And to be fair the term "cyborg" for the early Kamen Riders has always felt like a misleading translation. Some of them certainly are, like X or Riderman. But the term in Japanese used that is often translated into "cyborg" really just means "modified human." All the monsters Shocker made were tehcnically """"cyborgs"""" even though most were clearly just genetically modified hybrids or something...and the changes made to Takeshi and Hayato, for instance, were never shown (to my knowledge) to be mechanical more than biological. Amazon, for one, was clearly no cyborg but was described with the same term.

So I guess I'm really just arguing semantics. The term is modified human because modified is certainly what those humans were, and indeed, we haven't really seen many of those recently to my knowledge. (I mean, Takeru died, technically that may count as a sort of modification, and he's obviously not exactly human anymore. Do we count him?) There's also like Blade or Gaim, as both also stopped being human and became something else. Different methods than the ol' surgery but it's...something.

I think that would be Kamen Rider Stronger.

The original two Riders had multiple costumes but no straight up form changes.

But the one you should really look to is 90s Ultraman. Kuuga and with that any other Heisei Show was more trying to copy what those shows did with Form changes.

If I remember correctly, insects were on the short list for themes when Toei and Bandai were developing Gaim.

Yeah that and Birds where two of the ones they wanted to use. Then they went with Fruits.

What if Ryugen & Zangetsu/Shin had their own bikes instead of borrowing the Sakura Hurricane & Rose Attacker.

I can imagine an Orchid for Ryugen & a Lotus for Zangetsu. They can be their signature flowers.

Did Zangetsu ever even ride any bike? I don't remember him doing so...

Outside of Battride War 2, no, but then again everyone could get access to the standard 2 bikes, since they were made by Yggdrasil. Zangetsu just didn't need one because he had a direct portal to Helheim, and he's rich enough to have people drive him to where he needs to be in the city.

But you know what I'm getting at.

So, I've been wondering about where to start with Kamen Rider. I know that there have been two short-lived attempts at bringing it into English (the Saban series and the more recent Dragon Knight), but I'm not sure if either are any good. Still, I'm just as happy watching the originals anyway, so I'd love to hear some opinions.