Wonder if the series will go like Fullmetal Alchemist + Pokemon altogether? If Houtarou is gonna be its "Edward Elric", he'll need an "Alphonse Elric". But Houtaro is like Ash Ketchum altogether!

Would like to see Houtarou gain a berserk form when using a form of an incomplete Philosopher's Stone.

Looks okay. Not amazing, not bad.

The only thing getting me hyped is the villain trio, they're awesome.

So, it seems that the trailer is being discussed here and the actual materials from the conference are being ignored for now, so I'll try to add them to the discussion.
1) Probably what struck me most of all was that the rumors about the rider-cook came true to some extent. Hotaro helps his mom at the restaurant and has a talent for cooking (and therefore alchemy).
2) Valvarado is not just a rival, but an elite graduate of the alchemy school, who returned to deal with Chemies. So their relationship with Gotchard is more of an "experienced veteran who gets annoyed by a rookie doing things his own way" than a direct confrontation. Although, I think they still manage to fight;
3) The actress who plays Hōtarō's mother said that she would also be a mother figure for the other characters. Considering this, and also that the father of the heroine of the show is to blame for the Chemies invasion, I think the drama (or at least melodrama) in the show will be enough.
4) Also, Hotaro's mother played in the second season of Sukeban Deka in the eighties. So the journalists asked if she would participate in the action scenes. The actress joked that she didn't mind, but her knees did. But then she said that this is not in the plans, but such shows tend to change the script.
5) Gotchard's father has disappeared, which means that some secret is definitely connected with him.
6) A trio of villains with the names of Moirai is super. Even if they come out as unsu
By trailer:
I liked it, even though it was a little banal. Either way, the secret school of alchemists is great and opens the door for a really compelling storyline. Also, since most of the heroes are alchemists, they will be involved in the action one way or another. Actually, the heroine seems to have used a spell or something similar in the trailer.
P.S. The toy hopper is not bad, but perhaps this is the case when I prefer the CGI version. But I understand that toys need to be sold.ccessful villains, like the Deadmen, they will definitely be remembered.

And if they turn into warriors like Valvarado or participate in battles non-transformed using alchemy skills, is that also bad?
In any case, I don't think Gotchard can match the Geats in terms of rider numbers, unless they're planning to turn the whole school over. To be honest, given the theme and the trend, I think there will be 10 riders in Gotchard. But there is hope that they will be distributed by films and in the show itself we will have 4 or 5 + final boss and an analogue of Tsukuyomi / Juuga.

Also, who do you think could be the golden "Decade"? I'm thinking of the heroine's father or one of the students/teachers of the Alchemy Academy. But, come to think of it, the Dark Sisters are dressed in gold. Two turned into one rider, so it's time to do it with three.

Yeah, no. The target demographic is still very clearly children, probably elementary school-aged boys, to be more specific.

What is it with people not being able to enjoy Rider for what it is, and having to pretend it's something far deeper and more serious? It's a weekly children's show meant to sell toys. Sure, we've got more adult-oriented projects every now and then, but the bread and butter of the franchise is the weekly toy commercial.

That's not to say that those toy commercials can't tell engaging and meaningful stories in the right hands, far from it, but it's not exactly high art.

The trailer for Gotchard didn't really leave me feeling all that excited, but I'll give it a shot.

Yes, but Japan is an aging nation with a predominantly female population. That is, every year the number of elementary school-aged boys is getting smaller and smaller. And in order not to lose money, the franchise has to gradually flirt with other age groups.

Probably because their favorite shows were just deeper and more serious, so they want to experience something like that again. Another thing is that if we are talking about Faiz or Gaim, then the audience was noticeably younger and they had different concepts of "deep and serious". You cannot step into the same river twice, as Heraclitus said. In general, in Geats they just ridiculed a similar position in the image of Niram, screaming about realism in a delusional plot

By the way, Atropos, who leads the Dark Sisters, is the youngest villain leader in the franchise. Itono Okita, who plays her, is only nine years old.

Oh right, the Weekenders. At least the Alchemy Academy have more fashionable uniforms, they actually look like alchemists, instead of a 90s rock band.

I'll try not to disappoint you then.

Sounds like somebody hasn't been watching Donbrothers or King-Ohger.

From what I understand, the Alchemy Academy is hidden beneath the high school, just like in Doubutsu Sentai Gobusters. So it'll probably be like the Rabbit Hatch with the heroes using a secret passage to reach it, also like the password-locked Hogwarts Dorms.

That's a cool detail, how Houtarou already has the passion for experimentation with different ingredients. Alchemy must be his true calling in life.

Always good to have more maternal role models in the franchise. I hope she'll be similar to Sophia.

Just her outfit/aesthetic/overal vibe.
I think it's probably going to be like Revice where 1st quarter is mostly the Main Rider unlocking his forms and then eventually we get the proper Secondary and they slowly introduce more Riders (I just hope they don't start unloading a bunch of them like they did in the last quarte of Revice).

