Kamen Rider Zi-O Crew Details Revealed
 

"Rejoice, for the birth of a new King!"
https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0102476

Writer: Kento Shimoyama
Director: Ryuta Tasaki

Composer: Toshihiko Sahashi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHSYXsSt5VQ

Kento Shimoyama being the writer concerns me a tiny bit considering he also wrote the story for Ninninger which was...horrible...

But at the same time, that was already a good while back. Plus he wrote the Gorider mini-series which was actually really good. So I'm gonna stay optimistic.

Okay, so... only one person emerges from the time machine, that person is female, and we know that Kamen Rider Gates is from 2068. Hm.

However, the "you are the destroyer in the future" is one of the worst story elements from Kamen Rider Decade, given how it was resolved. That part leaves me a little concerned.

http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2018/07/...taff-revealed/

Story:

In the fall of 2018, a time machine appears before a hero born in the year 2000. The hero has always dreamed of becoming a king. A mysterious girl appears from the time machine, telling the hero “I come from the year 2068, a world without hope where the king of demons reigns supreme.” The girl has come from the future in a desperate effort to change her own time. The girl then gives the hero an ominous warning “You will become Kamen Rider Zi-O, King of Time, the demon destined to rule the world.” Can this really be the hero’s fate? This is the story of a Kamen Rider who would be king, who will fight to save the past, present, and future, encountering the various Heisei Kamen Riders throughout space-time.



Also, the most important person to note on the staff is Shinichiro Shirakura. (one of the producers) He hasn't worked on a Kamen Rider TV series since Decade but he produced most of the phase 1 Heisei Rider shows and, alongside Takebe, had a huge hand in molding Heisei Rider into what it became known for. (serialized, overly dramatic shows) The last Rider thing he did was Amazons and at the time he was critical of Kamen Rider, saying it had become boring and stale. I really wonder what him, in conjunction with Takebe, will deliver. I almost think that Shimoyama as a writer might just be there as a yes-man while Shirakura and Takebe are the real masterminds.

Okay, now I'm excited.

Sounds like the plot of Decade, just with time travel.

Ninninger is one of most boring Sentai Series but Shimoyama's works in some episodes of Gokaiger and Go-Busters is really good.

Sounds promising.

The plot almost sounds like something you'd expect from a video game too with how it's worded to push the player/viewer into the role of the protagonist. Makes me curious how the show will go.

That's definitely something they haven't done yet, the FPS view style like some other shows experimented with, though I don't think it's something they'll do here, it's definitely one to look into for some kind of special later. That could really work if they did the Rider form as when the camera zooms out, and the civilian form as the FPS view. But I don't see that working for 40+ ep show, maybe a 30 or below style one.

That would make a really interesting first episode in that way though. Save the reveal for the end of the episode, as they're tired and worn out. Though casting press conferences would make that harder anyway for the reveal of whatever plot point would make it worth hiding.

Also like the Den-O allusion here. And find it interesting they didn't name anybody yet in the story piece. There's also some similarities to an Amazon show that does this concept too for a kid audience which was a giant parody of Terminator/Time travel things too. So I'm liking the drawing on the genre for nods in a wider way without treading on their material.

Overall, this sounds fun and promising. Looking forward to it. The crew mentioned so far are some great names too. They've done some fantastic work! Got nothing but major respect for those that worked on W and Drive. As well as Den-O. Den-O did a lot of great work with time travel stuff to keep it consistent to the main rules of that, so that bodes really well for this too (Drive had that fun Time Travel movie too). Gosei and Nin have that right blend of concept to humor and usage of some intersting designs, so that bodes well too including very character personality driven story.

Wonder if that means this is part of the W, OOO, Fourze, Drive, Ghost, and Ex-Aid timeline then more directly. Definitely loving the possibilities here though. Am curious about Gates now though. If Zi-O future is the big bad, then what exactly is Gates and how did they get rider gear? Guess I'll have to watch the show to find out. xD

" starts crying when seeing who is writing it "

No.....NOOOOOO ! WHYYYYYY !?

Sees Ryuta Tasaki:
Me: Yay!

Sees Kento Shimoyama:
Me: OH SHI-

OK, why does everyone hate Kento?

His last main project as head writer was "Shuriken Sentai Ninninger," which was-to say the least- NOT well received.

on the other side of the coin, he did write several episodes for Gokaiger AND Go-Busters so Shimoyama's work is not all bad.

