As you probably know by now, I really like Japanese superheroes. The fascinating costumes, the special effects, and the idea of being a superhero is just fascinating to me. That being said, although I haven’t really been watching it for long, I can confidently say that Kamen Rider is one of my favorites hands down. So in honor of both the 20th Anniversary and last harah of the Heisei Era, I wanted to talk and learn more about Kamen Rider and how much the show has impacted both Japanese culture, and in a few cases, America’s as well.
The Kamen Rider Series, also known as Masked Rider, is a meta series of manga and tokusatsu television programs and films created by Shotaro Ishinomori and produced by the Toei Company in 1971. The main concept of the series was initially intended to be an adaptation of Ishinomori’s character Skull Man, however Ishinomori and Hirayama redesigned the main character to resemble him after a grasshopper, which was supposedly chosen by his son. Since then, Kamen Rider has become a focal point and a milestone in Japanese culture, and has greatly revolutionized the Japanese superhero genre, as well as the action genre, effectively becoming the figurehead of classical superheroes and the idea of ‘poetic justice’ in Japan.(1)
The main concept of the Kamen Rider series is that a hero rises to the occasion and fights against the villains, usually a large organisation with a secret and sinister agenda, or a great and powerful evil far greater than themselves. Most of the time, the hero is a lone wolf and fights on his own, and that the hero has undergone some sort of major tragedy or event that was usually caused by the villain. In a few instances, the hero doesn’t want to fight, but is forced to in order save himself and humanity. They fight back against these evil forces with the use of technology, usually by stealing it from them and modifying it to use against them. As time went on, the interpretation has wildly changed from this, but they all embody this formula in some way, shape, and form.
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Kamen Rider has been running from 1971, to present, which is 2018 as of this paper. The series is split up into two eras, the Showa Era which was from 1971 to 1989, and the Heisei Era which is from 2000 to 2018. These are categorized based on the current emperor that ruled during the time, in case you were wondering. Within that small time gap from 1990 to 2000, the spirit of the series stayed alive from live stage shows, merchandise, and movies. Each series is considered a “stand alone”, where each recurring season is completely separate from the previous.
However, there will be special occasions such as movies and tv specials where characters from previous seasons would appear, as well as characters from it’s brother show Super Sentai (which is what we know as Power Rangers). Unlike Super Sentai, Kamen Rider will typically have a small cast of characters, consisting of the main Kamen Rider, one or two other Riders, as well as two or so sub characters that aid them. This is usually done to have a more focused story and character development. Although they do this often, there are a few times where they broke the mold a bit, such as Gaim that had 18 different riders.
Kamen Rider is one of the main causes for the launch of what was known as the “Second Monster Boom” or in our case the “Henshin Boom”. During this time, Kamen Rider’s influence and widespread appeal gave birth to many other Superhero shows, which was what moved the tokusatsu genre, from what was primarily done for film, to television, making it the main root of influence for Japan’s current media. This influence is what made possible shows such Devilman, Science Ninja Team Gachaman, and Super Sentai, which eventually became Power Rangers in the US. It even went as far as influencing Sailor Moon, which created the Magical Girl genre as a whole.
