Yup, the article here confirms it:

https://t.co/nddbZeunxU?amp=1

Doesn't seem to confirm if he's retiring or not though.

My guess(more of a personal wishful thinking) is that either he is:

a. Taking a break
b. Gonna go the same route as Niibori or Fukuzawa and start directing stunt choreo for future tokusatsu shows
c. Prep for Reiwa Super Sentai #1 perhaps?

Honestly I was both expecting and kinda hoping this would happen. I love Seiji and stuff he's done for the past 20 years, but a new era is a great excuse to call it a day for Suit Acting. Dude is 50 and you can really tell whenever there's a backup suit actor in one of his suits. I think now is a great time to call it quits and leave being the Main Rider to some fresh blood. Though in this case it's somebody who's already done the work before.

Zero-One's suit did already look more made for practical stunts so, colour me excited!

Waittaminute, but in Televi-kun's magazine Zero-One did the same finger pose that Takaiwa usually did!

Double post sorry, but honestly Taikaiwa had more than 30 years of service. He played Riderman, as well as Dragon Ranger (although as a sub IIRC) and properly gets the main role as NinjaRed and then playing a few Metal Hero, before getting back to Sentai with MegaBlue till TimeRed. But he definitely had more tenure as Riders.

So even us who grew up with Power Rangers already indirectlt experienced Takaiwa's performance!

Yep. And to add to your post Takaiwa seems to have been the Red Ranger for additional MMPR footage filmed in Japan. It is dated 1994 so pretty much he was the suit actor for Rocky. Also he was Mega Blue, Ginga Red, Go Red, Time Red, Magi Red, and was actor + suit actor for B-Fighter Kabuto as Julio Rivera and B-Fighter Genji.

So it looks like Takaiwa is joining the Okamoto club for now, hope he gets to do start doing action choreo soon.

Zyu2? If so then he's the suit actor for Jason since by the time Rocky becomes Red they no longer used Zyu2 footage.

Also it's rather surprising that Nawata gets the main role. I thought it would be Eitoku since he playa secondary Riders.

Like most fans, I love Takaiwa but it really is time for someone new. On the other hand, I feel like I’m going to watch Zero-One and just stare disapprovingly at the new guy’s butt and shake my head, muttering about how it isn’t the same.

Level up or downgrade , but a lot of toku hero alumni like blade, decade, and many more actors treated as he's retiring. His age is up there and has been hinting it. It's like actors and bts stunt became action choreographer and director themselves while passing the torch. Very stamina endurance and thrifty job to constant suit up in the heat and cold with limited vision. At least nowadays, they're recognized more than the true secret heroes.

In other news, similar to Build Hazard, the Driver leaked some sounds
https://youtu.be/kmKuwZmmRf4

At 8:40 a button is shown, the standby jingle changes and the finisher says "Big Bang"

Aaaah good old expansion slots on the Driver. Can't wait to hear the full thing

There will be pressure on him for sure, but I think we don't have to worry too much. He has been in show biz for some time now and although mostly small roles, he was also involved in stage shows, movies, commercials, etc. other than tokusatsu. And his recent experiences as Genm, Amazon Neo Alpha, and Geiz probably was decent training for him to boost his craft as a suit actor.

And hey, can't blame you if you don't feel satisfied for the first batch of episodes. Takaiwa has been a staple in the franchise minus Kuuga and Hibiki so Nawata has some pretty big shoes to fill so I agree, it will take time to get used to changes.

I think the best way to make him boost his cred is to make Zero-One have quirks in-suit. Takaiwa demonstrsted this with Faiz, Kabuto and especially Momotaros. I mentioned those three because it seemed like Takaiwa loves protraying Kabuto and Faiz for some reason and he plays Momotaros the most out of all roles.

Zero One has to be really good to rope me in, otherwise I feel I'm done with Rider for a while.

That's how I felt after Ghost, then Ex-Aid and Build happened which are twoof the best Rider series we've had in quite a while I think.

To me, Zi-O is like Avengers Endgame. It's the end of an era, which I'm glad to have watched and be a part of. So Zero One has to be really good in order to get me to watch it every week.