So far we've got Gotchard, Valvarad will probably become an official Rider sooner than later, and the rumored tertiary who uses Legendary Rider Cards.
I guess Revice doesn't count because of Vice (whereas here the Secondary doesn't have their official Rider suit yet).
I hope they have proper Kaijin forms and don't become Riders.

Come to think of it the name Weekenders already either sounds like a 90s rock band or a 70s disco band. :lolol

I've heard speculation that Aguilera was demoted as the main villain because Toei didn't want the hero to hit a woman. This is doubtful, but a positive character will definitely not be allowed to beat a nine-year-old girl. So Atropos would rather turn into something very big and creepy. In general, I am for the unification of the trio of Dark Sisters into one creature. It doesn't matter if it's a rider or a kaijin.

Yeah, I say give it at least 12 to 16 episodes for stuff to go a different direction if that's what they have planned, specifically having a Soichi Isurugi 2.0 being one of them. Now that I could see happening.

Maybe they'll handle it like Mezool.

Wonder if Houtarou will get recruited into the Alchemy Academy later on? He’d make a fine alchemist-in-training.

You should at least give the first 2 episodes a chance before making your final judgment.


I'll give the first episode a chance before I decided to stick to the show.

I'll decide on the first episode thank you very much.

Kamen Rider?s target demographic is 8-12 year old boys, not teens, and certainly not late-teens. It may appeal to a broader audience, and it may court a secondary collector/otaku audience, but at heart it?s a kid?s show. And it?s totally okay to like kid?s shows! Especially when they?re as good as KR!

But to be fair, despite Kamen Rider mostly targeting younger males (kinda like Shonen action adventure mangas), some of the recent shows (Geats and Build for me) feel not as Child-like. For other series it has the feeling of watching a kids show but I don't feel it when watching Geats and Build. The death games concept in Geats and the politics in Build is what does it for me. So, despite Kamen Rider series targets Shonen mostly, I feel that some series can still apply adult-oriented or at least a slightly more seinen-ish/teenagerish theme it might work. And I do love Kamen Rider, but Geats and Build for me is the two series especially in recent years that when I watch it it doesn't feel like I'm watching a kids superhero show.

Kuroto is a mistranslation. It?s Clotho, as they?re named after the Moirai from Greek Mythology - Clotho, who unravels the thread of one?s life; Lachesis, who measures how long the life is; Atropos, who cuts the thread when it?s time to die.

Saber and Revice aren't light? Though Revice do have some gruesome deaths, courtesy of Orteca.

This applies to every season, the borderline political thriller Build which famously showcases the horrors of war and PTSD for those who participate in it yet almost every episode is filled with jokes while Fourze, perhaps THE go to example of lighthearted Kamen Rider, still has a guy who almost succeeds in murdering all the girls at school for not going out with him, easily one of the most realistic horrors depicted in the series. Also, Gaim started out lighthearted before getting to the dark stuff like 20 episodes in that it's fans loved

Yeah, the series tends to have both really intense and really goofy content in every show, it's just a matter of proportion. For what it's worth I consider all of the Reiwa shows so far on the more serious side, with Saber probably being the "lightest" of them, but still on the same level of intensity as say, Wizard, for example.

I'd probably say very few shows felt more lighthearted than serious in the series in general! Maybe even as few as Den-O and Fourze alone.

And in Saber, there is Kento, who has experienced the death of the world countless times. And that's not even mentioning the Deep Sin Trio.
In fact, all these are conventions and a distortion of perception. Someone is triggered by cruel parents, someone by the bombing of high-rise buildings and their perception will vary. And the story of a lost dog will tear someone to tears, and any political dregs will pass by. I'll take a chance and say that if you judge the show by the number of jokes, then Faiz should be among the most fun. And if you try to determine which show is smarter, then many overly twisted ones will crawl out huge plot holes. So arguing here is mostly useless and it's better to just enjoy what you like.

In my opinion, the entire last third of Den-O is continuous tears about the disappearance of Sakurai Yuto. Maybe not a tragedy or a drama, but the melodrama was definitely staged there.

I think what it really boils down to are stakes.


Double/OOO/Fourze and arguably Wizard had much smaller stakes for a majority of their runtimes, with most of their respective shows dedicated to smaller scale conflicts with a monster menacing a small group of people and the Rider countering that.

Gaim started similarly but then had the big reveal of massive stakes (which was a bit refreshing at the time). Drive when back to smaller stakes for a while (although the Roidmudes did want global domination, a lot of the show was about them gradually gaining power). Ghost-Build all started out pretty similarly with smaller stakes for the first quarter, and then a big change occurs which majorly changes the tone of the show.

Reiwa is really weird when it comes to stakes. Zero-One started small with regular Humagears getting hacked by a small terrorist group, then it's revealed that the Ark is gearing for Global Extinction and Zaia shows up wanting a large-scale conflict between companies, but is resolved with smaller battles.

Saber similarly starts off with smaller conflicts but kind of quickly ramps up stakes by having the Megid go for the goal in the first quarter, and then it kind of keeps that tone for a while before having massive world-ending stakes.

