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Reiwa Era

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Icon-kr.pngThis article is about a set of all the shows and films in the Kamen Rider Series.

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, 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, which aired from September 2020 to August 2021.

As 2021 was the year that celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the franchise, a cross-franchise film with Kikai Sentai ZenkaigerIcon-crosswiki.png, titled Kamen Rider Saber ＋ Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger: Superhero SenkiIcon-crosswiki.png had premiered in the summer of 2021. Saber will be followed by Kamen Rider Revice, who made their first appearances in Superhero Senki.

In the 50th Anniversary of Kamen Rider, Saber led the anniversary of the franchise. After Saber's finale, Revice will hold the anniversary until its series' finale.

Reiwa trends

Many of the trends from the previous era have carried over into the Reiwa era.

  • 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.
  • 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.)
    • Kamen Rider Saber: Legeiel (He was defeated by the main Rider's Super Form)
  • 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. The form is later upgraded into Shining Assault Hopper using the Assault Grip.
    • Kamen Rider Saber: Dragonic Knight is a direct evolution of Brave Dragon.
  • 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.
  • With the exception of Saber, 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: Fuwa's Shotriser was damaged near the end of Zero-One after transforming into Orthros Vulcan. Prior to this however, he was possessed by Naki on several occasions before they were separated.
    • 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 has two cases:
      • Gai Amatsu initially had Yua Yaiba, Naki, and A.I.M.S. under his control during his tenure as ZAIA Japan CEO, but they would eventually defect in disgust over his ambitions.
      • Most of MetsubouJinrai betray the Ark after its true intentions to destroy all Humagear were revealed.
    • Kamen Rider Saber has two cases:
      • The Shindai siblings would begin acting on their own accord and fight against Isaac after the latter reveals his true intentions and denounces his title of Master Logos. Storious would eventually betray and vaporize Isaac while taking his Omni Force Wonder Ride Book for his own schemes.
      • Desast severed ties with the Megid in pursuit of his own freedom and soon after, gets badly wounded during an encounter with Storious
  • The plot of each season's summer movie usually involves 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.
  • 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.
    • Kamen Rider Saber: Kento Fukamiya, originally a childhood friend of Touma, returned after he was seemingly killed and took up the mantle as the current Kamen Rider Calibur with a mission to seal all the Seiken to prevent a terrible disaster he foresaw, turning him into a somewhat anti-heroic Rider, though he does show signs of wanting to rekindle his friendships with his former allies. He would later return to aid them after reclaiming Raimeiken Ikazuchi.
  • The main villains usually possess an omnipotent object or entity of great power, which can possibly inflict mass destruction on the world.
  • With the exception of Saber there are certain transformation devices from each season has either a prototype or a mass-produced version.
  • Each season has a spinoff side story focusing on one of the main characters apart from the primary Rider.
  • The secondary Riders' super forms are actually equivalent to the protagonist Riders' Upgrade Forms.
  • 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.
  • With the exception of Zero-One, all series have at least one Rider having a music-related power/weapon:
  • 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.

  • 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.
  • 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 has a Kamen Rider with the same name as the user's civilian identity.
  • The opening sequence of each season would have a short clip which would be reused directly in the season's later episodes, or have some of its elements used to make similar scenes in the season's endgame arc. This has led to the opening sequence somewhat "foreshadowing" certain events in each season.

  • The main rider has a Super Form that is usually berserk before having something that would regain the rider's control.
  • The main rider has an extra final form appearing in the series finale.

