Kamen Rider Gaim Speculated to have a Shorter Run

While an official statement has not been made yet, multiple sources suggest the currently airing Kamen Rider Gaim may not get a full-length season like years before; and may be due to the World Cup.

Due to various hints over the past couple of months in the form of blogs and livestreams, speculation is starting to arise that Kamen Rider Gaim may not get a full 48-50 episode run as per the norm. On a recent livestream hosted by Gaku Matsuda, who plays Zack in the show, it was mentioned that the early ending of the show may be due to the World Cup, which is held from June 12th to July 13th. However, previous World Cup events have not interfered with the scheduled airing of a Kamen Rider or Super Sentai series.

The last season to have a short run-time was 2009’s Kamen Rider Decade, which only had 31 episodes. While word of the episode count for Decade came out towards the beginning of the series, Yūmi Shida, the actress who plays Mai, hinted about this halfway through its suggested run. On the February 9th post, when episode 17 aired, she wrote that “Gaim has already finished airing halfway through.” Furthermore, on the March 9th post that corresponded with the airing of episode 21, she mentioned that “Gaim has recently entered its latter part.”

It should also be noted because of the extended episode count of Kamen Rider Wizard, which had 53 episodes instead of the usual 48-50 episode run, even if Gaim continued to late August as recent patterns have shown, the show would only have around 45 episodes.

Additionally, the release date for the Gaim summer movie may also be an indication of a shorter episode count. While recent summer movies have hit theaters during the first week of August, the Gaim movie, along with the Ressha Sentai ToQger movie, will be released on July 19th– nearly a month earlier.

Despite the evidence that points to possible mid-30 episode run for Gaim, neither Toei nor TV Asahi provide official, solid confirmation.

Sources: Gaku Matsuda livestream, 2chan (Note: SPOILERS), Feb. 9th GAIMlog, March 9th GAIMlog.

All English translations are accredited to The Tokusatsu Network staff members. Please do not repost without crediting and directly linking back to the original Tokusatsu Network article.