin / Arch Orphenoch
 * Jirō Okamoto: Crocodile Orphenoch / Rose Orphenoch / Arch Orphenoch
 * Takeshi Mizutani: Crane Orphenoch / Lobster Orphenoch
 * Naoki Nagase: Spider Orphenoch
 * Hideki Hato: Snake Orphenoch
 * Jun Watanabe: Dragon Orphenoch

Songs

 * Opening theme
 * "Justi's"
 * Lyrics: Shōko Fujibayashi
 * Composition: Kazutoyo Satō
 * Arrangement: Kōtarō Nakagawa
 * Artist: ISSA (DA PUMP)
 * Episodes: 2-49


 * Ending themes
 * "Dead or alive"
 * Lyrics: Shōko Fujibayashi
 * Composition: Katsuya Yoshida
 * Arrangement: Akio Kondō
 * Artist: Shinichi Ishihara
 * Episodes: 2-20
 * "The people with no name"
 * Lyrics: Shōko Fujibayashi
 * Rap Lyrics: m.c.A・T
 * Composition: Cheru Watanabe
 * Arrangement: RIDER CHIPS
 * Artist: RIDER CHIPS featuring M.c.A・T
 * Episodes: 21-32
 * "EGO ~ eyes glazing over"
 * Lyrics: Shōko Fujibayashi
 * Composition & Arrangement: Cheru Watanabe
 * Artist: ICHIDAI
 * Episodes: 33-39, 41-48
 * "Justi's -Accel Mix-"
 * Lyrics: Shōko Fujibayashi
 * Composition: Kazutoyo Satō
 * Arrangement: Kazunori Miyake
 * Artist: ISSA
 * Episodes: 40