Hey, we've never actually seen Build, Mr "Hagane no Moonsault", actually perform a moonsault, huh. I don't any of his finishers have even had him jumping backwards!

Maybe this should go in the Kamen Rider Questions thread, but I don't go to that one, so I'm posting this here.

I've got an insane decision to make, and I need a little help from you all.

I co-own a comics shop in Chicago, and we've got some very fun window art by Chris Giarrusso. It's been up for a while, and, due to the physical constraints of reality (believe me, I know), it's time for it to be replaced. Here's the current version, to give you an idea:

https://challengerscomics.com/images...engers-162.jpg

(that's one-third of it)

We're going to be working with a group of artists that are, hands-down, my favorite artists working in comics today. We'll be giving them a small list of characters that we'd like to have portrayed, and then they'll do a ton of their own picks. One of my picks is going to be a Kamen Rider.

But which Kamen Rider?

My current options are:

a) Kamen Rider Ex-Aid (base suit). My first Rider, the one that started this journey for me.
b) Kamen Rider Wizard Flame Style. My absolute favorite suit, and it matches the store's colorscheme.
c) Kamen Rider W CycloneJoker. There're two of us that own the store, and I love that series.

Obviously, this is something that I'm going to have to figure out on my own (with this being so subjective), but I'm curious what you'd pick if you had the chance for your favorite artist(s) to draw one Kamen Rider for you.

Thanks in advance for your help!

If I had to pick one, I’d go with Specter, since I just love the way that suit looks.

I genuinely would go with Ex-Aid since it just means a lot more to you — Wizard would stand out, sure; but would you be happy with that long term when he’s hardly your fav? Idea behind W is cute though... buuut if it’s from a side view like this you’d mostly just see Joker’s black, wouldn’t you?

That's so fucking cool...and an unbelievably difficult decision, huh.

I vote for Ex-Aid. He really stands out as a Kamen Rider, and the whole comic book aesthetic suits him much better than it does most Kamen Riders. What if you had them draw Levels XXL and XXR, if you wanted to represent you and your bud?

It's about your store so your choice matters most. And all of your choices are great for the personal reasons you mentioned.

So... let me discard all of them :lol

If it’s about choosing only a single one I wouldn't use the one I like the most but the most iconic, and that’s undeniably Rider 1 / Ichigo. It's also a design that looks quirky and oldschool and mixes well with classic comic book heroes whereas others might not fit.

I might like a lot of other Riders better but as an icon to represent a franchise I love there’s no better fit. It’s classy and always relevant as the vey original.

The Ghost suits are terrific! It's a good choice!

Yeah, I'm feeling like Ex-Aid is where I want to end up. Like, I'll always love Ex-Aid as a series for getting me into this franchise, even if that suit isn't my all-time favorite. A good thing to commemorate, especially if it's going to be up for 5-10 years. (These windows are expensive to get done!)

I'm not sure I'd want to do the Mighty Brothers, because I'd feel guilty pitching them as one pick. I mean, it's two figures. And with a limited number of non-vetoable personal choices, I'm not sure I'd want to squander two of them on Kamen Rider alone. Finally, we're trying to keep the windows to predominantly (if not exclusively) comic book characters, and one non-comic character is all I feel comfortable with. (The rest of my shortlist is Quasar, Jennika, Yotsuba, Viv Vision.)

Well, I don't truck with Showa, so I'd probably end up going with Kuuga by those criteria. Which would look pretty cool!

Ichigo really doesn't make a lot of sense, especially for a comic book store in the US. A lot of people haven't even seen it, let alone Showa. While I respect the past, I wouldn't exactly call Ichigo an icon in the west.

Neo-Heisei is the perfect era to represent here, IMO. You also have every right to be selfish here, so you might as well.

I mean, you’re having a Rider in your window because you want one rather than representing anything you sell, right? So it wouldn’t matter in the first place what you’re representing and what’s most iconic when the goal of the Rider being there isn’t really for customers.

Also if you pick Ex-Aid, it's gotta be either Level 1, or Hyper Muteki. No in-between.

