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Kamen Rider

Japanese media franchise

  • 23 min read
  • 6 chapters

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The franchise began in 1971 with the Kamen Rider television series, which followed college student Takeshi Hongo and his quest to defeat the world-conquering Shocker organization. The original series spawned television and film sequels and launched the Second Kaiju Boom (also known as the Henshin Boom) on Japanese television during the early 1970s, impacting the superhero and action-adventure genres in Japan.

Bandai owns the toy rights to Kamen Rider in Japan and other Asian regions. Bandai Namco Toys and Collectibles America, a subsidiary of Bandai, distributes Kamen Rider merchandise in North America.

Series overview

The entirety of the Kamen Rider franchise revolves around the exploits of the various enhanced superhumans and cyborgs bearing the title of the "Kamen Rider" (仮面ライダー, Kamen Raidā; lit. Masked Rider) and their one-man war against a multitude of opposing enemy factions seeking to take over the world for nefarious intentions, usually an evil organization responsible for their augmentation. Barring a few entries, each series' Rider(s) utilizes a transformation belt commonly known as a "Driver" (ドライバ, Doraiba) to transform into their enhanced Rider form — usually activated with the transformation phrase "Henshin!" (変身, Henshin; lit. Transform) — to fight against various kaijins on a "monster of the week" basis, each armed with a multitude of different combat forms of varying destructive potential and a sizable array of abilities and weapons, with the notable part of their arsenal being their respective "Rider Machines" (ライダーマシン, Raidāmashin) motorcycle to drive around with, though certain entries of the franchise uses other forms of vehicles as substitutes such as Kamen Rider Drive with the "Tridoron" sports car, Kamen Rider Revice uses an hoverbike via one of Kamen Rider Revi and Vice's forms, and Kamen Rider Gavv's titular Rider conjures a candy-themed buggy as a combat vehicle. Typically, a kaijin is usually defeated either through the Kamen Rider's signature weapons or with the "Rider Kick" (ライダーキック, Raidākikku), a powerful flying dive kick only used when the Kamen Rider(s) deemed their enemies weakened enough to be destroyed that would result in an explosive finish.

A recurring theme of the franchise is how any Kamen Rider's powers are derived from a power source and/or technology being used for less noble intentions and the internal turmoil that comes with protecting humanity through violence, as evident by the "tear lines" in the Rider's helmets to represent the agonizing sacrifices made for committing to such a noble cause. Another recurring theme in the franchise is that it portrays how some kaijins, cyborgs and other monstrous beings can also show some degree of humanity to their interaction with mankind, as well as equally portraying how humanity can be ironically seen as radically evil compared to the kaijins and other beings through the various human antagonists of varying maliciousness and cruelty, often displaying their misanthropy towards humanity by becoming monsters themselves. Additionally, unlike its Super Sentai counterpart, most if not all Kamen Riders are morally grey in terms of their respective reasons to fight, usually clashing with other Riders over their ideals and their justifications to accept such power.

Each Kamen Rider series takes place in a standalone continuity within the same universe, the exceptions to this rule being Kamen Rider Decade, Kamen Rider Build, Kamen Rider Zi-O and Kamen Rider Gotchard, with each often crossing over to fight against a common foe in their summer-billed movies taken place somewhere before/after the events of their respective series primarily through the yearly Kamen Rider Movie War (仮面ライダーMOVIE大戦, Kamen raidā mūbī taisen) film series and/or with the Super Sentai franchise through the Super Hero Taisen film series.

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