That's basically where I'm at too, and why I specifically called out Evol -- Build definitely, definitely felt like it was doing something very intentional with the term Kamen Rider, and all the corruptions and layers that came with it. If anything, I think Build beating Evol in the end was kind of the cap on that. It was essentially his final thesis of Kamen Rider being exactly that -- something that is good, and how dare you even call yourself a Kamen Rider. There's obviously a lot more overt stuff going on in that final fight scene, but it certainly felt like something sneaked in between the lines.


Meanwhile, Wiseman, Cronus, and a thousand movie riders including everyone's Eternally favourite darling... just, kind of, are called Kamen Riders.

In retrospect, and unless I'm remembering this wrong; I really REALLY like that Banno only ever called himself 'Gold Drive'. Not Kamen Rider Gold Drive. Just Gold Drive.

Also ALSO in retrospect, I've always found it very fun that Kuuga and Fourze are the only Heisei Rider series to not have a 'Dark Rider'. Even OOO eventually got Poseidon -- but Fourze wants absolutely nothing to do with that. And I like that.

I'm fine with whatever. I tend to prefer big bads who are similar, but different(Daguva, Shadow Moon, etc). But as long as the big bad themselves are a well written character, I tend not to dwell on it too much.

And why should he when that was a show written by Riku Sanjou? The second episode of Drive was literally titled "What Is a Kamen Rider?", it treated that title with some dignity! Same goes for Double, actually, which, unless I'm imagining this, made it a point in a few spots in the movie that Phillip and Shoutarou are angry at Eternal for having the nerve to call himself a Rider, which again, as they should be, after going through all that trouble to get Accel on the same page.

Wizard is a grey area. The White Wizard was never called a Kamen Rider, but nobody in that show had fancy names. Wizard is called Wizard like a few times early on, but like everyone else, is nearly exclusively referred to as "____ mahoutsukai", so I guess make of that what you will, but I don't recall Wiseman being officially deemed a Rider until after the show was over.

Yes.

I mean, in half the actual shows, Kamen Rider is barely used outside of the merch. In the context of his own series, Wizard isn't a Kamen Rider, he's a Magician, same as Fueki, same as Mage, not really the same as Beast. And in a lot of shows with Dark Riders, they are challenged, and called out on it, not just Build! Drive does a lot of the same, with Lupin and Chase's arcs especially coming to mind.

And, in lots of shows where it is used, and outside of that, it means what is says on the tin. Masked Rider. Their power all comes from the same source, does it really make sense to differentiate between them? Take Alternative Zero. In the context of Ryuki, yeah, he's not a Kamen Rider in that sense, but outside of that, in terms of the overall franchise? He wears a mask, he's based off a bug, he fights. Isn't it close enough? Especially if you're a toy company just trying to get kids to buy a ridewatch.

Idk, the sense of "A Kamen Rider needs to fit this specific tragic mold designed back in 1971" feels really overly prescriptivist to me. Some series (Kuuga, W, Gaim, Drive, Build) want to explore the question of what really makes a Kamen Rider and that's cool, but others want to do their own thing, and that's neat too.

Hey so why does the Assault Trigger work with Shining Hopper anyway

That's a bit of semantics, though. Lots of series don't explicitly call themselves "Kamen Riders."
In Agito, they never uttered the words. An Agito was merely a psychic human that evolved into that stage. To be an Agito wasn't necessarily to be a Kamen Rider (It is now, granted).
Gaim were Armored Riders, Hibiki were Oni. It wasn't until we started getting the endless deluge of crossovers that characters, in series, started referring to themselves as "Kamen Rider ____".

For those who are rider-like but not considered riders I find the term pseudo-riders appropriate starting with Shadow Moon.

Yua theroize that Zea predicted the Ark being reactivated and creating the Assualt Wolf Key and Trigger so it made Shining Hopper be able to use to the Trigger to thier advantage.

All is going according to the will of the Ark.

(Alternative, equally silly answer, is that the Ark and Zea are better at compatability requirements than most major tech companies today)

Sad news, but Masahiro Inoue (Decade of Kamen Rider Decade) and Jaimie Natsuki have split-up!

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...-their-divorce