The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition Recap

Join Team TokuNet staff member Joshua Lee as he recaps his experience at “The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition” in Fukuoka.

“The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition” is a collection of all things Kamen Rider over the past 50 years. The exhibition is touring throughout Japan, covering Nagoya and Fukuoka and is scheduled to visit Sapporo and Tokyo at later dates.

Before entering the exhibit, Kamen Rider #1 and his various incarnations.

Starting the exhibit is a video of Hiroshi Fujioka recounting his time as Takeshi Hongo. He exclaims how wonderful that people have continued to love Kamen Rider over the 50 years and welcomes everyone to the event. He does his iconic transformation, and a montage of every main Kamen Rider up to Kamen Rider Revice plays.

The layout of the exhibition was a linear maze. Exhibits were laid out in chronological order, the first being Kamen Rider’s manga roots. Information on Shotaro’s Ishinomori’s early life were also displayed. If you would like to learn more about his life, you can read about it here.

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The first segment featured the Showa era of Kamen Riders. Rather than statues, every Kamen Rider were mannequins wearing the costume suits. Each Kamen Rider had a detailed board listing off the characters and events of each show. A small screen playing clips from the show were also present at each exhibit.

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Ending this portion was the SHOCKER base, featuring iconic kaijin suits from the Showa era. “Man Spider” stands in the center as Kamen Rider’s first kaijin. Kaijin whose suits were not displayed were represented via photos on the walls.

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As we head to the Heisei portion of the exhibition, we see the DX Kamen Rider belts for every main rider from Kamen Rider Kuuga until Kamen Rider Revice. My favorite part of this exhibit is the info cards above each belt. They detail major world events according to when that particular Kamen Rider aired. Such as the first iPhone debuting when Kamen Rider Den-O was airing or how the coronovirus pandemic came into full force during Kamen Rider Saber’s run.

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Walking through this section was a “journey through the decade”. Each hero had a setup that reflected their themes in the show. In addition to the suits, show props and weapons from a variety of riders were also on display. Similar to the Showa Rider exhibits, there was an information board detailing each Rider’s events while a small screen played clips of each show. While the main rider was the focus, a few exhibits featured secondary characters such as Kamen Rider G3, Momotaros, Naomi, and Kamen Rider Diend. Looking at the weapons was a treat as they were all much larger than their DX toy counterparts. What surprised me was seeing the physical weapon prop for Kamen Rider Decade’s final form rides, as I presumed they were CG only weapons. My favorite display was probably Kamen Rider Ryuki’s with its use of mirrors.

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Kamen Rider W started the trend of the shows focusing heavily on gimmick toys. Gaia Memories, Switches, Lockseeds, Gashats, and so on. Owning many of these toys myself, it was a surprise comparing them to the show prop. For a majority of the items, the show prop is approximately 20-30% larger than its DX counterpart. While the majority of the exhibits featured just the main rider, Kamen Rider Drive and Zi-O’s featured the three primary riders. I especially enjoyed the Zi-O exhibit as the suits for Another Build and Another Ex-Aid were also present.

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Ending the exhibition were the Showa riders who aren’t so Showa. Kamen Riders #2 and V3 were together, with Kamen Rider #1 being in the front entrance. The Amazons riders are also joined by the Jellyfish Amazon. Just before the exit was a small gift shop that featured exclusive merchandise.

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“The Kamen Rider 50 Years Exhibition” was well worth the admission price of 1500 yen. I was able to notice small details I’ve never realized before by being able to look at the suits up close. A childlike joy filled me the entire time as I walked past the heroes I’ve looked up to over the past few decades.

All photos were taken by Joshua Lee.