Really digging this suit and the power up forms too.

This series looks really fun, and can't wait to hear more solid info on cast and story.

I think so too. The seemingly slimmer arms, the slimmer figure, the lack of broad shoulders, the "hour glass waist" remarks about the belt. The torso itself being more compact. Lack of any kind of suit actor remarks whatsoever. The armor itself not being gendered in design unlike Decade's and Kabuto's or Kiva's and others.

Everything seems to point to a possible Woman Rider and they were trying to keep it hush hush until the formal announcement.

And tbh. About time. Perfect way to end the era and prep for the next. The toys are going to sell no matter what anyway if the suit is cool. This feels like a Decade/W situation too, where we might get two celebratory ones. Really likely 3 if you think about. End of one era, beginning of the next era, then 50th anniversary. So I think we're in for a wide amount of surprises coming up. Especially if this one does well, and it likely will.

And people saying "not the right time for this", you're half right. The right time was back in the 70s with Tackle from Stronger getting a spinoff but due to reasons couldn't(speaking of! Her 60th birthday is this year isn't it?). But now is good too.

This could be really interesting on the toy market too, as the rider form is predominately non-gendered like Ixa and others were. And it's not like they make figures of the out of suit identities for mainlines all that often to at all outside of collector areas.

And Yup. Kyoko Okada's 60th birthday is this October too. The original Tackle from Stronger.
October 21, 1958. So this would be absolutely perfect timing. Doesn't get much better than lining up to a significant date pertaining to what was supposed to be the first Fem Rider ever.

It's Kamen Rider OrbGeed!

I'm going to take a random guess entirely here.

Zi-O is the lead rider. Secondary is the tutor for Zi-O but is only 8-9 years older.

Not brother and sister, but sometimes do act like it. The older one tends to be more background though wanting Zi-O to take center stage but may have a tendency to act all know it all, but Zi-O is as smart, and catches onto things the other misses in details, might even be smarter and is definitely heavily sarcastic and for lack of a better word, a little sassy(in a fun way!). And it's likely because of the secondary that Zi-O gets their change device and is immersed in rider history/lore. But it's something they both enjoy.

May have a growing romance angle, but may not start that way. They are moderately similar with a few minor differences due to age/experience and how that alters their perceptions. Both have attitude and are a bit "deadpool" like, but from different angles.

That's my random theory.
Partially based on the Stronger/Tackle dynamic if we're going by her 60th birthday.

Or new theory.
One belt/henshin device but two different people use it at different times. The poses seem too different to be the same. And the suit actors seem different too. Which if it's only one rider with "AM" and "PM" forms, maybe AM is one wearer, and PM is a different wearer and they trade who wears it for some reason. If it was the same person, you'd think the hand gestures wouldn't be so wildly different to convey such different attitudes. And it would be an interesting inversion of the W motif of two in one. Fits the time theme too. One would be a morning person, and the other would be a night owl/up late kind of person. This would fit sibling(adopted maybe?) theory too, or potentially live together for some reason. Or maybe even something kind of like "Last Hope" with the 'found family' aspect of raising each other.

Yeah, Zi-O defintiely looks like a woman. The chest plate is EXTREMELY pronounced, even compared to this “secondary” guy.

Very cool! I wonder if they were inspired to do this by the new Doctor Who. I’ve always said Rider is Japan’s Who, and it’s interesting that 2018 will see both the first main lady Rider (most likely) and the first woman Doctor!

So one's a classic dial clock while the secondary is a digital clock? Will we get a third? Maybe a "sundial"?

If I am not mistaken, Zi-O first airing will be in September 2018

I know this is a BIIIG necro....

...I think this might add fuel to the "Zi-O is female" fire. I've been wondering if this whole "king" thing still holds water, though...

Do we know when there will be a official announcement ? I'm really digging this new rider's look and would be really disappointed if it turned out not to be a lady rider at this point .

In the next 2 weeks, I should say though don't get too hyped for a female main Rider, it's nothing but speculation at this point.

I'm wondering when we'll get more scans because we still haven't seen the toys

First Quarter Toy Catalogues are always mid-July - so we're not late, yet.

I'm aware, but having these pics and the LvP toy scans but not the Zi-O toy scans makes me impatient, and I am VERY excitable to the point Ridley being in Smash made me cause noise complaints and nearly faint due to forgetting to breath, so it's eating away at me when there's still more to learn

Looks like there's a chunky Driver. I'd hoped that the chunky wrist-mounted device would replace it, but that was obviously silly of me. Very curious as to what the visor on the maybe-secondary Rider says. (Kinda wondering whether we'll get two primary Riders this time. Probably not given the Televi-Kun advert, but I'm curious as to whether Zi-Oh is the name of the Rider or the show.)

