Top Ten Kamen Rider Series

It's time for me to finally talk about Kamen Rider on this blog.  Rider... HENSHIN!

My Kamen Rider fandom, perhaps unsurprisingly, begins with my Super Sentai fandom. When I started getting deep into watching Sentai in 2015, I started noticing a lot of peripheral Kamen Rider details.  The first Sentai I watched to completion, Shinkenger, even had two crossover episodes with Kamen Rider Decade that I didn't understand at all at first.  Short version: since 2000 Super Sentai has shared a morning TV block with Kamen Rider called "Super Hero Time" and the two shows are linked as such.  Together, they're Toei's two big superhero franchises and often have crossover events as well.  But let's move to the long version...

Kamen Rider began life in 1971, with five Kamen Rider shows airing between 1971 and 1975 (starring a total of seven "original" Kamen Rider supeheroes). After the initial run of Kamen Rider on TV ended, showrunner Shotaro Ishinomori wrote several more superhero shows produced by Toei, including Himitsu Sentai Goranger and JAKQ Dengekitai, the first two Super Sentai TV shows (although they didn't become part of Super Sentai canon until the 1990s).  Ishinomori was a prolific manga author whose collected works total more than 500 volumes.  Basically, Kamen Rider has been around a long time and its creator was an influential dude.  Kamen Rider had a few more shows in the late 1970s and through the 1980s, but Ishinomori didn't write them (he did have a few episode cameos, though).

Kamen Rider's original visual gimmick was that of a grasshopper-themed superhero, in which a brilliant college student named Takeshi Hongou was captured and genetically modified by an evil organization named Shocker, but escaped captivity before he fully transformed into a Shocker minion.  These basic concepts pervade every Kamen Rider show: a young man becomes a superhero through unplanned means (often an accident, experiment, or finding an object by chance), fights to protect humanity from an evil organization of some sort, and in doing so struggles with the burden of being a superhero.  That's what Kamen Rider is all about: you must fight for truth, hope, love, and justice, but with great power comes great responsibility.  And to summon those powers, the hero always uses a special belt and the magic word is always Henshin.  

The Original Seven Kamen Riders

Kamen Rider is different from Super Sentai in that it always stars a solo superhero instead of a team.  Sure, many Kamen Rider shows have multiple Rider heroes (including a few from the 1970s), but there is always a "main" rider; others are typically classified as "secondary" Riders and are either sidekicks, rivals, or major opponents.  Kamen Rider shows often have darker storylines or incorporate more horror and tragedy than Super Sentai.  That isn't to say that Sentai doesn't get dark, scary, or sad, but that Rider is much more likely to do so. 

When you're talking about the Kamen Rider series as a whole, you basically divide it into three time periods: Showa, Heisei 1, and Heisei 2 (the words Showa and Heisei refer to the reigns of different Japanese emperors.).  Showa refers to the Kamen Rider shows of the 1970s and 1980s; Heisei 1 refers to the first ten Kamen Rider shows from 2000 onwards (Kuuga through Decade); Heisei 2 refers to the ten shows after Heisei 1 (W through Zi-O).  A new Emperor of Japan takes the throne in April 2019, so Zi-O is definitely the final Heisei Kamen Rider.  No Kamen Rider TV shows aired in the 1990s, but there were a few Kamen Rider movies and manga adaptations (and they are SUPER weird). 

So in general, I got Kamen Rider-curious when I was in the midst of my Sentai binge in 2015-2016, and a few years later I've finally finished ten shows and had a blast watching most of them.  But holy crap that's a giant info-dump and I'm sorry.  One last thing, the majority of my Kamen Rider experience is in that Heisei 2 period, and the oldest show in my top ten is from 2006.  That's enough background information.  So let's get to it.  Here are my top ten favorite Kamen Rider TV shows, after a few honorable mentions:

Kamen Rider Unfinished

Kamen Rider Black (pictured)

