Kamen Rider Core...
 

So I've finished watching Kamen Rider OOO and the Movie War Core film yesterday. And Kamen Rider Core is bugging me in several ways. It doesn't seem to make sense for him to be a true Kamen Rider, as the mechanics of his creation don't fit the reality of Kamen Riders in either series - by which I mean there is no Henshin device.

Lacking a henshin device, Core Medals can only create Greeed. Likewise, lacking a henshin device, Gaia Memories only create dopants. In no case has either type ever created anything that would be considered a Kamen Rider by itself. Even when the Double memories were copied in another movie, what resulted were simply dopants with the same powers those memories could grant Double.

Has there ever been any discussion or comment on this from the creators perhaps? Because at this point, I'm having to go with classifying Core as a false Kamen Rider - in reality a "Greeedopant" hybrid monster that simply styles itself to look similar to a true Kamen Rider.

I'd be glad to hear anyone's thoughts on the matter, either for or against Core being a true Rider.

I was under the impression that he was just a monster calling himself Kamen Rider.

That's what I thought, I mean, if he were a real Rider, J would lose the only thing that makes him stand out from ZO.

Also, the movie probably just felt it needed a shtick on top of the "team-up" part.

It's kind of like Gara being treated as a Kamen Rider just because he declared his transformation with a "Henshin"

Core isn't a true Kamen Rider. I see Core as a hybrid, like you said in the opening post. Like in the second live-action Guyver movie, when the monster used that broken Guyver to transform. He wasn't a monster, he wasn't a Guyver, he was just a little of both.