A couple of interesting things to note:

In the image with the Legend Forms, the left side shows Zi-O with images of the past riders, and you can see a tiny piece of a head with some red detailing on it. I think it may be a third rider, as it doesn't match Drive's head or what we see of the other rider's head either.

Also, I really wonder how many places you can store the gimmick, because there are the arm braces, as well as a holder on the belt (you can see it on the Ex-Aid form).

Also kind of interesting: Zi-O's watch face stays at 10:10 no matter which form.

On a personal note, I absolutely love the gimmick's coming out of the shoulders motif. Just the kind of creative design I'd expect. Now to wait for the scans...

That helmet is Build's https://i.gyazo.com/fa25e30647a51646...9e9b43e891.png
At first I thought it was Kuuga but it's missing the gold edges.

Ah, you're right. I forgot about that red piece extending to the back of the helmet. Good catch!

EDIT: Actually, something else I am completely wrong about. Upon further inspection, the gimmick piece on the side (actually it's the front) of the Ex-Aid form is actually a piece that goes into the empty slot on the belt. If you look closely, you can see it on the Ghost form too (just barely).

If I had to guess, I'd imagine that Zi-O transformers using whatever default features are on the belt, other Rider using some sort of alternate button (there's a little blue screen thing that flips down for him), and then they insert the gimmick into that empty slot.

You can really see the wristwatch elements with these scans you can now see the knobs on the shoulders. And I am guess the red rider is meant to be a digital watch. Also because of this that may explain why the chest armor is so large, it is meant to invoke the mounting around a watch face. Now why I think a female lead rider would be awesome, the chest armor doesn't convince me.

Personally I would find it funny if Zi-O was female, since ZO could have with a simple rewrite been a great female rider story. I mean it makes so much more sense if Reiko was the hero meant to save Hiroshi.

Hmm, I like what I see! My only complaint is that I find the helmet too similar feeling to Build. Otherwise, it is weird in just the way I like it!

Although I was in the "I don't think it's likely" camp, the suit has hallmarks of toku suit designs for female characters. Kamen Rider Decade embraced magenta, but Zi-O's pink accents are very reminiscent of female Sentai and Rider designs that integrate a traditionally-feminine color even if it doesn't make a ton of sense. (Like Kamen Rider Nadeshiko or the way female white Sentai have tended to be kinda pink a la ZyuohTiger, ShiroNinja, and White Swan.) The remainder of the color scheme feels less feminized than I'd expect for a female Rider suit; it reminds me a lot of Wizard.

What it doesn't have is the near-mandatory skirt (I'm assuming this is generally an anti-cameltoe measure), and I'm not used to female toku suits with the relatively large busts suggested by the base and Ex-Aid forms. As always, of course, this could just be a misapprehension based on the images we've seen; it could still be an exaggerated pec line.

I'm moving from a "not likely" to "I'll be surprised if it's not," which is really exciting.

It looks like both Riders have two of those wrist-mounted devices on each arm (presumably intended to look like wearing multiple watches), and those are clearly collectible widgets inserted into them. If each has two slots, it makes me wonder whether and how multiple Rider widgets can work together.

Decade simply turned into different Riders (and got a Final Form Ride thing that never made sense to me until I saw the retail toy line), but it looks like this show is going the route of creating original suits for Legend Rider forms, which is pretty neat, and consistent with things like Drive Type Orange. I'm into it.

The maybe-secondary Rider's theme isn't as clear to me as Zi-O's. I presume it would still be watch-related - I know someone above said "digital watch," but I don't quite see it, yet - but I'm drawing a blank.

I think the Belt may be closer in function to Drive's, which is to say it may not be what uses the collectibles. It looks pretty clear to me that the collectibles are the two wrist-mounted objects on each arm; I think the one closest to her left hand might be the "Zi-O" widget. That'd also be consistent with that early toy listing we saw, with the collectible looking like a circle. These are more detailed than that, but so is the Zi-O suit. The slot you're talking about is more likely to be like the kimewaza slot on the Gamer Driver.

I still don't see "female rider" in that design, feels more like people that REALLY want that to be the case are grasping at anything as potential evidence.

If ZI-O is a chick, that's cool, if not? That's fine too. I don't honestly care either way, if it happens and feels natural that's great, but don't just make it a female rider so we can check "female lead rider" off the list, that's just forced.