The hate on Kento is kinda unwarranted. Yes, Ninninger perhaps wasn't the best, but from what I've seen of the show and everthing else I heard about it, I chalk it up more to his inexperience as a head writer, having only been a secondary writer up to that point. Everything else he's done looks pretty fine. I know a lot of people really like Gobuster returns and while I haven't seen it yet, I've seen a lot of praise for Kamen Sentai Goriders

It could be that Gates is the girl's guardian probably. From the description alone it would seem to jump to conclusions that Gates is a girl, but if it was, they'd normally have feminine features in the suit if it was.
So the guy that wrote Ninninger is doing this show.
*siiiiigh*

The perk to him though is how well he did the Shurikenger and other show cameos into Ninninger. So that bodes very well for this alongside the other talent on the list. So I'm actually really happy to see his name attached to this. Really like the possibilities of what he might do for some cameos with how Shurikenger was handled.

Not always. Delta, Ixa, and others didn't have directly fem suits. If it's a gender neutral suit that's more like a powered armor that's universal for anyone to wear, it's typically ungendered. As opposed to other suits that are derived more from some kind of blend of story elements or contains user personality. Like Poppy was a fem video game character. Rider Fem from Ryuki was a swan and was based around her feminity and personally held beast contract. Hibiki's Oni type was the Oni inside drawn out/lending their power. Etc.

So it depends on what the belt itself actually is on what it is. A powered armor suit type like Delta/Ixa won't have "boobplates" or "skirts". And from the sounds of the story. Zi-O and Gates are powered armor tech types.

So it could go either way for either of them. But Gates likely seems like a male rider that kind of name seems like it directly. Zi-O itself could still be female, but who knows really for either one until casting is announced and characters are shown. Especially with time travel involved since that can change the gender by even so much as changing a few minutes of pre-conception actions.

I am expecting some interesting twists though. Someone like this going back in time, seems like there's more to her story than she's letting on either. Definitely don't think she's Gates. Otherwise she wouldn't be trying to change the future by warning a past version. She'd opt to use Gates' powers and stop it from happening period if she had that ability. So Gates may be someone that listens to her, or is sent to stop her, or otherwise acts as a "gate" to the timeline history with how Future Zi-O becomes the big bad. But the setup seems to evoke Gates as a different entity than her directly. Has a kind of Zeronos feeling really.

I think there is some major twist centered around this girl that travels to the past though. Something about that outright seems interesting, and is also a little reminiscent of the movie "Cyborg She" from the guy that did "My Sassy Girl". Her want to change history, access to the gear, having a time machine, etc, all seems to suggest there's much more to her story we'll find out over the course of the series. Especially with this talk of born in 2000 and a demonic time king in 2068. That means directly the demonic time king is 68. So possibly she's a grand child? Or did present day Zi-O get changed from future Zi-O but the person replacing future Zi-O never let anyone know?

Also seems to have a lttle bit of elements of Marvel's Kang the Conqueror too. A time traveling big bad means they could be any age for however long they want to rule simply by how they time travel. Linear age progression is completely thrown out the window compared to the time ruled and how the people age.

Thinking about it, if Zi-O goes the Decade/Gokaiger route where it has a lot of miniature arcs/episodes dedicated as tributes to past riders, I think Shimoyama would be fine since that sort of episodic, one and done style storytelling is something he seems to be good at.

OHHHHH... I finally get it! Zi-O as in like, 時王. I've been wondering what the f*** that name was supposed to mean for ages but it should've been obvious the second clocks got involved. :lol

Although I still can't help but feel like he's biting that other ___-O's style. No doubt they'll drag Momotaros out to make a cheap joke about it in a crossover.

Anyways, I've been silently keeping up with all the Zi-O news as its coming out, and I've got to say, I'm starting to warm up to it. I'm probably the only person genuinely excited to hear Kento Shimoyama is writing for it, and this-

-makes even happier than when they got Kenji Kawai for Build, so... yeah. Things are looking up for what appears to be a pretty crazy new show. Especially if what Aoi Kurenai said about the producers turns out to be that significant. If we can get a version of Decade that actually accomplishes what Decade set out to do, I'd say that's quite the win for the last Heisei Rider.

Just give me a good theme song and I'll totally start ignoring how goofy the labels on the everybody's faces and weapons look. :p

If there's one I liked about Decade, its the theme song, it was awesome. Can't go wrong with Gackt.

So, just repeating it one more time: Kento Shimoyama probably won't matter.

Shinichiro Shirakura and Naomi Takebe, the two most influential figures in the Heisei era of Kamen Rider, are producing this show. It's very likely they got a yes-man who wouldn't put up much of a fight and do what is asked of him. Shimoyama likely won't have much creative influence over this show. I 100% believe he's there because they needed someone stable who won't rock the boat and will write what he's told because he's good at adapting to changes with little to no notice.

The creative forces behind this year's show are going to be the producers more than on any other show.

I realized my line of thought about the gender of Gates was based on the assumption that Gates will be a traditional secondary Rider, either a collaborator or a traditional rival-who-turns-collaborator. It just occurred to me that Gates might actually be the villain of the series. That'd make the sequence of form-changes we've seen a lot more interesting.

