You know what I miss? Starting to see trailers for the next series at the end of new episodes of the current show. I don't remember when that ended, but it was always a lot of fun.

In related matters, it was bold of Toei to put all of Gotchard's motorcycle scenes into that teaser.

Fits the description. It looks like he wears a deck of cards on his belt, while Gotchard wears it on his wrist. This makes me wonder where, say, the seventh rider would keep his cards. As for this dirty pink guy, I have a strong Mashin Chaser vibe from him.

Given that he is positioned as a school rider, he will especially have nowhere to ride. Fourze was at least launched into space on a motorcycle, and Gotchard only will go from the front door to the back entrance and, maybe, in some CGI dimension.

This guy definitely fits the description of the "Rival" Rider for the year. He looks like an absolute mess and I love everything about his design.

Speaking of designs, the monster looks like a trainwreck too. I wonder if that will be a theme considering how simple, clean, and shiny Gotchard is in contrast to the monster and rival so far.

Also, I don't know if it is only in his transformation device for an attack, but he has Madwheel in the slot, which does fit his color scheme for his suit....

EDIT: Also, I just noticed he has tires on his shoulders and engine parts around his chest and neck area. Looks like MadWheel is his Primary Card.

ANOTHER EDIT: I completely missed that not only does he have a Wrench Transformation Device and Wrench decaled cardholder, but his entire left side of his helmet is literally a wrench.

New character's name is ヴァルバラド or Valbarado (not the official romanization but the Val part I believe is highly likely given how the katakana for it is ヴァル). The "bara" part must be from the Japanese word barasu (ばらす) which means to take apart, and that one eye definitely looks like it could rip stuff to shreds. Has a literal grinder/shredder for an eye.

Seems to be the case. They only mention him by name and not as a kamen rider for now.

Could it be that this Valbarado guy gets the Blood Stalk/Night Rogue treatment where he/she started off as a debatable rider-like warrior but then receives an all-new driver to finally become an actual rider (like Kamen Rider Rogue and Kamen Rider Evolto respectively)?

So looks like the rumor of Gotchard's secondary being a pseudo-rider rival was 100% correct. Also the rumors of the wrench sword gun was correct too, while the colors on the sketch are incorrect everything else about the design is more or less spot on.

Actually, while it could double as a grinder/shredder, it is the Worm Screw portion of a wrench. The left side of his helmet is literally a wrench.

Oh, that's new. I can see what you mean now having googled worm screw plus the whole wrench thingy. Nice.

truthfully, i haven't followed anything abt Gotchard. though i saw on the wiki, he is a high-schooler. so maybe this series will be like Fourze?

Perhaps I would have preferred the situation with Mashin Chaser and Kamen Rider Chase, where the main theme of the character is retained after becoming a rider.

So far it looks very similar. The school is on the poster and Hasegawa wrote Gridman, where the characters are also high school students.

Also, doesn't this secondary pseudo-rider simply dismiss rumors of Decade's involvement with just his looks? I mean, is it possible that both the secondary and tertiary riders will both be pink?

All the rumours have added up so far and Valbarad isn't really a rider so far, if he becomes one he could easily lose those colours or they get less emphasis like Chaser did

I see. That would sound cool too I guess.

My opinion on the 101st Gotchard card, which does not fit into the "10x10" scheme of the show. It is clearly intended for the final form (which it will create on its own or in combination). My options for what can be depicted on it:
1) Philosopher's stone - the main goal of all alchemical research, fits thematically and bestows immortality, which will clearly help create a strong final form.
2) Life, the Universe, or something equally global that can unite the previous 100 cards.
3) Kamen Rider. I hardly believe in such an option, except perhaps as a form for a summer film. But for the trend "the final form is similar to the base" is suitable.

Hasegawa also wrote nearly 16% of Fourze, penning 8 scripts for the show, so he definitely has the potential to channel that Fourze energy for Gotchard

Alright guys here's some Gotchard toy leaks translated from 5ch (leaks come from someone called color), see images for details & again grain of salt.