Kamen Rider Black RX (also pictured)
Kamen Rider Ryuki

Kamen Rider Blade

Kamen Rider Den-O

Kamen Rider Zi-O

These are the six Kamen Rider shows I'm most likely to check out next, but I've seen only ten episodes of Den-O and fewer than five episodes for the others.  Black is hugely popular and had a dark, intriguing first three episodes, so I'm eager to see more.  Excellent reputation among fans as well.  Black RX is a direct sequel to Black, and if I enjoy Black I'll dive into that one right after.  Both of those aired in the late 1980s, an era of tokusatsu largely unknown to me.  Ryuki has maybe my favorite early episodes of any Kamen Rider show I haven't watched to completion, and while the low video quality is an issue the show's premise, action, and designs are very cool.  The "Kamen Rider as battle royale" concept feels like a 2002 version of Gaim or Ex-Aid.  I only saw the first two episodes of Blade, but I am interested; it's one of the most popular Heisei 1 Kamen Rider shows among western fans, with four main Rider characters and lots of personal drama.  Den-O is weird, but not bad-weird.  Its cast is extremely silly for a Kamen Rider, but I liked the human characters from my limited exposure and it has an interesting (and confusing) time travel gimmick.  Zi-O is the newest Kamen Rider show, and at the time of posting this article only one episode has aired.  It's an anniversary season (like Gokaiger or Decade) sure to feature a ton of cameos and references.  So yeah, definitely watching that one as it happens, unless it ends up a complete trainwreck.

Kamen Rider Uninterested

Kamen Rider Kuuga

Kamen Rider Agito

Kamen Rider Faiz

Kamen Rider Hibiki

Kamen Rider Decade (pictured)

Kamen Rider Ghost

I've seen between one and ten episodes of each of these shows (10 for Ghost and 1 to 3 for the other five), and they're lower priorities for me to check out than the previous list.  Kuuga and Agito are well-liked, but I don't love how they're filmed differently from more recent Rider shows and I wasn't hooked by their early episodes.  Faiz is a similar situation, but it's less well-regarded than those first two of the 2000s.  Hibiki is famously one of the worst Kamen Rider shows, but mostly for the season's second half.  I'll pass regardless.  Decade is an anniversary season similar to Gokaiger, but with more hangups and a bad reputation among fans, so I'll skip it for now.  2015's Ghost has an excellent premise, but the writing and characters were the worst of any Heisei 2 Rider.  So yeah, no setting it in stone, but I won't be watching those six seasons anytime soon.

Sollosi's Top Ten Favorite Kamen Rider Series

Honorable Mention

Viewtiful Joe

I always include honorable mentions in my list blog posts, but for Kamen Rider I wasn't really sure what to acknowledge at first.  Definitely not Saban's Masked Rider (an American adaptation of Black RX), which as a child I thought looked cool at first, but I lost interest after a few episodes.  Definitely not Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight (an American adaptation of Ryuki), which I hadn't heard of prior to following the real thing.  I even considered making one or all of the 1970s Kamen Rider shows or the recent Kamen Rider Amazons drama honorable mentions, but I haven't seen a single episode of any of them.

So I went with Viewtiful Joe, a GameCube and PS2 video game, made by Capcom's Clover Studio prior to them working on God Hand and Okami.  I didn't realize it the first time I played Viewtiful Joe, but this game is 100% a send-up of tokusatsu in general and Kamen Rider in particular.  From the special effects powers to "Henshin a-go-go, baby!," Viewtiful Joe celebrates and pokes fun at Kamen Rider while being an excellent, stylish 2D action game.  VJ was also my first exposure to the word "Henshin" so that's worth something.  Damn, I should pop in Viewtiful Joe and see if it holds up.

One last aside: for the following list, the images I used come from the recent video game Kamen Rider Climax Fighters.  The images were clean, have a great profile view of the hero's torso, and are similarly sized.  For some reason some say "Masked Rider" instead of "Kamen Rider" but I'll allow it.  This was by far my best visual option, as other attempts at image-grabbing had results irregular as hell.  

Number Ten

Kamen Rider Wizard

The Basics: (2012) A twisted magical ritual turns a few dozen kidnapped citizens into monsters called Phantoms, with college student Haruto Soma the only survivor.  Haruto learns to master the powers of the dragon monster sealed in his soul, and becomes Kamen Rider Wizard, a mage determined to protect humanity from the Phantoms, who drive humans with magic talent to despair in order to create more Phantoms. Starting form's visual gimmicks are gemstones and fire magic.  Special items are magic rings called Wizard Rings.   

The Verdict: I want to reiterate that I enjoyed every show on this list, and Wizard finishing tenth doesn't mean I hated it.  Hell, I liked it enough to watch 53 episodes plus several movies and extras, but Wizard still ranks tenth out of ten.  Soma's actor does a great job portraying the elemental-magic-using Rider, but his supporting cast is awfully annoying, including the secondary Rider, Kamen Rider Beast (chimera concept is great, but the performance and writing aren't).  The mythic beast-themed villains get plenty of screen time, but are much less-interesting than others of the Heisei 2 run of Kamen Rider shows.  I think the suit is cool and the action is quite stylish, but the weak, predictable story and the below-average supporting cast tank Wizard for me.      

