[Matrixbeast]

It's adjacent because Kikaider and Metal Heroes aren't Kamen Rider, and this is a Kamen Rider thread

And I always felt their exclusion from the Metal Heroes branding just didn't make sense. I get that the brand proper didn't exist at the time, but I don't see why they couldn't have retroactively done so. Gorenger and JAKQ weren't Super Sentai until the 90's. Why couldn't they have just made the call to make the Kikaider franchise part of the Metal Heroes during this same era?

Just so odd. It shares so much thematically and aesthetically with the Metal Hero franchise, but it's instead just part of Toei's unaffiliated Toku brands, alongside Akumaizer 3, Zubat, and Inazuman.

As for Ninja Captor, I honestly don't know what Toei has against them. However, ever since Ohranger firmly established Sentai's numbering as the 20th series, that kind of left any wiggle room for Ninja Captor to squeeze in as impossible.