It has been 54 years since “Kamen Rider”/”Masked Superman” was launched in 1971. Although there have been some stops in the meantime, the number is too numerous to count. Of course, Toei and Bandai will not let it go, and directly divide the era into three major stages: Showa, Heisei, and Reiwa. The Kamen Riders of each era appear to have “new looks and new stories” on the surface, but behind the scenes they are all the same, trying their best to make money from the audience! So this time, let’s talk about how much of the so-called distinction between “seniors and descendants” is true justice, and how much is just business calculation!
Dark and sad era──Showa Knights
The so-called “XX Era” follows the reign of the Japanese Emperor. Showa was from 1926 to 1989, Kamen Rider just started in 1971, all the way to Black RX!
Showa Kamen Riders include: No. 1, No. 2, V3, RiderMan, X, Amazon, Stronger, Skyrider, Super1, ZX, Black, Black RX. There are also special cases: Shin, ZO, and J. Although the release date has been Heisei, their styles are too old-fashioned, so they are considered late Showa products!
The characteristics of Showa are basically this:
- Android settings: Most of the senior knights are artificial humans. They are obviously not human, but they insist on protecting humans! As a result, humans still despise them as monsters, which is so tragic! But that’s the selling point.
- evil organization: Even if you haven’t seen it, you must have heard of “Card Repair”! The villains of Showa are all evil organizations created by the earth itself, unlike Ultraman who is always an alien! This will draw a clear line with Ultraman and avoid a car crash.
- plot style: Super dark and sad! Ishinomori insists on transforming people into monsters and then fights alone. After that, Skyrider became more child-oriented because it wanted to sell toys, but the feeling of loneliness still remained! Black is the peak darkness!
- Appearance design: It’s all insect style. Locusts, bees, monitor lizards, and unicorns all look earthy and scary, but they have become classics!
- fighting violence: In the early stage, it didn’t take the children’s route, there was a lot of violence and blood. Amazon even cut off its hands and feet and caused rivers of blood to flow. Later, parents complained and they restrained themselves a little. (Otherwise Bandai toys won’t be sold!)
- worldview: Basically a big world view, the seniors will occasionally make guest appearances to help the juniors! It’s a one-stop business chain!
- belt: Basically, the transformation relies on modification, and the belt is just an auxiliary tool! Only in Black did high-tech gadgets begin, such as infrared watch-controlled belts.
Back then, Amazon was so bloody that it scared children. Later, they remade Amazons and put them online. This time, no parents complained, but blood was still everywhere!
In the movie versions of Zhen, ZO, and J, you can transform by inserting a stone into your belly. Strictly speaking, it is not a belt at all!
The Black belt toy started to play tricks, it could be activated by sensing the light from the TV, and the RX also added infrared rays. It was basically a dream money pit for children at that time!
Heisei Succession──Kamen Rider’s new business
After Black RX ended, the TV version went off the air for a long time. It wasn’t until 2000 that Toei felt that the hen could continue to lay golden eggs and brought “Kamen Rider” back.
Heisei Knights can be divided into two phases: “Heisei” and “New Heisei”. The list of Heisei knights are: **Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva; as for the new Heisei knights list, they are: Decade, W, OOO, Fourze, Wizard, Gaim, Drive, Ghost, Ex-Aid, Build, Zi-O.
As for their characteristics, they have changed a little:
- plot: Continuing the dark route, it explores the struggle of human nature and the destiny of life and death. It is superficially profound, but in fact it is just a lot of suffering and deep hatred!
- design: Not just insects, start playing with dragons, sharks, and bats. I want to have more tricks so that there can be more versions of the toys!
- Belt replaces android: No need to transform, just give you a belt and you can transform! Convenient and a big seller!
- career settings: The protagonists are either unemployed or unemployed. A few of them have occupations, such as Ryuki, a reporter, and Blade, a full-time monster hunter. The setting is low cost and the audience has a strong sense of involvement!
- worldview: Mostly independent worlds, to avoid the trouble of writing scripts! Agito originally wanted to connect with Kuuga, but after thinking about it, he decided not to do it!
- fighting: There is less blood, but the fighting is smoother! The fighting scenes are relatively simple and direct, which is pretty good to watch!
- The second rider: Starting from Agito, there is a fixed “Second Knight”. One more character means one more toy money pit!
Beginning in Heisei, the belt officially replaces the androids! A child’s biggest dream is to collect all the belts, but your wallet is not in a good position!
The most famous internet meme of the famous Kamen Rider producer Shinichiro Shirakura is this! If you study the plot and setting too carefully, you will be kicked out!
In addition to the two knights, there are also three, four or five knights in the New Heisei era.
Usually the main rider has a so-called exclusive final form! Many TV series versions of Erqi only have the so-called enhanced state, except for the special plot version!
Hibiki is one of the few Kamen Rider motorcycles that has not been specially designed!
New Heisei era – the era of toys supremacy
Shin Heisei has also set a precedent for the belt transformation sound to be super long, and the transformation belt lights are also multi-colored. Especially the sound of Kamen Rider Woz’s transformation is super long!
The characteristics are almost written on the face! It’s relaxed, positive energy, and full of friendship, but the key point is that the “belt + transformation props” are selling like crazy!
- plot: From heavy to light, talking about friendship and hope all day long, packaged like a positive energy program!
- design: Colorful, fruits, coins, USB, rings, cards, anything can be turned into a toy! Bandai is really an evil organization!
- belt: It’s no longer a belt, but a whole transformation system! Drive needs a car, and Ex-Aid needs a game card! There are more and more ways to make money!
- multi-stage evolution: Each protagonist has at least 5 to 10 forms, just to force you to buy all the peripherals!
- worldview: Different universes, but use Decade to cut into parallel worlds for easy movie chaos!
- MovieX series: From then on, movies have become a regular means of making money. Seniors and juniors come together to defeat the boss and then cut into the wallets of fans!
Reiwa Begins──CG and Wallet Hell
Reiwa has only been around for 6 years, so if we want to make a compilation, there is actually too little information to judge. We can only make assumptions based on the temporarily played works. There are currently 6: Zero-One, Saber, Revice, Geats, Gotchard, and ZZETZ!
As for their characteristics, they are very electronic:
- plot: I started talking about AI, family, and social issues. It seemed to be in-depth, but in fact it was just to sell the character!
- design: A lot of electronic textures are used, and the colors are so bright and dazzling that they look like neon lights!
- belt: Continue to play with modularization, a belt + a bunch of parts, change it to a new form, of course the parts have to be sold separately!
- fighting: There are more CGs, more quick cuts, less and less fist and foot movements, and weapon battles replace melee combat! Because I want to sell weapons and toys!
- Chinese market: The biggest feature is that it has officially entered China and started “quasi-synchronous” broadcast! Now Bandai can hold meetings, hold exhibitions, sell genuine copies, and make money!
Summarize
From Showa to Heisei, and then to Reiwa, Kamen Rider has never been a “simple heroic story.” The seniors are lonely and tragic, and the juniors are full of positive energy, but what remains unchanged is that the Kamen Riders of every era are all for Toei and Bandai to continue emptying your wallets!
Welcome to join TOKUSATSU Tokusatsu Heroes DSICORD discussion forum, ↓ click the link below