Number Nine

Kamen Rider Build

The Basics: (2017) A mysterious artifact called Pandora's Box, excavated from Mars, causes a massive wall to suddenly appear and divide Japan into thirds, and a mysterious organization called Faust is using Pandora's Box's technology to transform humans into monsters.  An amnesiac man named Sento Kiryu, a prodigy scientist and engineer, uses the same tech to become Kamen Rider Build, hoping to save Japan from an evil entity with a connection to Pandora's Box.  Starting form's visual gimmicks are rabbit and tank. Special items are small flasks called Full Bottles. 

The Verdict: Build recently ended, and I haven't seen its summer short movie yet (fansubbers won't get to it until it comes out on video), but I feel it was ultimately average at best, and disappointing at worst.  The setting of a divided Japan fighting over a mysterious power was interesting early on, but what starts out as a story of political intrigue and the power of science turns into some real nonsense.  I enjoyed the scientists gimmick for the most part and the main cast isn't bad, but Build's plot treads water following the plot twist around the one-third mark and doesn't get much better.  OK designs, action, and characters (with a handful of high points, like specific power-ups and a few early plot twists), with a below-average story. 

Number Eight

Kamen Rider Kiva

The Basics: In the present (2008), a man named Wataru Kurenai lives alone and makes a living repairing musical instruments, with his life goal to create a perfect violin.  Monsters called Fangires terrorize the world, and Wataru fights them by transforming into Kamen Rider Kiva.  22 years earlier (1986), Wataru's father Otoya is a master violinist who works with a vampire-hunting organization trying to defeat that time's Fangires and their ruthless king, Kiva.  Starting form's visual gimmicks are vampire and bat.  Special items are monster-themed whistles called Fuestles.

The Verdict: This is the Rider series I'm most torn on.  I love the suit designs and the vampires vs vampire hunters concept (the stained glass motif on the Fangire monsters is awesome).  Wataru starts out unlikeable, but improves as the show goes on and the actor gives a good performance (and is also a legit talented singer and violinist).  The side characters are mostly okay, and Otoya is one of my all-time favorites in Rider history; also, the multiple love triangles are entertaining to follow.  Kiva also has some of the best music cues in all of Kamen Rider.  So why isn't it at least four spots higher? The two-timelines storytelling is unnecessarily confusing, the action is just average, and a few of the powers and story beats are underexplained to the point of frustration.  Worst of all, though, is how the show treats it characters late in the story (lots of pointless death and suffering).  I loved Kamen Rider Kiva, but I also have several irritations about it. Thus it landed eighth.

Number Seven

Kamen Rider Fourze

The Basics: (2011) An elite high school, sponsored by Japan's space program, has a secret portal leading to a base on the moon.  The school is terrorized by monsters called Zodiarts, who are transforming troubled students into new Zodiarts for reasons unclear at first.  Gregarious transfer student Gentaro Kisaragi discovers the moon base and uses a mysterious belt found there to transform into Kamen Rider Fourze, to defend his new school from the Zodiarts with the help of his friends in the Kamen Rider Club.  Starting form's visual gimmicks are space suits and space shuttles.  Special items are small cylindrical pods with attached buttons and toggles, called Astro Switches.

The Verdict: Fourze is relentlessly positive and focuses on its school setting and outer space gimmick quite strongly, resulting in a fun show full of shounen soul and teen drama.  Gentaro is a delight.  The monsters look great, but the suits and power-ups for both Fourze and the secondary protagonist Kamen Rider Meteor are a bit uncool (I get that he's supposed to be a space shuttle, but come ON).  The writing is good-but-uneven, and I'm still bummed out that my favorite villain character departs before the show's midpoint. The action is okay, but really this show is about that high school spirit and getting to know the Kamen Rider Club, with a pretty strong supporting cast overall.  I also thought the ending was satisfying, which isn't always the case for Kamen Rider.  Fourze is a fun one. 

