News
Kamen Rider Zi-O Story and Staff Revealed
The official website for the final Heisei era Kamen Rider has been launched.
The top of the website features the following text:
The final Heisei Rider appears!
Celebrate the birth of the next generation’s king!
Commemorating the 20th production in the Heisei Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Zi-O!
The Kamen Rider series that began with Kamen Rider Kuuga will finally come to an end with Kamen Rider Zi-O.
Kamen Rider Zi-O is a time-traveling Kamen Rider who fights evil across space-time. He is themed after a watch and his bears the words “Kamen” in stylized Katakana while his eyes are composed of the word “Rider” in Katakana. Zi-O transforms using the ZikuDriver alongside the Ride Watch items. Using the watches, Zi-O is able to wear armors based on the previous Heisei Kamen Riders and release their powers, making him capable of using the power of every Heisei Kamen Rider. Seen in the poster behind Zi-O is a “mysterious Kamen Rider” with the word “Rider” written on his face in Hiragana.
A short series summary was also revealed:
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.
A special production announcement event will be held on August 7th, where the cast and further details about the show will be revealed. The series will be directed by Ryuta Tasaki, who has previously directed Kamen Rider Drive, Kamen Rider W, Kamen Rider Den-O, and Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, among other works. The series will be written by Kento Shimoyama (Shuriken Sentai Ninninger), this will be his first time writing a Kamen Rider series as head writer, and produced by Shinichiro Shirakura, who produced most of the first phase Heisei Kamen Rider shows, alongside Naomi Takebe (Kamen Rider Gaim, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger) Toshihiko Sahashi (Kamen Rider Hibiki, Kamen Rider Den-O, others) will produce the show’s soundtrack.
Kamen Rider Zi-O will begin airing on September 2nd but will debut in the upcoming movie, Kamen Rider Build: Be the One.
Source: TV Asahi, Eiga Natalie
14 Comments
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garauga
July 25, 2018 at 5:45 pm
This has a high likelihood to End BADLY. This Producer and this writer have Horrible, HORRIBLE Trackrecords behind them for just plain awful work and openly being disrespectful to guest-casts who may cameo and come back to be part of things they’ve created.
Shinichiro Shirakura was responsible for the infamous Hibiki staff change, the wretched super hero taisen films that were a string of offensive and insulting content, and also being the one behind the female kamen Rider death Curse” with Mandating they die in horrible or disrespectful ways, as if that’s ‘in tribute’ to the original Tragedy of Yuriko Misaki. Anything he touches is almost guaranteed to be bad upon reflection, as he is a very hands-on producer.
Kento Shimoyama was the head writer for Ninninger, which was popularly hated, with all of the cameos seen of past heroes that series ending up insulting towards them as every time they were derided in order to glorify the current cast by the newbies teaching their seniors lessons the seniors ALREADY KNEW. he also wrote gobusters vs Gokaiger, to the full denigration of the Gokaiger cast. Anything else he’s done before that had other writers/producers over him who demanded revision to get a half-way decent product. but he does not do that on his own, nor does Shirakura make use of that.
If anything, This will just end up derivative of Far better series, as another hallmark of Shirakura’s mandates as a producer is a repetition of what was seen as successful…out of context to why something before was successful. Case in point, just from this bio it’s instantly coming off as ripping off Den-O (Hana’s backstory, anyone?), with a Decade paintjob affixed on it. It really isn’t a surprise he’d use a Writer known for having no idea’s of his own to push his own agenda. it would not be the first time this has happened.
Ryuuta tasaki however remains a consumate professional with a far better trackrecord, but his work the past several years has been sloppy.
M P
July 25, 2018 at 6:26 pm
to add to the fear, the “you are the villan of future” is litteraly Decade
hokutofan21
July 25, 2018 at 8:01 pm
Not even a fan of Ninninger, but the hatred is a very vocal minority and the Japanese viewership reacted nowhere near as violently to it. I, for one, am interested to see what Kento Shimoyama can do when given a different context to work in.
What we should really be concerned about is that they’re trying to recapture the popularity oh Den-O while straight reusing concepts from Decade. Anniversary series are never high art, mostly because they try to drag them out and always miss what made the series fun in the first place.
Given I’m open to anything after a year of Build, but I’m willing to give this a chance just because a decent director can do wonders
Dylan Palmer
July 26, 2018 at 2:20 pm
Um… Shirakura produced every Kamen Rider show from Kuuga through Decade, along with Kamen Rider Amazons. He is as responsible as anyone, perhaps more than anyone, for modern Kamen Rider’s excellence. So… maybe chill out.
Christian U.
July 25, 2018 at 5:45 pm
There’s a mistake with the description for Kamen Rider Gates, the “mysterious Rider” in the background of the poster. The article says his eyes say “Rider” in katakana but it’s actually in hiragana.
Jorge Salas
July 25, 2018 at 6:50 pm
This has been corrected, thank you for the notice!
kory stephens
July 25, 2018 at 6:49 pm
Come back, Ohmori! Kyoryuger and Drive meddling is forgiven…
Patrick Bautista
July 25, 2018 at 10:07 pm
Yasuko Kobayashi should have been the writer for Zi-O instead of Kento Shimoyama.
Martin Gordon
July 27, 2018 at 11:32 pm
Dammit I’ve only watched Gaim. That means i have to watch EVERY other Heisei series.
Noel feliciano
August 2, 2018 at 5:52 pm
Its like decade