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 This article is about a/an set of all the shows and films in the Kamen Rider Series.
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The primary Riders of the Reiwa era.
The Reiwa Kamen Rider Series (令和仮面ライダーシリーズ Reiwa Kamen Raidā Shirīzu) is the third and current production era of the Kamen Rider Series. It refers to Reiwa (令和), the current period in Japan after the Heisei period. The Reiwa era started on May 1, 2019, the first day after the abdication of the reigning Emperor, Akihito. His son, Naruhito, succeeded to the throne. In accordance with Japanese customs, Akihito will be renamed "Emperor Heisei" upon his death.
The Reiwa era started with Zi-O's successor, Kamen Rider Zero-One (September 2019 - August 2020), which premiered in September 2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was delayed for five weeks, ultimately cutting the show's length considerably and aired its final episode in August 2020. Zero-One was followed by Kamen Rider Saber (September 2020 - 2021).
Contents
Reiwa trends
Many of the trends from the previous era have carried over into the Reiwa era.
- Summer Movies would have early-bird cameos of the new Riders. Starting with Kamen Rider Zi-O: Over Quartzer (2020) is Kamen Rider Zero-One.
- All of the summer movies have the main Rider using all of their forms that debut in the television series, including a movie-exclusive form that is introduced in the movie.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Hellrising Hopper
- Each Hyper Battle DVD has the main Rider gaining access to a form that is only exclusive to said special.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Hopping Kangaroo
- The transformation devices of Riders in the Reiwa era are given consistent names, being referred to as "Drivers" (e.g. Hiden Zero-One Driver and Seiken Swordriver.). Driver was previously used to refer to the transformation gears of the Kamen Riders from Kamen Rider 555 and Kamen Rider Decade.
- The A.I.M.S. Shotriser, MetsubouJinrai Forceriser, Zetsumeriser, Raidriser, and ZAIA Slashriser in Kamen Rider Zero-One, and the Dogouken Gekido, Fuusouken Hayate, and Onjuuken Suzune in Kamen Rider Saber are anomalous breaks in this trend.
- Each Heisei Phase 2 series has its own set of Collectible Devices, first seen with the Advent Cards in Kamen Rider Ryuki, with the 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 the Heisei Phase 2 Kamen Riders, the Reiwa 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.
- Each lead Rider has an Item Carrier for their Collectible Devices.
- Each Reiwa series has either the Primary or Secondary Rider utilizing some type of mecha as a part of their arsenal.
- With the exception of Zero-One, each Reiwa series has a piece of arsenal that can assume at least three different modes.
- Kamen Rider Saber: The Fuusouken Hayate can interchange between its Ittouryu, Nitouryu, and Shuriken modes.
- Each lead Rider has their own unique pre-battle catchphrase.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: "There's only one person who can stop you, and that's me!"
- Kamen Rider Saber: "I will decide the ending of the story!"
- The Secondary Riders also have their own unique pre-battle catchphrase
- Kamen Rider Vulcan: "Humagears/ZAIA... I will crush them all!"
- Kamen Rider Blades: "I swear on Suiseiken Nagare that I shall protect this world!"
- Each lead Rider has at least three Main Forms.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Zero-One's default form, along with Biting Shark, Flying Falcon, Flaming Tiger, Freezing Bear, & Breaking Mammoth
- Kamen Rider Saber: Brave Dragon, Dragon Eagle, Saiyuu Dragon, & Crimson Dragon
- The lead Rider and secondary Rider(s) display some kind of cross-compatibility.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: All Riders can utilize any Progrisekey for form changes and/or attacks, the former of which has only ever been seen in the form of Concept Art. RampageVulcan also combines the power of 10 Progrisekeys.
- Kamen Rider Saber: The Riders can use any of each other's Wonder Ride Books, each to a varying degree.
- The Riders have some sort of nickname for their finishing attacks, which are announced by their transformation devices and various weapons.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Various
- Hiden Zero-One Driver: (Progrisekey name) Impact
- A.I.M.S. Shotriser: (Progrisekey name) Blast (Fever)
- MetsubouJinrai Forceriser: (Progrisekey name) Dystopia/Utopia
- Zetsumeriser: ("Zetsumetsu"/Progrisekey name) Nova
- Cycloneriser: (Progrisekey name) Spark/The End
- ZAIA Thousandriver: (Progrisekey name) Destruction/Break
- Raidriser: (Progrisekey name) Bolide
- ZAIA Slashriser: (Progrisekey name) Rain (Rush)
- Hiden Zero-Two Driver: (Progrisekey name) Big Bang
- Kamen Rider Saber: Various
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Various
- In the Reiwa shows, the lead Rider and the secondary Rider often have similar yet distinct powers, abilities, and themes. This trend began with Kamen Rider Decade, where both Riders used Rider Cards, with the difference between them being that Decade has a smaller selection of cards, but can transform into them with full access to their powers, while Diend has access to more cards, but can only summon copies of Riders without their full range of powers. This continues in each of the following series.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Each Rider bears their own animal motif (grasshopper, wolf, cheetah, falcon, etc.) and uses their own Progrisekeys to gain unique forms.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Secondary Riders use other books to transform, each with their own themes and abilities.