Number Six

Kamen Rider Kabuto

The Basics: (2006) Seven years earlier, a meteor struck Tokyo and released its resident malevolent aliens, called Worms.  The Worms are heavily armored and capable of moving at speeds faster than human eyes can detect.  To battle the Worms, a group called ZECT developed the Masked Rider system, which allows humans to don armor and fight at the Worms' level.  Souji Tendou, a young man unaffiliated with ZECT, somehow has his own Rider belt and Zecter and uses them to transform into Kamen Rider Kabuto to combat the Worms.  Starting form's visual gimmick is a rhinoceros beetle.  Special items are cybernetic bugs called Zecters.   

The Verdict: My favorite Heisei 1 Kamen Rider show has beautifully clean suit designs and a surprisingly broad set of characters and organizations, layering conspiracies and motivations on top of each other.  Souji Tendou is cartoonishly arrogant, but pulls it off surprisingly well!  However, I didn't care for a few of the character turns and (sorta) unresolved plot threads in the second half of Kabuto. Worse, the Worms are a little too faceless and disorganized for my taste in toku villainy. But I won't deny Kabuto has great designs, excellent bullet-time action, good characters, great music, and a few awesome story moments. Plus the most (and best) cooking in any tokusatsu show. 

Number Five

Kamen Rider Gaim

The Basics: (2013) Zawame, a Japanese city renovated and rebuilt by the Yggdrasil Corporation, has a number of dance crews competing for dance space as a popular pastime. Kouta Kazuraba, a former dance team captain, falls into a portal leading to a mysterious forest, where monsters called Inves reside.  Using a fruit from a tree in that forest and a belt from Yggdrasil, Kouta becomes Kamen Rider Gaim, determined to protect Zawame from the Inves and uncover to the secrets of the Yggdrasil Corporation. Starting form's visual gimmicks are samurai and oranges.  Special items are fruit-themed padlocks called Lockseeds.   

The Verdict: Gaim is a true ensemble show, with at least TEN major characters capable of transforming into a Rider.  One big metaphor in the story is Zawame as a castle town, with the Riders its samurai, knights, gladiators, and what have you - the Rider designs are all armored warriors to reflect this.  The major characters' different motivations and evolving roles are fascinating to follow in Gaim as well (avoiding spoilers, but there are some *huge* alignment changes in Gaim).  The show's stakes and drama also ramp up in a major way around the halfway point.  So why isn't Gaim one of my favorites overall?  I think that a few of the acting performances are weak or forgettable (Kouta's actor is very good, though), the cast is too large overall, and the show takes too long to get to the best parts of the story.  A bit of streamlining could've done Gaim a lot of good, but it's still one of the best Kamen Rider shows of the Heisei 2 period.

Number Four

Kamen Rider W

The Basics: (2009) Shotaro Hidari, a private detective, rescues an oddly-dressed young man named Philip from an underground bunker with his mentor, who dies during the rescue operation. Philip has a computer-like brain and vast knowledge of everything but his own past, and helps Shotaro with his cases in the town of Fuuto. Together, using a belt left by Shotaro's mentor, the two transform into Kamen Rider W, solving mysteries and foiling the plans of an evil organized crime family.  Starting form's visual gimmicks are wind powers and hard-boiled martial arts (Cyclone-Joker).  Special items are memory sticks called Gaia Memories.  

The Verdict: Kamen Rider W (spoken as "Double"), starring a pair of detectives who combine their psyches to each control half of their superhero alter-ego, has great main character performances, excellent villains, good individual stories, a dope color-changing super suit, pretty funny dialogue, and rock-solid action.  It also isn't overly complicated or bloated, which is a problem I had with Kabuto and Gaim at times.  So why isn't W in my top three?  Well, the landlady sidekick is one of the most irritating supporting characters in any Kamen Rider show I've seen, and the ending to Kamen Rider W feels tacked-on and unnatural.  Those are the two pieces holding back what's otherwise one of the best Kamen Rider shows. 

Number Three

Kamen Rider Drive

The Basics: (2014) Shinnosuke Tomari is a brilliant police detective demoted to a "special investigations unit" following a traumatic accident that left his former partner paralyzed.  The accident?  Part of an attack on Tokyo by 108 cyborgs called Roidmudes, capable of affecting the flow of time and gravity in their vicinity.  Shinnosuke's police car somehow has a sentient A.I. living in its seatbelt, and Shinnosuke teams up with "Mr. Belt" to transform into Kamen Rider Drive, a superhero capable of taking on the Roidmudes.  Starting form's visual gimmick is a sports car. Special items are miniature cars and vehicles called Shift Cars.   