...Leaving him to do what he does best and write energetic and fun individual episodes with above-average characterization, without having to worry about coming up with an engaging overarching plot, thus preventing the main issue Ninninger had?

Like I said, this show is shaping up to be some good s***.

Shinichiro Shirakura and Naomi Takebe, the two most influential figures in the Heisei era of Kamen Rider, are producing this show. That's the good news about this show hopefully it be more like Heisei style and not boring neo-Heisei.

But the writer Toei could do better eh.

I hate time travel themes for the most part. And this better be better than decade. I have low expectations for zi-o the more I read about it and seeing the rumored cast.

Ninninger didn't have much of an over-arching plot, but I thought it handled MOTW pretty well. However, Sentai is much more MOTW than Kamen Rider so that likely won't fly here. We'll see, I guess. The premise sounds cool.

According to this quote, Kamen Rider Zi-O is the final Heisei Kamen Rider

“She gives the hero an ominous warning, the hero will become Kamen Rider Zi-O, the King of Time, the demon destined to rule the world. Can this be his fate? Kamen Rider Zi-O is the final Heisei Kamen Rider and will follow the story of a would be king, who will fight to save the past, present, and future as he will encounter various Heisei Kamen Rider throughout space and time.”

Make sense cause the Heisei period will likely end on 30 April 2019 (Heisei 31), the date on which Emperor Akihito is expected to abdicate the Chrysanthemum Throne. I don’t know how long Kamen Rider Zi-O run for but we do know that after Zi-O, Next Kamen Rider won’t be Heisei Rider and it will be first Rider of new TBA era.

Beside that, Kento Shimoyama?!?!?!?! :eek:

If this show is worse than Ninninger, I will go nut! :mad: To be fair, I feel Kento Shimoyama was inexperienced when he become head writer of Ninninger and hopefully he improves this after Ninninger ended.

This is the funniest typo I've seen in a while lmao

Ehh, give him a chance. *eats popcorn* I mean, yeah Ninninger was a heap of triceratops dung story-wise but who knows. If he does end up making this a cesspool of a show start the hate. Until then, give it a chance.*eats popcorn* And besides, potential future evil overlord who becomes a superhero cosplaying as a rolex sounds cool.

I'm giving him a chance, since when he wrote GoRider it was pretty fantastic. Plus with the producers being veteran producers and this being the final Heisei series I think they want to go all out.

Although I do hope the show also have a secondary writer. Yeah, GoRider was fantastic but I think he was able to write that because it was meant to be a miniseries, so I think if Kento has a secondary writer to help him helm a full series it'll be good.

Also, I love how Decade is pretty prominient in the poster. I hope he has a recurring role in the show and we all know Tsukasa is very easy to return.

Gates may also be like a "Time Cop" trying to stop the girl, but serves future Zi-O, so can't do anything to Zi-O or the girl because of reasons. Making them eventually kind of a reluctant partner. If Gates is a servant of future Zi-O then there's not really much Gates can do about past Zi-O without messing up that future.

So could go either way. Do expect some early antagonism though. It's rare any kind of secondary rider isn't at least a little antagonistic even if they are on the same side. But the story question and journey is definitely going to be focused on why.

It really does. This could be lots of fun. And say what you will about the writer, he does crossovers and cameos really well as we've seen before.

I wonder what will be new era like since Zi-O is stated to be final Heisei Kamen Rider.

Showa Era (1926-1989)

Heisei Era (1989-2019)

TBA Era (2019-present)

After all, they got to make New Era Riders different than Heisei Riders but how different? Hmmmm....

I think the New Era Riders will not too different with Heisei Era Riders....

Kuuga is first Heisei Era Rider but his designs and concept more closer to Showa Era Riders than most of Heisei Era Riders

Kuuga was the rider show in 11-12 years. So a large amount of time has changed. I doubt the next era of Kamen Riders will be any different. They will probably be as toy gimmicky as the late 2000's and 2010's Rider shows.

Yeah, I agree with that. It's a big demarcation with Rider because it hasn't been on the air continuously like Sentai had. I don't think there will be much of a difference here and it'll be more like the difference between a Showa Sentai and early Heisei Sentai.

They'll still use it for a big advertising push though, everyone will. Even the current Ultraman show is marketing itself as the final Heisei Ultraman. Kuuga really isn't anything like the Showa era Rider shows. His design and certainly his show are different from anything that had come before.

The head writer has me concern.

Usually, though, it feels at least a little artificial. Arguably the best modern secondary Rider, Banjou, is the one who broke completely away from that mold.

I have yet to see Ninninger, but I do know of its reputation. Not seeing Ninninger might make this easier to go into with an open mind at least.

Honestly that's probably the best way to look at it. I'm personally going in ignoring what ninninger was purely cuz this is a different kind of show. Plus the way it's laid out in the plot that was announced, it sounds like a step in the right direction when it comes to the writer.