The original star, Hiroshi Fujioka, appeared in the first three seasons of the series (1971-73) and returned as guest star in several later seasons and later movies, right up to returning in the role of Takeshi Hongo in two Kamen Rider movies in 20. The TV franchise was revived in 2000 with Kamen Rider Kuuga and has been on the air in Japan in an unbroken run of new KR seasons every year from 2000 to the present. There were regular Kamen Rider series and movies, off and on, throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, although only KR movies were released in the 1990s, nothing on television. Most have been male, but I have seen two female Kamen Riders in recent KR movies. Kamen Riders are elaborately armored, masked superheroes who mostly ride motorcycles and fight primarily with swords, fists, and kicks, usually confronting bizarre monsters and high-tech costumed criminal masterminds representing malevolent forces based here on Earth. The popularity of the series insured continued seasons, including new versions of the character played by different actors, sometimes teaming up in one show or movie spin-off. I’ve never seen the original TV episodes, although I have seen the earliest Kamen Rider movies, including KAMEN RIDER VS. with English subtitles (and a dubbed version).

(His origin is remarkably similar to that of Cyborg 009.) I’m basing this synopsis off that of MASKED RIDER THE FIRST, a 2005 reboot which remains the only Kamen Rider movie to get an official release in the U.S. Hongo rejects his criminal programming and, riding a powerful motorcycle, resolves to fight back against Shocker. He started out as a racer named Takeshi Hongo, who is kidnapped and transformed into a cyborg killer by Shocker, a secret criminal society whose cyborgs set out to wreak havoc around the world. Kamen Rider was a masked, helmeted superhero with a costume employing insect motifs. When I visited the Toei Kyoto Studio Park in 2016, I saw a gallery devoted to Kamen Rider: All of these series were produced by Toei Pictures. Kamen Rider preceded by four years the premiere of Goranger, the first sentai series and another long-running franchise, also created by Ishinomori. It was the brainchild of Shotaro Ishinomori, author of the wildly successful manga series, Cyborg 009, which had already been adapted into two animated features and one animated series for television. Kamen Rider (or Masked Rider) premiered on Japanese television on April 3, 1971.

Kamen rider movies where they fight