"Gold color Decade". Apparently, Tsukasa turned into Agito too often. All in all, it definitely won't be Decade by the description. Even if it's Inoue and it's Tsukasa, the differences are enough to make it a different rider.

Yellow could be extinct animals in general, like how Kaiserbee matches with something called "Charis", so that could mean anomalocaris. I totally agree about pink though, as "Oni" would easily fit in that category. Although Hibiki would argue it's a job.

Speaking of Hibiki....

Considering how Hibiki was a commercial failure, they might just skip to Reiwa Kabuto instead. Like how Zero One the Reiwa Kuuga was followed by Saber the Reiwa Ryuki.

Which means this pattern doesn't actually make sense anyway, cause there's nothing to compare to Geats.

All I can see is Don Momotarou.

Part of Kamen Rider Club's activity does give them the opportunity to leave campus sometimes, especially after Ohsugi gives his approval. Maybe Gotchard will also be some kind of school function.

Nice observation!

Not quite 100% yet. The rumor of a pseudo turned out true, sure, but there's no evidence to suggest he'll eventually upgrade to Secondary.

I'd hope they handle the upgrade from psuedo to Rider differently, as I disliked the aesthetic of Kamen Rider Chaser losing the uniqueness he had as Machine Chaser. The white of Mach and the silver of Chaser made the group dynamic look too much neutral to me.

Your first 2 options sound plausible. I'd also suggest the concept of "void" or "quintessence", a mysterious power that exists beyond our material realm.

Sounds like my prediction about the attachment allowing 10+ sum cards might turn out true!

Congrats on your 1400th post!

I'm not a beleiver in the "reiwa is intentionally pairing hesei" theory so much but just for fun, people who do beleive it argue that these are the "matches"

Zero-One is Kuuga | Reason: They're both first? "Traditional" base form? (Never been too clear on this one lol)

Saber is Agito | Reason: Main Rider is a dragon, "trio" of lead characters

Revice is Ryuki | Reason: Contract with a monster, themes about family I guess

Geats is Faiz | He has a gun???? (This one is paper thin)

Gotchard is Blade | Reason: He's blue, he has cards, he catches monsters


When you lay it out like that I feel like it's obvious how not convincing this is lol

Sorry, how is Saber anything like Ryuki? And then saying there's nothing to compare Geats to? Ryuki and Geats are both about a huge group of Riders fighting to be the last one standing and get their wish granted, with the world resetting after each round.

Geats is Faiz because the show is revolutionary for the franchise, the riders betray each other for noble and not so noble reasons, and, in general, the viewer is offered a lot to forgive the heroes. Well, they also stole the belt in Geats.
In general, this also works for the first phase of Heisei and Showa.
Kuuga and Agito are Ichigo and Nigo - the first and similar.
Ruyuki is V3 - because he tried something new.
Faiz is Riderman - because he is unhappy and was part of the villains.
Blade is X - because always with a weapon.
Hibiki is Amazon - because he tried something radically new.
Kabuto is Stronger - everything is obvious here.
Den-O is Skyrider - because he breathed new life into the franchise.
Kiva is Super-1 - because he lost all the boost from the previous season and Toei try not to remember it..
Decade is ZX - because it's the shortest, the crossover, it's a strange color and it gets much better with repeated appearances.

I think if Toei needs commercial success, then they should immediately go to Reiwa Den-O. And will stop there.

Thanks!

If we're going to play this "the Reiwa shows are Heisei remakes" game - and we shouldn't, because it is even stupider than trying to make the Neo Heisei numbers pattern work past Fourze - then I'd say it works better so say that Zero-One is Faiz, Saber is Hibiki, Revice is Den-O, and Geats is Ryuki.