  • Notably, the Reiwa era has increased the number of unique transformation devices per season, in addition to the high number of collectible devices. Whilst in contrast with most of Heisei Phase 2 where the collectible devices are split between two to three different drivers shared amongst the Riders, this is somewhat more similar to most of Heisei Phase 1 where each Rider would have their own unique transformation device.
  • Also, while some transformation devices retain the naming scheme of being referred to as "Drivers" (e.g. Hiden Zero-One Driver and Seiken Swordriver), the Reiwa era has begun giving more unique names to other transformation devices whilst still having a common naming scheme within each season.
  • 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.
  • Each season prominently features some sort of alternate and/or otherworldly location as part of its plot.
  • The primary Rider receives a new transformation device to use in conjunction with their collectible devices to access their final forms, effectively making them an entirely new Rider in some cases.
  • Design-wise, the primary Rider's final forms are more simplistic looking in comparison to their predecessors from the previous era, often being slight redecos of their base forms in a similar vein to Kamen Rider Stronger's Charge Up form.
    • Kamen Rider Zero-One: Zero-Two heavily draws inspiration from the Rising Hopper suit with additional details added.
    • Kamen Rider Saber: Xross Saber is a blue and purple repaint of Saber Brave Dragon with a galaxy-inspired design.
  • The secondary Rider's final form combines the powers of either their respective collectible devices from previous episodes or the powers of previous users of their Rider powers. In the Heisei era, such final forms (if any) would usually go to the primary Rider.
  • Each season has one of the main characters absent for some episodes, usually around the end of first saga, later returning during the middle of the series.
  • Seiji Takaiwa, having previously been the suit actor of 18 out of 20 of the primary riders in the Heisei era, has passed on the role of primary Rider to Yuya Nawata, who has since then served as the suit actor for every Primary Rider in the Reiwa era (with the current sole exception being Saber).[1][2]
    • Fighting alongside Nawata is Eitoku who has once again gone on to be the suit actor for the secondary Riders in the Reiwa era, except for Vulcan, who is instead suit-acted by Kosuke Asai.
  • The final villain of each season is one of the major villains who had been around since the very beginning.
  • In (or near) the final episode of each season, the main Rider uses a special collectible trinket to transform into an extra final form that is aesthetically identical to their base form, but is drastically more powerful than any of their previous forms.
  • The Tertiary Riders abandon their rider powers for a villainous type of power, though they later return to use their original rider power.
  • Each of the Tertiary Riders have alternate forms that appear in the series, but do not receive their Final Forms until their epilogue movie.
  • Near the end of the series, some characters would use the same transformation devices as the riders that debuted in the 30s episode range.
  • Each season would feature a mysterious figure who shrouds their identity in a hood.

    • 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 a new succeeding entry and the first to helm the Reiwa Era of Kamen Rider. They made their first appearance in Kamen Rider Zi-O: Over Quartzer and crossed-over with Zi-O in Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation, which set the precedent as the first major crossover between Riders from two different eras.

    The new series was introduced in late 2019 as Kamen Rider Zero-One, which returned to the franchise's original roots as Zero-One's primary motif is based on the grasshopper, with his name a reference to being the first of a new era. The show was expected to air uninterrupted until Fall 2020, however the COVID-19 pandemic had occurred, forcing a quarantine in Japan in May. Thus, to allow time for the production team to make their changes, TV Asahi aired alternate content in the meantime, such as the President Special, the Shooting Special, and the Super Job War.

    In late 2020, Kamen Rider Saber was introduced as the second installment of the Reiwa Era of Kamen Rider. Due to the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a double-billing marketing strategy for each individual film was implemented in lieu of a Movie War film to keep both casts as healthy and safe as possible. After the final episode's airing, an epilogue film set eight years in the future was announced, titled Kamen Rider Saber: Trio of Deep Sin.

    In the summer of 2021, Kamen Rider Revice was introduced as the third installment of the Reiwa Era of Kamen Rider, and made their first appearance in Kamen Rider Saber ＋ Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger: Superhero SenkiIcon-crosswiki.png. Both Revi and Vice then subsequently appeared in Saber's final episode one week before their premiere.

    Reiwa Rider productions

    At Super Hero Time

    To be determined

  • 2019: Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation
  • 2020: Kamen Rider Splendid Double-Feature
  • 2021: Zero-One Others
  • 2021:
  • 2022: Kamen Rider Saber: Trio of Deep Sin
  • 2023: Shin Kamen Rider

    • External Links

    References

    1. ↑ https://mantan-web.jp/article/20190810dog00m200058000c.html
    2. ↑ https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/16912340/
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