- Each season has an evil organization exerting villainous influence in some capacity:
- Each Reiwa era villain group has its own Henchmen squad.
- Each series' monsters are either summoned or transformed by a Collectible Device, usually another version of the main hero's Collectible Devices.
- Each Reiwa series features pertinent ally characters with a mysterious past that is linked to the main villains of the show. Most of them are all killed before their series concludes but come back to life sometime later.
- Each Reiwa series has a female Kamen Rider.
- Each Reiwa series features ally characters who serve as primary comic relief characters.
- Each Secondary Rider generally has a more major role in the series in the Reiwa era than the previous Secondary Riders, usually starting out as anti-heroes but then working together with the Primary Rider later on in the series.
- So far, only Kamen Rider Blades breaks this trend, with Blades being a generally heroic Rider from the start.
- Usually, the Secondary Rider's Final Form debuts before the lead Rider's Final Form.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: RampageVulcan debuted 11 episodes before Zero-Two.
- The current Riders' primary monsters will sometimes work together with the main heroes. The current Riders' main villains only temporarily help the heroes in some movies outside of the Super Hero Taisen movie series.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One
- Main: Many of the Magia encountered early on in the series were actually innocent victims turned into monsters by MetsubouJinrai.net, and most of these individuals would later assist them in some capacity later on. Jin, a founding member of MetsubouJinrai, originally fought against the Kamen Riders as Kamen Rider Jin before eventually joining them in saving the world from the Ark.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One
- The main Rider will have some sort of disaster befall them before attaining the Final Form. This began since Kamen Rider Decade.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Aruto loses the Zero-One Driver to Ark-Zero in battle, forcing him to create a new driver.
- Halfway through the show, new kinds of monsters are introduced, usually a higher-up of the previous monsters or attained through a different source of evolution.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One had the Ark Magia & Raiders.
- Beside two main Riders, more Riders are introduced in the series since the appearance of Supporting Riders (Kamen Rider Proto-Birth) in Kamen Rider OOO.
- Each series has a white-colored Rider, though unlike the previous era, they are never specially referred to as white.
- With the exception of Zero-One, each series has a character who is the closest friend of the protagonist and a relative of the series' white Rider. Since Ghost, this trend is sometimes inverted where the white Rider is also a relative to one of the main antagonists.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Kento Fukamiya is the son of the first Kamen Rider Calibur.
- Each series has a red-colored villain general who can use heat power and become stronger when defeated.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Dodo Magia (He was defeated by the main Rider's Upgrade Form, and his Zetsumerisekey would later be used by Ikazuchi to transform into a Rider) and Jin (While he was originally pink due to using Flying Falcon, after being rebuilt by Williamson, not only is his Burning Falcon form red, but it also has flaming abilities and signified to the others of his revival and by that point, gave Jin a drastic personality change and perspective.)
- Between their Main Forms and their Super Forms, all main Riders also have a set of forms that are upgraded from their base forms.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Shining Hopper is a direct upgrade to Rising Hopper.
- Besides the normal humanoid monsters, the main Riders also occasionally have to fight against giant CGI monsters.
- All of the main Riders have a default sidearm.
- All of the main Riders since Wizard has warm colors for their default Main Forms.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Yellow
- Kamen Rider Saber: Red
- There are Rider Troops for each series.
- Each series has a transformation belt that is utilized by at least two in-series Riders.
- The series will usually take a secondary rider out of the action for various reasons and various lengths or even fights with the villains for multiple episodes.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One:
- Kamen Rider Saber: Rintaro, along with the other three Sword of Logos Riders, are tricked into believing that Touma betrayed them, pitting him against Touma for numerous episodes.
- The leader of the main villain group is usually betrayed and sometimes, if not usually, killed by one of their subordinates.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Most of MetsubouJinrai betray the Ark after its true plans were revealed.
- Each series includes a golden evil Kamen Rider:
- The main Rider usually uses a disproportionately high number of collectible transformation devices as compared to the other Riders.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Out of all the Progrisekeys, Zero-One uses 10 (12 counting his appearances as Zero-Two and Ark-One), while Vulcan uses 6 and Valkyrie only uses 2 (3 counting her appearance as the Fighting Jackal Raider).
- Each season usually has the third main Rider originally start off as good during or before the start of the series, then become evil for a period of time before finally redeeming themselves and going on the side of good again.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Yua Yaiba was originally aligned with ZAIA Enterprise Japan and their president, Gai Amatsu, though after his ulterior motives began to conflict with her own morality, she ultimately betrays Gai and works with Jin and HIDEN Manufacturing to defeat Ark-Zero.
- The main villains usually possess an omnipotent object or entity of great power, which can possibly inflict mass destruction on the world.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: The Ark itself is this, possessing the power to turn any or all Humagears against humanity.
- A certain transformation device from each season has either a prototype or a mass-produced version.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: The Shotriser was mass-produced for use by A.I.M.S., though these variants were never used in the show.