It also says Rider but in hiragana.

Agreed. It's as though wearing a costume and fighting bad guys is the only way a character can be worth anything.

It's a very effeminate pink on his/her wrists. I think it's a female lead. With Toku being less of a priority for Bandai (and it isn't, let's be real) they can take more risks. Especially if it's only for 24 episodes.

Exactly, Rider has had a ton of great female characters and representation, is the fact that they haven't been the big lead hero such a negative?

Like I said, not opposed to the idea, but don't do it just to do it.

Apparently the other guy is called Jikuu
EDIT: Probably written as Zi-Q

There are also rumors that:
- Zi-O uses a kunai/sword
- Jikuu uses a axe/bow
- the finisher involves words/sentences popping up
- there are 25 forms.

wait. ZI-Q ?
Zi-O is Time King
Zi-Q ? Q as Queen ? so Time Queen ? xD

Someone was mentioning that the secondary Rider's name is rumored to be Jikuu (space-time, iirc), and joked that it could be romanized as "Zi-Q".

The secondary being named Q sounds about right. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some reference of having a PhD too, or should have one in rider history.

*blinks.* *Looks at checklist of themes for the past 17 years.*

Forced if it's a checklist huh? Uh, right. Whatever you say. By that definition, all rider series since Faiz/Blade are "forced". As is nearly all sentai since Zyu.

Oh boy are you really in for a surprise then. And you're already assuming bandai is going to lower the toys simply if it's a girl. Why would they? It'll still sell as well as Build or others have. You really think Bandai is going to produce less for toys because it's a woman? When it's literally the 20th series, and the kicking off of the 50th celebrations of the franchise as a whole? They're in toy production overdrive for the next 4-5 years expecting big sales and tons of hype.

And Kamen Riders have always been experimental for merchandising. Every show since Faiz has done something that's been unique for the time it was made in. The only ones not as much likely being Blade and Kabuto which were derived more from Ryuuki and B-Fighter. But even so, Kabuto still had some experimental toy fun in it with the Hyper Sword and Hoppers alongside some other zectors.

If it's not that big of a deal to be background or support, then it's not that big of a deal for males to be this time instead. They can be represented that way if that's "good enough for women" then it should be good enough for "males" too.

Less than 15 have had a hero identity(barely to not even double digits if you don't count shared belts or movie riders). Compared to the 80+ males. Much more have been monsters though, but rarely allowed to use belts to transform. While yes support characters are great, why can't one lead or have a more re-occurring belt usage? It's not a "boys club" and was always intended to be more equal since Stronger's days. It's long overdue, and this year is fitting to do it since it can commemorate the Actress for Tackle's 60th birthday.

It's long overdue, let's not pretend otherwise or act like apologist or downplay it. It is long overdue.

The skirts aren't that. The skirts are so you know it's a girl by sight alone when it comes to Sentai. Which wasn't that often parroted by Riders except for comedic effect instances(Poppy) or needing to showcase femininity like Swan/Fem and her Femme Fatale nature. There are other more subdued clothing protections to avoid that issue (Boxers for one, but also other methods to avoid suit lines too). Same as Male toku suit actors wear cups and you don't get a full outline of their genetalia through tights or leather. AV Toku doesn't use that(and rarely underwear!) because they do want the outline for the nature of their industry. The skirts do also hide when it's a male suit actor too.

There are a lot of various women toku armors that don't use skirts. It really depends on the work in question. But "anti-camel toe measure" isn't why at all. It's predominately a design choice at the conept level and has nothing to do with that at all.

This suit looks like it's going for a very gender neutral stance. Like they're trying to pull a "Pidge" to keep it as much a surprise as possible by fostering doubts, while also keeping the suit streamlined enough to market to everyone. And it's actually kind of rare for women riders to have skirts anyway. This looks like it's going for more like a Delta kind of thing.

You're exactly right. If a woman is the main Rider, I don't expect the toyline to suffer at all. If anything, marketing to girls in addition to boys will probably increase sales.

BUT, and again this is if the main rider is a girl, I do suspect that the toy line will be more anchored around this "Zi-Q" character, even if the show focuses squarely on a female Zi-O as the main protagonist. Because, while I do think that Toei likes to experiment with content, I also think that Bandai is extremely conservative and married to their formulas.

Obviously, this is all speculation, and I'm still very skeptical (though increasingly hopeful) that we'll get a girl in the lead role. But if we do, it probably wouldn't negatively impact toy sales too much.