The Verdict: Drive starts out very disjointed, with Shinnosuke solving mysteries with a numbered Roidmude and a new toy car every week, but once a story turn happens around in the midpoint, Drive becomes less disjointed and more serial, with a more interesting and personal narrative taking center stage. The main cast is great; I like the secondary Riders (Mach and Chaser) and the show's leading lady (a policewoman named Kiriko) quite a bit. The actor for the lazy-but-capable Shinnosuke is excellent as well.  I even liked the two sequel V-Cinema movies!  Drive's writing is uneven, with some early police case episodes much stronger than others, but the full arc of Drive is great superhero drama. And there are SO MANY toy cars.   

Number Two

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

The Basics: (2016) Emu Hojo is an intern working at a hospital's pediatrics department, but when he's not working Emu is M, a master video game player who won many tournaments prior to his focusing on training to be a doctor.  Unbeknownst to the public, a deadly video game virus is killing citizens and creating monsters called Bugsters.  When one of his own patients is threatened by the virus Emu steals a special belt kept by hospital leadership and uses it to transform into Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.  Together with a few other Kamen Riders, Ex-Aid strives to defeat the Bugsters and save the world from the Game Illness.  Starting form's visual gimmick is action video games and a video game controller.  Special items are video game cartidges called Gashats.   

The Verdict: I love the main characters in Ex-Aid, and it has probably my favorite collection of villains in any Kamen Rider.  The heroes and villains each have specific goals and ideals, and the confrontations of Rider vs Bugster or even Rider vs Rider are outstanding.  The video games gimmick permeates through Ex-Aid in a fascinating way, with both hero and villain gimmicks heavily informed by their signature games (the immortal survival-horror themed villain is a standout) and video game-themed boss fights getting pretty interesting.  There are even moments of medical drama that I really enjoyed (i.e. a dramatic surgery scene taking place at the same time as a dramatic fight scene, with multiple lives on the line).  And like Drive and Gaim, Ex-Aid's plot becomes way cooler after a mid-series plot twist.  Ex-Aid's weaknesses?  Sometimes the story events are just TOO ludicrous, and I occasionally felt cheated by over-convenient plot devices.  Also, a few suit designs are gaudy as fuck, especially Ex-Aid himself.  Yet, for outstanding characters, themes, action, and story, Ex-Aid is one of the greats.

Number One

Kamen Rider OOO

The Basics: (2010) Four homunculi (called "Greeeds") that manipulate human greed are released from an ancient seal and begin causing destruction by creating monsters (called "Yummys") from the ambitions of vulnerable humans.  A fifth Greeed, Ankh, whose powers are depleted, teams up with Eiji Hino, a vagrant without a care in the world, and teaches him to use the powers of OOO, the warrior who sealed the monsters 800 years earlier. Eiji and Ankh battle the other Greeeds and Yummys while trying to restore Ankh's powers.  Starting form's visual gimmicks are hawk, tiger, and grasshopper (Ta-To-Ba).  Special items are animal-themed coins called O-Medals.   

The Verdict: Kamen Rider OOO (pronounced "ohs,") maybe has more form customization than any other Rider, with color-changing legs, torso, and helmet with an entire Sentai of options to choose from.  The individual plots are fascinating, as the green-eyed monster of human avarice grows into literal monsters for OOO to fight, and Eiji is the only person capable of using OOO's powers, as a man with no material wants in the world other than clean underwear.  OOO's gimmicks and dialog do get pretty ridiculous (it feels like at least two birthday cakes are eaten every episode), but I love the interactions between main characters, especially the pure-hearted Eiji's relationship with the sardonic Ankh.  The (stunningly pretty) leading lady Hina and (also quite handsome) secondary hero Kamen Rider Birth are super likeable.  Kamen Rider OOO has everything that makes a tokusatsu show great, and (avoiding spoilers) communicates the concepts of "power is a burden" and "heroes suffer for the good of others" beautifully. I loved Kamen Rider OOO start to finish, and it made me a lifelong fan of this Japanese cultural touchstone of a superhero.

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That's that!  I might write a Kamen Rider show review later this year, but I'm mostly focusing on list articles for at least the next month or two.  Proud of myself for (mostly) keeping timely with these blog updates.  I'm currently in the back half of playing Suikoden II, and once that's finished I'll immerse myself in Dragon Quest XI.  Not to mention watching every episode of Lupinranger vs Patoranger and Kamen Rider Zi-O as they air.  Whew. Good times.