The series has been around for so long, of course they'll repeat ideas. Calling them intentional remakes is a huge stretch, especially considering how flimsy some of those comparisons are.

even then I haven't seen all of Kuuga/Zero One but they are NOT ALIKE, Revice aside from the Demon buddy is NOT like Den-O, and Saber feels more like the second half of Gaim where a bunch of Riders team up to fight a common enemy

Wasn't this pretty much what Revice was trying to do? I got the impression Vice was their attempt to create a new-generation Momotaros.

I got irrationally excited to see someone else use the oft loathed term "Neo Heisei" besides myself. My ally in chaos.

On topic, I hadn't even heard of the "Reiwa shows are remakes of Heisei show concepts" thing until today but it is somehow even worse than number theory ever could have been. Kamen Rider fans and their wacky compulsion to do... whatever this is.

I've been watching these shows since '09, that's just what we called it back then. I never fully switched over to Phase 1/2.

There are dozens of us that still use Neo Heisei. Dozens! :lol

Yes, but it didn't work out. Partly because they didn't realize that what makes Momotaros interesting is interacting with other Imagins.
By the way, this also works:
Zero-One is Den-O because the main character is a funny bungler who is possessed by something;
Saber is Den-O due to amnesia, a promise made, and something is infused into the main character again. And there's also an angry green rider with a kaijin friend whose help he doesn't appreciate.
Revice is Den-O because demons are like imajins;
Geats is Den-O because time travelers, a lot of beings wear the same costume and have over-the-top drama at the end. And also there's an angry bull rider with a kaijin friend he doesn't appreciate.
Gotchard is Den-O because he has a train theme.

This applies to Gaim as well. Especially given the appearance of Jamato and their love of fruit.

Well, I would say that the palm on the Wizard's belt can be considered as following a number pattern. It's already problematic to find a six in Gaim.

Keep in mind the rumor wasn't that the rival character would become the secondary rider, it was that he is not a Kamen Rider and despite not being one he is still treated like the secondary and fulfills the same role (still yet to be seen if that's really the case but that's what the rumor was).

There's also the matter of the "Decade/Legend" Rider that keeps coming up in the rumors always being referred to as Gotchard's third Rider despite being the only other character besides Gotchard to have the Kamen Rider name (at least for now, who know what Q2 onwards holds).

Personally, I prefer the alphabetical theory according to which:
Zero-One is AI;
Saber is Books;
Revice is a Contract;
Geats is Desire;
Gotchard is Elements.
In general, this is cool, especially for a period when we don?t know anything about the future rider except for the name. The main thing is not to take it too seriously.

Counting the 5 fingers on the hand of the WizarDriver is changing how the number theory works entirely just for the sake of keeping it going. The theory had to do with the amount gimmicks items associated that years belt, so for the theory to be consistent it would have to go:

2 memories, 3 medals, 4 switches, ...2 rings, 1 lock, 1 car, 1 eye, 1-2 cartridges, 2 bottles, and 1-2 watches.

Saying things like 5 fingers, an open lock looks like a 6, or a rotated shift car looks like a 7 was fans changing the rules of how that theory worked.

I would even go so far as to suggest that he won't be a rider (although I still think he will be). Chaser and Rogue are considered from the moment they became full-fledged riders, yielding to later characters that appeared. If we consider that this principle is mandatory (and it is not mandatory), this means that either the pink pseudo-rider will not become a rider, or the tertiary will appear only after his transformation.

I did not know that. But given that the theory was that Toei followed it, one can imagine that at some point the approach was changed due to impracticality. That is, long jingles are one thing, and a belt into which you need to put a dozen gimmicks is quite another.

Tbh the "Neo Deca Driver" adding cards for W to Zi-O kinda just cemented Neo Heisei for me lol

It was the default phrase when I started rider, so I never really switched off of it, and then the Neo Deca Driver has been my excuse to keep using it

Like if the key defining feature of the "Neo" Decadriver is that it adds the symbols for W-Zi-O to the belt then certainly thay makes them the "Neo" Riders of the heisei era... "Neo Heiseo Riders" if you will

[This is ofc just a rationalization not anything official lol]

I'll write "heisei phase 2" online if I want to be taken seriously though lmao