The toys are nearly all sold armored except for the collector market. The device looks to be the same with the addons/gimmick piece dictating additional functions.

So I don't see why this will limit sales in any fashion whatsoever. Same amount of figures of both as normal. Same amount of Roleplay gear. If it's cool, it's cool. Sales numbers will be the same to higher. Doubt it'd have any negative effects whatsoever, and instead will likely cause a sales spike.

So I doubt bandai will limit it at all or act conservative. BoJ isn't as limited as BoA on views. If this were BoA then I might agree and worry. But even they used to cater to wider and this limited view is more of a recent thing.

Having the male background character overshadow a female lead rider in her own show on the toys is also instant bad press. So that'd be a really dumb thing to do.

Right, I mostly agree. Since the line is so built around roleplay items, and since there will be another male rider who uses the same items as Zi-O, that part of the line will almost assuredly sell just as well, if not better than, Build. So long as the collectible gimmicks are cool, at least.

But I do think we have decades of evidence to show that BoJ is pretty married to a specific business model for their heavily gendered toylines like Rider, Sentai, and PreCure. So when it comes to the action figures, even if a girl Zi-O gets the exact same number of toys and variants as usual (which I do agree will be the case), I think her figures will look very genderless and I think there will be a disproportionate marketing focus on this male, secondary Rider character compared to previous secondary riders. I also suspect there will be more figures and variants of him than than there usually are for supplemental heroes.

I'm pretty sure we're seeing this already. How often does a Rider show's initial marketing so prominently show a secondary Rider in its first volley of promos? It's very, very rare. You could point to Cross-Z, but IIRC, that early image of him in the toy catalog was one of those prototype drawings, and he wasn't part of the main photo-spread like Zi-Q is in these leaks. If fact, his prominence in these early leaks, more than anything else (even the weird-ass chest armor), is what's giving me the most hope that Zi-O will be a woman.

TL;DR, I think we're in almost total agreement that a lady Rider won't negatively effect sales at all.

Saying that Toku isn't a main priority for Bandai is kinda BS. Kamen Rider and Sentai are usually always on the top of toy sale charts, so they still make tons of money after all these years. And if it wasn't a priority, then why would we still be getting new seasons every year? Why would Bandai experiment with Sentai after it started to do less well and not just cancel it?

Just because the shows are cheap to produce doesn't mean they aren't a priority.

Yeah, exactly.
I mean. that last comment is actually wrong - Sentai has dipped a bit lately, and the experimentation is likely an attempt to save it...but 'dipped' =/= failing (besides, I seem to recall that Nininger and Zyuohger caused the dip, and Kyuranger rose uut of it again anyway). Kamen Rider and Super Sentai are routinely at the top of BoJ's sales records - and every Driver since at least Drive has won a Toy of the Year award in Japan. There's no way Bandai Japan 'don't care' about Toku.

funny that people think it's "long overdue", as if there were no Sailor Moon, Cutie Honey, Hello Kitty, or a ton of other shows and toys aimed just for girls. Heck Akibarangers was a mostly Female cast. Every Sentai show I've seen has had Female Heros.

Girls are not some long suffering completely ignored demographic.

Kamen Rider has historically been aimed at boys as a target market. Just like GI Joe or He-Man or Transformers or whatever else was aimed at a boy market.

And that's ok, there's nothing wrong with that. Not everything needs to be feminized 'just because.'

I don't understand this victim attitude I see lately that says everything needs to cater to Women.

But whatever, if the new Rider is a Woman so be it. But I think judging by the long history of Male Riders and the fact that young boys generally do not want to play with girl toys, it would be an interesting move from a business standpoint.

But who knows; not like I've never been wrong before.

I do find the attitude that this is something that needs to happen to be perplexing though. Like some great injustice has happened because Kamen Riders have almost always been Male.

Is there some law saying that a Kamen Rider lead character HAS to be male? You seem to be suggesting in everything you post in this thread that because of those shows you mentioned that women are not allowed to have a Kamen Rider female lead. Why? Why cant a main rider be a woman? Because it threatens your fragile masculinity?

You clearly have a problem with women, and every post you make here just proves it more.

I hope ZI-O is female. It would be something new and refreshing after decades of male main riders. Its not about "feminizing" rider or whatever you think it is. Its about doing something new and different.

Plus you know what? Yes, we ARE long overdue for a female main rider.

I should clarify though that in the more than likely chance that ZI-O does have a male lead, I wont be upset in anway. Would I like to see a female lead? You betcha. But Ill still watch and likely love the series regardless.