- Each season has a spinoff side story focusing on one of the main characters apart from the primary Rider.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Project Thouser focuses on the backstory of Gai Amatsu, while Kamen Rider Zero-One: Shooting Special focuses on Isamu Fuwa and Yua Yaiba respectively.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Swordsman Retsuden
- The secondary Riders' super forms are actually equivalent to the protagonist Riders' Upgrade Forms.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Vulcan Assault Wolf uses a similar kind of Progrisekey as Zero-One Shining Hopper, with the Assault Grip being interchangeable between the two keys.
- The primary Riders' final form no longer has its own designated weapon. Instead, it uses the weapon used by the upgrade/super form. However, rather than using the super form's collectible device, the weapon instead uses collectible devices from the Riders' regular forms to generate more powerful attacks.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Zero-Two reuses the Progrise Hopper Blade from Zero-One's MetalCluster Hopper form.
- With the exception of Zero-One, all series have at least one Rider having a music-related power/weapon:
- Kamen Rider Saber: Bremen no Rock Band
- With the exception of Zero-One, there is at least one ninja-based Rider or Rider form:
- All series feature Kamen Riders with purple/violet color dominant in their main form. They're usually the third or fourth Rider to appear in series.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Kamen Rider Horobi is the fourth Rider to appear, but technically the fifth to fully debut in the series.
- Kamen Rider Saber: Kamen Rider Calibur
- The Blu-ray releases of each season have a mini-series tied in, often as an additional side story within the series' narrative.
- Each season features initial conflict or some form of a rivalry between the series' secondary and tertiary rider before becoming comrades.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Isamu Fuwa (Kamen Rider Vulcan) and Yua Yaiba (Kamen Rider Valkyrie) started off as teammates of the organization A.I.M.S. fighting against MetsubouJinrai.net. However when Gai Amatsu started to become active, Yua's loyalty to ZAIA Japan's president forced her to fight against his opponents, including Fuwa as the Fighting Jackal Raider. Yua would eventually change allegiances and fight against Gai Amatsu's ambitions.
- Most of the major villains at the start of the series would turn good at the end of it, and the last boss is usually another person/entity (Ark) appearing much later.
- With the exception of Zero-One, all series introduced an evil Rider-like character with a mysterious identity at the start of the series.
- Each season usually involves or is set in an alternate world or timeline being shown in contrast with the present world or timeline, somewhat harking back to the early Heisei Phase 1 summer movies of Ryuki, 555, Blade and Kabuto, which feature alternate endings to the main series storyline. Of note, while Zi-O would establish every Rider season as being part of its own universe, this list will only include examples where it is explicitly stated that's the case.
- Each season features a Rider with some sort of feline motif.
- Kamen Rider Zero-One: Yua Yaiba (cheetah)
- Kamen Rider Saber: Rintaro Shindo (lion)
- Each season features at least one father figure as a Rider.
- Each season prominently features some sort of alternate and/or otherworldly location as part of its plot.
Kamen Rider in the Reiwa Era
In Japan, the Reiwa Era began on May 1, 2019, during the concurrent run of Kamen Rider Zi-O, the final Heisei-era Rider. By the end of summer, Toei announced Kamen Rider Zero-One as the succeeding entry and the first to helm the Reiwa Era. It began airing on September 1, 2019, and was expected to air its finale sometime Fall 2020. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a quarantine in Japan early May 2020, a string of episodes were postponed and replaced by some alternative content (as the President Special, the Shooting Special, and the Super Job War).
In December of 2019, a crossover between Zero-One and Zi-O had premiered in Japanese theaters, titled Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation, marking the first time two Riders from differing eras have headed their own crossover film together.
On July 29, 2020, the press conference for Kamen Rider Saber was held, revealing its main cast and crew. The show began airing on September 6, 2020.
Sometime in 2020, Kamen Rider Zero-One: REAL×TIME was planned to be released on July 23, 2020, but delayed due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, later released on December 18, 2020 double-billed alongside with Kamen Rider Saber: The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin.
By December 18, 2020, Zero-One Others was announced for the V-Cinext, starting with Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider MetsubouJinrai, releasing on March 26, 2021 followed by its sequel, Zero-One Others: Kamen Rider Vulcan & Valkyrie, releasing sometime in Fall 2021.
On March 20, 2021, Kamen Rider Saber: The Movie was announced to premiere sometime later in 2021, double-billng with Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger: The Movie
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Reiwa Rider productions
- Kamen Rider Zero-One (2019 - 2020)
- Kamen Rider Saber (2020 - 2021)
- Kamen Rider BLACK SUN (2022)
- Fuuto PI (anime) (2022)
- 2019: Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation
- 2020: Kamen Rider Zero-One: REAL×TIME (originally delayed from July)
- 2020: Kamen Rider Saber: The Phoenix Swordsman and the Book of Ruin
- 2021: Zero-One Others
- 2021: Kamen Rider Saber: The Movie
- 2023: Shin Kamen Rider
External Links
- Reiwa period
at the Ranger Wiki
References
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