Maybe that's just me but I was assuming something similar to the thing he has now would happen and to me it would be weird to use the like 27th Rider alongside OG Superman or Batman ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Wrong assumption on my part I guess. If it's just random characters with the theme being what the owners want on there then Ex-Aid is as good as a fit as anyone else.

Ex-Aid Lvl. 1 is the right answer, that's going to happen now.

Well, my single favorite thing about Ghost's design is his big Mark Bagley Spider-Man eyes, so, uh... kinda an easy pick for me!

For you, though, yeah, Ex-Aid is probably the simple and easy choice. It's a striking design just like Double (and from every angle, to boot), and I have to imagine, on a personal level, you'd be way happier to have your boy Emu greeting you when you walk in the door every day than Haruto.

I mean, my instinct was to tell you Double since I think that's one of the best Rider designs ever, and you literally live in the Windy City, but for something you're planning on committing to for at least half a decade, sentimental value seems like the right thing to prioritize.

Yeah, I'm not sure we're getting a ton of Kamen Rider foot-traffic off of this. If they do come in, though, I got an Ichiban Den-O and an Ichiban Geiz to sell 'em.

Ha ha! Of the two, it'd definitely be Level 1, which the art team would kill at. Still, it's looking to be Action Gamer Lvl 2.

I mean, you're not wrong in your assumption. Our guidelines are to incorporate recognizable characters (Batman, Superman, that blasted wallcrawler), but we also sprinkle in some of our favorites, deep-cuts, whatever the artist likes drawing... it's like 50-60 characters, so there's plenty of room for levels of popularity.

The thing is, they're all great choices, and I'm probably going to be slightly bummed at whatever didn't make the cut. Double is so good, and that suit is so fantastic, and YES the Windy City, and and and. No wrong answers.

Thank you guys so much for the feedback! It's going to be months before this is all done (we literally got a quote from the artists earlier today, which set off this quandary), but I'll be sure to show it off when there's something to show off!

YO I'm from Chicago too! I've heard of your store but haven't made the trip yet. I hope yall have been doing good with all this mess going on right now. I definitely need to go check it out , and hey maybe I'll spy Kamen Rider Die out in the wild ??

Dan Mora, who has done a ton of work for Boom's PR series, would absolutely kill it if he ever drew Riders

If you come in between Sunday and Wednesday of a week, you probably will!

He for sure would. He did some fan art of various Western superheroes as toku-style heroes, and it looked awesome.

Just gonna throw my hat into the ring just for fun. If Ichigo wouldn't exactly fit, what about Kuuga or Zero-One?

Sure! It's not so much "not fit" as, like personal preference? (I mean, none of them fit, there aren't any Kamen Rider comics in the US.) Any Kamen Rider could be a good choice, but I'm not super into Kuuga nad I haven't watched Zero-One yet. But either of them would look great!

a) I love that window. Always loved those Mini Marvels or whatever they were called.

b) Of the three I'll always vote W, although I do see your point about Wizard.

c) I know you don't care about it, but it you want to maximize the recognition factor, you should probably go with Black. You won't, but I feel compelled to "Um, actually..." here.

d) In terms of great designs and shows, it's a pity you're still months off from Zero-One.

I think Ex-aid but that's because I too am a big ex-aid fan. I feel the design is eye catching and interesting and would get people to come in and go "hey who's that pink 90s looking dude on your mural?" and then you can sell em on Kamen Rider.

a) Yep, Mini-Marvels! We're big fans, too, which is why we reached out to him. Super nice guy, incidentally. One of his gags from that strip, which we specifically requested to have on the windows, was that Daredevil is always facing the wrong way in a group shot. It always, always makes me laugh.

b) No wrong choices!

c) Except this one! But I get your point about it.

d) Months? At the rate I'm going, I'm not sure I'll get to it in 2021. Hibiki to Thanksgiving, Kabuto until March, Den-O until probably June (so many movies!), Kiva until August, Decade is a special project that'll probably last until November, then I'm watching the Heisei Legend Rider movies, Zi-O... Zero-One is, like, mid-2022. If I keep up this pace.

I hope! That's pretty much the dream.