Wouldn't Zi-O be Endgame and Kamen Rider Brain the Spider-Man Far From Home of Kamen Rider? :lolol

No, the Geiz special would be the Far From Home of Kamen Rider :lol

ZeroOne's theme song is called "REAL X EYEZ" by Takanori Nishikawa.

https://natalie.mu/eiga/news/343958

No way. T.M. Revolution is doing the theme song?
My mind is trying to comprehend this.

I'm confused. I thought Monkey Majik was doing the theme.
What's going on?

They're only the voices for the Driver (I'd say unfortunately because I do want Monkey Magic to do music for Rider, but TM Revolution is also always a positive), they hadn't announced who was doing the OP yet.

If that's the case, then what's this?

A misinterpretation of the linked article. The article only mentions that the Plant brothers are providing the voices for the Zero-One Driver, it doesn't really mention the opening theme at all, so I don't really know where Paladin got that from.
The second paragraph there has the term "Theme Song" in the first sentence, but only in the context of Monkey Majik being known for doing the theme songs for other shows and ads and stuff, don't know if that was the confusing factor.

Kamen Rider always attracted famous band/artists for their openings and sound design in general (Daichi Miura for Ex-Aid opening and Hironobu Kageyama for the gamer driver, Kishidan for Ghost opening, the Golden Bomber lead for Wizard, Anna Tsuchiya for Fourze, etc etc...) so I'm not that surprised.
But I feel like TM Revolution is the next step somehow. that's really big.

Give me full JAM Project next year please.

TM Revolution is finally doing Kamen Rider themes. I hope it's as good as Invoke.

I have a feeling Zero-One's gonna have an Another Rider in his court with Zi-O helping out.

Plus the vice Prez will become the user of the Another Rider.

Just seen the livestream of the Premium Baton Touch Event between Zi-O and Zero-One.
I'm kinda reassured about Zero-One cast. I'm following them on social media since we know who they are, like every year with the current KR series, and so far I was kinda worried about their implication and all about the show.

I know they can't reveal too much since the show didn't start, but it was like they didn't care at all. Only Zero-One and Vulcan actors made one or two instagram posts/pics together, but nothing else. Jin and Horobi actors don't post much in general, but Izu and Yua actress are very active on IG, but so far we never got anything about them being implicated in the show (like a script pic, or a "I go filming yey" type of post), so I was kinda worried.

But in the press conference they seemed really expressive about it and their interactions. Probably a bit more than Zi-O cast, so I'm glad about it.

Well, here's some new stuff.

The most interesting part about these scans for me is the stuff about the villains, we got a bunch of new info. The belt they use is called the Zetsumeriser, and the keys they use are called Zetsumerise Keys, not Progrise Keys. We see two new ones based on a squid and a bat, and we also see what the identities of all the Magia shown so far are. The page with the identities gives us the clearest look at their keys so far, though most are still kinda illegible. Looks like the bat one at least is "Onicho," maybe "Onycho"? Couldn't place the meaning. The katakana for the squid one is Neohi, whatever that is.

I take it the bat derives its name from either Onychonycteridae or Onychonycteris. For the Squid magia best educated guess I can make is Neoteuthidae.

just for the lulz : shooting wolf tagline is "the elevation increases as the bullet is fired"

I wonder if either Keanu Reeves or Jeremy Irons reciting these will make it 200% better. :lolol

Zero One OP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkiF-ENWNMc

Yep that is T.M. Revolution for ya. Can't complain.

This new songs is really different from previous songs from Press Conference....

I really curious to the songs title in Press Conference.....

So um, the first episode is up on YouTube. AND it isn't region locked! Holy moly!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWZ2zZ3Iujc

Also new images for the October Batch of DX Roleplay toys

Any thoughts if at the 2 minute mark in this video is evidence that Aruto is a humagear or its normal to show the inner workings of the base suit for a moment when adding the form upgrade.

https://youtu.be/DgalK400jzU

nihon hero also has the pic

https://www.facebook.com/NihonHero/

Yeah that's pretty sure to me.
I don't feel like you can write a KR show about AIs without a human character being secretly an AI (or the opposite).

I know the "protag is not what he thinks he is" has been used a lot recently and especially in Build, but I don't think it can be avoided.

We have pro-AI foes, an Anti-AI secondary rider. There is no way the twist doesn't happen at some point to create havoc when the feelings of everyone are settled.