Hey does anyone know if Zi-O is supposed to appear in Build's summer movie?

For those that are interested in the sales numbers since Go-Busters.

I’m primarily interested in a girl main Rider just because it’d be something new and fresh. After 50 years of dude Riders, a girl lead would shake up the formula in an interesting way. I feel the same way about having a dude PreCure. It’d just be cool, IMO.

I also kind of think the whole idea of “we have to separate kids stuff across strict gender lines” is sorta psychologically harmful? I’m still getting over the psychological wounds and gender-based shame of being a boy who liked to play with Barbies and My Little Pony — because this stuff happens at such a young age, it’s extremely formative shit that, for real, has taken a toll on my self-esteem long term. Kids should be allowed to be into what they’re into and not feel shame that they’re a boy playing with girl toys or a girl playing with boy toys, and more equally gendered toy lines/kids shows would help solve that issue.

Will a girl Rider happen with Zi-O? I sort of doubt it, and I won’t be mad if it doesn’t. But I think it would be cool.

There is a long, long trend in entertainment that says everything needs to cater to men. Even in stories that theoretically center around women, we very often end up with casting and outfitting meant to appeal to a presumed straight male gaze. Some men tend to take this for granted and assume that this is the way the world should work. A lot of the same men tend to be skeptical when they learn that this is maybe less pleasant for women than it is for men... and yet are also aware on some level that if the scenario were reversed, life would be much less fun for men.

To talk about Kamen Rider being "feminized" like it's a bad thing implies that there's something wrong with femininity. I'm going to assume for purposes of this post that you didn't intend to imply that.

If you don't care if the next lead Rider is female and don't think it's a big deal, that's fine. Maybe it doesn't mean much to you. However, there are people to whom it would mean a lot. Maybe be happy for them if that's what 2019 is bringing us?

It's really easy for those of us who're male toku fans to be oblivious to how female roles in Rider and Sentai are... not generally terrific. They're not always bad - Build is doing a little bit better job with Misora and Sawa than, say, Wizard did with Rinko and Koyomi - but... well, let's took at one of the central tropes of Kamen Rider: character growth is tied to Rider powers. There's a long line of male Riders who either become Riders or gain upgrade forms directly linked to their character development. Kagami finds new resolve? Meet Kamen Rider Gatack. Banjou resolves to fight for other people? Time for Cross-Z Magma.

It's extremely rare that this happens with female characters outside of movies, and it's nearly always undercut in some way. Marika kicked butt, but she's also dressed in pink with vague heart-shapes, and her entire arc is about her devotion to a man. Poppy at least got a Rider form, but once she got control of it, she rarely got to be effective in battle, if she even entered battle at all. Nico's Rider form was, for most of the series, a problem that others tried to save her from. The women of Kiva got to be awesome in their debut episode, and thereafter were usually ineffective fighting Fangires, even though they're both Fangire hunters. And these are the best examples I know of regarding Heisei Rider.

And the fake-outs! It's like a tradition that a female regular tries to use a Driver, and then it fails because reasons. "Because reasons" is usually shorthand for "we're not allowed to have a female Rider." I've lost count of how many Heisei Rider shows have pulled this, including Kiva a couple of times. (On the same show, it's a male co-worker who can successfully use IXA.) Then there's the "transforms and is instantly defeated" trope, a la Dark Ghost P.

On the Sentai side: with some exceptions, it's rare that a female Sentai character gets to be anything other than "bubbly and cheerful" or "caring big sister." They can be the smartest member of the team, but rarely or never the strongest (I haven't yet seen all the series. Maybe one will surprise me.) Of 12 Kyurangers, only two were female, and one of those was a pink robot. That's... weird. Out of all the prior Sentai series, only one had a red hero, and that only lasted for a few episodes.

Not all boys are super-into "boy stuff." Not all girls are super into "girl stuff." A lot of people are into a mixture of stuff, because people's taste in entertainment isn't actually married to their gender. What's better than entertainment "for boys" and "for girls" is entertainment for people.

I don't know whether Zi-Oh will be a female Rider. If that turns out to be the case, I would be shocked if the following Rider series didn't have a male lead, the same way I'll be extremely surprised if the Doctor after Jodie Whittaker isn't male again. What Kamen Rider and Super Sentai have in common is that they put out a completely new series with a new cast every year. They have room to experiment and try something different. Sometime soon, we'll get to find out whether that's what this series will do.

I just hope it's not another Decade. Except for the theme song. That theme song was terrific.

(Oh, hey. New scans just came out. I still have no idea of Zi-O's gender.)