The word 'Kamen Rider' means:

1. A 1971 tokusatsu TV show, produced by Toei and Ishimori production.
2. A tokusatsu franchise which are also produces by Toei and Ishimori production and;
3. the name of the heroes in the show and the franchise shown above

This article is about 1 and 2.

Kamen Rider (1971 TV shows)

Produced in 1971, it is the very first installment in the Kamen Rider franchise. Kamen Rider is a tokusatsu superhero television series created by manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori and produced by Toei. There's also a manga adaption drawn by Ishinomori himself.

This TV show, along with Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, were the only TV tokusatsu shows that has over 90 episodes.

Plot

The series takes place in a world plagued by Shocker, a mysterious terrorist organization. To further its plans for world domination, Shocker recruited its agents through kidnapping, turning their victims into mutant cyborgs and, ultimately, brainwashing them. However, one victim named Takeshi Hongo escaped just before the final brainwashing. With his sanity and moral conscience intact, Hongo battled Shocker's minions as the grasshopper-themed altered human superhero Kamen Rider. Another victim of the altered human process, freelance photographer Hayato Ichimonji, became Kamen Rider 2 after Kamen Rider, who renamed himself as "Kamen Rider 1", saved him from Shocker's brainwashing. Assisted by motorcycle race team manager Tobei Tachibana and FBI agent Kazuya Taki, the Kamen Riders fought in both solo and partnered missions against Shocker and its successor organization, Gel-Shocker.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

Characters

Main characters

Takeshi Hongo/Kamen Rider 1

Hayato Ichimonji/Kamen Rider 2

Tobei Tachibana

Kazuya Taki

Ruriko Midorikawa

Enemies

Great Leader of Shocker

Colonel Zol/Werewolf

Doctor Shimigami/Garagaranda

Ambassador of Hell/Ikadevil

General Black/Hiruchameleon

Shocker Riders

Kamen Rider (the tokusatsu franchise)

Started in 1971 with Kamen Rider, the Kamen Rider franchise is one of the three major tokusatsu franchises, alongside Toei's Super Sentai series and Tsuburaya's Ultra Series. Since the first series, it spawns numerous TV series and movie sequels.

The heroes in the franchise, the Kamen Riders, are the masked superheroes who has motorcycles as their transportation and uses their superpower abilities to fights evil. (though there are cases where the riders fights each others in Heisei and the on-going Neo-Heisei installments of the series)

Kamen Riders in the earlier installments of series (known as Showa Riders) are cyborgs whose body are altered by evil organisations. (Though there are cases where it is done by ally, such as X-Rider and Kamen Rider Super-1) Many of them escaped before being brainwashed, and they transforms into Kamen Rider and uses their power to fights evil.

The last TV series in the Showa series is Kamen Rider Black RX, while the last movie in the same sub-series is Kamen Rider J.

Unfortunately in 1998, Shotaro Ishinomori, the creator of Kamen Rider franchise, passed away due to fatal heart attack.

The franchise restarted, when TV series Kamen Rider Kuuga starts airing on TV Asahi channel on January 30th, 2000. It also marked as the start of Heisei Kamen Rider series, and also the first to be made without Ishinomori's involvement. Many of the elements of Showa series (such as the rider being cyborg, shouting his/her finisher and refers the hero as Kamen Rider) were dropped in the Heisei series.

The Heisei riders and the Neo-Heisei riders are heroes who transforms into their Rider form with transformation devices (in Ex-Aid's case, the Gamer Driver and the Rider Gashat), usually the buckle (though there are exceptions as well). Heisei riders and Neo-Heisei riders also relies on form-change and weapons as well. Unlike Showa riders who fights evil for justice ans peace, some new generation riders are fights for greed, revenge and some other reasons, leading to riders fights each others. (The most recent example is Kamen Rider Gaim)

The on-going series is Kamen Rider Ex-Aid.

Works

TV Series

• Kamen Rider (1971-1973, 98 episodes)
• Kamen Rider V3 (1973-1974, 52 episodes)
• Kamen Rider X (1974, 35 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Amazon (1974-1975, 24 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Stronger (1975, 39 episodes)
• Kamen Rider (1979 series) (1979-1980, 54 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Super-1 (1980-1981, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Black (1987-1988, 51 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Black RX (1988-1989, 47 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-2001, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Agito (2001-2002, 51 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002-2003, 50 episodes)
• Kamen Rider 555 (2003-2004, 50 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Blade (2004-2005, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005-2006, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006-2007, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Den-O (2007-2008, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Kiva (2008-2009, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Decade (2009, 31 episodes)
• Kamen Rider W (2009-2010, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider OOO (2010-2011, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Fourze (2011-2012, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Wizard (2012-2013,53 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Gaim (2013-2014, 47 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Drive (2014-2015, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Ghost (2015-2016, 50 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Ex-Aid (2016-2017, 45 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Build (2017-2018, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Zi-O (2018-2019, 49 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Zero-One (2019-2020, 45 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Saber (2020-2021, 48 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Revice (2021-2022, 50 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Geats (2022-ongoing)