If your main concern is appealing to the average westerner, then Black RX or Ryuki are your best bet, as there's a small chance they'll recognize them as Masked Rider and Dragon Knight. Outside of that though, just do whatcha feel. Though if you're taking votes, I feel as though mine should be obvious(either Kuuga, or OOO).

Yeah, it's not so much Broad Appeal (that's what the American superheroes are there for), as it is a mix of trying to figure out if I should go with First Rider or Favorite Suit or Something Else; and just generally wondering what other fans would pick in my situation, which one suit would they want a favorite artist to draw.

OOO and Kuuga are good picks!

If I could tie you to a chair and make you watch one episode of Showa Rider, it would be the first episode of Black. I really do think it's the best opening episode in the franchise.

I know a way to be done with Hibiki both more enjoyably and about 19 days earlier. Just saying.

Talk to me about this in 2023.

If you think that’s annoying, most of those movies have things that require you to be some way into Decade. (And there’s on where Kiva appears, but there’s so many contradictions with Kiva the actual show you don’t have to have seen it before watching that movie).

Those Den-O movies thankfully don’t really have anything to do with Kiva or Decade beyond glorified cameos so you could watch em just fine. If you’re doing things in order though I’d probably recommend saving them (and especially save episode yellow). But yknow what, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Advice: Do a main Rider. A secondary Rider or someone else might be more obscure. Also, main form as well so that people searching up the Rider would have an easier time researching it on the web.

Kamen Riders are not as 'mainstream' as superheroes in the U.S., and it's a bit easy to get carried away.

I'd love to see one of my favorite artist's draw Build, Zero-One, Ichigo or Kuuga. Of the choices for your shop, I think Ex-Aid would be best. He's definitely the most attention getting, and it sounds like he means the most to you too.

Good advice! That said, we are not above slotting in some obscure-ass characters just because we like them. The winged dude in the middle-top of the third panel? That's Aztek, the Ultimate Man, who appeared in a ten-issue DC series in the late 90s. That was a requested character. He's not exactly Batman!

I was really thinking about Build, too! It's such a sweet design. I feel like I'd have an easier time leaving it up to the artists, and just giving them a short list of which Heisei Primary Riders I wouldn't want. (Fourze, Gaim, Blade, Kabuto through Decade)

Actually, idea. Put in either Decade or Zi-O. Then you'd technically have every Heisei Rider at once!

Or, to pay homage to my favorite era of Kamen Rider, I could add in the final Heisei Rider, Kamen Rider Brain!

Sounds like a pretty big brained tactic to me!

Grand Zi-O to be specific. :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUHq...nel=ShinTeehee

Everyone keeps bringing up how Ark-One has a Zaia Spec in his design but I can’t find it.

It's on the the Ark-One Progrise Key

https://p-bandai.com/img/sg/p/m/N2540545001001_002.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ee-5WKlW...pg&name=medium

Aah, gotcha. Hmmm.

Ever wanted to listen to all the Heisei Kamen Rider themes on youtube; but the videos you find have each OP at wildly varying qualities, some with awkward and inconsistent subs in different languages, the sound quality's off; for some reason Ex-Aid and Agito's OPs are taken from the middle of the season; and it'll just get copyright struck in like 4 months anyway?

Well, good news; because right out of nowhere Toei Tokusatsu World has shown some stunningly in-touch behaviour by uploading on their youtube a collation of the first OP of all 20 Heisei Riders -- in HD, and without credits to boot! That last part is a first for most of these, really letting us see these stunning visuals in full. The only sad part is that Blade and Hibiki's second intros are of course not included... and for some reason Decade's narration at the start of his is missing. But all that aside, here's your playlist for the evening!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_leAH4bVLk

Wow seeing this makes me realise how much eyecandy there is in the opening. In terms aesthetics Decade & Zi-O just oozes with great screenshots that can be used for a wallpaper

I watched the whole thing. I love rewatching the openings to recap on the time I spend watching the shows.

After watching this I realized - holy hell I watched 17 out of 20. That's... a lot actually.

That video seriously put me through an unexpected rocker of a nostalgia trip. I think I was getting emotional by the time Over-Quartzer reached it's end...