Revice was a bit messier in that it starts off fairly simple with regular people using stamps to fulfill whatever secret desire they have, but then quickly abandons that for presenting Gif as this major world-ending threat and a major conflict that results in the destruction of the cult's base. In other words, stakes are small and then kicked into overdrive very quickly without proper buildup

Geats I feel is the biggest offendor, as the show starts off with "This is a real life Tournament/Competition and not a World Ending Conflict" that has a major death early on and then within the first 10 episodes presents a..... World Ending Conflict. With the reveal of what the DGP really is Stakes are sent so far into overdrive that literally anything is on the table.

It's tough to see what Gotchard will be like just from the trailer. I really don't like the serious tone coming from the Alchemists and potentially the three sisters, but trailers for Reiwa usually tend to be more a trailer for the first episode rather than a summary of the show itself, so really it's hard to tell.

Frankly, I wish Gotchard would go back to smaller-scale conflicts like Double/OOO/Fourze/Drive for a good 20-30 episodes before escalating the conflict. The premise doesn't scream "World Ending Conflict" so I really hope it keeps a lighter tone (aka not having everyone be serious about a major threat and instead have smaller scale issues to deal with).

Well, I don't think everything can be explained by stakes. In Decade they are huge, but in the show they are at a minimum of seriousness. It seems to me that at first everything will be episodic: we catch another Chemi, along the way getting to know our main cast better, and at the end of the first quarter there will be a big shake-up.

By the way, nobody didn't seem to mention it yet. Our secondary, Valvarado, is not just a pseudo rider. In the show, he is called Kamen Senshi, meaning the Masked Warrior. For some reason, I think Hasegawa thought of this while working on Saber, because no one except Touma had a motorcycle. Hope it works in the franchise.

People have been getting their phase 00 booster packs and it seems like the cards are indeed cardboard. Again this does make me worry about their durability over time from constantly sliding in & out of various toys in the line (although I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the show they release a memorial set of plastic cards).

To be fair, I think the idea for the toys would be that you would use the common cards, while you, know you, saved the rarer cards if you want to collect them?

Like I don't think that the rarer cards would have a different announcement for them from the common cards. I'm pretty sure that they're all just cosmetic to begin with.

Also, what trading card game uses plastic instead of cardboard? I imagine that would raise the prices a bit.

I?m well aware of that, but imo the fact that you have to potentially sacrifice any cards (common or otherwise) is just mega lame and feels like an oversight. It?s why I?m hoping they do make a memorial set of plastic cards ala superbest Decadriver cards at some point, either that or hopefully the cardboard they used is just super sturdy.

Is it? I dunno, I grew up collecting YGO cards and bought packs regularly, so I'd get duplicate cards a lot, so I feel like I wouldn't mind potentially sacrificing any cards for the Gotchard toys, since they'd at least be used instead of just collecting dust.

Also, let's not forget that plastic is evil. And if humanity is not destroyed by war, disease and famine, then it will definitely be finished off by pollution from non-decomposable garbage.
So it's better to buy separately game and collection kits. Still, the cards are cheaper than the usual gimmicks of the franchise, so it's quite affordable.

For me the key difference is that traditional tcg cards are usually worn out due carelessness or just absolutely manhandling them since usually they go into a card binder, sleeves, or a deck box & then playing a game with them which is their intended purpose (besides trading them of course). Using those cards for their intended purpose doesn?t really ruin them(at least in my experience over the years).

With these ridechemy cards (and previous rider lines that used cards) using them with the role play toys (which is their primary purpose since there is no actual game tied to the cards, besides using using them with the DX toys the only other thing to do with the cards is store them or trade them) will naturally wear them out over time, which is exactly my issue/concern. Using the toys/cards as intended through normal play will naturally ruin them over time which imo shouldn?t be a thing. And while yes, you could have a bunch of duplicates as fodder, the fact that they will wear overtime means you?ll keep going through them until eventually run out, it may take a while but you will run out eventually. Keep in mind like any other Rider gimmick line, the ridechemy cards will most definitely be retired next year in favor of whatever next years Rider gimmick is, which means no more booster packs to replace those old worn out cards anymore, you?d have to wait until a superbest or csm release. And again it may take a REALLY LONG time before you run out of fodder for the DX toys, but the fact that?s even a possibility is where my problem lies, it?s not designed with longevity which is why I feel it?s an oversight.

That being said I feel like an easy enough solution to this would?ve been to just make the DX cards that come with the role play toys plastic & have the booster pack cards be cardboard. That way you have the cards intended for play (and most likely the ones used in the show) and the ones intended for trading/collecting.

:lol Okay.

So, place your bets...how much screentime will the bike get?

I think more than all the other bikes of the Reiwa era. Only most of the time it will be a picture on a card.
And a similar question: will we get more kaijins than riders in this show? On the one hand, 101 cards inspire hope for monsters, on the other hand, most of the cast are alchemists of various levels, who will obviously try to use those same cards.

Perhaps we'll get more "elites" who specialize in various categories.

We've seen all of it in the trailer.

At least riders still show bikes. Musketeers in many film adaptations do not even touch the weapon after which they are named.