TV Special

• All Together! Seven Kamen Riders!! (1976)
• Immortal Kamen Rider Special (1979)
• Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! (1984)
• This is Kamen Rider Black (1987)
• Kamen Rider 1 through RX: Big Gathering (1988)
• Ultraman vs. Kamen Rider (1993, co-production with Tsuburaya Production)
• Kamen Rider Kuuga: New Year's Special (2000)
• Kamen Rider Agito: Another New Transformation (2001)
• Kamen Rider Ryuki Special: 13 Riders (2002)
• Kamen Rider Blade: New Generation (2004)
• 35th Masked Rider Anniversary File (2006)
• Kamen Rider G (2009)

Movie

• Go Go Kamen Rider (1971)
• Kamen Rider vs. Shocker (1972)
• Kamen Rider vs. Hell Ambassador (1972)
• Kamen Rider V3 (1973)
• Kamen Rider V3 vs. the Destron Monsters (1973)
• Kamen Rider X (1974)
• Five Riders vs. King Dark (1974)
• Kamen Rider Amazon (1975)
• Kamen Rider Stronger (1975)
• Eight Riders vs. Galaxy King (1980)
• Kamen Rider Super-1 (1981)
• Kamen Rider Black: Hurry to Onigashima (1988)
• Kamen Rider Black: Terrifying! The Phantom House of Devil Pass (1988)
• Kamen Rider Black RX: Running Around the World (1989, 3D theme park special)
• Kamen Rider ZO (1993)
• Kamen Rider J (1994)
• Kamen Rider World (1994, 3D theme park special))
• Kamen Rider Agito: Project G4 (2001)
• Kamen Rider Ryuki: Episode Final (2002)
• Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost (2003)
• Kamen Rider Blade: Missing Ace (2004)
• Kamen Rider Hibiki & The Seven Senki (2005)
• Kamen Rider The First (2005)
• Kamen Rider Kabuto: God Speed Love (2006)
• Kamen Rider Den-O: I'm Born! (2007)
• Kamen Rider The Next (2007)
• Kamen Rider Den-O & Kiva: Climax Deka (2008)
• Kamen Rider Kiva: King of the Castle in the Demon World (2008)
• Saraba Kamen Rider Den-O: Final Countdown (2008)
• The Cho Den-O series (2009-2010):
  • Cho Kamen Rider Den-O & Decade NEO Generations: The Onigashima Battleship (2009)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider The Movie: Cho-Den-O Trilogy (2010)

• The Movie War/Kamen Rider Heisei Generations series (2009-ongoing):
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010 (2009)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider OOO & W Featuring Skull: Movie War Core (2010)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max (2011)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum (2012)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle (2013)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Drive & Gaim: Movie War Full Throttle (2014)
  • Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Ghost & Drive: Super Movie War Genesis (2015)
  • Kamen Rider Heisei Generations: Dr. Pac-Man vs. Ex-Aid & Ghost with Legend Rider (2016)

• Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate (2010)
• OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders (2011)
• Kamen Rider OOO WONDERFUL: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals (2011)
• The Super Hero Taisen (2011-ongoing) series:
  • Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen (2012)
  • Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z (2013)
  • Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai (2014)
  • Super Hero Taisen GP (2015)

• Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Everyone, Space Is Here! (2012)
• Kamen Rider Wizard in Magic Land (2013)
• Kamen Rider Gaim the Movie: The Great Soccer Match! The Golden Fruit Cup! (2014)
• Kamen Rider Drive the Movie: Surprise Future (2015)
• Kamen Rider 1 (2016)
• Kamen Rider Ghost: The 100 Eyecons and Ghost's Fated Moment (2016)

V-Cinema

• Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue (1992)
• Kamen Rider SD (1993, anime)
• Kamen Rider W Returns (2011, dual works)
• Kamen Rider Gaim Gaiden: Zangetsu/Baron (2014)
• Kamen RIder Gaim Gaiden: Duke/Knuckle (2015)
• Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser (2016)
• Kamen Rider Drive Sage: Kamen Rider Mach/Kamen Rider Heart (2016)
• Kamen Rider Ghost Re-Birth: Kamen Rider Specter (2017)

Net series

• D-Video Special: Kamen Rider 4 (2015, 4 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Ghost: Legendary! Riders' Souls! (2016, 4 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Amazons (2016-2017, 24 episodes)
• Kamen Rider Black Sun (2022, 10 episodes)

Manga

• Kamen Rider Spirits (manga by Kenichi Muraeda, 2001-ongoing)
• Kamen Rider Kuuga (story by Toshiki Inoue and manga by Hitoshi Yokoshima, 2014-ongoing)

Article in Other Languages

仮面ライダー